Live a life of love

P3507 Surprise!! It’s Jesus in YOU!

/ DVH

“There is a divine mystery—a secret surprise that has been concealed from the world for generations, but now it’s being revealed, unfolded and manifested for every holy believer to experience. Living within you is the Christ Who floods you with the expectation of glory! This mystery of Christ, embedded within us, becomes a heavenly treasure chest of hope filled with the riches of glory for His people, and God wants everyone to know it!” Colossians 1:26-27 TPT. Just stop for a moment and think about it.

The way to be closer to Jesus, know more about Him, is to participate in His Ways. Read the book, and do what you already know, using your faith.. Life presents us all with so many opportunities to utilise our faith. Ordinary everyday things happen, you are running late, and you need a carpark – hands up those who ask the Lord to help them park? ✋ I’m disabled, I always need one!

We pray before we go to the shops. We ask Him to help us only buy the things He wants us to have. Many times we buy nothing but we still have fun! Perhaps some driver does something stupid on the road in front of you, do you ask the Lord for help? I am learning to bless that person with better driving skills and an encounter with Jesus, and I thank God that we were all kept safe… including the other driver.

That’s the secret BTW, remember to thank Him. Don’t just treat the Lord like the drive-through at MacDonalds … acknowledge whatever He does. Ask Him for eyes to see Him at work in your life. “In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:6. The more we acknowledge Him the more He becomes part of our lives — and that’s how we end up with more of Jesus in our lives. We simply refuse to leave Him out!  We are living-for-Jesus spiritual beings. We live this life with heaven on our minds. All of us can have as much of Jesus as we want – just don’t leave Him out! Live a life of love, daily. (1 Corinthians 13, clearly tells us what that looks like!)

He promised to be with us always — always means always! Duh! As we live this new life Jesus bought and paid for, we seek the things of His kingdom first. Acknowledge your King in everything you do. Don’t walk away from your new life In Christ by acting like everyone else around you, but we gave up those options. Now we ask the Lord to come with us, and He will go anywhere — He went to HELL, so nothing surprises Him! If you do go to play in the devil’s backyard, and you know exactly what I mean … then the Lord’s voice inside will warn you, but then He will quietly fade away. It is as if He says: “Have at it!” Repent!

We have all been given faith — the book says so. (Romans 12:3) However, I rarely feel like I have faith … I have to use my faith to find it; but that verse from Colossians above is not just a happy thought! You have Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God inside you! Let Him out!! Faith cannot develop in a vacuum, so we must actively participate in the Lord’s work – whether we feel like we can, or not. Just take one step, then take another … and pretty soon it will become a lifestyle, not a place you visit when the ceiling falls in.

Here’s some more good news about having Jesus IN us! “But you are God’s chosen treasure —priests who are kings, a spiritual “nation” set apart as God’s devoted ones. He called you out of darkness to experience His marvellous light, and now He claims you as His very own. He did this so that you would broadcast His glorious wonders throughout the world.” 1 Peter 2:9 TPT.

So if people ask the Lord: ‘who is that old lady?’ The Lord smiles and says: “She’s with Me.” What an honour, to live a life in service to the King! He picked us. Did you realise that we can ruin HIS reputation by the way we act when we think no-one is looking? Meanwhile someone is always looking, it’s inevitable in this world’s obsessive atmosphere. But as we fall in love with Jesus, the Jesus portrayed in the bible, we begin to see that correction, and discipline, are not bad things – they are His love in action in our lives.

Christ lives in us and our job is to let Him out by acting like He would. My advice is to get to know your bible, read it, then do it. All the time. The Lord quotes the bible to me often! Half the time I don’t even remember where the verses are, I have to go away and look them up. That’s all good! Having our noses inside what Jesus says and does, has to be good for us! Surprise! It’s Jesus! And He wants to walk with YOU. “Christ IN us, the hope of glory!” (Colossians 1:27). Bye. 🥳.

👋 C.C.

P 3342 HOW?

/ DVH

Philippians 1:9-11: “So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.”

I have come to understand that Paul’s prayers are not just in the Epistles for the churches he started and pastored – those prayers are for us too. It is good to read these things aloud and say Amen … I personalise the scriptures and pray them for myself. I’ve been praying for years that “the eyes of my heart would be enlightened” so I can see what He wants me to see. PS I also ask for wisdom. I don’t stop praying for that, because I don’t want to put a ceiling on what He wants to give me. And I thump the daylights out of Psalm 91, mainly because I need to remember every single day I’m only a spectator – participation is optional!!

Yesterday what I wrote was pretty intense. When I read things like yesterday’s blog, my first response is always: “That’s terrific, and I am all revved up and ready to go… but how?” … The secret is in the HOW …  BTW today’s blog is not comprehensive, however I have learnt it is good to make some sort of a beginning – and remember to be kind to yourself while you are learning – God is! Stay filled with the Spirit – if you mess up, repent, and refill. If you give out to others refresh yourself in His love for you.

The Apostle Paul tells us what love looks like over and over again in the scriptures. Part of HOW is this: Love looks like something. It looks like patience when you ran out an hour ago and you and the Holy Spirit are wading through the ghastly stuff of life and He’s holding you up!  I think any mother can tell you what patience looks like.

I think it looks like a two year old who wants to get dressed “all by myself” … and then go to church in any old jumper, especially if it is inside out, together with odd socks and shoes – I let the kid wear them BTW!  Kindness looks like your elderly parent who tells the same stories over and over again and you already know them word for word. Kindness understands they are really saying: “I’m still here, I had a life, things happened to me too.”

Love looks like not giving someone else – who often clearly deserves it – a piece of your mind. Instead, you tell that person how much you appreciate them and why! ‘But, but, but – that’s so-oo bad — aren’t you lying?’ OK. Let’s unpack this — are you saying that telling them what you really think about them isn’t bad? BTW, for your info, I’m not talking about lying – I’m talking about asking the Holy Spirit what HE sees in that person to love. The Holy Spirit knows everything and He will share those things with you. This means I’ve received, for free, a whole heap of insight into the person who is bugging the daylights out of me. 

One of the Holy Spirit’s Names is HELPER – why not allow Him to help you! We have a Resident Helper Who knows you, as well as that other person. As I was typing He reminded me about a person who is in my ‘difficult to relate to file.’ I prayed and asked for His help, and I saw them just yesterday – we got along so well. I think it was because I relinquished my own efforts and gave our future conversations to Him.

This is the biggest part of the secret of HOW. I urge you to pray over things, repent of your own bad attitudes – and don’t forget to let Him decide what a bad attitude is! … Then give it all to Him and leave it alone. He’s GOD, He can do anything! Sometimes we think we can see what that the other person needs, and we don’t even ask the Lord what He wants! Bad plan. Take the time to consult the Master Planner first. He knows it all. He’ll tell you what to do, He will give us useful stuff to help us love others .

Plan to live a life of love. That’s my next bit of advice. You have to plan it, and own it, day by day. A life of love cares about others. It is not absorbed in promoting itself, and it doesn’t emphasise ME being understood, instead it concentrates on love. The last suggestion about how to do it – is this: There are things we often say, and we say them because we are down, or someone has hurt us. But, if we are honest, they really don’t need to be said – I would like to suggest that it is better if they are not said.  

I don’t think we need to be paranoid about these things, because then they can become a task that needs to be done, instead of a way of thinking about others. Let’s revise our thinking prayerfully, repent wherever necessary, but be careful not to end up religious about it. Religion prospers, because it becomes a cultivated habit … it’s easier! But it doesn’t bring LIFE. Listening to the Holy Spirit means we’ve given up our agendas and we want to walk in His. So that’s the how, to yesterdays’ theme – “there is a bigger reality.” Bye. 👋