Love

P 2480 Empty cups!

/ DVH

We have all been born, broken. There was sin in this world before we arrived here, and it will still be here … when we die. Someone once said that we come into this world with our little cups that need love, empty. Yet we all need love – some of us need it so badly we steal it!  The sad fact is we often wander around with our little empty cups from person to person, looking for someone that gets us … someone who sees us. Someone who will understand us, especially in our best or worst moments.

We may be fortunate to find a selfless person who gives freely, but for every selfless person there will be many many others who drain the cup of our hope and provision. So we need spiritual help and provision. Jesus never felt the lack of His Father’s Love, until He was in Gethsemane and He went on to die on that cross. That’s where He suffered that awful loneliness for us — if we need understanding we need to remind ourselves that the Lord Jesus understands. He entered into the human condition. We were designed to LIVE in the Presence of God. Go back to Eden, look at Moses, or Abraham … human beings were not designed to live without God and still flourish. Life batters everyone.

Sadly, many of the people around us that we choose to fill that cup, either leave, or they damage us further. Sometimes we even get married, with that huge thirsty need in the back of our emotions. We badly want to be fixed, but …. often so does the other person!!  And they too, see US as their answer. Human beings have a deep need to be loved … and those other people cannot fix you or I, because they have empty cups too. The ability to love others freely without limits, even the vile and the profane, is not found in people… that ability is only found in God Himself. We need His love to fill us and overflow in us and through us, then we will be giving away from abundance. If someone hurts us, most of the time they are not doing it for spite … it may well be that they are also hurting. I know this is trite – hurt people hurt people. But when we actively apply the truth into our lives it will set us free.

I believe the answer to filling this cup to overflowing is found in the 23rd Psalm. He prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. Even at our lowest moments that cup is there to be drunk, using our faith. Don’t search your feelings, simply remember God’s realm operates through faith. Sit with Him, discern your need for love in the middle of the chaos, and ask for Him to overflow in you. When we are tormented by the pain of lovelessness, loneliness and emptiness we also need to ask to be able to discern His cup, which is always available. We must take our eyes off the problem and fix them on Jesus.“He is the Author and Finisher of our faith …” Hebrews 12:2. Faith is always the source of provision. 

Other people cannot fill that void. Only Jesus can. He said: “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].” Human beings were designed to be loved and accepted for who they are and Jesus is the only Person I ever met Who does that!  We simply need to go directly to the source. Jesus did. He got alone with His Father in the midst of a busy schedule. We must stop badgering God for answers, answers are a temporary patch. Tomorrow you will need more! Just go and sit and be with Him. He is LOVE, and all the acceptance we will ever need.

Jesus  also said:“I am the way the truth and the life …” Did you get that? Our new life is in Him now – He is the way into that new life and He always speaks the truth. He is more alive than anyone else that has ever been on this planet! He has that vibrant life in HIMSELF – He paid an enormous price to get it, and He gives us His life for free. Our faith is the key to unlocking the door to love’s provision. Only our Heavenly Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit can love human beings the way they need to be loved. Why? Because the Trinity are not needy. They have Each Other. Love is the language that flourishes between Them and They all love to share.

Just to remind you that He is our help with the empty cup pain that no-one else but He can fill: “… my cup overflows …”(Psalm 23:5) Remember this cup is to be found in the presence of our enemies … We need to take our focus off our feelings of emptiness, or the lack we feel, or even the people tormenting us—and focus on the overflowing cup …“The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup … “Psalm 16:5. We are the people who never have to live this life with an empty cup – we have a Saviour. 🙌

P 2479 Learn to live in love.

/ DVH

“We have come into an intimate experience with God’s love, and we trust in the love He has for us. God is love! Those who are living in love are living in God, and God lives through them.” 1 John 4:16 TPT

“What marvellous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are. …  … But friends, that’s exactly who we are: children of God. And that’s only the beginning. Who knows how we’ll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we’ll see Him—and in seeing Him, become like Him. All of us who look forward to His Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own.” 1 John 3:1-3 MSG.

Living in love means that we decide we will live, helped by His Grace, CHOOSING to love others. It’s the place we walk, talk, sleep and play in. We don’t move away from there. If we do, by accident, or on purpose, we immediately repent, fix whatever it is and GO BACK TO LOVE. We are designed to settle down into living a life of love for God and others and we never ever leave that neighbourhood. This is HOW we carry His Presence!

Living in love is not the same as living in today’s carelessly permissive atmosphere. God’s Love disciplines us, as I talked about yesterday. However, we watch over our attitudes and actions without any fear, because we are living aware of the Presence of the Holy Spirit – Who is the ultimate lover of our souls. We will not be afraid because … “(His) perfect love casts out fear” …

If we are afraid to talk to the Lord about anything, then we have not YET comprehended the magnitude of how much He loves us…. how perfect His love is toward us.The bible tells me that fear has to do with punishment and if I have fear, then I have forgotten that Jesus has already taken my sin to the cross. That is not a place of permissiveness, it is a place of great reverence for what we have all been given. I know that He forgave me, so now I can forgive you!

There are many times I may feel that someone has wrongfully accused me or misunderstood my motivation … only the Lord knows if they are right or wrong … but whenever I am in doubt, I ask for forgiveness. Whether I think I am right or wrong, that does not matter. I am protecting and esteeming my relationship with the Lord – not fighting for my own way or rights. I also ask you for forgiveness because our relationship together, matters to Him. I live this life remembering that I gave up my own rights when I gave my life to Him. Now I need to allow Him to do whatever happens in my life, His way.

You see the thing is we are to stay fixed within His love, not just work hard and hope we are getting this life right! Human beings are obsessed with stuff being right or wrong. The question we need to regularly ask ourselves is this …is this love? And to be honest with you, I don’t trust my own response – so I ask Him!! Living in love doesn’t just mean we love others, it also means we need to live this life we have now, knowing we are eternally LOVED by HIM. We are not spoilt brats, we are children of a loving Father Who gives us love freely so we can give it away.

Think of living in love like this, we need to check ourselves. If we start bad-mouthing or complaining or even repeatedly thinking badly about other people … something is hindering the flow of His love into our lives – out toward others. Ask the Lord what has gotten stuck… and deal with it… by choice. Most of the time we probably won’t want to do this, because this world around us says – whatever makes ME feel good is good.  This is where we have to go around how we feel, back into faith. 

The Holy Spirit isn’t concerned about how we feel – READ THE BOOK! It is what we choose to say and do, that gives Him room to move. The feelings come later. When we do this, despite how we feel, we are saying to Father God: ‘I love you Lord, and I welcome Your love, as well as Your correction in my life.’  That is when we are actively loving Jesus, when we choose to die to what we want, or what makes us happy. We are choosing to act like HE DID. Those steps are the beginning of spiritual transformation. 

Living a life of love is dying to self, every single minute of every single day. It is impossible to live in His kind of love and not die! Meanwhile, one person is not better at this than any other, we all need to actively choose to learn to live a life of love. Day, by day, by day.  👋🏻   🥳 Have love-enriched, God-blessed, 2024.

P 2475 Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

/ DVH

Today I want to talk about the Wise men. They were travelling on camels from the East so they took sometime to arrive. Following a star slows you up a bit … there were those pesky clouds and all. Eventually they arrived at the house Mary, Joseph and Jesus were staying in. Some people call these men, the Magi. “And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary His mother, and they fell down and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.“  Matthew 2:11.  

Each of these unusual gifts apparently had a special meaning, and smarter people than me have written loads, and even books, about them. When I was reading this part of the bible and talking about it with the Lord, He asked me this question. “What would YOU want to give me for a gift?” My immediate response was – ‘me!!’ But you might want to think on this question for yourself. 

I don’t know if this ever happens to you, but there are times when I talk to Him when I feel like what I said was … well, Ok-ay, … but not what He was looking for! This was one of those times… so I pressed on … and I asked Him what did He mean by that question? Pressing, BTW, on is the way to go …trust me!! I exhort you, don’t give up, push on! In those moments you are on the edge of a fresh revelation of Who He is. Unless you suddenly remember you have to go shopping, or get going to work on the same train you always take. I urge you to just give Jesus a few more minutes. I truly believe one of the Lord’s love languages is time spent with Him.

Then He said this: “Those Wise men gave Me gold. Gold represents everything you own, your money etc. Have you given Me everything?”  I sat and thought about that. Gold represents material things. Have I given all the material things I have to Him? Plus I also think that Gold is also about future provision. Cars, houses, money in the bank, clothes etc. Is there anything that I am holding onto, or that I think I want or need? There are times that I’ve told myself:  ‘God doesn’t care about that stuff!’ So I asked Him if there was anything I had overlooked- just to be thorough.

Then, I realised if we lost this or that, I would probably grieve over it but the things around me actually don’t matter much. When you lose your health everything else kind of fades into insignificance! But, I do find it hard to let go of the people I love, because I haven’t learnt to trust Him as utterly as I would like to. Sometimes I don’t understand what He is doing. If my dear hubby or my kids or my friends get sick, or unhappy, I have to fight a rising sense of panic at times. So I spent some time praying over those things too.

Then He asked me: “What about frankincense?” That one took me a while and I did a bit of research. Frankincense is given to Kings because it is valuable. So, to me, this gift is about the Lord Jesus’ Kingship over my life. It has its significance when I believe God IS God, no matter what is going on around me, in my life, or in my heart. Frankincense is about trust. Is He Who He says He is, or are we all at the mercy of circumstances? Are we affected by our decisions, bad or good, especially the ones we’ve made carelessly. Even the ones we haven’t repented about. We had a long conversation about this one – I found big spaces between what I knew and what I believed. BTW, I think belief is something we act upon not just what we talk about.

The last thing the Wise men brought is myrrh. Myrrh is about anointing and priesthood. The Lord asked me if I thought I was faithful to Him as a part of His priesthood. Did I minister to Him out of duty, or was I inspired by love? I spent a while on this one too. Mainly because I did not know the answer! That’s the problem with head knowledge, it sometimes gets in the way of the heart’s true answer! I ended up with Ezekiel’s wisdom. “Only YOU know Lord.”  That’s when I remembered that true worship is presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice – holy and pleasing to Him. 

Lastly I want to say that every one of these three gifts has great value, as well as significance. These things weren’t some cheap baby toys these Wise men picked up at the supermarket on the way to Jesus’ house! Anything and everything we offer to Him is valuable to Him, not because of monetary value, but because of the personal cost. Jesus knows everything about personal cost!

I do not believe revelation is given to us just to tickle our ears and make us feel good about knowing something that nobody else does. Revelation is designed to challenge our own hearts, transform our minds, and lead to different attitudes and actions. Always remembering that ‘first He speaks, then after that, the opportunity to change my response will come along.’ I have given up thinking that what I imagine I will do, is what I will actually do – nobody knows what they will do when they are tested. 😶 

The Lord Jesus is a gentleman, He will not snatch things from us. We must give them, as willingly as we can. So today I want to ask you, what will you give Him? 👋🏻

P 2471 “My God is my protection … and with Him I am safe.”

/ DVH

Some strongholds can occur in our lives as protective mechanisms that we’ve employed and embraced to keep us safe. Here’s a thought … if we are protecting ourselves, then there is no need for the Lord to protect us! The Holy Spirit will quietly leave when we lean on our own devices, because that is not the Way He operates. He loves openness, submission, truth … HE LOVES THE OPENHEARTED WAY OF LOVE…which suffers long, believes all things, hopes all things, does not take offence, confesses its faults freely without prompting and is not afraid etc etc.

I think many of us have accidentally created strongholds to protect ourselves from perceived danger. But Jesus did nothing without consulting His Father first. Imagine what that might look like if we practised that! Christmas often stirs up mindsets we really don’t need but Jesus understands families – He had one. PS He didn’t always agree with them either! He understands the kind of help we need from those who have known us all our lives. Let Him be your protector. But also … ask Him to care for everyone, not just you and yours, but even those who are not easy to get along with.

A lot of people don’t know that they have strongholds … so here’s a couple of scriptures to think about today. The disciples had been out, at Jesus’ command … healing the sick, raising the dead, etc. And they are jubilant, because what the Lord said to do when they got there… worked!! Yaaaaaay! And suddenly they get a bit puffed up. Boy I’ve seen some people fall on their faces over that one. Here’s the bit I’m talking about …

Luke 10:19-20 “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” ← That last bit, right there, is called perspective. A-n-d … here is some more perspective …Luke 9:53-55 “…but the people there did not welcome Him, because He was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them…” In another version the last part expands that to this:“But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT MANNER OF SPIRIT YOU ARE OF! For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them…”

Jesus is saying: “That is not the Holy Spirit, be-ca-use …He’s not like that! I came to save the lost. So if they look LOST, then I’m here for them!!” The disciples clearly exhibit the fact that their judgment was clouded by something other than the leading of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps it was clouded by the stronghold of self-importance and success or maybe even fear? A stronghold may be logical, and look like righteous self-protection, it could even seem like loyalty. Loyalty can be misplaced, and come from a wrong spirit.

Jesus was always showing the disciples His priorities. Making sure that we take notice of things like this, in the bible, is how we start to learn the way Jesus thinks! He is saying:“You are saved, be happy about that … but they are not. Don’t let your self-importance or fear, or even misguided loyalty, cloud your motivation.”  We can easily have the kind of strongholds that say: “If you aren’t on my side, then you have to be a bad guy!” 

Christians can agonise over the fact that we want to hear from God. Well, all through the Gospels Jesus is telling us and demonstrating to us, over and over and over again  … “THIS IS HOW GOD THINKS.” How does the Lord treat the poor, or sinful, or proud, or disgraced, or rude, or mean, or even people who think they are important? It is all in there, in the gospels. Everything we need to know about what He thinks is in there!! He’s never ever motivated by anything other than love.

Because of what He did for us, we don’t have to be too proud to admit our faults. Casually dismissing strongholds in our lives is like tying weights around our ankles. We can’t flow with the Holy Spirit. Instead we need to confess them to Him, repent to others we may have hurt, and ask for His help and deliverance. Then, seize the day! Today is always the best day to get free. He is our deliverer from those things we have employed to protect ourselves from people we are afraid of.

Because Jesus Christ is now our protection, our aim needs to be staying connected with everyone. Not in an obsessive way, we simply do it to obey Him. Let’s tear down, or discard any strongholds that prevent us from running freely, and practice trusting Him with the people around us who don’t understand who He is … yet. 👋🏻

P 2470 “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal …

/ DVH

…but mighty to the pulling down of strongholds.” The best way to get rid of a stronghold, is to first of all … identify it! There are some things that we can quite cheerfully call habits, or traits, or mindsets, that are against God’s greater purpose. The tragedy of that kind of scenario is that then we are often quite reluctant to part with the very thing that is holding us back from going deeper into the Lord’s plan for our lives. 

It is very easy to use the temporal things of this world to explain the stuff in our lives that has not changed, or the things we do not want to change. That’s called having a stronghold. Those things start in the mind and work their way into our everyday attitudes and actions. We dare not normalise these thingsby explaining them away, or by calling them our own personal individual attitudes … the things that make me, me! Judas did that and look at where that got him!

Sadly, strongholds mean that selfish, heartbreaking, soul destroying stuff is allowed to roam free through our lives, because we justify these things and wreak havoc on other people. Our own thought life, and internal reactions are also affected. A temper is a temper, that’s still a temper … even if your great grandfather had one too! It is not a family trait to be proud of or laughed off! Or what about having to be in control all the time? Control uses manipulation to maintain it. It avoids the personal discomfort of making different choices. At the same time as we are toddling along resisting transformation, other people are judged and crushed by our sinful decisions to remain the same.  

Because of the stronghold, we think to ourselves, there is nothing wrong with me … it’s YOU! You are, and you have the problem. If you didn’t bother me and resist my way, we’d be fine. We can hide behind our severe, sometimes judgmental thoughts, because we can’t face the truth – WE have sinned. Thinking like that is a big fat clue that we are resisting the Holy Spirit’s work in our heart and lives. If we have to exert our will to make it happen – that is the wrong spirit. Over a lifetime, we’ve learnt to dismiss and excuse destructive things, as momentary aberrations, and we’ve distanced ourselves from the very real consequences in other people’s lives.

However, our whole purpose is to be changed to be like HIM … not carry with us the details of death that have strangled and destroyed us, plus other people along the way. None of that is LOVE — and LOVE MUST ALWAYS BE OUR AIM. That Love is described in 1 Corinthians 13 and Colossians 3:13-15. Now, here is the same verse as the one above, but this time it is from the Passion Translation. I really like it, it inspired me today. 

“For although we live in the natural realm, we don’t wage a military campaign employing human weapons, using manipulation to achieve our aims. Instead, our spiritual weapons are energised with divine power to effectively dismantle the defences behind which people hide.We CAN demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One. Since we are armed with such dynamic weaponry, we stand ready to punish any trace of rebellion, as soon as (we) choose complete obedience.” 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 TPT.

We cannot and we dare not, avoid obedience. Obedience is essential. Otherwise we will spend our lives protecting me, myself and I, and forget about poor old Fred who is half dead in the corner! If Jesus Christ chose to obey and He never sinned in thought, attitude or deed, don’t you think we need to follow His example? Telling ourselves we are OK and we don’t need to change anything, is putting another nail into the coffin, they will eventually carry us off in! Metamorphosis is part of our mandate from Almighty God. 

At the same time, if we are this careless, we are denying the power of Christ to make our old life, new. There is not one of us alive that does not need heavenly correction or change. I can’t talk for everywhere in the world, but where I live obeying the gospel means nodding your head and hoping someone else will do it for you! That’s not transformation – that’s avoidance. We avoid the opportunities God sends us to make different choices. Dying to self hurts. It is meant to, but it provides the impetus to drive us further into His ways.

We pull down personal strongholds by our choices. That means we continually choose to seek out the Holy Spirit’s correction and believe that He is bigger than our ability to resist Him.” …our spiritual weapons are energised with divine power to effectively dismantle the defences behind which people hide.” And the best place to accomplish that, is to read the book and do what it says! Read Peter, Paul, Jude, James, Philemon etc … and take what they said seriously. Don’t read it and think “I don’t do that” ask the Lord …”Where do I do that? Please show me Lord.” Then we make it our personal aim to check out our behaviour and motivation toward others as we go along.

We live this new life that we have been given, alert, asking the Holy Spirit to highlight to us where we are living out of order with His words. And we value knowing Him over our own comfort. Lastly, let’s get ready to change … because you and I are going to get VERY busy. We are about to demolish some strongholds. Bye 👋🏻

P 2468 Let all your conversations be sweet.

/ DVH

“Let every activity of your lives and every word that comes from your lips be drenched with the beauty of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. And bring your constant praise to God the Father because of what Christ has done for you!” Colossians 3:17 TPT

Did you get that? Maybe you could do what I do, and read what it says again… And then take the time to think about every single word coming out of your mouth being sweetly drenched with the beauty of our Lord Jesus Christ! Before you hyperventilate over that sentence I have one thing to say … it seems to me most of us are aiming at nothing and that means we are sadly hitting nothing square in the middle. Verses like this one in Colossians are there to give us something worthwhile to aim at! For too long we’ve insulted the Holy Spirit and made out like He wasn’t doing His part … but the reality is … WE LIKE OUR OWN FLESH BETTER. 

Remember, this isn’t about getting things right, it’s about what we are aiming at. When is the last time you remembered that you carry the Presence of God? (We are His living breathing temple.) We don’t even have to be eloquent when the King is in residence because He knows exactly what to say to them! What matters to the Holy Spirit is whatever comes out of our mouths daily – are we building up and encouraging everyone around us? And BTW it doesn’t matter if someone else is rude to us, our response is our response – aim for sweet! It’s time to revise and repent and prioritise what He wants. 

We can all talk the talk, but can we live the life the way the bible portrays it?? 😶 There are days when I fall down so many times my old bones complain at me, but I press on for the prize. Looking and sounding like Jesus would everywhere I go – is the prize! Just because I don’t always hit that, that will not stop me pressing on. I dearly want to see the Sons and Daughters of God act like the Sons and Daughters of God – so I must start with myself.

The marvellous thing about being transformed by Him is that we will be wonderfully surprised by what the Holy Spirit will do in us, and through us— when we obey His Word, under His guidance. I stand around a lot of the time with my mouth hanging open because I can’t believe what He just told me to say … plus what happened to the person I said it to!  Every single time. People weep all over the place. And nobody is more surprised about that than me! I believe that this is because ordinary people have no idea how much God loves us all – they think He only loves the people who go to church!! The reason He told us to tell them is because they don’t know! Duh.

I dunno why we decided to keep this joyous info a secret? Or why we save it for the select few that manage to pluck up their courage and join us in our churches, but somewhere, back there, we did. Those buildings we worship in are not the church. WE are the church. Maybe we’ve reduced His good news to a slogan that simply says: “God loves you.” I’m not trying to be nasty but my local supermarket loves me when I shop there … they love my money very much!! They smile at me and say hello and everything. 😳 The people outside our churches need to know why He loves them.  

Maybe Christianity has become a secret club when we weren’t looking, and we now think that people have to want to join us. Based on the way we generally treat the rest of the world … like we are somehow more special than they are – it’s no wonder they opt out!! They don’t know the language, they don’t know what to do … but here’s something that anyone recognises… LOVE!!

You know, every Christmas we trot out a dilapidated manger with a baby in it … Hmmm when someone wants your picture do you give them a baby photo? Christmas is about a glorious risen Saviour Who died for their sakes. The real PRESENT at Christmas was God came to earth wrapped up in human flesh, not Christmas wrapping. Forget tinsel, jewellery or new cars or vacuum cleaners – Almighty God humbled Himself to be with us! That’s how much He loves us – He gave us Himself.

Ask yourself, where will the people around us learn this information, if we don’t tell them? We don’t have to bore them with three hours of theology, just tell them how much He loves them. Tell them how you found out that what the bible says about Who Jesus Christ is, is true. The power of our own personal witness has yet to be harnessed. Then show them His love in action, by forgiving them and saying so, without dredging up their sins. Ask them to forgive you, without hesitation. 

Christmas is the time when God Himself gave mankind a new beginning. It seems fitting to me that that is the kind of gift we need to give away to others around us. Regularly drenching ourselves in thoughts about how incredible He is to do what He did, helps us with the way we talk. This means we talk about living with a loving risen Saviour, day by day, and how He enriches our lives with His Presence. Let His love loose, they need it. 👋🏻

P 2467 A walking, talking, breathing TEMPLE.

/ DVH

“This means that God is transforming each one of you into the Holy of Holies, His dwelling place, through the power of the Holy Spirit living in you!”Ephesians 2:22 TPT. That’s you… and I.. whether we feel like it or not, we are becoming His temple! Christianity has nothing to do with feelings, and absolutely everything to do with FAITH. So, where is your temple off to, today? Mine is sitting here praying for you, at the same time I am writing this blog. Today, whether you are rich or poor, safe or in danger – I know that the Lord will take care of you, His precious temple – “May He keep you sheltered and safe in His arms.” Amen. 

Here is something the Holy Spirit pointed out to me about the building of the first temple in the wilderness. Exodus chapters 25-38. The amount of detail the Lord God Almighty put into this temple is staggering. “God chose Bezalel of Judah to be the chief artisan. He was filled with the Spirit of God, a designer, engraver,  and carver of metals, stone and wood, with ability and intelligence,  knowledge and craftsmanship, skilful in embroidering and weaving, inspired to teach.” Well that’s a pretty cool resume!! This man, Bezalel, represents what the Spirit of the living God did inside your mum and mine when He made us. Look at this …

“For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful I know that full well.” Psalm 139:13-14  and Job 31:15: “Did not He who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?” Plus Ephesians 2:10: “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus…” Lastly: Genesis 1:27: “…wherein “God created man in His own image. . .” 

I don’t care where this world says you came from – we know you came from Him! You are a gift, a present, to this world and the people around you. A present that is hopefully stuffed to the top full of HIS love and acceptance, joy and hope! Before you freak out and remember your flat feet, or bad temper, or other odd family genetic traits … remember this … you aren’t done yet.  It says: ‘God IS transforming each one of us into His temple.’ Please note we have a part to play in cleansing ourselves, as we co-operate with the Holy Spirit’s loving help!

For those of us that use English as our primary language that’s called a present ongoing tense … in other words, you and I are in a process. A process is not the finished article. It is simply the means to get to the finished article. So let yourself off the hook, like I said, you are not done yet! However, at the same time we can’t let ourselves off the hook to the extent that we can just do whatever we like and live however we like! We need to continually remember our purpose is to be His temple – His walking, talking, breathing temple – a place where people can encounter the Living God! And that started the minute we were born again. 

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him Who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2:9. As God’s special possession, we have responsibilities. That is what this blog is all about, those responsibilities and the way you and I discern them and work on them with His help.

Many times in the past the church has tried to diminish the individuality of people who are part of His body and it seems that we are all supposed to think the same and believe the same theology. I think that is a mistake. I only have to put the two oppositional halves of my face together to see that even the left side of my face is not the same as the right side of it – very very few people have perfectly symmetrical faces! We are all incredibly unique. People in the same family, coming from the same parents are entirely different from each other, in personality and looks. Each human being, I firmly believe, brings a unique aspect of God’s glorious character and Presence as they are transformed into Christ’s likeness. 

Remember it’s His power working in us … not our effort … that power is activated by obedience to His word. And this transformation will benefit everyone else around us. As we renew our minds to think like He does, we facilitate what the Lord Himself is doing. Our obedience to what He says in the bible, and to us personally, ushers in a particular aspect of His kingdom visibly. We’ve been re-designed to be His temple or containers, of the Holy Spirit. He is so precious, He does not despise our weaknesses, or growing points. Instead, in love, He transforms each of us with a light loving caring touch.

And we don’t have to look like each other either – instead He wants us to look like Jesus and obey like Christ would if He were still visibly here! The Holy Spirit is transforming us into Father God’s walking, talking, breathing temple. He wants us to undergo this transformation so we can express a unique part of Father God’s Ways and His nature to others. 👋🏻

P 2466 Get soaked, and stay soaking wet!

/ DVH

“Now may God, the fountain of hope, fill you to overflowing with uncontainable joy and perfect peace as you trust in Him. And may the power of the Holy Spirit continually surround your life with His super-abundance until you RADIATE with hope!” Romans 15:13. Do you know how you get drenched by a fountain? You stand under it. Not just stand beside it playing with the water — you jump on in and enjoy it!

When things are difficult, no matter how awful they seem to be, we need to continue to choose to trust, and look for God’s unfailing goodness and love, even as we read the bible. More than anything else, we all need to know how much we are loved. Plus we can always ask the Holy Spirit for His help and encouragement. He is incredibly generous. He loves to be with people who want to be with Him. The Holy Spirit is God’s fountain of love here on earth. He needs to be cherished, appreciated and sought after.

This life is never going to make seeking God a convenient thing to do. Unexpected bad things happen all the time and they are a huge distraction. The main thing needs to be the main thing in our lives. Jesus loves mankind so deeply – that is the main thing! He is not just an add-on so we can have eternity afterwards! This life now is not about making money, or finding a mate, or earning a living, or having a job or house. As we follow the Lord the things we need will be added unto us. This life is about learning to love others, and spreading the acceptance and love we have been given, around. We have the love of Christ shed abroad in our hearts.

Humanity is slowly but surely stepping away from engaging in caring human interaction – we’ve reduced most things to sex. We’ve even got fancy, or sad-sounding names for the way we behave. It seems our enemy has taken our focus off enjoying the Lord, and walking with Him, and onto excuses about why we are not perfect. There are doctors with more degrees than a thermometer telling us we are OK when we behave badly, because sadly we can’t help the way we think or react to things … because we have this or that complaint. Or our past or parents did stuff to us that messed us up… Instead let’s call sin, sin – and forgive it and repent, then personally leave it behind us. Jesus died to make us perfect, we don’t need psychological  excuses for being broken! Sin will break anyone.

Did you ever once hear Jesus say to others that this or that person needed inner healing? Did He tell the Romans or the religious leaders that they were narcissists? Did He ever talk about sadness as being normal? No! He provided what people around Him needed when He demonstrated the love of God through what He said and did. That’s our mandate too. He knew His purpose and He did what He came here for. You and I are here for a purpose, to spread His love around to His needy hungry children around us, who don’t know how much He loves them.

We must learn to trust in God’s never-ending, always-present glorious and deeply engaged LOVE. He loves us and that love is a never-ending fountain. He hasn’t gone away just because some bad thing or other has happened in our lives …His love is powerful, and Jesus Christ Himself, is proof of how much God loves us. We all have a calling – even if we are rich, or poor, or fat, or thin, or clever, or not clever, or talented or not talented … our calling is to be His love to other people. Step up into the higher calling. Jesus is there. His love in us and for us is that fountain.

All of the Lord’s disciples had horrible lives in the natural. They suffered persecution for righteousness sake. Dreadful things happened to them. But their strength did not come from their circumstances. They held their hope in Who He is and what He did – fast. “Our help is in the name of the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 124:8. These brave souls lived this life as dead men and women walking. They didn’t have any agenda except to see His kingdom come. Almighty God was not just an alternate source of help … He was their ONLY source of help. That’s what faith is … faith does not have one foot in this world and its resources;  faith stands firmly, joyfully under the fountain of His love knowing that He is for us no matter what is going on around us. 

Christians have become apathetic and indifferent to the very things that are meant to sustain us. We think we don’t have this stuff because we don’tfeel it. But His love will sustain us. At the same time we are minimising the amount of heavenly water supply we have available. We do that to ourselves by withdrawing from Him… He will never withdraw from us. Jesus said, ‘love God FIRST, with all your hearts and souls, minds and strength.’ That’s how we stand under His fountain. Living this way is not just for a few people  who have special spiritual abilities. It’s for all of us, right here right now. Splash others who don’t know Him, with that living water from the fountain of life. 💦 👋🏻 

P 2465 Stick-to-it-ivity.

/ DVH

““Staying with it—that’s what God requires. Stay with it to the end. You won’t be sorry, and you’ll be saved. All during this time, the good news—the Message of the kingdom—will be preached all over the world, a witness staked out in every country. And then the end will come.” Matthew 24:14 MSG.

The biggest problem we will ever face, as Christians in my opinion, isn’t just the temptation to disobey, it is the temptation to give up entirely and live mediocre lives. Comfort and ease are our enemies. So is thinking we have arrived and this is as good as we will get!  Ask your family, they can tell you if you have arrived or not … they live with you. Here are two more verses to chew on … and yes, they give me indigestion too! James 1:2-3. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”

2 Peter 1:5-8 “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;  and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”It is not enough to have these things, they must be growing!

Did you catch the point that our own inner attitudes are essential to help us overcome? The more we choose to obey the Holy Spirit, the more we will have these qualities added unto us! That, BTW, doesn’t mean that we can’t short-circuit the process, by being disobedient and self-indulgent. It simply means that one thing builds upon another. The thing beneath it, holds the next one up! Faith holds goodness up! Goodness holds Godly knowledge up… etc! PS w are not just meant to sort-of kind-of have these qualities – they are meant to increase as we go along.

We cannot afford to pretend this stuff doesn’t matter … that attitude will whittle away at our faith. The bible says when bad stuff happens:  count yourself/consider yourself… blessed, because this stuff is a sign that you are doing something right!  Everything changes when we stop regarding the bible as sweet sayings that are there to comfort and bless us – and instead we ingest them and regard them like they are medicine or vitamin pills. So we take them as prescribed. If we watch over our own words, they will give us a clue about what is going on inside. BTW, this isn’t censorship, it is self-awareness.

I’m not saying you have to be false about how you feel when hard things happen, these scriptures simply mean this is the way we are to look at those things. It definitely doesn’t mean paste a fake smile on your face and pretend stuff doesn’t hurt you! We are to regard these sorts of difficulties as a witness that what we are doing is right. Plus sometimes nasty scenarios tell us that the other person involved is being convicted by the way we are behaving and living. Conviction is good! It can lead to repentance, reparation and new beginnings.

The bonus buy of living the way the bible prescribes, is that we start up God’s production line on the inside of our spirits. We begin to grow Kingdom qualities. These qualities come from heaven and they hold incredible power to bring about change. Sadly, it is so much easier not to do any of this stuff at all, and short-circuit the process… OR … you can get sick of doing it and lose the prize.  That’s where stick-to-it-ivity comes in! The prize is having our automatic inside attitudes, changed. It is incredible to find that you are keeping your mouth shut when you know that’s impossible, especially if you are being provoked! It’s real, and you have no desire to chop the other person up into little pieces!  

Now bear with me, one more scripture – of course it is about difficulties producing some God-designed quality when we allow them to work on our characters! …”We also have joy with our troubles, because we know that these troubles produce patience.  And patience produces character, and character produces hope. And this hope will never disappoint us, because God has poured out his love to fill our hearts.”  Romans 5:3-5a. Even more of the construction process!

Joy is not just a smiley face, or a really really happy attitude, joy is a God-quality. It comes from the inside out. It does not wear out, because it is in there to grow. We need to trust the Holy Spirit to produce what He said He will as we obey Him and follow His instructions. We can always ask for His help but we cannot simply pray God-qualities into our lives and then do nothing. The bible is a faith book, and obeying it, using our faith, activates growth. Plus we will need stick-to-it-ivity. Hold fast to what you are aiming at with His help, “we will win if we don’t faint.” Bye 👋🏻

P 2459 Run after something worth running after …

/ DVH

“Until then, there are three things that remain: faith, hope, and love—yet love surpasses them all. So above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run.” 1 Corinthians 13:13 TPT.

Paul suggests in the scripture above that if you want to run after something then run toward something worthwhile — like love. In other versions of the bible, this verse says …PURSUE love. I like that. Chase after love because it is worth chasing after. We will always need to chase after love however, because with some people, it seems like it is always too far away, plus we are not perfect yet! That’s great BTW, that means we are ‘poor in spirit’ and the poor in spirit inherit the kingdom – at those times we need the kingdom!  Sadly some human relationships are often full of surprises, nasty ones. We are going to need the Holy Spirit to be our full-time coach.

Before we start, here’s a great thought to help us focus and praise God – GOD’S LOVE IS ALWAYS RUNNING TOWARD US! Back to the verse, it says if we are going to run, we need to run after knowing, and living in HIS kind of love. Forget human affection – that disappears quickly in conflict. How do you aim at His love? First of all, remember Love is a VERB not a noun. It is not just an attitude, it is an action. It is see-able! It does something good.

Now let’s look at a metaphoric illustration. You are running alongside somebody you know, and everything is going well, … Then they — we both know it’s always them, it’s never me — say or do some dumb thing, and you’ve lost your stride.  And bit by bit, the rhythm we had together is suddenly broken. Now they are nowhere near me at all and we don’t agree about anything. I’ve lost my peace, patience, and eventually my temper… usually in that order!

What happened? Perhaps I stumbled over something they said or did, or maybe they didn’t say something I needed to hear. Or vice versa. Whatever! The rhythm we had together is now lost. However, the point of pursuing love is not about running …it is the fact that you were running together. There is POWER in ‘together!’ Sadly we can end up brokenhearted when we no longer have the same aim as the other person. However, I am not powerless.  I can always aim at love – with, or without them. The result is the same. I don’t need them to love me back, or even treat me kindly, because God’s love follows the Holy Spirit and His kind of love runs on GRACE not performance. 

Further, the bible says: ‘Love bears all things’, so, in those hard moments when we cannot bear what is going on — we will actually need His love helping us to do more than resolve conflict. People are always impacted by God’s Love. Human love is tainted by need, but God’s love is highlighted by the fact it is unconditional.

What to do? Apologise! Yeah, I know, I didn’t do anything. But apologising clears the air, and repentance lets in grace. And grace makes room for the other person to come to terms with their part in what happened. You see the point is not to instantly arrive at agreement, the real point is going straight back into running toward LOVING LIKE HE DOES. Whether the other person comes or not!

When we are pursuing this kind of love we cannot enter into a brawl about who was right and who was wrong, be-cau-se … we cannot get to love, by that route! That route will end up in a bigger argument. The way to pursue and arrive at running after love is to give up your idea of how things are meant to happen, and start running after the Holy Spirit. We need His help. We do this despite how unkind the other person has been toward us. 

BTW, loving someone with God’s love does not mean we utterly approve of everything they are doing. LOVE AND APPROVAL are two different things. God’s kind of love is supernatural. We always need His love flowing through us, and we access it by obeying what the Holy Spirit prompts us to say and do. Now we stay under the instruction of the Holy Spirit – we don’t give in to our own temper or hurt feelings.

At the same time, we are going to need our faith and hope to kick in to help us to keep on running. I ask the Holy Spirit for ALL those things, plus loads of Grace – because Grace saved the world!  Meanwhile, God’s love is accurately described in the bible and HIS Love always looks like this …”Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. So the reverse of these things is a good indicator that we are not walking in love … if we are impatient, unkind, envious, boastful, or proud etc.

Obviously aiming at love means we are going to die to self. But that is fantastic be-cau-se …”greater love hath no man than that he lay down his life for his friends.” If 1 Corinthians 13 is to be part of our daily lives then we must pursue love and obey the Holy Spirit. He will take care of our attitudes and actions. Plus we are also acknowledging our own poverty of spirit. Chasing after His Love means we are running after something worth pursuing. Bye. 🥰