Love

P 2229 ‘Help help’ is a great prayer!

/ DVH

I read this today in Psalm 91:1”Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” Today I just want to mention God’s provision of rest for His kids is the only way human beings can manage this life and all its pressures. The Lord is wonderful, when we live this life for Him – He blesses everything.

We are not alone. We need to learn to progressively and intentionally “rest in the shadow of the Almighty…whose power no-one can withstand!” Our enemy has no power over us in that place of peace-rest. The Lord Jesus Himself said the same thing in Matthew 11: “Then Jesus said, “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you. Let Me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”  Jesus Christ understands humanity – He understands how hard this life is. We can LEARN THIS, He will teach us.

The best place of shelter, EVER, is IN God Himself. We hide in what Christ already did for our sake. We can try to hide away from trouble by staying busy, or actively choosing to forget stuff, but hiding in God is the only place we will find the kind of real safety, and solutions that last. Everything else is temporary. So, how do we do that? Learn to run to Jesus immediately when things go upside down – and tell Him He is your refuge. 

I do that out loud! Even before I lift the phone to get others to pray – I start running toward Him inside – yelling help help all the way. I understand that we’ve all developed independent … not-so-great habits … of relying upon ourselves – but I have found personally, that when I try to figure things out … the line of admitting defeat moves away from me, and so does inner peace and sleep. And my brain starts to feel like messy mush. 😂 I get exhausted. That’s why I’ve learnt it’s easier to give up and ask for help immediately. When I see God acting on my behalf, that miraculously reminds me that GOD LOVES HIS KIDS. Real peace and safety in this life is an illusion. Our Father wants to help us. 

The older hubby and I get, the less enchanted we are with our own brain power and memory bank.  We seem to have developed a super-power of forgetting most things ten seconds later! This Psalmist knew how to stay safe until disaster had passed by Him. Because of what Christ did, WE can live in that place permanently. Jesus gave us that when He died for us, that’s why He mentioned it. Praise God we all live on the other side of the cross!  We have a safe place to run where we will always be welcome, and that is God’s ever-active MERCY toward us.

We all get beaten down by this life and some of the people in it. That’s the time to pick up those burdens and give it ALL to Jesus. Then we do whatever He says, in the book – and then…we  leave everything with Him. Tell yourself ‘God is looking after that!’  If we accidentally revert to worrying and problem solving, then repent, and give it back to Him again. Learn to live relying upon the finished work of Christ’s death on the cross. The more you live like this, the more it becomes the way you think. The technical term is called renewing your mind. Even if you accidentally go back into worry etc.- then give it back to Him, just one more time. Human beings are much too frail to walk around with heavy burdens on their backs.

Listen to this: “Yet it was our weaknesses He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed Him down.” Isaiah said that 700 years before Christ was born. One day he was praying and he ended up in the throne room and God’s incredible holiness gave this prophet a revelation about who he really was. Isaiah saw his sin. Thank God, he also prophetically saw Jesus coming into this world 700 years later! Isaiah saw God’s provision for his sins and everything else, long before Jesus was ever born. Seeing that changed that man’s POV forever.

This is what Jesus Christ came to earth to do for humanity, to show us another way to live. The bible gives us so many witnesses. Today I have put one from a Psalmist, plus Isaiah, plus Jesus Christ Himself. They all tell us we can come to God, and offload our burdens, troubles and sorrows, because SomeOne has spiritually taken them for us – JESUS Christ took all those things to the cross, 2000+ years ago. Those weighty things in our lives are as gone as our sins!  Let’s ask for His help to continually lay our burdens down, and live in His rest, instead of this world’s turmoil. 👋🏻 

P 2225 Insight.

/ DVH

“Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” 2 Timothy 2:7. “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.” John 16:12-15.

“but just as it is written,“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.” For to US God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.” 1 Corinthians 2: 9-13.

Let’s start with the meaning of the word … insight ..“the capacity to gain an accurate and deep understanding of SomeOne, or something.” There are many scriptures on the subject of INSIGHT – feel free to look them up when you can, but every single one of them belongs to us, the believers. Almighty God wants to reveal Himself to us. The first thing I want to say about insight is this – the Holy Spirit is our guide and source – and in case you haven’t read Acts Chapter 2 – plus the rest of the New Testament … HE’S NOW HERE. HE NEVER LEFT. He’s with YOU.

Other people’s books and articles can help us with insight, but there is absolutely NOTHING like going to the source. And.WE.ALL.can. ← There’s that full stop again. It means thinkaboudit. I write this blog every day using that gift from God and it is a gift that belongs to every single Christian. ANYONE can do this. The Holy Spirit will always give His insight to anyone who wants it, He loves to give us little glimpses into the Ways of God and reveal the Father to us.  

I’m like every other writer – sometimes I stare at a blank page when writing this blog and my brain is going …ho-hum … nothing, nothing, blank, oh it’s sunny today! ☀️ More nothing. Now I’m hearing waves, and there ain’t nothin’ happening around here! 😶 If the Holy Spirit doesn’t speak to me I have nothing to say on this blog. I cannot write without Him. Writing this blog every day is a supernatural thing, and what He gives me here, is available to you too! I do not have the corner on INSIGHT.

You simply need to ask Him to help you, and then be prepared to INSIST.  Spiritual insight is one of the greatest ways to step into the arena of the supernatural I know.  You activate it by using your faith. It’s a great faith builder for other gifts! So don’t just read the words in the book, ask Him questions and wait for answers! Treat the bible like a puzzle you’ve never done before – no matter how many times you’ve read it HE can make it brand new. He’s there to help you put all the pieces in the right places for you, and your life.

The secret to this blog is not me. It’s the Holy Spirit. He ALWAYS wants to speak to YOU guys!! 🤗 The Holy Spirit is never silent. If we think He is silent, that means we’ve somehow tuned out. We tune out by ignoring Him, or treating other people, badly. REPENT, fix it – I don’t care who did or said what – fix it. Now you need to believe that He has restored you, no matter how you feel, and go back to reading the book! And don’t skip the little words either – but, and, the, if, to, for, let, if, then – are little words. Unlike every other book in this world, in God’s book the little words count.

Every single day He speaks to me – sometimes it is just one word. But one word from God has power in it. I’m sitting there praying, staring at the walls, then He whispers into my heart – ‘read blah blah blah in the bible.’ I’m like, yeah, yeah sure! So I go to biblegateway.com … type in the name of the book and read it. I sit there after I’ve read it … and some of the time … I’ve got bupkis. Nothing. Just more wa-a-aves of silence. Don’t stop there.

At this point He often says to me: “You missed it, read it again.” So I read it again until He stops me, OR something catches my attention. Sometimes it is just one word. It’s like pulling on a string, the more I throw that word about prayerfully the more insight I get. The secret is to keep after what you are asking for, He loves faith … so INSIST. Tell Him: “I just have to hear from You Holy Spirit, what do You have for me today, please?” Then, take the time to WAIT. Time spent waiting with Him is one of His love languages. 

The Holy Spirit doesn’t have a clock, so He is never in a hurry, but … He is never late either… He will take care of the time for you. Our job is to treasure what we hear. Don’t argue with Him. If He reminds me that I was snippy with my husband, then I get up and go to my hubby and ask for his forgiveness. Always let the Holy Spirit correct you – He is never mean about it. I value what He says, so I write things down! Sometimes, people have an agenda, or a timetable .. so it helps to deliberately put those things down too … BE-CAU-SE …

… The King of all Kings has stepped away from His throne and He is sitting in your car, lounge, office – wherever you are. WOW! He came for you. He wants to talk to YOU. You have all His attention. Nobody else can take this time away from you. He lo-o-ves to share His secrets with people who take the time to want to hear from Him. Godly insight is available daily, for every single Christian. It’s part of our inheritance. 👋🏻

P 2224 Growing fruit.

/ DVH

Today, I want to use the fruit of patience purely as an illustration for growing the Lord’s kind of fruit. People say all the time, ‘have patience’ – like it is something that we can conjure up all by ourselves. I just want to say – if we already have it, then the Lord wouldn’t need to give it to us. Duh! 🙄 It is so obvious that our human patience and His spiritual patience, are two different things! His fruit and our ‘try harder’ are not the same! Godly patience endures all things and it grows inside our hearts like everything else He gives us – by investing in it. It involves my desire to co-operate with Him as well as being prepared to change and challenge my own mindset, at inopportune times.

In my opinion we only know we need His fruit, when we can see with our own eyes that we don’t have it!  Spiritual poverty is a great diagnostic tool of the stuff we lack. Don’t let pride, lukewarmness, or even feelings of inadequacy, fool you into missing out on the blessing of being transformed. Transformation starts in our minds, first. We need to change the way we think. Spiritual patience is one of those things that flow out from His Love in us. But the human version of patience consists of stretching ourselves beyond where we think we can go – and then announcing to the world that: “I ran out of patience, I don’t have any left.” That usually happens when we think someone else has gone too far! The fruit of the Spirit cannot run out. It is eternal. 🧐

If we already think we are quite spiritual enough, then that can cause all kinds of other problems … mainly for everyone else who happens to live around us! Under-developed unripe spiritual fruit tastes terrible – just like normal under-developed etc. etc. fruit does! 😖 I’ve found the best way to handle my own inadequacies in a whole lot of spiritual areas – is to treat this life as an ongoing learning experience. I have settled in my heart that I have not, and will not arrive, all done, all perfect, until I see Him face to face. I have chosen patience as my illustration today, because we can easily see we haven’t got it.

At the same time the best thing is to refuse to make excuses for our own bad or unwise behaviour. We are aiming at fruit, not just flowers, and that involves engaging with the process. Jesus death and resurrection has already empowered Christians to live a totally changed life – right here, right now. Recognising our humanity without excusing it, immediately releases us from the pressure to try to BE what the book says we already ARE. We rely on the power of HIS WORD. We live our lives co-operating with the Holy Spirit – today – this minute! And we are learning to live by His Grace alone. Let’s all leave ‘trying harder’ behind! Speaking for myself, I was awful at it – I don’t have the stamina for it.

God breathes His fruit into our own tree of His life in us, as we co-operate with Him. Co-operation with the Holy Spirit is like following a guide through a maze – you never know what is going to come around the corner, but our daily experiences with Him remind us that He knows where it is safe to put our feet etc. Impatient people … OR people who rely upon human patience … and then call it spirituality … get cranky at you. They often get cranky at you quite quickly. Now there’s a diagnostic tool! The result is, you feel like a dunce, a failure. Anybody who robs you of the fact that you are accepted by the Lord Jesus, is stealing your birthright, whether it is accidental, or not. Forgive them, pray for them, and then go back to leaning on Him.

When we feel inadequate – and I often do – my first port-of-call is to go to the Lord and ask where I have given my enemy, satan .. ground in my life. There is some place I am believing a lie, either because I was lied to, or I chose the lie over what God says in the book! Repentance is the answer to that one! I am allowed to learn. But, sadly, continually postponing change is a sign of rebellion. It simply means I have given rebellion a much nicer name to help ME to feel better… I called it hurt feelings, or other people’s provocation. 

Nobody can keep us from the love of God, but sometimes we need a larger revelation of His love than the one we currently have. Ask for it! The fruit of the Spirit grows from His flowing sap of love in my life – whether it is patience, kindness or long- suffering etc. I exhort you to actively ask for a greater revelation of His love, because we all need it. And He promises, in the book, to supply OUR needs. 👋🏻

P 2223 Speaking in Tongues.

/ DVH

I would like to say first of all, speaking in tongues is definitely a God-given gift – we should ask for it. It is a faith gift. Anything that requires us to use our faith is good. However, speaking in tongues is not proof you are a Christian! (Yes, I have heard that said – sigh.) As an aside, I want to say that it is not good to let our own personal experiences dictate to us or others. We live by His Word and His Word is in His book!  Jesus said in Mark 16:17: “And these signs will accompany those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues.” 

Because our new life is to elevate Jesus …  it is not only about fruit, or gifts or anything else! We have those things to elevate Him too! Gifts are given – by the Lord – fruit grows as we let Him change us. His gifts are given to us as the Holy Spirit desires, and they are not badges of honour to anybody – but HIM!  Speaking in tongues is a blessing from God, it helps us communicate with Him without our minds meddling with what we are praying. EG: We could easily pray “please God change that person” – when we actually need to pray: “please God change ME!” Speaking in tongues gets my own agendas out of the way. When we speak in tongues we are speaking to Him, spirit to Spirit.

Unknown tongues are a brilliant vehicle that helps us to pour our love upon the Lord’s feet. When we’ve run out of our inspiration in our own language – the Holy Spirit provides another one we don’t know! In 1 Corinthians 14 it says: “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, … For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit.” Because of this ‘mystery,’ tongues have become a bone of contention in Christianity. That is a shame, because they are a wonderful way to pray with no other agenda, but HIS. Plus tongues build up our own faith at the same time.

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Moving on to Acts 2:4-6 “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because EACH ONE heard their own language being spoken.“

In this incident, the Holy Spirit incredibly arranged for every person who was there that day to hear His message in their own language.

HOWEVER! The message given and received was what was important, not the medium He used! Otherwise we’d all be sitting about waiting for tongues of fire to land on us and a huge windstorm to blow our church roofs off!  Tongues are a sign – not the end product, the end product is knowing Him without our brain arguing with us. Plus speaking in tongues helps to activate our faith.  Almighty God came upon people that day in a way they could see and hear. What happened, was a result of His Presence. 

Jude talks about speaking in tongues as building ourselves up in our faith in chapter 1:20 ”But you, beloved, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit …”  (Romans 8:26&27 explains this.) Speaking in tongues helps facilitate the Holy Spirit’s wisdom, insight and thoughts into our lives, purely because tongues require us to use our faith. If we want to walk with the Holy Spirit it helps to be able to speak to Him without our minds and emotions in the way! Tongues are a direct communication between our spirit and His.

We don’t always know how to pray about things, so the Holy Spirit helps us. However, the point is – HE HELPS US – not how He does it! 🙌  He will help us pray in our own native tongue as well!  We’ve made this blessing into something far bigger than it should be. It’s all about HIM – His generosity, His loving provision for us. My spiritual language comes from inside my heart, He will not make anyone pray that way – we will have to ask for it – because it is a gift. Encountering Jesus personally is the end product, and tongues are a supernatural, faith-supported gift.

However – LOVE is always the theme of any of the Holy Spirit’s languages. Speaking, or even singing in tongues, supernaturally encourages our faith.Ephesians 5:19 says:“Speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, [offering praise by] singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; …”  It’s in the book. 👋🏻 

Matthew 7:9-11“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!”

P 2221 Watch out, or judgment will get ya!

/ DVH

“For we reach the goal of fulfilling all the commandments when we love others deeply with a pure heart, a clean conscience, and sincere faith.” 1 Timothy 1:5 TPT. If we ever wanted a simple answer to every situation – this scripture is it. Love others deeply. Yeah, I wonder how we might try and wiggle out of that one?  Fat chance, BTW. Jesus died to give us a pure heart and a clean conscience – so if we don’t have those things then we need to seriously start to revise our theology. Read the book.

If you are even a little like me, you could look at that verse and think – ‘well that’s not easy!’ Then several people who really bother the daylights out of you, might instantly pop into your head. I’ve asked the Lord to help me with all those people that I want to love … but they drive me crazy instead. He said this. “You need a wider view of them. A kingdom view.” Up until then I was madly praying for more love and scrabbling about in my feelings to find it, plus I prayed for lots more wisdom. It had never occurred to me that to see them differently, I need to see those people through His eyes. God has the widest view of humanity ever – He saw all of US as redeemable. I like HIS view!

Here’s another big thought to add to the first one: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:38-39. If we really ARE convinced that nothing, including death, can separate us from Him – then why do we live this life in a defeated fashion. Or even half-heartedly? What are we so afraid of? Why are we so easily satisfied with religion and its rituals? 

Here’s my answer. It is all about control. Religion is a BOX. It is sometimes a really BIG box full of big thoughts – but it is still a box! And human beings love to categorise things so we can make them easier to handle. Stuff like this: ‘He’s a murderer. That person is a trans person. That one is a liar. Those people aren’t married, they are living in adultery. That person is homosexual. This nationality are all thieves. Those people are gossips. Those people, over there, don’t believe in Jesus so they are going to hell.’ 

We comfort ourselves with the thought that if we identify the other person’s sin – it is OK not to love them, be-cau-se God doesn’t like those things and we’ve got the scriptures to prove it! Hmmmm.  God saved you and I when we were DEAD in our sins, why can’t HE save them? You know if you go fishing you don’t clean the fish before you’ve caught them! Selah. 

If the Body of Christ is going to truly love other people like Timothy said, and if His love is available for everyone – then we will have to chuck away our boxes and suspend judgment. Which BTW, is a really good plan… be-ca-use … JESUS said in Matthew 7. “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Now, just hang on a minute lady …WE are the good guys, the bible says WE are the beloved of God, the head not the tail, the blessed ones! We go to church every single Sunday! Plus we have the righteousness of Christ!  HOWEVER … surprise surprise! … It doesn’t much sound like we have LOVE… Clang clang clang.

The above judgmental thinking shows us that our personal theology is prejudiced against the very people Jesus came to save! Now, we have an opportunity. We can comfort ourselves and hide from the truth, or face it square on and confess our lack of love. We don’t have to like what people do to love them. When Lord Jesus chose His disciples – He chose a thief who was a betrayer, a doubter, a person with no self-control, a man who was boastful, two revengeful and ambitious men, and a TAX-collector to follow Him. He was looking for people who were spiritually hungry and thirsty, not morally sound ones! HE STILL IS. Maybe some of the people I mentioned above are trapped by their sins and they don’t know how to get out … and perhaps our lack of love keeps them away from our churches! We need His wisdom.

And if we truly want to love others we are going to have to  suspend, and make sure we get rid of judgment toward everyone else and leave that bit up to Him. Let’s get on with our bit instead, shall we? Our bit is to love them with His unconditional wide, deep, love, into His kingdom. (Romans 8) Our other bit is to be personally transformed by His love so we become like Him. HIS BRIDE IS MEANT TO BE MORE LIKE A HOSPITAL than a bunch of pious people congratulating themselves on what they think they know. Well, that’s enough to think on for one morning. Bye.. 👋🏻

P 2220 Choose the things you want to be rich in, carefully.

/ DVH

Ephesians 2: 6-10 “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,  in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”Giving away Grace to the undeserving is part of our good works.

The first part of these verses above explain clearly how we can do whatever He wants us to do, using His Grace. But we also do whatever we do, from heavenly places (it’s in the book!) – not from earthly wisdom or effort. Father God did what He did for us all through Christ’s sacrifice, because now WE are designed to be part of His display of GRACE to the rulers of this world and the next! Not to mention satan and his cohorts! Our presence here in this world – our Grace-inspired faith-filled works – show this world and all that follows from here, what His GRACE looks like and how bountiful and glorious it is. That is what we do.  We are living illustrations of His GRACE in action. Ya might want to think long and hard on that one. 🧐

Now because it is GRACE … then people won’t deserve it.  We give Grace to others because that is part of the new way we have chosen to live. That means, sooner or later, that somebody is probably gunna get clobbered and treated badly. And then the clobber-ee will have to forgive the clobber-ER! That process is His GRACE on display, through us. At that moment HE gets all the glory. Grace is the coin of His kingdom.

I know, personally, that this kind of stuff has nothing whatsoever to do with who I am – and everything to do with His power at work in me. I don’t have the desire in me to be that altruistic and forgiving about some of the stuff that went down in my life! How about you? We cannot live our lives for His sake and not live supernatural Grace-filled lives – otherwise we are open to deception from the other guy. Living in His Grace is not optional – it is essential. I talked about His fruit a few blogs ago – Grace sets the fruit in our lives. Blossom trees get lots of flowers but many of those flowers are fruitless.

The thing is, these riches in Ephesians are a testimony to what our Heavenly Father did and how God’s Ways work. The word Grace means – (my translation) – ‘nobody deserves it!’ That includes you, or I, or the person who hurt us! Humanity has a distinct lack of deserving Grace in common – we ALL NEED IT. Sin is sin and His Grace levels the playing field. The only Person Who ever deserved these kind of riches is Christ, and Jesus left everything behind in heaven, to come here and pay for our sins so we can have these Godly traits as part of our inheritance and witness!! So let’s not hold grudges – let’s go after reconciliation!

The amazing thing is, God is rich in things that human beings don’t value much. Think about it. In the main people value material things – food, comfort, safety, somewhere warm and dry to sleep  … material things. Father God regards the things mankind goes to war about, as our needs. He promises to supply them, but the non-material things, that last eternally, matter more to Him. He used things like gold, jewels etc as building materials. (Read Revelation – the streets are paved with gold – not to mention the gates and walls!) WOW!! 

Here’s a fun thing to do while reading the Word. Go through your bible and highlight, or select all the things it says God is RICH in. It will blow your mind. And there is not a diamond, or a ruby, or even piles of gold on that list! That’s because He doesn’t value what we value. He knows we all need stuff … but we need Him more. It seems to me to be the spirit of stupid on steroids, to want to serve and follow Him, and not use our faith to ask for those non-material things, we actually desperately need every single day. Who doesn’t need patience, or kindness, or love, or long-suffering every single day? I know I do!

Now, to my final point: these eternal non-material things are the essence of Who Father God is. When we love and embrace those qualities, we are loving Him. We dare not say we truly love Him, if we do not value what He values. And boy, does HE value PEOPLE! There is no need to ask Him for the material practical things we need down here, because He has already promised “to supply every need according to His riches in Christ Jesus.” We need to learn to ask, and keep on asking, for all of the eternal things we lack. Let’s choose our riches carefully. 👋🏻

P 2219 Hope is a wonderful thing!

/ DVH

To continue with what I wrote yesterday, I wanted to mention the importance of hope today. “There once was a shepherd with a hundred lambs, but one of his lambs wandered away and was lost. So the shepherd left the ninety-nine lambs out in the open field and searched in the wilderness for that one lost lamb. He didn’t stop until he finally found it. With exuberant joy, he raised it up, placed it on his shoulders, and carried it back with cheerful delight!” Luke 15:4-5. TPT.

In my immediate family, we have “lost sheep” – people who no longer follow Christ. Some ran away grumpy, on purpose. They got cheesed off because the Christian life did not turn out the way they thought it should.  And some just kind of meandered off not looking where they were going. Sheep are dumb – they don’t know what is good for them, they can be so busy eating and meeting their own needs, that they forget about the Shepherd and how much He loves them … until they get into trouble.

As you already know, I rarely include someone else’s thoughts in my blog, but I read this prophetic exhortation, and I thought it was worth including today. Many of us have one or more individuals in our families that have gone away from their faith in Christ. This excerpt was such an encouragement to me, I hope it encourages you too. 

I Hear His Whisper … THE PRODIGALS WILL RETURN. “I am calling home the sons and daughters who have forgotten Me. You will see a waterfall of love and mercy bring My children from afar. I have walled them in. They haven’t roamed as far as you expected. They are never outside of the boundaries of My love, and I have never left their sides. I know how to woo the hearts I created. They cannot find what they need outside of Me. In My mercy, they will be restored with fresh passion to seek Me and to know Me.

Dry your eyes, and with a hope-filled heart, look with eyes of faith. The lost ones are coming home. Your delight must be in finding them and loving them back into wholeness and dignity. You will remove loneliness from their hearts. You will see them restored. Even within your family, there will be healing and grace as I recapture hearts and ignite their longings for Me. Love well. Forgive completely. You will see the restoration you’ve prayed for. My will shall be done in their lives.” by Brian Simmons and Gretchen Rodriguez.

I loved this prophetic word, because it is all about what God is going to do for us, but it includes an exhortation for US to prepare our hurt, disappointed hearts, to receive the ones who broke our hearts back again. Those who have been lost to us have been lost for many reasons. Right now is the time to deal with our side of everything that happened. “Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.”(Ephesians 4:31) 

It has taken me a long time to absorb the fact that I can add to my own struggle with others, by what I say.  If I choose to continually rehearse someone else’s sin over and over again, it may seem like a form of self-protection. Plus it seems like you are reminding yourself of what happened so you don’t fall for the same guff again! But the reality is, my self-talk can also cement someone else back into a place that no longer exists for them. That attitude, that action, only exists in my own memory. Personally, I am not who I was even last week – or last month – or last year! God is changing me, daily and boy do I need it! Let’s not colour in tomorrow’s miracles with yesterday’s half-dead felt-tipped markers. He’s doing something new. Hold on, it’s coming…

The Lord is going to do what He has planned to do so quickly, that we will be astonished. So we need to prepare take the time to search our own hearts and minds now, with His help. Let’s start thanking Him for what comes next, and remember – you and I could have easily been the sheep that wandered off. None of us are exempt from the seduction of the spirit of stupid, in this funny old world of ours. Cultivating hope is a wonderful thing. 👋🏻

P 2218 Don’t give up!

/ DVH

I want to talk a little bit about seemingly unanswered prayers today. In my lifetime, by the Grace of God only – I have learnt that I don’t have to see something to believe it is true. There are all sorts of illustrations from the bible, of ordinary people who loved God and followed Him. They were just like me. But there have been times when I have been greatly disappointed because my prayers appeared to lay about like limp lettuce leaves. Sadly, the result of chronic sickness is that it takes over this life, and you can start to have a sickness mentality. That becomes a battle all by itself. Plus your faith can take a heck of a beating.

However, I know, that I know, that our God answers our prayers. His book is filled with testimonies on that subject from an unbelievable variety of people. I have chosen to learn to take His Word over my experiences – but that doesn’t mean I don’t wrangle with my feelings on a difficult day! One day, I know I will be healed, up there or down here. But for this moment, I will just keep on asking – and thanking Him. I have learnt that my disappointment does not cancel out His promises. That’s like an ant trying to wrestle an elephant. It’s.Not.Gunna.Happen! 

Jesus Himself told us to: “Ask and keep on asking, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.” The saddest thing we can do when we pray about something, or someone, and nothing appears to change, is to give up our belief about the Lord’s Character just because of that unanswered prayer. He loves us. Our God always does things for our good, let’s add to that our hope that He is always listening to us. “… He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”  So my exhortation today is that we need to keep going after the impossible, and don’t give up!

Our human limitations abound, but HE has no limitations and He is not deaf. We must never ever stop our pursuit of Him, so we can deepen our understanding of Who He is. There is always more we can learn about our Heavenly Father, and the way He does things. Just because some prayers we’ve prayed seem to have led to a dead end, that does not mean we should give up. Jesus Himself told us to press IN and keep ON keeping on. “Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” Luke 18:1-8.

Meanwhile, if our human relationships are worthy of careful attention and passion – just imagine how much more our relationship with Almighty God is worth! We are His people, and He is always worthy of our attention, passionate love and prayers. He loves to care and provide for us, and that love IS His nature. However, I also know, personally, that when our hope is deferred, it can make our hearts sick. That’s a good place to ask for His help. Total dependance upon the Lord and His mercy is not a weakness or a character flaw – we can rely upon Him to always do what is good, right and profitable in our lives. 

Right now whilst you are reading this – you could be ill, or injured, or something bad has happened to the people you love. Perhaps you are estranged from someone, or you are living in constant fear, or you have major difficulties in your life and you’ve tipped over into despair. Awful things do happen – ‘the rain falls on the just and the unjust.’ However, these circumstances are not God’s punishment. When Jesus died on that cross humanity entered a new Era. The Grace Era. The hard things are simply part of this imperfect life we live.

First of all, please don’t beat yourself up over your flagging faith. Simply ask for our loving Saviour’s help to move past your despair … there are days that I have to pray like that one minute at a time. However, today, I wrote this to remind you that He has heard you and He is not ignoring your desperate cries. I can’t possibly explain the situation you find yourself in or even the delay, but I know the Saviour, He brought Lazarus out of that grave and He has heard your prayers. Hold onto that.

Lastly, I want to say to those who are suffering: please don’t give up. “Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.” Hebrews 10:35. At this very minute, Jesus is praying for us, and the Holy Spirit is praying too, that our faith won’t fail. I want to remind everyone that we always need to continue to ‘ask and keep on asking’ and we must not give up and faint –  “…because in due time we will receive our reward.” (See Galatians 6:9-10.)  Bless you and bye for today. 🙏

P 2217 We definitely need our minds transformed!

/ DVH

“…so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19. AMEN!  There are some great prayers in Ephesians. I pray that stuff for myself – often. I know I definitely need the power to understand what HIS LOVE LOOKS LIKE – that’s why I read, study, and chew over whatever I read in the bible.

Here’s another scripture that was rolling about in my heart today along with the one from Ephesians.  “Behold what manner of love the Father gives that we might be called the sons of God…” 1 John 3:1. For me that translates into: ‘take a good look at what KIND of love the Father gives us.’ 

First of all I want to say that our human ideas of love, contrasted with the reality of His love, seem very different to me. Our idea of love is nobody ever says NO to us, we get EXACTLY what we want whenever we want it, and we are indulged and petted by others as being ‘special’ and ‘worthy.’ These peculiar thoughts come from our current civilisation’s idea that anyone can be rich, famous, and popular if they are prepared to work at it. Baloney! Many a talented human being is now in their grave unrecognised by the rest of us – it is God Who exalts people … and He hides others.

Reading the book carefully will stomp on all that human deceit!  We simply must stop cherry-picking out verses we like and claiming them … and start asking the Lord God what HE WANTS. The bible is a whole book, it is not just a collection of ‘gimme’ verses. Paul is praying for each of US that we would have the power to understand how comprehensively big God’s love is. Which means, BTW, that in our natural selves we don’t get it! Spiritual stuff cannot be understood by our natural minds. (1 Corinthians 2:14) In other words it doesn’t make any sense to us! 

He then goes on to explain what God’s kind of love looks like – how comprehensively overwhelming and all-encompassing it is. The reason I pray those verses over my life is because I don’t want my idea of love anymore – that stuff is based on meeting my own needs and plans… or avoidance, or anger, or retribution. At the very least – my idea is self-serving! Instead, I truly want to choose GOD’S IDEA OF LOVE. 

At this point I need to realise that God’s idea of love nailed His Only Precious one-of-a-kind Son to a tree! Ya might want to think on that one for the rest of your life. 🧐 

To the world around us, Father God’s action for our salvation looks merciless, graceless, and loveless, because the Lord Jesus was totally innocent of any wrong doing – He only did humanity good! Even the bystanders at the crucifixion questioned how Jesus could be Who He said He was, when God was allowing this to happen! Can you see how squirrelled-up man’s thinking is?

This shows me how ingrained self-centredness, self-preservation and self-satisfaction is in mankind’s psyche. The reality is that solitary act actually proves that God’s love will go to any lengths to rescue humanity. “He Who did not spare His only Son …” (Romans 8) Yet currently, at the bottom of mankind’s thoughts is something like this … ‘God is there for my benefit – if you are suffering you must have done something bad.‘ 😳 Here’s a big thought:  maybe “and forget not all His benefits” is more about us not going to hell than it is about us having a big house with all the trimmings, living a comfortable life, or having overseas holidays etc.etc.  

It seems to me that we’ve thrown God’s idea of love right out of the window! God’s love is a different KIND of love. We’ve lived for years on the premise that God saved us to spoil us rotten – giving us what we want, or what we think we need. The reality is – His Precious Son died for us so we would have the power to live for Him, and be that kind of love in action toward other people. It’s about multiplication, not gain. And that’s quite a contrast. We need our minds renewed – daily. 👋🏻

P 2216 We need His unforced rhythms of GRACE.

/ DVH

Matthew 11:28-30 says: “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with Me and work with Me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

The place to begin to learn those unforced rhythms is to teach yourself to focus on Him. You know, Jesus didn’t start a bible college, the Pharisees etc. might have killed Him a lot sooner if He’d done that!! Instead He called men and women to walk with Him – all day, every day. Not just a quick – “Hi Lord” in the morning and “Bye Lord,” before they crashed out at night … like we are all tempted to do. 

Here’s my advice, periodically, during your busy day, just stop for a second and on the inside remind yourself that Jesus is your Lord. Tell Him: “Lord Jesus, I’m just turning my focus to You. You are the centre of my affection.” Doing that shifts our focus. It’s called ‘setting your affections on Him.’ And it is mentioned in Colossians 3:2: “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”

Christ Himself said: “I only do what I see my Father doing. I only say what I hear my Father saying …” His mind was set on the things above. Jesus needs to become our life because Grace’s rhythms don’t come easily when He is an add-on.. “In Him we live and move and have our being …” Acts 17:28. We start with Him, and everything else we do comes out from that relationship.

There is a flow of Grace – Grace in, and Grace out toward others. I just ask for more Grace whenever I think of it, whether I need it or not at that moment. Something is bound to happen that will irritate me! We are the only ones who can interrupt this flow. I call this process the power of choice. Choose to focus and ask for His help. It can take an effort to get free of our human ideas of ‘what is meant to be our priority.’ We aren’t just here for Him on Sundays! So we can’t just do what we think on Mondays.

The Psalms are also a wonderful road map to living like this. Try Psalm 91. Look for instructions. Meanwhile, I have found it is very useful to follow scripture like you would instructions from the doctor or the chemist. Pray, then ask for the Lord’s help, and go and do what it says on the label. In our situation … it’s in the book.

Next we need to pay immediate attention when we hurt others or they hurt us. There is nothing like being angry with someone else, or them being angry with you, to cause human beings to stumble and leave what God thinks, behind them. That kind of stuff is a whirlpool – it sucks you in! The Holy Spirit knows how to guide our steps through the pitfalls of human emotions and thoughts. He knows what the other person meant when they said that dumb thing that really got our goat! 

Many people think that worshipping the Lord, praying and reading His word is all that is necessary …BUT – walking with Him minute by minute actually revolutionises our lives. WHY? Because HE knows the way we should go – that’s why. “Our steps are ordered by Him.” Psalm 37:23,24. The disciples walked around with Christ, and now because of what Jesus did for us the Holy Spirit wants to walk around with us. If we let Him and make Him welcome. He will teach us, guide us, and help us to do what we are here to do – love people. And we all need His Grace to do that!

His Grace is like fresh air, it gives us a fresh perspective. We breathe it in when we mess up, and we breathe it out toward other people no matter what they did – or haven’t done. Our own will power is not enough. We need His Grace to die to self – the Grace that faced CALVARY. Grace needs to become the rhythm of our lives. I believe Grace is the Holy Spirit’s air in our spiritual lungs. 

Grace is so much more than just putting up with difficult people. Grace is love under pressure. And it refuses to give up on anyone or go into self-preservation. We cannot ignore this quality – it is the currency of His kingdom. 👋🏻 “Nothing is impossible WITH God.”