Lies

P 3269 The Spirit of Truth.

/ DVH

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“And I will send you the Divine Encourager from the very Presence of my Father. He will come to you, the Spirit of Truth, emanating from the Father, and He will speak to you about Me. And you will tell everyone the truth about Me, for you have walked with Me from the start.” John 15:26-27 TPT. When I read this scripture today, the first thing that jumped out at me is the fact that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of TRUTH. It seems to me that our society is in love with ‘grey’ areas, and we don’t live our lives openly and honestly anymore. It means we can easily miss what the Lord wants to say to us, or to lovingly say to others. Purity is about our proximity to the Holy Spirit. We want to create an atmosphere He loves by following His instructions in the Word.

Most people work hard, struggle financially, and engage with the media to relax and escape from the pressures of life. That’s actually called evasion. Postponing problems won’t fix them or get us into a fit state to face them either. We have been saturated in what the media says and thinks. It is full of lies, and I am not just talking about the politicians! Every time we watch a fictional movie we are actively embracing being lied to. It is not nothing, it frames our subconscious thinking! Actors are actually extremely good liars! Even things like reality shows are staged strategically to appeal to our baser selves. We have been reduced to spectators, instead of being participators in this life. It seems we are embracing the spirit of this world, not the Spirit of truth, but we want the Lord of All to fit in around all of it!

I’m not against TV – I watch it! However, true reality is not happy ever after – it’s the dirty dishes, going to work, no parking, a screaming baby, the cat throwing up on the carpet, or an unexpected bill. The bible says things like this:

• But seek FIRST His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. – Matthew 6:33

• Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, with prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. – Philippians 4:6

• Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. -Romans 12:12

• But those who wait on the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint. – Isaiah 40:31

• Whoever DWELLS in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. – Psalm 91:1

What we choose to focus our lives on matters. We can live in fiction, or distraction or in His shelter. Doing both is called double-mindedness. We are blocking our ears to the very Person Who knows what comes next. So let’s just ask the Lord: ‘should I watch this?’  …’What do You think about this show Lord?’ If He doesn’t like it then don’t watch it. Can you honestly see Jesus kicking back in a comfy chair with chips on His lap, and His feet up, watching ‘Bambi’, because He walked a long way and prayed for so many people, and now He needs to chill out? So why didn’t the Lord do pointless things to relax?  

He was busy seeking first the kingdom of God. Jesus knew He was here on assignment. SO ARE WE. Prayer, waiting on Him, and reading the bible, etc. takes time and the benefits of making these things a priority often comes later. It is the Holy Spirit’s great joy to help us find our way through the maze of stuff that goes on daily. Seriously there is no such thing as minutiae to the Holy Spirit. He is our Helper. We need to prayerfully cultivate our relationship with Him, by not grieving Him or ignoring Him, when He speaks to us, then turn His instructions into actions.

If we are still giving into grey areas, perhaps we have not taken the opportunities He has given us to hone our listening skills. If we choose to ignore Him, He will go away! Sadly, this world is going to hell – on our watch! If we feel we need to escape from the life we are living, then we need to fast and pray and ask the Lord why? What is making me so dissatisfied with my life? Just be aware that the Lord won’t blame other people for our decisions and actions — He will simply reveal ME to me. I vote we all stop allowing distraction to ‘dull’ our spiritual senses.

We cannot afford to want to live this life both ways. We have already given up our right to live this life however we want. Ananias and Sapphira decided to cheat on their income tax, so they fudged the books. And yes, I know that’s not what the story is about, I am exaggerating to illustrate – not lying! 🤣… Those guys dropped dead immediately.  A bit severe wouldn’t you say? NO! The Holy Spirit was such a treasure to the Apostles and disciples, that they would not tolerate the lie. Pause and think on that. The Spirit of truth is our Treasure, now too.

Valuing the Lord and His Presence is our assignment. We can’t afford to partake of this current society that paints black white, then calls it OK-grey! We need to know, hear and obey the Spirit of truth. He is our most valuable asset. Jesus thought so much of the Holy Spirit’s ministry, He wouldn’t go anywhere without Him …  … and then He sent Him back to help us. Bye. 👋

P 3149 Strongholds.

/ DVH

My first thought is this … never ever forget the prince of the power of the air … that guy is still around!  On to my subject for today… It is not comprehensive … this is about awareness.

It seems to me that we all have habitual attitudes that we have cultivated over the years. They profit us, as well as help us get our own way.  So when you keep coming up against the same ungodly attitude in yourself, it shows that there is a stronghold in your life. In my opinion, strongholds are sins that have dug in – something has dug itself into our roots in childhood, OR this captivity has taken advantage of our willing participation. We can, and must walk away from anything that drags us along.

Here’s my next point – people who have a stronghold don’t necessarily yell – they can also become pathetic on cue. Neither of these attitudes agree with what God says. Sadly rotten attitudes are often profitable – people get tired of the same fight over and over and give up! An immature personality often makes decisions about life and how to get what they want. They dig a familiar rut into the essence of who they think they are, and they march up and down in it, guns drawn, knives out – hankies and tissues by the score and … off they go! A stronghold is a collection of self-supporting thoughts that always have an answer, but it’s not what JESUS said in the book.

This is a diagnostic verse about strongholds: 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 “For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and using mere human weapons. For the weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood], but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds, [Inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) …” In other words, watch your thought life!

Many things roll about in our heads in thought patterns, or unsolicited emotional reactions, or even lies and deceptions we have believed about ourselves, and/or other people. We may have picked up judgmental attitudes from parental oversight, and now we are trapped inside those things – thinking: this is who I am – I can’t help it! When God’s Word plainly says we can! These deceptions can hold us captive. This stuff denies the power of God to transform us. It makes God less powerful in our eyes, because we are virtually saying – ‘He can’t fix me.’ I call this stronghold ‘internal deception.’

Some of us have been taught that the attitudes we have are the right ones, and anything else is wrong. Those things are roadblocks to change, because they get us stuck in man’s own version of reality. Often people’s decisions are based on the thought that their actions or reactions, are a human response or normal attitude. It stinks of pride. I call this one ‘the alternate reality’ stronghold. It’s not real.

However, the hardest mind-pattern to overcome is the one that says: ‘This is just who I am and you are rejecting who I am!’  These people use their stronghold to attack you for the very thing they are doing themselves. Many people don’t like anyone disagreeing with them and their ideas. When we hit that kind of wall, we are hitting a stronghold. We can’t argue others out of strongholds, that stuff needs repentance, and the person’s agreement that what they are doing is not profitable. They need to choose to believe this life can be better. I call it the unwilling to learn and change stronghold. To combat that, I throw His unconditional love at it. It is ‘the kindness of God that leads us into repentance.’

Strongholds are way beyond our ability of persuasion. Start releasing God’s Grace, Love, Joy, Peace etc. You can’t sin when you aim at these God-given Graces and give them away. The bible tells us ‘there is no law against those things.’ We are to live our lives so that others can be built up to embrace their godly purpose. Judgment has to go out of the window, it just muddies the water. Even if you have doubts about any stuff that you might be doing without even thinking about it – run your attitudes by your pastor, and the Holy Spirit, prayerfully. Ask the Lord to correct you with His eye on you, then deliberately take the time to listen. God’s power inhabits His Grace.

Here’s a couple of tips if you discover a stronghold in your life … Joshua and Co. walked around Jericho for 7 days – the Lord used obedience and praise to pull that stronghold down. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, and Almighty God used that time to deal with their religious, idolatrous, gimme gimme attitudes. Sadly they all died off!  Lastly, I think that if we are provoked by what someone else is doing, then we are staring at a stronghold of our own. At the bottom of our annoyance is the reality that we don’t want to be inconvenienced by someone else’s learning curve!

And BTW, I’m not talking about this today so you can figure out what’s wrong with your spouse … we all need to be transformed. You’ll never know what else will change, when YOU change and start dealing with your own strongholds. You could end up being His catalyst. Bye 👋.

P 3127 God good – devil bad.

/ DVH

Today I want to briefly go back to Daniel 10:12-14.This fight was so furious, Michael, another archangel, came to help Gabriel. The two of them, if you read on, have to fight their way back through that same demonic stronghold. They fight against a principality and power over this world: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12. We are not fighting theories, we fight actual satanic beings sent to destroy us and our relationship and trust in God Himself. Our fight is real!

I want to go down on record saying I have limited knowledge  about this stuff, my focus is always on Jesus and what He did for us — our inheritance from Him. However, the consequence of “not knowing,” means the other guy can sometimes rob me blind, while I am unaware, as well as unnecessarily torment me. I need His discernment firmly in place – it is part of His protection for us all. Our Heavenly Father wants us to win our battles not just drag ourselves along bleeding, and crawling through broken glass getting beat up along the way. Deliverance has had a bad rep! Yet all of us have to fight our enemies just to crawl out of bed some days. 

The Holy Spirit is our biggest Supporter and Personal Trainer and He is here to help us with satan. I included the above scripture to highlight that many times we must break through the things that have been sent to hold us in bondage. Those things that will postpone, and interfere with whatever it is that God has planned. When you love Jesus and choose to serve Him you become a target. So if we wake up – or can’t sleep(!) with a list of someone else’s sins against us rumbling about in our brain, I’m pretty sure resentment, anger and revenge, are on the premises targeting us. It’s time to ask for His help and get forgiveness rolling! BTW, implication is not guilt, our enemy likes to join dots where there is no connection.

Now let’s look at Jesus because: “He is the Author and finisher of our faith”… that makes Him our finest example of what to do. Jesus defeated satan with God’s Word. Knowing the bible is one of our greatest weapons. If an archangel has trouble defeating our enemy and needs help — then I vote we know God’s Word well enough to use it to fight! It needs to be in our minds and hearts and mouths. And, BTW, I mean fight, not just kind of wave it about randomly stabbing anywhere. Let’s learn to pick the Word up like a real sword and stab all those untruths and lies that satan floods into our minds, daily. Instead of looking for proof that a person is targeting you – ask for help so you can see any error and to find your way through it;  ask the Holy Spirit for bible verses to use as a sword to set you free and send that other guy packing!

When Jesus was tempted he was hungry, so the enemy tempted the Lord with free bread. I find that wanting/needing/coveting stuff can easily lead me into a trap. Hungering after things like a better house/car/life/friends/spouse etc. makes you into a target. You can be rolling along, sincerely wanting to do good and hear from God, then bam! The enemy throws lack at you! Fight that supposed lack with a verse of scripture. One of my favourites is this: ‘If I really need it He will give it to me.’  If the answer doesn’t come right away, then the journey Jesus and I are on is going to profit me, and the waiting will be worth it. We often gain patience and perseverance on these journeys! 

Maybe the enemy tries to sidetrack us with status and pious-sounding results. ‘Just imagine what will happen if you do so and so, everybody will see Jesus better.’ satan points out some quick advantage in an activity, and skips right over obedience, consultation or reverence for what God says. It’s time to remember that the bible says: ‘humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, in due time He will exalt you.’ That means we take the lowest seat, or we choose to do something unseen, and nobody notices it. We gain humility and self-control when we do what God says. satan won’t tell you that!

Fame and gain was thrown at Jesus. The possibility of getting what He was sent here for by another method — a shortcut, if you will. Notoriety or importance when it is not God-ordained, can puff us up. I think the real key to this temptation is this, we must understand that we don’t know what is hidden away in our hearts. We think we do, but we don’t! The bible says: ‘there’s a way that seems to be right to us but at the end of that way is death.’ God’s way is for us to do whatever He says, and make sure people end up praising Him not us! However, satan can tempt us to believe he has a way to get to where God wants us to be, that is easier. My fav rebuke is ‘God’s in charge here!’ Obviously I have real scriptures for all these rebukes – you should find your own.

Lastly, our enemy throws fear on the wall of our minds. And then he points out what we will lose if we are obedient. I hate that! My strategy is this, God is calling us all higher – so that means some things will get left behind because we can’t carry them any further.  All of us can get afraid of what we might have to leave behind. We can easily forget that – God good, devil bad. Remember, if we accept the devil’s evil devices – at the bottom of his rotten ideas, is a plan for us to end up serving him. Bye 👋

P 3062 The Eternally Grateful are coming …

/ DVH

There is an army of people who will be coming into our churches any day now. In my heart, I can see them. They are broken-down by this life and the way they have chosen to live it. These are the people that you and I might reject because of their outward appearance, or bad life choices. However, these people have discovered that the Saviour is not interested in their past misdeeds, or their backgrounds, and as a result, they are overwhelmingly grateful. These people know they need saving.

They’ve done all the dumb, monstrous things mankind is capable of, and they’ve seen through the tissue of lies our enemy has been feeding society that says: “people are just expressing themselves.” They know, if Jesus is not Who He says He is, or He doesn’t save them, then they are utterly lost. Everything depends upon how we treat these lost broken souls when they begin to join us – will we tolerate them, or make them feel so uncomfortable they leave – or receive them gladly with humility?

One of the difficulties we face today in our churches is that we do not comprehend the depth of our own personal sin against the Lord, and His holiness. Sadly, we can even become totally pre-occupied with someone else’s sin against us! But …we are living our lives, from day to day, totally unaware that we are disobedient to our heavenly calling. Repentance is part of our ongoing salvation. ps. we all need saving from ourselves, daily! We need to be aware, pride and complacency have entered the church. Jesus taught us this about that subject:

“Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

Then He turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give Me any water for My feet, but she wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing My feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore I tell you, her sins, many [as they are], are forgiven her—because she has loved much. But He who is forgiven little loves little.” Luke 7:41-47. Our omissions, our refusal to obey Him, can harden our hearts.

I just love this lady! She interrupts a meeting between some bigwigs from the synagogue and Jesus, because of her desperate need for reconciliation with Almighty God. She knew how wrong her life was, and she did something about it!  Many believers today have become complacent about their faith. We can learn something from this unnamed woman. We need to take notice. She displayed her gratefulness all over Jesus’ feet, publicly. She did not care for herself or her dignity.

Everybody knows we are all sinners in theory. However, there are people who know, for sure, that they don’t deserve any of the costly Grace Jesus has poured out for them. They’ve learnt, the hard way, they are only capable of selfishness and chaos. Sadly it is too easy to think about repentance as an add-on, instead of a life-line. That’s when we end up excusing sin, instead of facing it.

I think the Apostle Paul is a wonderful illustration of how easy it is to think we are right, and that we are living our lives well serving God. This man was being obedient to what he knew, to the letter — and then God Himself went and knocked him off his (high) horse! Immediately Paul’s life was transformed.  “As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting ME?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” Acts 9:3-5.

These verses show me that it is possible to think you are right, and still be wrong. Paul was. He thought he was doing God a favour by persecuting those radicals who followed Jesus. He saw himself as an avenger, getting rid of someone stealing God’s own glory. I particularly like the point inferred in these scriptures, where Jesus says persecuting believers is the same as persecuting Him. He takes our persecution, personally! No wonder we should pray for our enemies!!

Grateful people know that without Him they can do nothing. They’ve had their ability to resist sin and temptation tested, and they failed … or they came up empty. That’s when they realised that they simply did not have the power inside themselves to change themselves. These people now live their lives gratefully and they have an attitude that says: “I will serve You Lord, any time, any place, anywhere. My life is Yours now.“ Their desire is to see Him get all the glory, because heaven-sent gratitude has overtaken their sense of self-aggrandisement or need for approval.

These greatly anticipated newcomers, who are covered in the filth of this world, will have so much to teach us all, because their humility and devotion will be stunning. They won’t know what to say or wear, but they will be crazy about the One Who saved them! The Apostle Paul gave away his life, his position and his reputation to serve Jesus. He demonstrated what being saved means – it means we are a people who will always be eternally grateful for what we have been given. Have a good day! Bless you. 🙏

P 3023 The testing times.

/ DVH

John 19:11: ”When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free You or to crucify You?” Jesus answered, “You would have no power over Me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed Me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

The fear of God is real! Here is an illustration of that reality from the Gospels. Pilate did what we all do from time to time — we question God, and then we chase about looking for a loop-hole because we don’t really want to know His answer.. We are not sure we will like it, and we definitely don’t like the cost! This man was looking for a way to let Jesus go free that wouldn’t throw blame on him … be-cau-se … his wife had told him to be careful….

Pilate’s wife told him to ‘have nothing to do with this good Man’. Pilate was not a complete numb-knuckle, he was  trying to negotiate a way to do both things at once. After all he was the procurator/prefect of Judea – this man had power! He really wanted to release Jesus, listen to his wife, plus try to please the Jews. Fat chance of that! Sadly the Jews had already made up their collective mind. But God had a bigger plan!

This portion of John shows us a wonderful truth about Father God’s dealings with His precious Son — and us. Jesus clearly tells us that nobody can have power over any one of us unless we give it away, or God allows it. Now before you get alienated by that statement, we need to look at Job. Job is greatly underestimated!

“And the LORD said to satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.”So satan went out from the presence of the LORD.” Job 1:7-12. Job loved God, but he feared for his family. and those fears put him squarely within satan’s reach. God did not hurt this man satan did. 

However, it is clear that Father God believed in this man’s ability to endure, or He would not have allowed him to be tested in the first place..so satan went all snarky about God’s blessings on this man’s life. Because our Father is a good, good God and Father, He knew that testing would bring out things in Job that were not there before. He and Job would grow closer – and one of the things that Job grew into was a greater intimacy with Him. Job himself says: “I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen You with my own eyes.” Chapter 42, verse 5.

Once we have given our lives and hearts to Jesus, Almighty God is constantly transforming our circumstances, our joys and sorrows, our likes and dislikes to shape us into the image of His Son. He’s God! He can do lots of things at once!! Remember, our destiny is to be Jesus’ bride … it’s far bigger than just going to heaven. The Lord Jesus deserves a bride worthy of His sacrifice for her. That is why our character – our heart toward Him – day by day by day, becomes more and more important. 

This is also why the bible says:  “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28. My translation of this verse is this:  nothing can happen to me in my situation – or to you in your situation – that is beyond our Father’s redemptive loving care and transformation. All He requires from His Son’s bride-to-be is that she would yield to His greater wisdom as it is revealed in the bible, plus we have the precious Holy Spirit’s guidance always with us.

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” 2 Peter 1:3. We can count on the fact that God knows the end from the beginning, and there is nothing that can prevent Him from taking all things—every single thing, and weaving and working them together for our good. This is the way the Apostles lived and worked and spread the Gospel. They believed In their Heavenly Father’s power to redeem bad situations into good. 

Doubt is our enemy. So is carelessness and a lack of love for others, and we dare not doubt His goodness and His faithfulness.  We are transformed from day to day by believing what He has said about WHO we are now, because of Christ’s sacrifice. Let’s not miss the mark and get picky and choosy about being obedient. Meanwhile, the Lord is all wisdom, so we would have to be mighty dumb, or pretty disobedient not to pay attention to the things that are written in His book. If He has allowed a testing time, then He knows you can get through this – the Holy Spirit will walk you through it – ask Him to help you..

We will get stuck if we believe the enemy’s lies that we can’t do, or endure whatever God told us to do. We quite simply cannot afford to believe our feelings over Christ’s life and His testimony. If we mess up and go the wrong way then we repent, turn around and go back and do whatever He asked you to do, the way the Holy Spirit said to do it. 

We are His, and He is ours, and nothing can separate us from His incredible love. Jesus Christ Himself died to release all of us from satan’s power and JESUS LOVES HIS BRIDE!  Keep believing God is good, and turn your eyes away from any and all of the circumstances that drag you under. Ask others to pray for you. When God stretches our faith, our faith will be even bigger on the other side of those testing times. Bye. 👋

P 2963 Quick sand.

/ DVH

One of the quick sand traps we can fall into as we learn to walk with the Lord, is that we can get stuck regarding sin. We try to explain things away. When we focus on what we think happened and why — that’s when a ‘sin’ focus takes over and we stop thinking like we are children of the King. My advice is in all situations, focus on the Lord. Dismissing our sin is like stepping into quick sand.

What we intently look at, has a tendency to grow larger, and we need the Lord to be larger than the dumb stuff  other people do. Focussing on the cross and everything He chose to do for us, produces clear focus and gratitude. I’ve found that ‘self’ will lie to you. It is not interested in dying … because it is afraid it will cease to exist if it dies. But death to the ‘old’ self is always the desired outcome. We can only LIVE for Jesus to the extent that we are prepared to DIE to self.

Otherwise we will start explaining why we did this or that, trying to justify ourselves. Let’s just level the playing field shall we? “ALL have sinned!” This means we can’t possibly justify ourselves – all means all!  Don’t fight humility or give self any credence, confession is the answer to sin. Renewing – or changing your mind – means our focus will change as we focus on His thoughts not ours. Otherwise we are trapped, but the minute we confess our faults – that trap flies open. Sin is a deceiver. It wants us to identify with it instead of leaning on and relying upon what Jesus did for us. The reality is, sin can no longer hold us, it can only take hold when we believe its lies.

Trying to justify ourselves means that we have been tricked into giving away the ground that Jesus died to give us. The efficiency of our enemy’s trap depends upon the personality of the individual person. For many people, He can grab them because of an underlying sense of guilt or shame. This means that we haven’t yet totally grasped what we have been given. Jesus Christ gave us His justification, His stature before God. We have it credited to our account. God gave us something that we could never do for ourselves – for free. But it cost Him everything – that’s the kind of wonderful God we serve! 

This what what this incredible exchange was all about – Jesus took our sin and gave us His holiness, His righteousness. To walk in those things we need to treat other people the same way He treated us. We were His enemies! We were against everything He stood for. We need to do this generously. Unselfishly. Not just the people we like, but even our known enemies. Now we are free to choose to follow Him down the road of sacrificial love, compassion, kindness etc.

The Christian life is about choices. It is often about choices that need to be made under pressure. Jesus chose to be a servant. So we choose to follow Him and live the same way He did, with thanksgiving and obedience. Our day-to-day choices provide us with a mirror – they show us how much faith we are living in. When we choose to give into our flesh, ourselves, our old nature, we are empowering our old life. That old life no longer has any power over us – we can only enliven it by giving it our allegiance. It is a mirage, a memory, a shadow of what was. We will find the attitude or actions that seem to imprison us, actually cannot hold onto us when we begin to use our faith to walk away from them.

The more we have indulged our flesh the harder the enemy will fight for us to return to that life. he never stops tempting us, because Jesus Himself said: “… in this world you will have trials…” When we are tried, by self-interest or difficult circumstances, our true self comes to the surface where it can be identified and dealt with. Instead of excusing that behaviour as ‘only human’ or ‘normal under the circumstances’ — we need to own how we’ve reacted so we can walk away from it, back into the freedom Christ has given us.

Then with the Holy Spirit’s help, we begin to take our renewed mind’s faith-steps away from the things that drag us down and step into our new life, our new identity, in Christ. We are now who He says we are. This means instead of giving you a piece of my mind, I give away His PEACE to you instead. Instead of punishing you because you don’t suit me, I choose to love you. Loving you is not giving you permission to continue to hurt me, instead it gives YOU a chance to know what unconditional love looks like!

The reason I can forgive you or you can forgive me is because of what Jesus did for both of us. We are standing on the same ground. Our issues are not people, our issues are attitudes and subsequent actions.“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.” Matthew 5:21-22a. See? Attitudes matter!! Anger is clearly out of God’s order. It’s not just a bad day, or a stinky attitude, or a suitable response to someone else’s sin, to warn them off.

We know something that the other person may not know – He died for their sin too. Sin, or holding onto resentment or bitterness, or shame or guilt, is like stepping into quick sand. We will drown and smother our burgeoning faith. Our best combat attitude is to continue to renew our mind, and act on what we read. Then we begin to think about this life like Jesus did. We ask for His help – and use our faith to be obedient. Bye 👋

P 2955 Don’t be lost – be found!

/ DVH

John 8:42-47: “Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father [but He is not], you would love and recognize Me, for I came from God [out of His very Presence] and have arrived here. For I have not even come on My own initiative [as self-appointed], but He [is the One who] sent Me. Why do you misunderstand what I am saying? It is because [your spiritual ears are deaf and] you are unable to hear [the truth of] My word. 

You are of your father the devil, and it is your will to practice the desires [which are characteristic] of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks what is natural to him, for he is a liar and the father of lies and half-truths. 

But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me [and continue in your unbelief]. Which one of you [has proof and] convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? Whoever is of God and belongs to Him hears [the truth of] God’s words; for this reason you do not hear them: because you are not of God and you are not in fellowship with Him.”

Man, I love the book of John, I’ve been glued to it for weeks! Let’s just quickly revise what Jesus says in the 1st paragraph above. He came here to us, from the Presence of God. There are times, sadly, when we don’t live like we know this …we just think we do, because we’ve heard the words before. The power in those words comes from acting on them. If we really knew this, then whatever He says to us through His Word would not, and could not, come into question.  It is a waste of time to frame what the bible says by our own denominational bents. This book is God speaking to us, and we need to listen. We simply must stop rationalising the power of God to change lives out of His Word!

Coming from the very Presence of God means that Jesus has Almighty God’s authority to say what He says. And everything He says is covered in and by God’s Presence, and it will be interpreted to us by the Holy Spirit, Who was sent here to help us understand. There are no optional extras in the gospels – if ‘every promise in the book is mine’  — then every obedient response to those promises are mine as well! Ya might want to sit and think on that. Lastly, Jesus was sent here by God Himself– the Lord didn’t just decide to pop down here off His own bat!

Because of what Jesus says here, we know what the devil does;  how he sounds;  and what his aim is, so we don’t have to be ignorant of our enemy’s tricks. Did you get that it is natural for our enemy to lie? This means we need to desperately know the truth, because whatever he says will be really convincing! he’s despicably good at lying – it’s not a habit, it is part of his nature. He hates people. I also think that he loves to distract people with his lies … after all half the planet is chasing the good life, money, great circumstances and the dream of happiness, here and now! But that is not what the bible clearly says we should pursue.

The last paragraph tells us that human beings can’t hear the Lord Jesus because He speaks truth, and we like lies better than truth. Think about it – God says “Go and make disciples” and “Love one another” and we say: “That’s someone else’s job!” “That’s too hard!” Our preferences regarding what we choose to hear, can make us deafer than a post! However, listening to lies leaves us room to do whatever we like, whenever we want to, because we think: “God doesn’t mind” …! But God’s truth is destined to lead us into a totally different lifestyle. Sometimes we are happy enough to believe lies because believing lies leaves us undisturbed in our sin! But practising sin has a bad destination… Jesus came here to change our destination.

The questions every single human being has to answer are quite simple… is Jesus Christ Who He says He is?  Did He really come to do what He said He did?  Did He really rise from the dead? Today, I believe that His greatest plan is unfolding — He’s alive IN His people. You and I can easily make up a god in our own image and take a chance that what we think is right, IS actually right. But remember, our intellect and wisdom are limited, so we are making a limited choice. Sooner or later we will have to take someone else’s word. Why not take GOD’S own WORD? It’s been around for 2,000+ years or so. I know people who set out to disprove what God said and they ended up following Him because they found Him in the book!

Anybody can read the bible for themselves, starting with what Jesus said and did, and talk to God like this: “God if you are there, I am talking to you, if not, then I am talking to myself. Please help me to find You in Your book. ”Amen. All kinds of amazing things happen when you take the time to pray like that. Don’t be lost … be found! May God Himself lead you as you search to find Him. Jesus Christ IS truth. Bye 👋  

P 2952 The heart of God is restoration … not condemnation.

/ DVH

John 8 …“But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning He came back into the temple [court], and all the people were coming to Him. He sat down and began teaching them. Now the scribes and Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery. They made her stand in the centre of the court, and they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the very act of adultery. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women [to death]. So what do You say [to do with her—what is Your sentence]?” They said this to test Him, hoping that they would have grounds for accusing Him. 

But Jesus stooped down and began writing on the ground with His finger. However, when they persisted in questioning Him, He straightened up and said, “He who is without [any] sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then He stooped down again and started writing on the ground. They listened [to His reply], and they began to go out one by one, starting with the oldest ones, until He was left alone, with the woman [standing there before Him] in the centre of the court. Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” She answered, “No one, Lord!” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you either. Go. From now on sin no more.”]”

The Lord Jesus Himself disposed of this woman’s accusers. Praise God, this shows us we can trust Him to dispose of ours, too. She was a nobody – yet God saw somebody! The Lord did not condemn her for her sin, He FORGAVE HER. Our job after acknowledging His Grace gift to us, is to release to other captives what we were freely given – because we are filled with the knowledge that we don’t deserve His GRACE either. 

In this passage there is Love, Grace, Wisdom, Faith and Freedom, all over the Lord’s actions! Jesus knew they did not bring that woman to Him just to humiliate her – these scribes and Pharisees brought her to Him to accuse HIM! This incident was about Jesus, not just about that woman. It was a set-up, a sting!  But all Jesus had for her was compassion and forgiveness, plus the freely given opportunity to start a new life and live right before God. The greater sin was in the hearts of her accusers. Sometimes we ignore our sin because we choose not to see ourselves. We think of our actions as ‘good’ and condemn someone else because their actions are ‘bad.’

“However, when they persisted in questioning Him, He straightened up and said, “He who is without [any] sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” When absolute truth is in front of us, we dare not refute it, nor should we try to – the best response is to own what we’ve done. Lies, bitterness, resentment, hatred, all these things produce shame and guilt and they thrive in darkness. That’s why we cannot tolerate them, and confession brings us into the light. We are His —  so now we are officially living in the Light, HIS light. 

I often wonder if these religious men had stayed longer to press the issue, what might have come out about their lives? Some versions of this passage indicate the Lord wrote stuff about the woman’s accusers in the dirt at their feet. They were so quick to try and catch the Lord breaking the law, but then they slunk off when confronted with the power and love of God for forgiveness, present in the Person of Christ.

Right after the paragraph about this woman in John 8, Jesus proclaims that “He …is the light of the world”“”…He who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” We cannot tell ourselves that we are following Jesus if we choose to tolerate darkness in ourselves. I’m not talking about what we watch on TV or even how we talk … I’m talking about our hearts – the attitude of our hearts toward others matters. Our hearts need to continually be filled with His light. His Presence loves the light. (James 1:17)

There are two points in this story, it is not just a story about Jesus forgiving an adulterous woman! In the church we can push the truth of what He said here away from us, and not take it in, by making this story about something we think we would never do!  Adultery. Jesus wasn’t trying to hurt these deeply religious men – He was exposing the darkness inside them that kept them captive. He came to save them too! Maybe they left because they didn’t want to confront the reality of who they had become. 

Religion counts outward actions more important than the state of our hearts, but Jesus clearly said elsewhere, it is what comes out of our hearts that shows us what is inside! God does not expose our sin to shame us. He wants to set us free, and we need to be able to see our sin in order to come out of harmony with it. The attitude in the Pharisees that accosted this woman, and then tried to trap Jesus with what she was doing, is the same one that will drag us all under if we let it. We can easily see someone else’s sin as worse than ours!! 

Religion imprisons us, it does not set us free. It excuses our behaviour and accuses someone else. That’s called deflection. Jesus did not approve of this woman’s lifestyle, instead He lovingly gave her an opportunity to change, that’s what He does! He gave the religious leaders that opportunity as well. They turned Him down. Walking away may not seem like a big deal, but postponement hardens our hearts. The heart of God is restoration not condemnation – HE loves to forgive…. He did not come here to condemn sinners – He came to SAVE them. Bye.🩸

May God bless you today, as you choose to take the time to remember what was freely done for you.

P 2895 God’s Love is inexhaustible.

/ DVH

We all need to leave behind the lies we have inadvertently swallowed regarding God’s Love. Our enemy goes out of his way to tell us we can’t have the Lord’s love and grace anymore because we did so and so, and God cannot forgive so and so – it says it in the book. That is a horrible lie sent to torment us. The bible is a balanced book, one thing leads into another – leading us back to HIM.

Today, I am hoping to pass on some reassurance to those of you who have become bogged down in legalism – because I know from experience that our adversary never misses an opportunity to nag at someone – day and night. Many Christians have walked away from what they believe, because what they believed became untenable in the face of their desperate pain-driven reactions to this life. Say this with me: …”there is NOTHING our God cannot do!’

We need to focus on His faithfulness. Here are a few swords for you. 2 Thessalonians 3:3:“But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.“ Lamentations 3:22–23: “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” Exodus 34:6-7a.“The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD,a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin …” Fortunately we are this side of the cross, and Jesus took any curses we might pass on to other people with Him to that cross. Read the book.

Confession is often the best solution to accusation. Think of sin as mould, it needs treatment, light and air. Darkness and lack of air will make it grow. We can always have a new beginning. Here’s a verse we all know: “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. What Jesus did was complete and comprehensive. Deliverance from the enemy’s lies starts with us making a quality decision to stop believing those lies, and instead we deliberately choose to put a verses of scripture in its place. The Holy Spirit will help us find them.

Accusatory thoughts can overwhelm and dismiss the power of God’s Love, together with the grace Christ released by what He did. Many times we do not have a sin problem per se, we have simply allowed God to become too small in our eyes, and Jesus stops being the Saviour Who saved everyone. When He said “…it is finished.”It was a universal statement for all time. However, if you are currently doing something or other and you clearly know in your heart that it is sin, and it is slowly dragging you away from everything you believe then you need to repent!  

Almighty God provides us with a tool to access His inexhaustible love. It’s called repentance. That is the quickest route to restoration. Almighty God is incredibly kind. He will lead us out of temptation, AND He will also deliver us from fast approaching evil. Because we need to withstand further and future attacks from our enemy, our faithful God will sometimes allow him to ‘gnat’ at us, so we have opportunities to develop spiritual strength. We fight back with “God says: …”  This is not about how we feel, it is about what HE has already said. Our job is to believe He is a merciful Father Who has done everything necessary to bring about our redemption.

Jesus made reaching God’s standard impossible without His help.I dunno about you – I’ve wished people dead, told thumping great lies, and worse things – and I’ve fallen down the hole of desperate despair. I think it is necessary to point out that God judges hearts, and none of us fully know what’s in there! Sometimes we can be too lenient, and at other times w-a-y too permissive. We need the Holy Spirit’s ever-present, always current, on-the-spot wisdom.

God lets us learn! That’s not an excuse it is a blessing. Think of repentance like this, as regaining our strength after we have allowed it to lapse. Every action we deliberately take against sin, strengthens us spiritually. It strengthens our faith when we step away from something purely because God says: “Don’t do it.” The Lord advises us in this manner because He knows what comes next. It isn’t always about sin – many many times it is about the kindness of God. He leads us into repentance because He doesn’t want us to end up in the land of WORSE – fighting shadows from the past.

We can also choose the road of humility and tell someone else so they can pray for us. Other people can lift us up when we feel lower than the ground we are standing on. Always remember, God’s Love is inexhaustible. Bye.👋

P 2878 Unconditionally forgive everyone.

/ DVH

““Your ancestors have also been taught ‘Love your neighbours and hate the one who hates you.’ However, I say to you, love your enemy, bless the one who curses you, do something wonderful for the one who hates you, and respond to the very ones who persecute you by praying for them.”Matthew 5:43-44 TPT. Many people don’t like this scripture because it hits something inside them that they don’t care to acknowledge. Personally, I think things like gossip have their roots in these attitudes. We try to bring people down by badmouthing them to others, especially if they threaten us or we can’t forget what they did! 

Hatred can be generational. It can be taught to us by the people we dearly love, who raised us. After that sort of family indoctrination, it can become quite easy for gossip, slander, lies, and hatred to be passed down from one generation to another. When generational things are cherished and repeated endlessly, eventually they break out against other people Jesus died for! Meanwhile, how sensible is it to hate some people ‘cos your folks, or your friends, or people we esteem hate them too? You know that voice that you can hear in your heart that keeps saying: “Wrong way, go back.” Listen to it.  We have the power of God in us — we can usher in generational change by our choices.

Any unloving focus can drag us away from our main objective – loving others. Gossip and judgment build themselves, through repetition about what some perceived enemy did or said.  And when the bad incident that started with anger, or judgment happens to our people, our house, our group of friends – then it becomes personal!  That personal experience adds weight to everything else that has gone before it. It’s a distraction from our main purpose – let’s not allow ourselves to be distracted away from our purpose.. 

Between all the hating, cursing, lies and the repetition of the terrible stories — hatred is now flourishing in this world. Now this ghastly attitude is set firmly inside a demonic stronghold. I think the press/media etc. lies to us regularly in order to provide sensational stories to get our money and attention. Advertisers love that idea! The press blows up information and twists things to make what we read, see, or listen to, sensational. 

Meanwhile, our thirst to be in the know, and our efforts to find out about something that garners a lot of attention, have created a monster. We have made ‘knowing things;’  or ‘having the skinny on this or that,’  into some kind of a competition, and in the process we have devalued the people Jesus died for. Those people who are supposedly informing us – prefer making money, or gaining information — to caring about their fellow man. Real lives are affected and sometimes destroyed, by falsely reported things. 

This happens when the story becomes more important than the participants. Things like that help to create hard, and sometimes deceitful hearts. Meanwhile the media is about money and making some people rich. It seems to me, that the press take their little texta pens, and colour-in what really happened, by bringing up the bad shades and diminishing the good ones, so that we will read/watch/listen to their version of what is actually going on. We can easily get sucked into this filthy whirlpool and end up angry with somebody we’ve never met!

I believe this practice is a device of satan, because he loves to capitalise on greed, plus our own perceived desire to know stuff. Gossip etc. has become a new form of addiction. But the truth is, we don’t actually need to know! We can pray for the people involved in terrible things, but we often can’t do anything about whatever is going on. All we can do is to STOP and deliberately let His light in through prayer. Unfortunately our idea of light, and the Lord’s idea of light can be very different things. How do I know that …? Because our light can often be hidden under a basket – that’s how! Hidden light is not useful. Darkness still remains in the corners. We dare not bring our own agendas into our prayers. 

Even some churches have been deceived, they have become more concerned about being politically correct than loving others. Our priority is always LOVE. There are times that we too borrow the press’s textas and do some colouring-in of our own – villainising people! We are here to shine His light into the dark places – not to spread the darkness around. To me, that means I need to be like Him no matter what is going on around me. A light illuminates, it doesn’t have an opinion, it simply shines by its nature. 

So what can we do about these things? Well, I think investing emotionally in something we have no control over, is the enemy’s way of wasting our time. We may even feel better initially, more in control of things, but unless we pray for both sides of whatever is going on, we are missing the point. We don’t get to judge who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. My advice is – don’t believe everything you hear, and remember to unconditionally forgive everyone. Let’s not get so tied to the things of this earth, that we can’t hear when heaven comes calling. Bye. 👋