Kingdom of God

P 3124 Accessing His power to change.

/ DVH

Each one of us needs to choose to grab hold of the power Jesus died to give us to change the way we live in this world. It is always available. We do that by using our faith that what Almighty God has said in His book, the bible, is true. I will not lie to you – living like this is costly at first. We have to give up our right of reply, self-defence, or vindication and trust God Himself to vindicate us. And that whole scene usually happens when you feel extremely provoked and you want to zap a zinger back at the other person! 

But we have to choose to be finished with our old life when we said yes to Jesus. Then we choose to enter this new life to learn how to walk by faith. Sometimes by taking baby steps, or by making big strides. Almighty God loves faith. “…It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that He exists and that He cares enough to respond to those who seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6b MSG.

Here’s an illustration that might help make this ‘faith’ thing clear. Let us say, I have $1000 in the bank, I can’t see that money, it’s just a number on a bank statement. It won’t become viable until I use it, or collect it. I can even  give you $500 of that thousand dollars, and no physical money needs to change hands. All that will happen is that the numbers being recorded will change on both sides – yours and mine. I’ll now have $500 and so will you. With regard to using our faith – the power for transformation Jesus gave us is limitless, it cannot and will not run out until time itself ceases.

Back to my illustration. For you to get the money I’ve given you, you will have to spend it, or somehow use it, and you do that by using your faith that the money is actually there, even though nothing visible needs to change hands! Our God loves it when we use our faith – our belief that He is Who He says He is, and He Has done what He said He has done, is His pleasure. We can do whatever He says we can, it is all written on His bank statement in the New Testament and He has given it to us. When He says we can do it – then we can do it – feelings don’t come into it. We defer to the Holy Spirit’s goodness and wisdom:  then we obey and trust in the Person Who gave you His Word. 

The day we said ‘yes’ to Jesus, we were given Christ’s power to overcome. To use my illustration, that power was ‘deposited’ in our account. It came when the Holy Spirit convicted us and we responded with joy and repentance. While He was on earth, the Lord Jesus overcame sin, this world and the devil. Because of that He has imparted that power to us as His legacy. Just like someone might leave you money in their will – in Jesus’ will, we inherited many blessings including total transformation into His likeness!“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,…” Romans 14:17. “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me…” Acts 1:8. Do some research for yourself in the book, and start obeying what you find. 

Even though we may not see anything or feel anything our inheritance is still there. It is a reality. Hebrews 8:12: “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”When Jesus took His own blood and poured it all over the heavenly Mercy seat, He washed away all our sins. and now God has no record of them. They are like a bill you’ve paid – stamped “PAID IN FULL” However, I may not feel any difference, because I’m still living in this world which is anti-God. Now I will have to take the Lord God Almighty at His Word. 

Everything we have been given comes from Calvary, and it was carefully written down in the bible, by the Holy Spirit. These things have been credited to our account, but we will need to access them by using our faith. We don’t need to make big one-off withdrawals, rather we can access the kingdom of God step by step as we ask for His help to obey Him, and then step out and act on what the bible says. That help is with us, right now, from the moment we gave our lives to Him. We began by using our faith and we continue by using it.

This means we can with His help – love the unlovely. We can, with His help …”do good to those who despitefully use us.”We can overcome personal sin, this world, and our enemy because Jesus gave us His power to do it. At the same time, each deliberate act of obedience transforms the way we think. Daily we use our faith to access the Holy Spirit, our personal Coach and Helper. As we learn to walk with Him using our faith, His Way of living becomes more and more natural to us. We’ve stopped looking for our own advantage and started doing what He wants. Jesus began our faith, and He always finishes what He starts!

One of the difficulties of this transformation is that faith is not feelings. It is a deliberately chosen act of obedience responding to what God has already said in His book! The feelings, if they come, come much later. Accessing His power to change our old ways of thinking, doing and being, will now become our new way to live. We live for whatever Jesus wants, and follow His ways. Bye. 👋

P 3085 Dust? … Anyone?

/ DVH

“The first one, (Adam) made from dust, has a race of people just like him, who are also made from dust. The One sent from heaven has a race of heavenly people who are just like Him. Once we carried the likeness of the man of dust, but now let us carry the likeness of the Man of heaven.” 1 Corinthians 15:48-49 TPT. (Just keep reading I do have a point!)

I have had dust on the brain recently, what with spring cleaning, and finding cobwebs in my own life in unexpected places. Then hubby found this verse in his daily readings and we both had a good laugh. Laughter really is good for all of us, especially if we can laugh at ourselves. So we hit a joy bubble together and laughed way out beyond the reality of whatever was supposedly funny and … felt much better.

Apparently people much smarter than I am, suggest that if you are struggling with depression or anxiety, watching a marathon of movies that you know can make you laugh can help. They suggested the Three Stooges – which made me doubt the accuracy of their prescription … mainly because I don’t find the Three Stooges even remotely funny. I’m not into physical gags. I find people having pianos dropped on their heads hard to watch!

Back to today’s verse, because inheriting and sorting out other people’s old things has been part of my day for weary weeks now. My take on what these verses are saying goes like this: If you want Adam for an ancestor more dust awaits you. Ya might want to think about that! You could definitely need one of those dust-buster gizmos they sell for $59.99 on TV. On a good TV advertising day you can get two for the price of one. My question is — why not sell ONE for thirty bucks and be done with it? ps maybe you need two because the one you start with will kark it and then, the other one will come in handy? Or you can always give the extra one to your mother-in-law. I’m allowed to tell M-I-L jokes – I ARE one. Splendid! Now there’s Christmas sorted. I am so-oo-oo helpful!

Did you read the next line in that scripture? I underlined it so it would stand out! “The One sent from heaven has a race of heavenly people who are just like Him.”  I underlined that bit because it serves my point. I know HEAPS of people who aren’t like Him and sadly, they dusty-up the church in this world all over the place. At the same time they also obscure other people’s view of what Jesus actually looks like! I’ve been in a dust storm – you can’t see a thing! Dust, BTW, in the Lord’s hands can be useful stuff – Jesus once wrote in it and saved a woman’s life. 

Meanwhile our churches need some of those dust-busters because we’ve forgotten where we came from — we are dust-free simply because of what HE did. Before we met Jesus we used to be Pig-pen … see picture above. But now we have been bought back from that dirty dusty scenario to live in the freedom and light that surrounds our Saviour, Jesus. Our job is to carry around His likeness wherever we go. No more cloudy nasty dust for us – it only makes people allergic to us! But that kind of cleanliness and clarity won’t fall on us – we will have to choose it. 

I have included this next testimony purely because it was not me that suffered through it. My hubby was on the phone for an hour and a half yesterday to Centrelink  – listening to truly awful music … who picks that stuff and where do they live? I want to disconnect their CD player right away – I may even jump on it! … An-y-wa-y he rang Centrelink to tell them that they had paid my mother her pension, and as she is no longer with us, he wanted to ask them, how could we give back those extra $$s? 

When hubby finally did get to speak to someone – hours later! The guy at the other end of the phone was gobsmacked by our honesty. Apparently nobody wants to give money back anymore, they usually have to chase after a person if the extra cash wasn’t theirs in the first place.. No wonder the government has no spare money for poor people to buy bread and milk! And now comes the kingdom of God angle…

… this young man then explained the money was actually legally ours. Colour me astonished! I can’t be bothered here explaining why here, because it isn’t worth the space, but no bill collectors will be knock knock knocking on our door. Praise the Lord!

I wanted to use this illustration to show the difference between dusty people and heavenly people — it’s the way they live and act. Dusty people attract dirt, cobwebs, spiders, and other nasty creepy critters… BUT … the people who choose to live in His light, attract other people who are out there looking for the light! Let’s go! Let’s live this life we have been given, carrying the light of heaven wherever we go. 

How do we do that? Easy peasy. Live in His love. I am not good at it, yet …I freely admit that. But when I get done and dusted, (teehee) I get up again – that’s the secret! We will all get it wrong … and then we repent, and repair relationships, and deliberately go back to our precious Saviour and let Him further transform our lives with His redemptive love. We will end up thanking Him all over again for saving us from the never-ending dust piles of this life…as we choose to carry the light of His love and forgiveness out into this world. Bye. 👋

P 3081 Priorities.

/ DVH

My title today seems to be the catch cry of this world we live in, people are practically lining up to take over our priorities: “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think He’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do His best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way He works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how He works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.”Matthew 6:33 MSG.

Isn’t this a lovely version of this scripture? Here’s another version of the same scripture, from the Good News bible: “Instead, be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what He requires of you, and He will provide you with all these other things.” This verse reminds us that priorities are important. It is my belief that we have accidentally let our own personal human priorities take precedent over God’s Kingdom business. Now here is my third version of the same verse from Matthew: “So above all, constantly seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness, then all these less important things will be given to you abundantly.”

The secret to this verse is highlighted for me with the words “less important.” Which leads me into assessing how important God Himself is in my life. Is He more important than whether the sun is shining or not? Is He more important than what’s for breakfast? Is He more important than my job? Giving God first priority means we will discover a whole other way to look at everything around us. I think Jesus picked flowers etc. as an illustration because that stuff is beautiful, but fleeting.   

God is a giver, He gives us … Himself, His Son and …time. Time to worship the Lord. Time to say that thing you always meant to tell your spouse. Time to say I love you, you are my friend. Time to be glad to have somewhere to sleep and something to eat. Did you wake up today? Me too! 🤣 That means that God has given us another day. Some people didn’t wake up this morning, but we did! What are we going to do with this day? I truly believe the focus we choose is the thing that steers us from day to day. Our God is not thundering from Mount Sinai — He is whispering inside our hearts. When He is our focus He tells us clearly that we don’t have to worry about anything else. Well, there’s a blessing! “This is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.”

I am learning not to project my time into tomorrow, otherwise I start to worry what I will do about this and that, and usually those worries are fears, not real things. My point is this:  I don’t have tomorrow … I may leave here and wake up there overnight! I think that’s why the Lord told us: “so do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34. Lately some of my days appear to have a fair share of difficulties, so that means that I will deliberately have to choose to put all those worrisome things down, simply because He told me to do it.

God made flowers, plants, trees etc and we know that He looks after them, but the book says —He loves US MORE!! Let that sink in a bit. He called you, by your name, you are not a minor member of the faceless crowd to Him. You are special to Him simply because you are you. His heart is sooo big it is more than big enough to take ALL of us IN. When we worry about tomorrow or what might happen, it means we’ve forgotten that His thoughts are always toward us. It’s kind of insulting really. We often lose our time to something that is not worthy of our attention. He made everything around us, and He will not forget us. We need to actively remember WHO HE IS and how much He cares for us.

Our earthly father may have been absent, busy, or just absent minded. He may have been switched on most of the time – or off. Those sad facts cannot override the fact that God is always ON and He is always interested in every single detail of our lives. When He mentions flowers which are transitory things, He is saying that nothing is too small for Him to care about. If it happens to YOU — He cares about it. I’ve found it is healthy to live each day I am given with eternity in mind. I think that’s what Matthew 6:33 is about.

However, God is not our head housekeeper, or a concierge, He isn’t with us to facilitate our lives and run them like clockwork! Emmanuel means God with us, so we are never alone. Maybe nobody else knows that we spend our days weeping over our heartaches. Or maybe soldiering on regardless – numbing our senses to cope with the pain that this life continually produces — but He knows. He does not want His precious people starved of love and meaning in their lives. That’s why He came here. 

Taking care of our day to day priorities can squeeze out the very life of God within us. Before we know it we are treating Him like an obligation, or, even worse … SomeBody Who is too hard to relate to. If that happens, go back to reading the Gospels and watch the way Jesus treats people, how He interacts with them. He is our priority because God made us His priority. Bye.👋

P 3039 You gotta dig to find gold.

/ DVH

“How enriched are they who find their strength in the Lord; within their hearts are the highways of holiness! Even when their paths wind through the dark valley of tears, they dig deep to find a pleasant pool where others find only pain. He gives to them a brook of blessing filled from the rain of an outpouring. They grow stronger and stronger with every step forward, and the God of all gods will appear before them in Zion.” Psalms 84:5-7 TPT.

I find the Psalms are such an enormous comfort in this life! There are times that I simply cannot cope with some stuff. I need Jesus, and the precious Holy Spirit. And if you think that sounds pious or something …you would be wrong! The Holy Spirit’s Presence comforts me, and whispers things I need to hear into my heart, when I am angry. Like:“Why not suffer wrong?….” Jesus can say that to me because He lived His life that way long before I was ever born! 

When things get difficult, or I’m tired, or I have had a series of unlovely events that were not my fault — that is when I can get tetchy. Suddenly I can’t hear Him clearly. And yes, there are also times when I can hear Him fine — but I still get cranky anyway. That’s the time I know I made a choice … it was the wrong one …but I know I definitely made a choice! 

This life to me, is a battlefield, and there are seasons when we end up in the firing line. The thing is, it is not good to beat yourself up when you fall off the wagon, and you end up needing to deal with your own temper – as well as whatever caused it to flare up! Sadly, that response can add to an already difficult situation. Rules don’t help me then, they are too easily discarded. Instead I pray:  “Please help me Holy Spirit!” I have found He is so utterly dependable –  He always answers that prayer. Take a pause and a deep breath, so you can let Him help you through whatever is happening. 

The bible says this in Proverbs 25:28: “A man (a person) without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” It is way too easy to put self-control right down the bottom of the list of things that we know we are going to need. Other spiritual graces sound so much sweeter …but self control is an important key to everything else. This is the digging part of Psalm 84:5-7. We have to dig down into what we already know about Him, to help us withstand what is going on externally. 

After a while, like the Psalmist says, we also need to cultivate and develop a habit of going to Him first. Even when all you have is a desperate cry for help! That choice is ours. We have to choose to believe He will answer us. But whether we feel His Presence in those moments or not, He is always with us – that is where He promised to be!  It’s in the book. Sooner or later we all hit the very difficult wall that says — “do we believe our experiences, or lack of them — or do we believe in Him because of Who He is, and what He said?’

That’s what Lordship is. It is the place where the rubber hits the road and we choose to go His way instead of ours. That’s also the place where we will need to start digging deeper. Eventually our tears and heartache will create a pool that can comfort others. Finding our strength in Him takes perseverance. And when that Grace is cultivated within us, it will produce His fruit, in its season. Holiness isn’t what we eat or drink or do – holiness is in Him.The more we trust in Him and put our faith on the line, the more we will end up walking like a child of the King. The Spirit of God within us, rises up to help us.

Some people think of Grace as something that comes upon them. That is not true. We stir it up from within us, we don’t pray it down. Listen to this:  “Asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He replied to them by saying, The kingdom of God does not come with signs to be observed or with visible display, Nor will people say, Look! Here [it is]! or, See, [it is] there! For behold, the kingdom of God is within you [in your hearts] and among you [surrounding you].” Luke 17:20-21.

You and I, together with entire Body of Christ, are the display case of the kingdom of God for the rest of this world. Yeah, that’s kind of a bit daunting isn’t it? We will allow this kingdom to grow within us as we choose His ways over ours. And let me tell you, in  my experiences, those opportunities will always come at the most inopportune times!  

Maybe somebody just jumped all over your feelings, or a pet theory and then …watch out … what you can potentially display is either His kingdom, or your own bad temper! Yes, you have a reason to be angry, yes you may want to strangle the offender, but if … at that moment … you ask for His help, and pause, and pray, and then you will be empowered to give a kingdom response.

That’s what grows that fruit we are always on about. Growing fruit is vastly underrated. However to grow a fruit tree, like a lemon tree, or a cherry tree – you will have to dig deep. You have to make enough room for the roots to expand and grow. We have to dig to produce His fruit! It  is eternal, it’s golden, it’s forever. So we gotta dig out the weeds of our old life and let the tree He plants in us grow!  Bye. 👋.

P 3019 Get on with it …

/ DVH

Hebrews 12:1-3 “Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, Who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how He did it. Because He never lost sight of where He was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—He could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now He’s there, in the place of honour, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility He plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!”

Postponing our contribution to whatever God is doing right now, leads to eventual non-participation. Life roars along — it almost flies through the air, at times … then it lands on us!  And we can’t easily get out from under it. We all know there is always going to be stuff:  things like opposition, or situations that put pressure on us, and things in our immediate family that need to be taken care of. That’s why verses like these 3 in Hebrews 12 are so accurate, and pointy, all-at-the-same-time! It’s the Message version, by the way.

I’ve written about the following situation as an example. My 97 year old mother is now in palliative care, the powers-that-be don’t know how long she has left in this world. In my opinion their guesses will be all wrong anyway, because they don’t know my mum! She’s determined, and strong-willed and she won’t go anywhere unless she is ready. She has had to be this way, all her life, she was her own parent from 5 years of age. We’ve spent ages with her, lovingly explaining when the Lord comes for her, she definitely needs to go when she is called. In my opinion Jesus is the only Person that she will move on for!

The Lord spoke to us about this situation before we left to take blankets etc. into cold places. After all we were going away and, of course I’m bound to be concerned because I don’t want to leave my mum alone in case something happens to her. I’m just being real here OK? This whole thing is not about whether she is coming or going in this life — for me it is about me being there for her when she leaves. She is my sole parent, and I am an only child, so that responsibility falls on me.

That’s when the Lord reminded me of this verse: “He (Jesus) said to another man, “Follow Me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:59&60. 

I’m like: “Well, that’s not the answer I was hoping for!” And suddenly I found a whole lot of inside stuff I didn’t know was there. Things like … how could I even think about leaving her alone at a time like this? Or what will other people say if we trundle off and leave her when she is dying? Obligation hit me like a train. “Good children” are supposed to be there for their parents in a crisis to help them. Meanwhile, for your info, on yet another occasion, the Lord also accused the Pharisees of using the law to avoid their  filial responsibilities – which is why we need His wisdom every single time!

Then the Lord came up with this fantastic thought, He said: “Ask her what she thinks.” Well, she smiled at both of us and said: “Of course you must go!” So, as you know, we did. I had to wrangle with my feelings for a bit, but I eventually went back into His peace. I asked my daughter-in-love to keep an eye on mum and she faithfully went to see her for us. Then I remembered that Jesus had to leave His mother behind when He died. Suddenly that didn’t seem such a little thing anymore. I know that Jesus loved His mother just like I love mine!

You see, our society puts all kinds of expectations on us, and we can be grounded by them. Then we can’t fly like the Lord wants us to, because … well, you know the reasons … but part of us running after Him will mean sometimes we must leave others behind. Otherwise we will end up with one foot nailed to the floor, going nowhere fast. One of the most difficult things to do in the Christian life is to obey God and not let fear of man, or even human consideration for other people stop you – while you are doing it. Of course this has to be done prayerfully, with oversight, or you can end up doing exactly the same thing—for totally the wrong reasons!

The Christian life is full of widely, wildly different alternatives. The only hope we have to make it through these scenarios is to know His voice, and obey Him. Plus I always ask for His voice through the scriptures! I refuse to just listen to voices. satan can disguise himself as an angel of light. When I am in doubt, I give everything back to Jesus and then I make sure I leave it there. The God Who made this world can deal with my inadequacies and fears, and letting go is a good beginning.

However, there are times when we don’t get answers, because we’ve allowed double mindedness to step in. When that happens to me, I try to repent quickly and then wait for further instructions. We’ve seen my mum since we’ve been back, and she was fine about our 8 day absence. She loved the photos we’ve shown her, as well as the testimonies, and even more importantly – she realised she was part of what we did because of her faith that He would take care of all of us. 

I do hope this little testimony helps somebody who needs to know that God can do anything but fail. What we need to do, sometimes, is just get on with it. Bless you! 👋.

P 3018 The Dove.

/ DVH

“For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them:  if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching;  he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.” Romans 12:3-8.

It is the Grace of God that gives us the ability to flow with the Holy Spirit – and the best place to stay is in that Grace. Nothing can, or will stay the same in His Presence! Unfortunately, that is also when it becomes easy to believe a LIE. That lie is that someone has somehow become some sort of expert, a special spiritual person. This thought causes us to elevate some people above others.

My point today is this, we are so badly acquainted with the Holy Spirit’s gifts, the person sitting next to us in church may also have gifts — but their faith has not been activated to even begin to try to follow His instructions! Or even worse, they tried and fell on their head … so now they sit silently by. Feeling like a failure.

So, let’s look at the disciples — those guys who walked around with Jesus every day for three and a half years. Boy was that some intensive conference!! There was a time when they started thinking that they were pretty special and they could use the power of God to get rid of people that ignored or annoyed them. Jesus immediately made Himself really clear. “You don’t know what spirit you are in!” 😱These men even fought over who should have the best seat in heaven. The only human being who ever was all that, is Jesus. The rest of us are in boot camp and ignorance is not bliss.

I want to really stress how important it is to know the Holy Spirit, and watch Him at work in our own lives, as well as in the bible. You won’t see Him capitalised or underlined – but you can see where He has been and what He does – if you choose to look carefully. The Holy Spirit is not some sort of lesser Person that Jesus sent back to help us. He is called our Helper, Counsellor, the One Who comes alongside of us etc., but His beauty, truth, and devotion to Almighty God is beyond comparison. He doesn’t appear to care if He is seen or worshipped or adored. Instead He wants to teach US, and help US to learn to worship and adore the Father and the Son with every part of who we are. 

Let us always remember the Holy Spirit is gentle, kind, and easily grieved by our careless behaviour, so we need to treat Him and His Ways with reverence. Because He will not defend Himself – He will simply GO AWAY. Trust me, we don’t want to find out what kind of stuff we are capable of, if He is not guiding and directing us! He is the source of all Wisdom. And here is the best and biggest clue to His seeing Him at work  — He loves to be around loving people. Whenever He comes, He brings with Him peace, joy, long-suffering, self-control etc. BTW, that’s not just a description of what He does — those things are Who He is!! 

If we ignore the supernatural effects of being around such a glorious, often unobtrusive Person, we are ignoring the very essence of Almighty God Himself. The Holy Spirit at work within each one of us, is why Godly people voluntarily choose to die to self. It’s an incredible honour. We cannot afford to put our focus on the gifts He brings, and ignore the Giver of the gifts! He must not be ‘used’ to bring about what we want. Human beings are so innately stupid we will start to think the marvellous things He does are because of us, and these miracles are happening because of the way we behave.

You and I are destined to be God’s gifts to Jesus’ bride – the Church.  While we are here, our task is to build one another up, stimulate each other’s faith and live a life of love. We are to be good bridesmaids, keep our lamps trimmed, and make sure the entire bride is ready for this unimaginable honour God has given us. It is not about “me” having a big ministry – it is about helping you find yours! That cannot happen without the Holy Spirit’s input. He is our “Resident Expert” on what love looks like, and how we, in turn, can be loving. 

Instead of asking Him for stupid worldly stuff like – should we go to Bali for a holiday, or save for a new car, or send our kids to this or that school?  We need to change our prayers from ‘Please fix this or that’ or “please heal this or that’ or ‘please oversee this or that” …OR even ….dare I say it … “please help me to find a car park!” TO this—- “What can I do for the Kingdom of God today, Holy Spirit, as I am going about my everyday life. I want to please my Heavenly Father, the Lord Jesus and You. Please lead me into the places You want me to be, and help me to say the things You want me to say.” Amen. 

Jesus thought the Holy Spirit’s Presence was so important, His arrival on the earth was the reason the Lord went away! Let’s remain awake and aware of His enormous role in what God is doing and value the gentle wise Dove for all He is. Bye.🕊️

P 3016 The Kingdom of God is like …

/ DVH

Yesterday, I had the above phrase in my mind. I felt the Lord tell me to look up the scriptures that say … the kingdom of God is LIKE …  … The first thought I had about this subject is that wherever God’s kingdom is present it means He is in charge. So …who rules my life? When we accept Jesus as Saviour and Lord, that means His processes begin, we begin to learn His Ways.

The seed of the life of God within us germinates and inside that seed is the potential for a fully mature tree of righteousness  ‘… that He might be glorified.’  However the growth or unveiling of that seed is a progressive thing. Something we should always seek – first. Maybe we could pray like this: Dear Holy Spirit, Reveal God’s kingdom to me, and for me, as well as through me, today please Lord, Amen.

I noticed that Jesus often described or illustrated His Father’s kingdom by telling His listeners parables, stories. I mentioned one yesterday from Matthew 20. It seems to me that prayerful, meditative reading is one key to unlock the revelation of how His kingdom can rule and reign in each of our lives. Mainly because “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” So “God’s kingdom is not a physical place – but a spiritual reality and a way of living.” (Thank you Google!)

Here’s a brief synopsis of what the kingdom of God is like in the stories Jesus told. The kingdom is like a farmer sowing a seed;  a man hunting treasure;  a woman kneading dough;  a fisherman casting a net;  a man forgiven a debt;  a wedding guest evicted from a wedding because he forgot his jacket. Or unmarried, pure young women waiting to greet the bridegroom;  or a landowner being generous.

Each one of those individual parables provides us with a story and within that story is a revelation – an unveiling – of a much bigger truth. We can let our pastor do all the work, or we can pursue God and His Ways for ourselves. The word ‘find,’ is sometimes used, as well as ‘hidden.’ We see His kingdom through our spiritual eyes using our faith, and we go on reading to find something to obey. The kingdom of God gives us a new way of thinking which leads us into a new way of living.

“Then Jesus said, “God’s kingdom is like seed thrown on a field by a man who then goes to bed and forgets about it. The seed sprouts and grows—he has no idea how it happens. The earth does it all without his help: first a green stem of grass, then a bud, then the ripened grain.”Mark 4:26-33.

I think the Lord used the illustration of something hidden and ordinary because that intimates there will be a revealing of something unexpected, so a revelation is necessary. When God gives us a revelation those new thoughts rise up from our hearts, into our heads and we begin to think and act differently. What He says becomes our reference point, taking preference over what we think, or whatever we think we already know. One day we are reading away, and suddenly the thing we’ve stared at for ages, not only makes sense – it jumps off the page at us. 

Because this is His Grace in action we have nothing to contribute to this process of growth, just our willing obedience, and love for Jesus Himself. Often this stuff happens when we are not even looking! In His kingdom a single seed produces more seeds. So the kingdom of God is like the potential to change, digested and applied. Bye. 👋.

P 2987 Tell someone what’s good about them.

/ DVH

“So I say to my soul, “Don’t be discouraged. Don’t be disturbed. For I know my God will break through for me.” Then I’ll have plenty of reasons to praise Him all over again. Yes, He is my saving grace!”Psalms 42:11 TPT. Critics often spring up all around us like field mushrooms, but an encouraging soul is a joy to those who live with them.

I have the above thought from Psalm 42, practically every single morning. Actually I think I have had it for a little bit more than 8 years! Daily I sit and stare at a blank page in ApplePages and wonder – what on earth I am going to write this time? My hubby often sends me scriptures that have spoken to him that day, and they inspire me into the flow of what God wants me to say. But sometimes I just have to tell my soul to “cheer up and get going!”

I think talking to our soul when we are under stress or strain is good for us. It establishes Ownership at a moment of great vulnerability. Psalm 42:11 says that like this in the KJV:“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him, Who is the health of my countenance, and my God.”The Psalmist instructs his soul to turn away from despair and focus on God’s goodness and help. In other words, He’s talking to his own soul and telling it what to do. This is a fantastic thing to do, my spirit is the boss of my soul.

For me, the “hope in God” prayer is right up there with the “help” prayer…It sits right next to the: “I’m in pain and it is awful” prayer. I also have often prayed a prayer that says: “God can do anything.” I hold fast to that one too, and sometimes I throw in: “You can get me through this Lord.” But there are times when all I can do is to mumble: “God You are good.” I’d love to tell you that after praying these prayers the pain or hardship just melts away … but it doesn’t. Praying like that simply pulls my focus back onto Him and reminds me that I am no longer my own, SomeBody bought and paid for me!

Then I start to remember that Jesus suffered too, and He has always been utterly righteous, and He did not deserve what happened to Him. The Lord bore it all bravely, mostly in silence. There are definitely days when  I pray to be more like that! Faith to me, is utterly relying upon the Holy Spirit to get me out of whatever mess I have fallen into – whether it is pain or some dumb thing I have said or done. The truth is, I can’t live without Him and His wonderful guidance and help. At the same time I want to say that I’ve noticed that there can be some time between this kind of prayer and the answer, but it gets answered!

Like you, I fight discouragement a lot. Personally, I think it runs riot in our streets. And the news does not help me with it either. To be absolutely honest with you, I’ve discovered that very few Christians are often encouraging — and encouragement from our brothers and sisters is like a service station we pull into when we are running out of love. (Petrol!) Today I just want to briefly touch on what encouragement looks like. I have a dear friend and whenever she encourages me, she is specific. She says things like this: “when you said or did this, or that, I was helped by it.” Specific encouragement is like putting the highest grade petrol into someone’s tank — it gives them a whole lot more ‘go!’ 

Encouragement is not flattery. Actually flattery is about gaining something for yourself. It happens when someone says nice things to another person for their own purposes. However, encouragement enables the other person to get up again, and go on. This kind of encouragement has no gain, except to benefit the other person. It is a spiritual impartation of courage toward someone else, with no gain except that you want to see that other person receive hope again. It assists the person who has fallen over and needs to be lifted up, so they can believe that God is for them. We all limp, and fall down. And we all need help to stand up again!

So there are two kinds of encouragement, one from someone on the outside of our inner life, and the one that we deliberately choose to give ourselves when we need it. Learning to encourage yourself in the Lord is a worthy occupation. Like everything else we do, it takes faith that God will not only hear us, but He will help us in our time of need. The wonderful thing about our faith is that we only need a mustard seed of it to access the kingdom of God! 

God knows whatever source we need, whether it is self-encouragement, by speaking to our souls, or external encouragement from our brothers and sisters. And in my experience, sometimes we need both! Encouragement is listed as a spiritual gift in Romans 12:8. But we are all instructed to do it in 1 Thessalonians 5:11. “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”

So keep up the good work and keep asking for His inspiration to encourage others. This road can be long and hard and we all need help along the way. Tell someone what’s good about them! And don’t forget, we can always speak to our own soul too. Bye. 👋

P 2941 Ready or not.

/ DVH

You know, I think we need to scale back on preaching at people, and go out there and just be the bible. When I write this kind of stuff, I’m pretty sure a whole lot of people probably get mad at me! Boy, I hope so — mad is wa-a-a-y better than apathetic. Our faith is not meant to be private … real faith is going out into this world deliberately, on purpose, loving others, caring about their lives, while we are introducing them to His kingdom. Our challenge is to live that way – all the time. Laying down our lives so other people can learn how to find a new life with Jesus. 

Here’s one of my optional ‘make you think’ questions: what part of your new life in Christ makes your life look different than it did before you met Him? I know all the pat answers — we go to church. We pray. We read the bible. However, the reality is, because we choose to remain inactive, unfortunately sometimes guilt drags each one of us around by the nose — we know there is more, but we can’t seem to find it. To do that we need to give up our undercover, ordinary people disguises, and lay down this life we’ve planned for ourselves. Let’s stop running about looking for healing for us, and introduce others to the Healer of mankind. 

The body of Christ has unfortunately become engaged with what this world says we need. People who are DEAD don’t care what they need — actually, they don’t care about anything at all! But the people who know their God want to spend their life for Jesus’ sake. Will it hurt? PROBABLY!! But pain is an opportunity to wait on Him, and press in deeper. I have a theory, I believe that many people lead mediocre lives because they think this life is the only chance they will get to have what they want. But man was made for eternity.

We’ve been born again to do what He brought us here to do. That includes what the bible says …and then, after we do it, we leave the results to Him. We throw our miserable human excuses into the bin where they belong! Man has been making excuses for centuries. Many of those excuses some people made right to God’s face!! That thought makes me shake my head. I know I have been incredibly disobedient, and if God is not Who He says He is, then I’m sunk. I cling to His promises like a barnacle clings to the bottom of a ship.

Let’s just pause, and think about God’s patience with us. He has put up with mankind’s junk for centuries. Not in a mean, stand-offish unloving, uninvolved way, but in a proactive creative winsome way that calls us all up HIGHER. You can’t get more involved in humanity than He did, by coming here, living amongst us, and then letting people kill Him! The people in today’s world need to experience, personally, what the bible says:“Taste and see that the Lord is good.” We are meant to be someone else’s first taste of God in human form, and we are the only Christians some people are ever going to meet! If that doesn’t serve you up a big dollop of “Oh, my gosh!” I don’t know what will!

Sadly, other people are probably going to take a big chunk out of you and I, regularly. It’s a TEST. It is up to us to decide how we will respond to their actions. Jesus has left us in this world to be a people who not only know their God, we are now His interactive advertising. Just tell others the kingdom of God is near, because He lives in you! Like me, you may have been dreadful advertising even ten seconds ago  … so … REPENT. Pick yourself up, fix what you can, use your faith and keep on going. God is not finished with any of us yet. 

Get over the idea that this life is meant to be easy for us – ‘because we are so special’ – and realise that “a disciple when he is fully trained, will be just like His master.’ They treated Jesus disrespectfully and badly and then they viciously killed Him … so-oo-oo-oo … You do the sum.

Sometimes we become so obsessed with being comfortable and comforted, because this life is difficult, we forget what we are here for. If we want to know Him intimately, we will need to live our lives like He lived His. Unselfishly, altruistically! We are assured that His faithfulness under all kinds of circumstances, is out of this world! Nothing can, or will separate you and I from His love … because Almighty God promised.

It’s time for all of us to step up to the plate and take a swing at the ball! Never lower the standard just because you can’t meet it – Jesus Christ met it for us. Pick up your faith and go again. Our only job on this planet, is to RE-present Jesus Christ to the world around us … by living like He did. Let’s hope the next time someone takes a bite out of you or I, they bite into something sweet!

Jesus once told a parable about a rich man, who kept walking past a beggar at his gate. What that rich man did in this life eventually caught up with him. I implore you … don’t postpone change. We need to be ready for anything and He is always our ever-present help in time of need… whether we are ready or not. Bye. 🙏

P 2905 What will you leave behind for His sake?

/ DVH

Luke 18:22-30: “When Jesus heard this, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.” When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, 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.”

Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”Peter said to Him, “We have left all we had to follow you!”“Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”A kingdom life is not always meant to be easy!

We all need to take the time to carefully consider and discern what is keeping us from total surrender. Sometimes it can be people, or things, or even places. I try not to say: “I’ll never go to that place again” because IF I believed in gambling … and I don’t! — then the next trip is definitely going to be about going back to the place I just disavowed! Ages ago, I told hubby that we could not go on a plane anymore. Hah! I think I might have control issues – I’m still checking that out with the King. A-ny-wa-ay… next week we are flying off interstate, 2 hours each way. Never say never.

Father God loves to knock down man-made sandcastles. Why not? He’s God, He’s in charge of our lives. To my total astonishment – every single time, no matter what He does, it is always good! It hardly ever turns out the way I thought it would, because what He does is always better than I can think or imagine. I think this is why God allows us to be tested, He wants us to know that we know – from our own personal experience with Him – that He will always be there, helping us, guiding us, loving us. When you decide to trust Him, no matter how it looks – things may go more slowly – but in my experience, what God does, cannot be undone.

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you.”  That’s from Isaiah 43, verse 2. Our faith needs to learn to watch for, and expect His input – always remembering that Almighty God doesn’t do things the way we would do them!  By the way I like that word WHEN. Trouble is not optional, actually it seems to be quite normal as you follow Jesus and want to serve Him!

Just recently our daughter and her son were told that they would have to move. I actually spent sooooo much time thinking about how we could build something for them to live in our backyard, as well as repeatedly going on line to look up cheaper rentals … and then she came to me about a month ago with this huge testimony that had nothing whatsoever to do with all my efforts.

Father God had found the two of them somewhere marvellous, and she can afford the rent. It is so close to work she could walk there if she wanted to. Guess what? I wasted all that time trying to solve a problem, that was not mine. Our daughter gave it all to the Lord the minute she heard that their old house was going to be sold, and she left the whole thing with Him for Him to solve. Someone came to her about this other house… imagine that! I am learning that we need to leave the people we dearly love in His hands. Meanwhile, when you put whatever is disturbing your peace down you have to walk away at the same time.

The body of Christ has often been fascinated with the idea that brilliant preaching, miracles, supernatural happenings and healings somehow prove that whatever they are doing must be ‘right.’ It seems we think it means we definitely have God’s approval and, bonus buy, we are proving to other people that He exists. Well I believe, first of all, that we already have God’s favour because His Son died in our place! He chose us.  Miracles are a sign and a wonder, but they are not the point – Jesus is the point! 

A life laid down for His sake, makes itself available for whatever God Himself wants, whenever He says. If He says we are to love our enemies – that means we can do it! It is easy to feel like we can’t, but maybe we are bumping into fear or pride or ‘I don’t want to!’  However, bravely stepping out into the path of whatever Goliath is challenging us, while we are trusting in God’s guidance, means we’ve put the Lord in charge of whatever we are facing. Our faith is far away from any problems, because instead we believe in His goodness and we cling to our faith in HIM like a limpet to a rock. We literally shall not be moved.  

We need to give the Lord everything – our lives, our livelihoods, our kids, our health, our self-worth, our family and stuff etc to Him, and leave it all there – because  “… I (we) know in whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that Day.”2 Timothy 1:12. Maybe today is a good day to ask ourselves, what will we leave behind – for His sake? May God bless you, 👋.