Kingdom of God

P 3487 We have the freedom not to sin.

/ DVH

“Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new person. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17.

The grammatical tenses of the above scripture are incredibly important. What Paul is saying is that we have spiritually moved. Our old life is behind us, and what we choose to do about that fact is the coal face of our new life in Christ. Now we have His power to help us. We take in what Paul said, remembering it is past tense. It’s done. Like Jesus said from the cross —- “… it is finished.” Some things can jump up and down and shout at us, and demand our attention – but those things are echoes, they no longer have the power to capture us. We’ve been set free from sin and death. We may die, but death can’t hold us!

The sin in our lives has already been dealt with – now we simply take His word to be truth and act on it, using our faith. We too, follow Jesus. It’s just like when Jesus said to Peter and Andrew …”I will make you fishers of men.” Jesus met them where they were, and took what they knew and turned it around into Kingdom actions. He will take what you already know, and who you are, and turn all that into glory for the Kingdom of God as you live this life for Him. He’s a brilliant Redeemer – He takes bad things and turns them into the kind of good that is beyond our imagination.

Yes, we must choose to repent, repair and reconcile, and that will mean humbling ourselves — but we don’t do that alone, anymore. We.Have.Help! Every time Jesus gave His mum, or His disciples an instruction regarding this world— when they acted on it, a miracle occurred. They were standing on His Word. That’s where we want to be. Standing on His Word. We listen, then we obey.

Where our word disagrees with what He said, we put what we think aside, and go with what He has already said in the book. No matter what the cost is. I’m not talking about selling your house and sitting on the curb, or some other extreme action — I’m talking about daily living for others, loving them the same way we have been loved…unconditionally. When we live cherishing Holy Spirit’s help, living His Way means He likes to hang around with us. I tell Him I need Him over and over again during my day.

I think the thing that gets in our way, even more than any error in our thinking – is how we feel. You can correct errors simply by reading the book, and obeying it – but feelings are demanding. I’m not saying emotions are wrong, I’m just saying they make very poor leaders. So many of us have become used to running on how we feel. The people around us had better watch out …because how we feel is probably going to run their lives too! Hubby found this helpful little piece by Dr Tony Evans, in something He was reading recently.

“Here’s an important truth about emotions: they don’t have an intellect.  They don’t think. They merely respond. 

Emotions must borrow thoughts in order to stimulate feelings. Therefore, whoever or whatever controls your thoughts, controls how you feel. Your emotions are established and ruled by how you think about the circumstances in your life. So, if you want to master your emotions and overcome emotional strongholds in your life, you will need to master your thinking. 

When you align your thoughts with God’s truth, you will be set free.”

I agree! However, saying and doing stuff can be two very different things. As we know – agreement with what Jesus says needs our response. We must act on it. We simply need to recognise that we have a new Leader in the house of our lives, thoughts, emotions. Someone Else is in charge now. When we gave our heart and life to Jesus, He took it, but He will not take the power of choice away from us. Our habit of explaining away stuff away, by complaining or defending ourselves, has probably  been cultivated for most our lives. Those things can be hard to break. We will need to use our faith and God’s power to overcome the way we have always reacted to trouble.

When I was tiny, about 5, my mother and I were walking down the street and she was explaining stuff to me that I wasn’t supposed to do. At the same time a bus roared past us. I said: “Shut up!” and she instantly fixed her eye upon me, prepared to pounce. “WHAT did you say?” Undaunted by her stare I said: “I was talking to the bus.” Looking back, I think I might have made a great politician.

Stuff has happened to each one of us as we have walked through this life’s ups and downs. Our response was often labelled – ‘normal under the circumstances’ by other people, who were learning to dodge their own bullets. But the truth that sets us free is this – nobody can make us do nuth’ng no more … we choose. At the moment of impact, when someone else’s will crosses ours, that’s when we need to call on His help to say that “soft word that turns away wrath, etc.”

We will never be alone again. Now, because of our Heavenly Father, our wonderful Saviour, and the precious Holy Spirit, we can be guided personally through any stuff that wants to capture us. We don’t have to sin, we can overcome sin with God’s already firmly established goodness, and as we do that, we are spreading His kingdom of love all around us. Bye.👋

P 3479 Fix your eyes.

/ DVH

““Stop dwelling on the past. Don’t even remember these former things. I am doing something brand new, something unheard of. Even now it sprouts and grows and matures. Don’t you perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and open up flowing streams in the desert.” Isaiah 43:18-19. This is one of those keys we need to pay attention to, because the past should not affect our future. When Jesus made a way when there seemed to be no way, He died to give us His power to overcome those things that can trip us up or weigh us down.

I have been caught up in eddies from the past — those  things that go round and round and get nowhere. We can’t afford to define ourselves by stuff like that. It will grab hold of here and now, and destructively head toward the future! We need to remember that God does new things all the time. Just because something was fruitful last time, that doesn’t mean it will always be that way. Relationships are moving things, to last they need to grow, change, continue to become new and fresh.

The Lord wants a relationship, not a system. He gave us a system. That system, the Ten Commandments, only failed because we weren’t up to our end. Thank GOD our God is a God of generosity, grace and mercy! There is nothing wrong with the Ten Commandments, they are all about Loving God and loving others! That’s why Jesus said what He said in Matthew 22:38&39. “Jesus replies, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.” Jesus adds, “And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself.” It’s a synopsis, not just a new commandment!

Transformation flourishes when we read what He says and live it out, day by day. God made it easy to obey Him, because He took punishment and fear out of the way. Now we do not need to wade through desperate times alone, the Lord has already provided the most wonderful Person we will ever need — the Holy Spirit. He is our Helper. Living this life, with His help ushers in the kingdom of God, right here where we are. And remember Jesus died to change our past – even if it was only yesterday, ten years ago, or ten seconds ago! 

The past will hold us down if we keep clinging to its ways. We must lay aside those things that go after our peace and freedom so we can love others from a pure heart — and keep walking on. Some of us might end up limping. That’s not a bad thing! Jacob encountered God’s Kingdom and he limped after it happened. That limp reminded him of his encounter with heaven. It’s our chosen participation in the kingdom of God among us that will transform this world around us. Thousands of wonderful people have made all sorts of incredible efforts, and sacrificed everything, to change whatever is going on where they live – they left the past behind, and followed Jesus.

However, if the Spirit of God Himself is not doing it, whatever we do cannot last or produce fruit. Only God Himself does the things that last. In the Western World we like to think that God is on our side. But the reality is … the Lord wants to know …. ‘Who is on the Lord’s side?’  ‘Unless the Lord builds the house we are labouring in vain.’ (Psalm 127) Father God cares about what is in our hearts. He wants our hearts perfect toward Him and each other. (2 Chronicles 16:9; John 13:35.) That means we keep short accounts with Him and other people.

We simply can’t afford to let our past, affect our future, no matter how awful that past may be. My advice about former sorrows, is this — prop open the door to the past, clean out everything in that cupboard of guilt, pain, shame, revenge and hate, and deal with it bit by bit, including exercising reconciliation, forgiveness and repentance, then close the door! Write: do not enter! … on it. And give the key to the Holy Spirit. Walk away. Go out from that place and live your new life in Jesus. Do not be tormented by the things you can’t fix, give them to God and leave them there.

I urge all of us to start seeing faith as a commodity stored in heaven and when we prayerfully use it to live, we are bringing that faith into this life. There is a portion we have each been given, and as we give it to Him and start using it, I believe our faith grows, incrementally. “… faith comes from listening to this Good News ….” Faith comes from reading the book and doing what it says, because doing what it says takes FAITH. 

So today, I want to urge you to put the past behind you. Getting rid of any past sins we have done, as well as the ones against us … lines us up with heaven. We are so blessed, the Kingdom of God is a storehouse of every Grace we will ever need on this earth. We simply access it, using our faith, and we must discontinue using it to greedily grab the things we know that can’t last.

Let’s study the bible to find out what He says about this day – today. As we comfort ourselves with the fact that we can rely upon the Lord to hand us the right tool at the right time. The sad thing is, the past is our enemy’s favourite tool of distraction – he drags our eyes off the Lord and distracts them with the things that have hurt us. Instead, let’s fix our eyes on Jesus and ask ourselves, what is the Lord doing today? Bye. 👋.

P 3278 Who owns what?

/ DVH

You may recall this scripture, it is in: Matthew 19:21-23: “Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

Boy, Jesus really loves to speak plainly! No wonder angry, greedy, power-loving people plotted to kill Him, He spoke into the very heart of the things that most people embrace. Money is a big thing to all of us. If you haven’t got any, then you need it. Yet at the same time it seems like you can never have enough of it! Sometimes others have more than enough, and they like to give, but they carefully dole out what they can afford to give and not care about. Giving involves a cheerful open heart. We give because He gave us everything, and everything we have belongs to Him.

We have learnt through the bible, that the Lord doesn’t want us to have a grudging attitude. He is teaching us about His kind of priorities. Meanwhile, money is a difficult subject for most of us. Let’s be clear, the Lord neither wants or needs OUR MONEY. He has gates made out of pearls, and walls made out of precious stones, and HIS streets are paved with heavenly gold. Add to all that the fact that He owns the cattle on a thousand hills – the conclusion is – our God is not poor! That’s a good thing to remember!! 

Talking about money is actually never about money or who needs it or who deserves it. That’s works. It is about the state of our faith. This young man could not follow Jesus, because the things he owned, owned him!  When we let the Lord dictate what we do with our money, we are putting Him in charge of our wellbeing. We know that without money and assets, our societies today cannot function. Unfortunately, that line for ‘enough money’ moves away from us. One of the best places I know to test how your personal faith is doing is … money. For fifty years God has shown me His faithfulness regarding finances.

Many years ago, I was convicted about tithing. My ex was not. In the end, after some wrestling with my own conscience, I decided the only money I had that I controlled was my housekeeping money. Co-incidently, our tithe was the same amount of money as the sum I had! So I did a deal with the Lord. I told Him I would tithe the housekeeping money to make up the shortfall. That meant no food was going to be bought that week, plus a grumpy husband. (There is always a risk involved!) In the car, on the way to church… (I keep telling you God is never in a hurry) … my ex suddenly said – without ANY discussion at all: “I think we need to tithe.”  You could have heard my sigh of relief in Pakistan.

Almighty God says this in Malachi 3:10: “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”  He invites us to test Him about this matter, by making sure whatever and whenever we give, we are generous. Generosity is not a legalistic thing, it quite simply bubbles over. If we hesitate about how much money can we afford to give, we will lose the spirit of what the Lord is saying here. The barn is meant to be full. That’s excess, not need. Because it’s not about the money! It is never about the money, or the goods and things we own. It’s about whether that stuff owns us!

When we get things sorted out, faith-wise regarding money, we are standing in a place where God can teach us in a concrete, seeable fashion about faith. It is always about our faith. Diagnostically we can tell what state our faith is in, if we look carefully at how we prioritise our finances. I want to leave you with one last scripture — it’s in two places in the Gospels –  Mark 12:41-44 and Luke 21:1-4.  Let’s look at Luke: “As Jesus looked up, He saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

The point the Lord is making here is that He loves sacrificial giving. Giving out of excess is still giving, but Jesus Himself commented on the sacrifice this woman made. The amount is irrelevant, it was the fact that this widow gave all. Don’t concentrate on the money, look at her heart! This is what faith requires – ALL. We simply can’t afford to live this life using part-time faith. To start with, it will become more and more difficult to try to figure out which bit is His and which bit is ours! We need to give up everything to follow Him, or the devil has a place to stand on in our hearts, and he will torment us. It’s the same with sin, whatever we tolerate gives our enemy room to plague us with doubt, unbelief and indifference. 

Many people make scriptures like these about money. Money is simply a byproduct of an attitude we can secretly have about the Lord. That attitude is often steeped in fear. If we look at our need, we will end up with greed. We have chosen to follow SomeOne Who did not care about material goods. What makes us think we can follow Him well, if we are obsessed with them? The big question today is: Who owns what?  Bye. 👋

P 3262 What language does God speak?

/ DVH

This could blow your mind, it blew mine. Just out of the blue this morning the Lord said to me: ”What language do I speak?” WOW! … I mean I wasn’t even praying or anything! We know that the Lord speaks every language of man but does HE also have a language?… I decided to go with what Ezekiel wisely said instead:“Only YOU know Lord.” Then He reminded me that He can speak every language on the planet and all the languages of angels. Plus the unutterable sighs and groaning of the human heart. WOW … again! 🤯 In fact, we don’t even have to speak, because the Lord already knows. (Psalm 139:4)

Over the years, I’ve learnt that when the Holy Spirit asks me a question, it’s time to be quiet and listen, He’s about to teach me something I don’t know. So I put a sock in it and listened. This is what He told me:“I speak faith,  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control..” Colour me flabbergasted. It took me ages to even comprehend what that means – I think of those things as actions.

First of all, it rocked my world to find out that these things we call spiritual gifts or traits, are languages! Then I realised that many people call ‘love’ a language. I know that Jesus is our perfect example of these things we call fruit… but are these things also God’s language? Off we go! In Psalm 139:6 it says:“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.”  I’m so-o going to need His help!

I kept on praying about it, and then I read this:“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, the Word was God.” John 1:1. Our Lord Jesus, is His Father’s language in human form. 🤯 Jesus Christ is God’s living LANGUAGE. The more I prayed over this, with the Holy Spirit helping me, the more I started to remember other scriptures. God also speaks faith! He spoke this world into being when there was nothing – that’s faith! The Holy Spirit went off and did what Almighty God said, and that too was faith!!  Faith is a language – our universe and beyond were founded on His Words, and then Holy Spirit turned the language into an action. 

Adam and Eve blew it when they disobeyed and ate the fruit. They stopped speaking the languages God had given them, when the devil slithered in and taught them to speak doubt! A questioning perversion of the language of faith. Faith has a way to speak, and it originates in God, and freely obeys Him. Here’s an interesting thought for free: Moses lifted up his staff over the Red sea and Psalm 114:3 says: “The sea SAW it, and fled…”  The SEA saw WHAT? The staff of authority in Moses’ hand! There are many bigger ways to see and understand the things of God than we can imagine – sadly we’ve restricted ourselves to just MAN’s knowledge.

My hubby had this thought: “Jesus spoke PEACE to the sea when it was turbulent.” That rough sea obeyed the Lord immediately He spoke faith to it. When the Lord said “Peace be still,” He was speaking one of His Father’s languages. He told the disciples once in John 12:49 “For I have never spoken on My own initiative or authority, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment regarding what to say and what to speak.”

Let’s look at another one of the things that we call fruit, but God uses them as one of His languages. I picked patience. When someone is speaking to a little child and the little one doesn’t understand them, we will often say that the person is speaking patiently to the child. Patience has a tone, It is another kind of language. That language can speak to human beings as well as animals etc. and get the same response. It relaxes and soothes. God’s languages are spoken for the other person’s well-being. 

The kingdom of God down here on this earth has a voice. These kingdom languages help us to serve, know and honour the Lord, as we learn to speak them. He uses us to speak His language to others. We dare not waste our time speaking ‘man’ – we need to learn to speak His language everywhere we go – by believing and listening to what He says and acting on it. That’s how His Word begins to transform our language – when His Word becomes our language! We will learn how He speaks, when we stop predicting what we want to hear from the Lord, and take the time to wait for Him to speak to us.  

Like I said at the top of the page, the Holy Spirit shared this with me, but let’s be totally clear, my brain is not smart enough to come up with these thoughts! We need the Holy Spirit to teach us our Father’s native tongue … so we can be pure in our speech. Purity of speech isn’t about throwing out swear words, or criticism, or hate – it’s about learning to speak LOVE. The bible says: “That which is not faith is sin.”  We often go for avoiding the negative – instead of participating in the positive. 

We could be outwardly speaking well of others — but in our hearts, which are open to Him at all times, what do we really think? What are we projecting toward other people – His languages of faith, hope and love? Or are we speaking from the hurt of the past …and head knowledge… which can be a dead language. What language does our Father speak? – I think it is love. And you can be sure He speaks your language too. Bye. 👋

P 3249 He says we can.

/ DVH

Hey, you can argue with the King all you want, but … He’s gunna win… in the end! Living in and for the kingdom of God is like an investment. What we decide to do today, influences tomorrow. Unfortunately, bad decisions can often lead to worse ones. We are constantly faced with choices — will we invest in His Ways, His kingdom, or in our own needs and wishes? One of those things provides instant gratification, and the other builds trust in God’s Word. Plus it proves its reliability peace and joy in our personal experiences. Daily we are faced with choices, some of them easy and others are puzzling, that’s why we need our Helper, the Holy Spirit. 

My point for today is this — nobody feels equipped to do and say what the Lord asks us to do and say all the time. And if someone tells you something different wait for it… just like Pinocchio their nose will grow!  So let’s add  to that the idea that we all have stuff at the back of our spiritual closets, that we hope nobody else knows about! We can easily pile all the good stuff up in front, and hope that it’s all that is seen. But the point is –the Holy Spirit knows and sees, and He can clearly see what will make us stumble. That’s why He allows difficulties into our lives — under pressure who we really are comes OUT and e-ve-ry-bod-y can see it. Here’s what I’ve learnt along the way… the stuff you hide, from others and yourself, ends up leaking out, anyway!!

So that’s why I like to keep things simple and deal with nasty things as they happen. BTW, SIN is not a personality trait!  I’ve mentioned before – that I can’t remember details easily anymore – like what I wrote yesterday!! Sorry ‘bout that!  Sadly if I panic about it, it gets a whole lot worse! Hasn’t the Lord got the most hilarious, funny and amazing sense of humour to pick an old lady to write a blog – and she can’t remember what she said ten minutes ago! That’s why I need my editor.

Here’s the thing that helps keep me humble. My short-term memory has been affected by minor explosions in my brain. All of this happened without my permission, more’s the pity! All the positive speak didn’t fix it, so I just roll with the punches. However…my spouse remembers the stuff I wrote, because’s he’s the editor. Well, I can sometimes end up cranky at him because I am sure that “I never said that!”  And he is sure I did, and off we go… … to places we’d both better avoid. Getting older is really good for humbling yourself because you need help with almost everything…which is why I recommend that we learn to humble ourselves before we get there. Too late for me – sadly, I’m learning on the job! 

Here’s a helpful hint when it comes to living with other people. I love this particular scripture in 1st Corinthians 6:7. It says this: “These court cases are a black eye on your community. Wouldn’t it be far better to just take it, to let yourselves be wronged and forget it? All you’re doing is providing fuel for more wrong, more injustice, bringing more hurt to the people of your own spiritual family.” What is Paul saying? I think you can end up in even more trouble and strife, when you try to defend yourself, and you set out to prove it. Legally or not! It is far better to take a big breath, and just let things go. Boy, do you find out how much PRIDE … yeah, that’s it, the ‘P” word… when you try to let things go that have really irritated and irked you! That’s when logic tries to take over … and logic makes a terrible commander-in-chief.

The reason Jesus is a great leader is that He beat our enemy once and for all, and then He died for us to set us free from compulsively serving satan. We don’t have to do, or react, or entertain those nasty things anymore. Investing in God’s kingdom is like putting things on lay-by, the gratification usually comes later.  We  continue to invest in Him by our actions. We remind ourselves that in His kingdom there are ongoing costs – things we will have to let go of – but we walk with the King. Nuthin’ beats that! Here’s the bad bit, investing in this world’s kingdom is like putting stuff on your maxed-out credit card when you just got fired! There’s no way you are going to pay that debt off in a hurry!

The kindness of God is that He will never make us choose His Ways, that choice is always ours. Here’s another verse I love, it is a hard one. 1st Corinthians 12:31b says: “And yet I will show you a still more excellent way [one of the choicest graces and the highest of them all: unselfish love].”  We can find many ways to serve God and others, but Paul tells us this is the BEST way. This isn’t hard to remember! Big plus for me – absentminded Annie! I simply ask myself: “Is this love?”  If I am in doubt about what love would do, I refer to His book, and I ask Him to help me find an appropriate scripture. 

Don’t despair if you lose your way, or maybe your will seems like it is acting independently! This can happen when we stop regularly meditating on His love for us. Remind yourself that nothing can separate from His Love and go back to what you were doing in the first place. Putting Him first. The joy of belonging to Jesus is that our debt has already been paid, and with Him we are safe and saved. We have His power in us to overcome our own selfish ways, and we can let other people’s selfishness go, plus we look in our own back yard to see if we are growing the right fruit! Love is always the right fruit. 

Our first and most important ministry is to love others the way He loved us. We may not feel like we can, but because HE says we can, we can. We simply need to choose to believe His Word, over whatever we think we know about ourselves. PS When I read stuff like the Beatitudes I ask the Lord to show me what He thinks, I don’t excuse myself. Bye. 🥰

P 3229 YOU are His House.

/ DVH

“Here’s the one thing I crave from Yahweh, the one thing I seek above all else: I want to live with Him every moment in His house, beholding the marvellous beauty of Yahweh, filled with awe, delighting in His glory and grace. I want to contemplate in His temple.” Psalm 27:4 TPT.

It is so easy to read lovely scriptures like this one and think of God’s house as being somewhere else. Like in  heaven, or at church, or bible study, or in our worship times. Let’s look carefully at this next scripture, which I’m sure we all know very well, however, I’m not positive we are actually applying ourselves to live it out. “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, Who is IN you, Whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies.” I Corinthians 6:20.

Yeah! Sobering thought. We, you and I … are now HIS house! If we want Jesus to ‘hang with’ us, we need to make His house a place He would like to inhabit. And we’ve gone about doing this the wrong way in the past. God loves the things that last. “Faith, hope and love,’ that’s what we are aiming at. His temple is not just some hypothetical glorious ideal, far, far away from us. This verse clearly shows us we are individually responsible for the state of His house. Knowing this is the beginning of change, but it won’t actually change the way we think, until we digest it and grab hold of it and act on it. Holy-Spirit guided action can, and it will. “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” 1 Corinthians 4:20.

I can’t tell you what that will mean to you, but I can tell you a few of the kind of things that have affected me, and none of them are about what I eat, or what I watch on TV, or read etc! The first one is something that I call: “feeding the doubt.” FAITH! Doubt happens when I start ruminating over anything that isn’t working out the way I thought. The thing is, God’s temple is dedicated to Him and what He wants, so what I think I need or want, pales into insignificance. His Will His Way needs to be my permanent motto. And our God loves faith. So I repent. 

I may not think I have done anything wrong, but I choose to actively trust the Holy Spirit to know what HE likes. It’s His house, so I want His desires. I need to stir up my faith and talk to the Lord about His goodness to me. Then I ask for His help to remember those times when I have trusted Him, and I’ve seen Him graciously do the miraculous in my life. All those little things that don’t matter to anyone else, but they have impacted me greatly. Remembering His goodness is a great active sword. Whenever my faith falters, I need to stop, and reestablish the fact that He is good.

The next is to actively keep my HOPE in His goodness alive, in a primary place in my heart. Because without that hope, I will start trying to solve my problems by myself. His hope is my anchor. Hope anchors me into the bedrock solidity of His never-ending-always-present love. Otherwise I can float about being affected by the wash of someone else carelessly speeding past me. Now I keep on doing whatever my day brings up, I go over everything good in my life that He has given me, and thank Him for those things. I can also thank Him for saving me, and continually washing me with His Word.

This last thing that affects me is equally important – loving other people extravagantly. This bit is where we counteract what other people do. If I do good things for a return, I am expecting a benefit from this world. My hope will be shattered. When I do the things, He asks me to, as He leads me, especially for people who don’t deserve it – It becomes extravagant LOVE. This can sound impossible, especially if the person/s involved aren’t super-duper sweet guys. In other words, we aren’t exaggerating when we say we can’t love them, because they are, humanly speaking, not nice folks.  

Actually, loving not-so-nice people extravagantly is actually easier than loving the people that you deeply love, who have treated you badly. The more invested we are in the person, the harder it gets to be obedient. We can think up lots of excuses to opt out of obedience, when someone we love mistreats us. Things like thinking they should know us better, or give us their best behaviour all the time.  How realistic is that?? 

The reality is, people are human beings. Some things – even if they seem easy to you – can be hard for others. This is the time we need to remember that people will let us down, but the Lord never ever will. We have to switch our focus off them, onto Him. They can’t do everything we need – but Jesus already did!  Loving extravagantly means we lavish love on others, even when it is undeserved. This is the kind of love that blows people away. It’s not just nice, or kind, it is over-the-top love, the kind Jesus gave away all the time. 

Loving others extravagantly reaps a harvest. “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9. I call this kind of verse, the kind of verse we try not to memorise because it seems too difficult to practice! The bible has loads of those. The ones we skip and hope God isn’t looking. Because we are His house – we actually don’t have that luxury. Remember, right here, right now – you are His house. Bye. 👋

P 3222 Consider …

/ DVH

Over the years God has taught me that focussing on what I don’t have —or what I can’t do, or even who I am not— isn’t helpful. We can be tricked into thinking that we have good reasons for believing bad things, including the times when life came and sat on us and we were too tired to get up. In those moments it is imperative that we keep our eyes fixed on Him. Not just because He can change our situations, but because as we choose to focus on Him, we are lifting our eyes out of the immediate, into the eternal. 

Maybe one of your kids seems to have gone off the rails;  or your marriage isn’t all you would like it to be;  or you live your life alone. Or perhaps your job makes you dread getting out of bed every single morning. If we concentrate on our problems, that can make them seem bigger than everything else, and the difficulties can quickly become the centre of our focus. Particularly if whatever it is, is not resolved right away. The Lord told us to ‘Come to Him’ …because He wants us to live in His rest, and peace is part of our birthright.

When life turns into a dystopian fair ground ride, and it whirls and lurches from one bad thing to another – my personal answer goes like this. Go outside and look around you, or go and watch the ocean. Just SIT. Leave your worry beads behind, and let this world and its beauty minister to your heart. All that other junk will probably still be there, after you give yourself a time out, but doing that will help you see things differently. After a while I begin to notice everything else is still going on. The world is still turning, the bees are doing their thing, the ants theirs. This world hasn’t stopped just because something has stopped me in my tracks. Acceptance is a gift available to anyone – it just takes practice.

Father God and the Lord Jesus Himself said this many times in different ways: ‘consider the lilies…consider the great things the Lord has done for you … consider what He says … consider how short this life is … consider the generations that have gone before you.’ Father God spoke to Abraham and asked this man to consider the stars, because Abraham’s view was too small. Almighty God needed a man who would look beyond his own lifetime and believe in His goodness even in the future. Abraham became that man … God taught him, experientially, that His plans are perfect.

This kind of expanded viewpoint is our birthright. At Pentecost this kind of vision was planted in the heart of the disciples by the Holy Spirit Himself. Their expanded view of God’s plans drove those men out into the streets … and beyond. Yet, here and now, we seem to be living our lives looking down all the time, concentrating on our own little patch of this life. We must stop, and consider the world around us. Particularly in times of trouble. And then we need to look up. You and I are part of a greater thing than any religion – we are part of His heart and He is ALL of ours. 

The kingdom of God is the main thing. And if we allow ourselves to be distracted and dejected by the stuff that comes at us daily, we will lose our vision. We are not here to build our own little kingdoms, complete with house, car, happy kids and extended families. That’s called advertising. It’s a dream manufacturers sell us so we will spend our money… so they can have even bigger houses, fabulous holidays, cars and boats and fulfil their own dreams! They are selling us empty, useless dreams prompted by greed. I urge everyone reading this to step out of that filthy hedonistic self-absorbed stream, and head straight for the river of God and jump in.

There is peace, joy, love, and … yes …answers, solutions, resolution in His purposes. Consider what Jesus said in John 10:10: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Our God loves us, He does not want us to live unhappy lives, or miserable existences, He knows that true joy in this life is IN JESUS … not people, situations or things. Somewhere, somehow, somebody(!?) looked at verses like this one and saw what the Lord said as gaining “ things“. It is not about things, it is about a new way to live. There is a different kind of life to be lived where Jesus is everything and this world is just the scenery.

Our abundant life begins when we stop considering this world from our POV, and start looking at it from HIS. Jesus had no material possessions, they divided up the few clothes He had at the foot of the cross. But Paul said this about our faith, and how it is designed to function: “Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith; Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2. 

Jesus looked through His cross and saw you and I, and billions like us, perishing in our sin. We were all going to hell because of the way we were living. But He said: ‘Not on My watch you aren’t,’ and headed straight for the cross. Stop. Think about it. You and I are that JOY that was before Him. Imagine that! The Co-Creator of this world has that much love for us. This life is a blink, it’s nothing. It comes and goes in the daily drudgery of making it work. But we can live in His Kingdom, right here, right now. Consider that. Bye. 👋

P 3220 Let’s watch what we do with our keys.

/ DVH

“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.

Watching what we say is an incredibly important key to walking with the Holy Spirit and living in the kingdom of God. I’m not talking about being fake, or using flattery, or saying stuff that is not true – that stuff feels hollow. I’m talking about coming into agreement with the Lord and how He sees things. Now there’s a good thing to do just because He said to do it. However He didn’t say we would always enjoy it. I find the fun comes after the faith step!  

Doing what it says, even if we do it badly. and not always with the best of attitudes, certainly alleviates this problem. Jesus is not legalistic and He knows we are trying to obey our Heavenly Father. We are so blessed, we can ask the Holy Spirit to help us. Watching our words is a ‘key’ part of walking with the Holy Spirit. I’ve said dumb stuff and afterwards I sat about thinking – “Did I really just say that?” Instead of joining into a conversation that downgrades, or bad mouths someone else, it’s best to say nothing, inwardly pray and head for the exit! 

The thing that grabs us and traps us into opening our mouths, is that what is said is often true in some way or another. None of us are perfect, so somebody can often find something or other to criticise someone else about. Our negative comments will not help! At the same we don’t have any idea how this gossiped-about person arrived wherever it is they landed. 

We have been given, at great Personal cost by the GIVER, the power of agreement. Jesus gave that to us. So when we agree that so and so is a pain in the neck — we are thoughtlessly adding our powerful agreement to a bad thing. And then we wander about wondering why that person never changes! It’s because we aren’t helping with our opinions. So here’s something to chew over: “If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” John 20:23. That’s an enormous responsibility!

We can be so consumed by the momentary gratification of flapping our gums, we forget we are doing untold damage to someone else. The enemy lies to us that we will feel better if we talk about this slight or that incident. Sadly, we can easily forget about what that person may have done for us in the past — what was good, what was right what was profitable. We must get rid of the idea that our opinions are more important than someone else’s reputation and spiritual welfare.

What we say needs to build other people up — and in the heat of awkward moments, we desperately need to say things that are true, right and profitable, or … … say nothing. However, when we actively dislike someone, or we are mad at them – those precious positive things can be hard to locate. I ask Him to please help me and spend time with Him working on forgiveness, because that’s the only way through it..

This world we currently live in has a me-centred focus, so we can easily have a consumer mentality … which means that other people are like chess pieces, we move them around a board in our minds to help us to win.  I can’t find that in His book! Winning that way means everybody loses. We immediately begin to negate our gifts in the body, and eliminate or minimise someone else’s ...all at the same time. 

Guilt, blame, and shame render everyone powerless!  If we want to see change, then we need to approach difficult situations or people, His Way. At the same time I think we need to pray far more for our leaders, they meet most of our bad attitudes head on. In moments of temptation I am learning to lean hard on forgiveness and to rebuke spite in me. In the past if someone had a problem with gossiping etc. they were either ostracised, or everyone simply joined in. Neither of those things will help us follow Him. 

When I say something stupid, it can be so much easier to try to justify what I just said, than it is to own my mistake and apologise. But that is the only true way to deal with the problem. James 3:10 says:“Out of the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. These things, my brothers, should not be this way [for we have a moral obligation to speak in a manner that reflects our fear of God and profound respect for His precepts].” 

This is the major reason why we should avoid gossip, or even continually chewing over someone else’s faults! We may dislike that person who is being slowly dissected in front of us, but that is not the real point. We need to remain silent because we love and respect the Lord more than our own opinion. When we disrespect others, we are disrespecting Him. I don’t want to make a law out of this, however, I am simply stating a truth.  When our God says don’t do it – don’t do it!

Jesus has given us the joy of speaking life to other people and that privilege is powerful. “I will give you the keys of heaven’s kingdom realm to forbid on earth that which is forbidden in heaven, and to release on earth that which is released in heaven.”” Matthew 16:19. We can easily lose or misplace our God-given keys, and this is why we need to watch what we do with them! Bye. ✋

P 3172 The humanity of this man!

/ DVH

Paul is speaking in 1 Corinthians 1:11-17: “My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptised in the name of Paul? I thank God that I did not baptise any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptised in my name….(I love this bit!!) …(Yes, I also baptised the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptised anyone else.) For Christ did not send Me to baptise, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.”

Look at that! The Apostle Paul used the ‘I can’t remember reason!’ Love it! Love it! Love it!! Because I’m older, that’s my all-time favourite excuse nowadays. Now that my hubby’s is using it as well, we bumble along hoping the other one will remember the important stuff. Fat chance!! Thank the Lord when it comes to appointments, people often send you reminder texts. 

I know I am about to lose half or more of my fellow travellers today, but I’m OK with that. Paul mentioned the word ‘following,’ and I gotta say I hate the whole “followers” thing that currently inhabits this world. Paul had the best idea –  he followed Jesus and, as far as I know, Jesus doesn’t have a Facebook page! Or any one of the rest of the alphabet soup pages people like to frequent. I know deep in everyone’s heart there is a need to be seen and understood… but the God of all the Universe and beyond, not only sees each one us, He knows how many hairs are on our heads … or not!! WOW!!

He knows what we need even before we know we need it, and He promises to supply it from His incredible riches. He bought us these fantastic blessings, like access to  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, perseverance etc. and He loves to give them away for free, to those people who ask Him. Our God always sees when our hearts turn toward Him, even if it is ever-so-slightly, and He comes to our rescue. Almighty God willingly gave up His only Son to be killed for us so we can be truly loved. Forever! That’s the kind of generosity and knowledge that is unforgettable.

Meanwhile, those Facebook enthusiasts often give anybody a bad rep, or the flick … in a heartbeat! I don’t want to support any of those vehicles, and line the pockets of already obscenely wealthy guys! I care about the poor – the poor are too busy being  hungry and thirsty and trying to find shelter, to worry about Facebook etc. Sometimes I get so sad, we are using up the time God gave us on things that will not remain. 

What remains is faith, hope and love – who gives a toss about Facebook? There are people who can’t wait to read their social media, and they skip the bible because it seems too hard. Isn’t that a terrible sentence? They take the words of strangers to heart — and ignore the King of glory. He took the time He was given to say all this fantastic stuff to each of us, personally! One of the reasons I can’t support social media is this:  our precious babies kill themselves because of cruelty in this arena. OK that was my little rant … I’d say I’m sorry but I’m not. The truth won’t kill us, actually it should shock us into action.

I love that Paul takes the time to explain himself to the naysayers and the permanently bewildered – his honesty is fantastic. What he said is so real and human: ‘I baptised, you, you and you … um … I can’t remember if I baptised you. Oh and there was that Stephanas guy and his family – I baptised them too. But what does it matter?? All that matters is the King of glory needs us to speak to others. That’s what we are here for!’ Amen! People chase unicorns and rainbows trying to find a purpose in this life, when Almighty God already gave each of us one.

Joshua found his purpose, He served God! –  In Joshua 24:14-15, he has always impacted me with these words: “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  I urge any parent reading this today to say to the Lord daily, “ …as for me and my house we will serve the Lord!”  Whether everyone in your family agrees with you or not – say it anyway! Speak purpose over those you love. People need a purpose! Why do you think kids drink, drive like lunatics, and take drugs? They have no purpose. Hopelessness leads to despair or sin. 

Paul is reminding us that there are some things more important than others in the kingdom of God. We don’t follow a preacher, we follow them, as they follow Jesus. God has something much better for each one of us to do, and some things are definitely more important than others! Who cares about who baptised who or whether I posted on social media today? Serving HIM, now, TODAY, is so much more important. We cannot afford to rest on past accomplishments when tomorrow is rushing at us. Praise God for Paul’s honest humanity! Amen. Bye. 👋

P 3170 Gratitude opens new doors.

/ DVH

Paul spent a whole Chapter on thanking and acknowledging people in Romans 16 – it seems it was extremely important to him. These people, whose names I struggle to pronounce! … are warmly acknowledged and greeted. You don’t find too many kids called Apelles, Epenetus or Ampliatus in birthday books today! Back then those names were normal. 

This godly man was an apostle and a missionary, and he travelled from one country to the next, founding churches. But he was not alone. Many people helped him fulfil this God-appointed mission. and he did not forget them. It seems to me, that we need to think about our new life with Jesus, and remember the people who have helped us to get this far. They have given up their valuable time on our behalf, to study and be available, to teach and guide us, and to pray for us,  to rejoice or weep with us. Let’s just take a moment to thank God for them, and heap blessings on their heads, simply  because they chose to give up their time to walk with us while we have been learning. Grateful people remember those who have sacrificed for them. Paul did!

I think time should be recorded as a most valuable commodity, along with gold, silver, various minerals and oil! Time is not a commodity in heaven, the way it is down here. Eternity, is by nature, timeless, and heaven is a place that we barely understand. That’s why it is so important to regularly listen to Jesus, because He kept on talking about God’s kingdom and what it looks like so we can recognise it.

The kingdom of God is not just ‘up there,’ its destination is also ‘down here’ where we are. As we lovingly share and care for others we need to know what it looks like. This man was so enthralled by Jesus, he was personally taught by Him. The Holy Spirit took all the carefully stored up, but under-developed fruit from his Old Testament knowledge, and blew Paul’s mind! The Spirit of God developed what this man already knew into mature, juicy, ripe, edible fruit. Who knows what He will do IN us if we gratefully allow Him to do it?

Paul’s gratitude for Christ’s own intervention in his life was paramount in everything he said and did. Gratitude is always a wonderful attitude to have – wherever it is cultivated. Paul was in jail on and off for five to six years, and the Lord used that time to download and develop great deep Kingdom truths into this man’s heart. The Holy Spirit gave Him incredible revelations, and the words to explain them! We cannot know what God will do with the things that seem terrible to us at the time. My advice is to always pray for deliverance and healing, but at the same time, pray for understanding IN your circumstances. God Himself will show us the many things we’ve overlooked in our pain, so we can continually be grateful to Him. 

When I look at someone like the Apostle Paul, I begin to understand that what I know is incredibly limited. Knowing about stuff in heaven, is not like knowing ordinary everyday stuff down here. Our whole beings are expanded and transformed by even just one encounter with the Lord Jesus …whether we feel something or not. I think we have barely begun to understand our own potential in Christ. It never ceases to amaze me that the Holy Spirit can just drop a word, or a phrase into my spirit, and suddenly I’ve gone from reading with a tiny little torch, into a room flooded with all kinds of light! I’m so thankful we have such a glorious Helper, Teacher, Guide, Comforter, Advocate. 

In the past many Christian men and women have thoughtfully and carefully studied God’s words over and over again with a motivation to extract deeper, clearer meanings for all of us. God bless those translators for their tireless efforts on behalf of the Body of Christ! But! One moment of personal inspiration and revelation, can save us years of living puzzled and disappointed lives. WHY DESCRIBE THE WIND WHEN YOU CAN CATCH HIM?

We dearly need translators and expounders of His word, but we also desperately need His personal insight in our own lives, day by day — so we can walk with Him unashamed, peaceful and content. Even in the middle of all kinds of trouble. We cannot afford to allow someone else go up the mountain of God, like Moses once did, and miss out on the kind of inner expansion that only comes from being with God Himself! 70 elders once sat, and broke bread and ate with Almighty God present at the table. Even that thought is mind-blowing! 

I believe the deepest revelations can come from the hardest situations. Let’s pray even more during difficult times, not just for healing and deliverance, but to thank Him for walking us through each and every one of them. Every test or trial contains His wisdom, plus the opportunity to build our own faith. It would be a shame to live our lives simply trying to escape from trouble, when there is so much to be learnt about Him in the middle of it!

To sum up, one way to bless and encourage others in their walk is to be thankful for the way they have helped you and say so! Gratitude in any and all circumstances, blesses God Himself and it opens new doors. Read Luke 17:11-19, you will see how important gratitude is to Jesus. Bye 👋