Main purpose

P 3441 We carry His Presence …

/ DVH

…and that is a privilege. This life is not meant to be a drudge, slogging on from day to day, only to get up the next day preoccupied with the same problems that occupied our thoughts yesterday! Or perhaps something new pops up and that takes over. 

We can be kept so very busy trying to get to a place where we can obey what He asks us to do, that in the end, we do nothing. Instead we are always waiting. Always in transit but never arriving. The minute we said “yes” to Jesus, the things of this world became secondary. Our primary goal now is to love and serve Him and others. Let’s actively learn to let Father God take care of us. He will look after ‘matters concerning us.’ I spent years trying to figure out which bit was my bit and which bit was His! Finally I thought … “You have the lot Lord, I can’t manage this juggling at all, I keep dropping things.”

Let’s be clear: when I finally realised what DEAD means I did more than just have a thought, I actively took my life and its problems, and prayerfully handed it all over to Him and then I refused to pick them up again. My problems were often people, and the way they had treated me. So I gave up my right to be protected from people who didn’t care a hoot about how I felt, and started practising Love, I chose to change my focus from making them happy to loving them. I was rotten at it and I needed His help. Love does not mean you have to give in. Love means you listen to Him – FIRST. Let the Lord draw your boundaries.

Now, I take my thoughts captive and hand them back to Him. If I end up ruminating over something or other, then I repent and give it back to Him, and ask the Lord to redeem everything. We cannot afford to live in partial surrender. We will spend most of our time trying to figure out which bit is His and what’s ours! Total surrender is the only way to go, otherwise we can be distracted from our main purpose.

Jesus reminded us of that purpose in Mathew 22:37-40.“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

We need to remember our God-given purpose. Love Him first, then love others. That’s because we can’t actually love others unless we meditate on how much He loves us! We are His disciples, we distribute the bread that has been broken in His hands and we give it to the hungry all around us. He was broken for all of us.

If the Holy Spirit had not come at exactly the right time, the disciples could easily have wandered away, and maybe set up their own ministries based on what they saw Jesus do, around them and through them. They too needed the power of God to fall on them. The Holy Spirit released in them the same clarity, courage and purpose Jesus  had. When you read the Epistles etc you don’t hear the Apostles talking about how this or that difficulty occurred last week. Their focus is on Christ, crucified, dead, buried, and resurrected. 

They didn’t care if their parents smacked them too much, or someone bullied them, or stole their money etc. They had better things to do! All this prayer for healing of our inner selves can waste a perfectly good life. Stop living in the past. Be like those 10 lepers!  They were totally healed as they went. Thank God for what He has already done in you, and keep asking Him for more. Then go out and love on other people. Ask Him to help you recognise in yourself anything that could distract you from His primary purpose of loving God and others. 

Back to the Lord’s disciples. It would have been easy to walk about grandly despatching this snippet of information, and passing on this new revelation. If they did that they would have become a brand new breed of Pharisee, Sadducee or Teacher! We don’t need labels, or chains of honour, we need the Holy Spirit. Forget ministry, that will overtake you when He is ready. Those twelve men could have sat back and said, “We were His friends, we saw Him do incredible things.” And lived off that for the rest of their lives..

But they didn’t. They were the ones who had walked with Him and talked with Him and learnt from Him … and He said …“GO!” … So they went. They sought out lost people who didn’t know what Christ had given them, and they daily gave away what they had. They died living that way. 

It makes me want to weep. We sit in our comfy houses in the Western world, and drive our nice cars to church, and pray that Almighty God will make our lives happy and the lives of our families happy. And when they aren’t the way we think they should be, then we pray for Him to make the trouble go away. HE is the centre of the Universe … we aren’t. We aren’t even a blip on the Richter Scale. 

We’ve been given the privilege to carry His Presence with us wherever we go. Leaving the Holy Spirit behind, ignoring Him and His directions is incredibly risky. One day we could wake up and think: ‘maybe the bible isn’t true, maybe it is just an old book with sweet metaphors about niceness.’  People do not often lose their faith in one gigantic explosive event, it is more likely they will lose it little by little and walk away. It’s called compromise. Value His Presence and His love for you, and others, daily. Bye. 👋. 

P 3103 Historical faith!

/ DVH

Our faith is meant to be living, it carries us from day to day. We look at trouble and say to Him: “How are You going to get me out of this mess please Lord?” Prayer, is walking around aware of Him, it is not meant as a last resort. It is as natural as breathing. We refuse to toss what we believe out of the window, just because things get rough or we get disappointed. This new life we’ve been given is not lip service, it is the thing that nurtures the biggest part of us. Our spirits! Every single day we too, are writing His story into our world around us. Let’s look at Luke 24:13-35:

“Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened.  As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus Himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognising Him. He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked Him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”“What things?” He asked.“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He WAS(!?!?!) a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 

The chief priests and our rulers handed Him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified Him; but we had HOPED that He was the One Who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find His body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said He was alive.Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?” 

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself. As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if He were going farther. But they urged Him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So He went in to stay with them. When He was at the table with them, He took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him, and He disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

This is a big chunk of scripture today, but I put is here because I want to talk about how easy it is to let our faith become historical. Faith from yesterday is not the same as the faith we use today. We are growing fruit, and we really need personal intimate times with Jesus Himself, otherwise – like these two men – our day to day sadness can overcome the fact that, HE LIVES!! Jesus explained to these men that all the prophets had pointed toward Him, and these old saints foretold that the Messiah would die. These two men had already relegated the Lord Jesus into their history. BUT … He was present – right there, with them!!

The bible says they had been prevented from seeing Him. However, I do think they recognised His hands as He broke the bread, because they had seen those hands do that before! Here’s my little opinion. They were in the same position that this world is today – Jesus had become part of history. They thought of the Lord in the past tense. The Lord wants us to live by faith today – present tense! Faith IS… the substance of this new life we have with Him, and head knowledge is no substitute for the reality of His Presence with us.

Jesus indicated to the disciples that He was going to continue to walk on … and the men had to ask Him to stay. Daily, we need to recognise He is always with us, so let’s ASK Him to stay with us, and watch out for the things He will do. The Lord is actively looking for the hungry, those who want to be with HIM. He needs our YES! Let’s refuse to be distracted by the stuff that flies around in our daily lives, and remember that the Lord is our everything. Nothing will make sense without Him.

Jesus knows humanity, personally and experientially, as well as our penchant for mediocrity. We need to choose to move on into the next phase of our faith lives with Him. We must go beyond our daily commitment to pray, or read His Word, into daily depending upon Him and His deliverance from sin and evil. These two disciples had walked, talked, eaten and watched and listened to Jesus constantly. But, they did not recognise Him because they were not expecting Him! There must be expectancy in our faith. These men thought He was dead and gone.

We can fall down the same hole that swallows our faith because the Lord doesn’t appear to be with us. Especially when we pray and the answer we want does not happen. In our own daily lives we can become preoccupied with day-to-day mediocrity and we forget our main purpose – His will is our main purpose. He is always alive within us. If we have no answer to our prayers, then we need to hand whatever it is over to Him, and ask the Lord to reveal to us what He wants us to do next. We can get so tied up in making our lives comfortable, that we forget that we are a people with a mission. 

Christians love to pray for revival, but revival starts with ME … being obedient to what He tells me to do. Let’s not settle for historical faith! Every minute I postpone doing what He says to do, is a minute of my life I am wasting. Our obedience to Him, will usher in personal revival. Bye. 👋 “Here’s what I’ve learned through it all: Don’t give up; don’t be impatient; be entwined as one with the Lord. Be brave and courageous, and never lose hope. Yes, keep on waiting—for He will never disappoint you!” Psalms 27:14 TPT

P 2974 Wake-up!

/ DVH

Sometimes I think the body of Christ in the West no longer has a song of deliverance, because we have our lives so busy and organised, there is no time to find out what’s really going on around us. It seems to me that a lot of the difficulties we face are seen as an interruption to our own personal definition of how this life should go! We pray ‘deliver us from evil’ and hope that will cover it. What a luxury we have!

We all live somewhere:  maybe we have a job and kids, their school stuff — this thing and that to do. We are so busy that we simply must continue to do things to maintain the rhythm of our lives.  Unlike our brothers and sisters in conflict areas all over this world… today more than ever, Christians are living their lives like a people who have forgotten Who He is, and what He has done, and what we OWE Him! Instead we sing “Live for Jesus” then go home and live for ourselves. We spend our  precious time here maintaining the things of this world.. 

I wonder what happened in Lazarus’ life after he came out of that tomb? You see this man knew, first hand, what it was to die … and then be given a new chance at this life. Are you sure your ‘new life’ is making a whole lot of difference? Maybe we need to become more acquainted with other people’s suffering and sorrow, instead of wallowing around in our own disappointment… all because we missed out on the brand-new bargain TV on sale! Our wonderful God is so much BIGGER than the Person we’ve made Him out to be. We see Him as SomeOne Who is supposedly hanging about waiting for bad things to happen to us  – so He can bail us out of them!  We serve HIM, it says so in the book.

After all, this is Almighty God we are talking about, and I don’t think it is appropriate to fit Him in around the edges of our already well-established lives, do you? I know, we have plans, things we aim at … but what about His plans? Did He just save us so we can go to heaven in the sweet bye and bye? Or does He have something for us to do with this new life He has given us?

How can we ever know the sweetness of His deliverance from hell and death, when we are often too busy, or scared, to be obedient and take a risk?  The Lord needs a people who are prepared to take risks all over the place just to bring glory to His Name. We cannot have our cake and eat it too – we must DENY ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him. That kind of life is never going to be convenient, the time is never going to be right, and … obedience is not an optional extra!

Here’s something to rattle everyone’s cages: “Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easy going formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires total attention.”  Matthew 7:13. MSG. I wish someone would tell me why we all work so hard to be on the wide road of ease, when the bible is quite clear, that road is the wrong road. This life is not meant to be easy!

Jesus Himself also said this, through Peter in I Peter 4:12.“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which is taking place to test you [that is, to test the quality of your faith], as though something strange or unusual were happening to you.” They are a big part of this new life we’ve been called to embrace. They are not interruptions to the routine of our household, even though they sometimes seem like that! They are opportunities to stretch and strengthen our faith.

Hardly any of us are interested in being missionaries to Africa, or an Asian country, or our local suburb! Most of the time we can barely manage the day to day difficulties that pop up regularly — those things that keep us distracted from our main purpose. Our main purpose now is to live for Him not just survive! Did Jesus settle down in a little flat somewhere in Jerusalem and hold bible study meetings every third Wednesday? He did not! He fought for us and died and then He left us in charge. Boy does HE know the meaning of faith!!

If this world is a mess then it is because the church has been silent for far too long, because we are afraid of the consequences of speaking out. We need to faithfully pray for those dear brothers and sisters who are living in conflict areas all over this world. Those people who are still faithful to their heavenly calling. These people face horrors beyond imagining, simply because they have chosen to follow Him! These are the real heroes of the faith today. They live by faith daily. And they are not just victims of geography either … Unlike us, they are unable to think ‘ aren’t we lucky because we live somewhere safe?’  

The Bride of Christ in the West is enjoying an enormous indulgence – we are asleep in the light. Sadly we’ve sometimes been known to pitch a fit if we can’t get eggs at the supermarket this week. It’s time to wake up and do the things God previously planned for all of us to do.“My old identity has been co-crucified with Christ and no longer lives. And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the Anointed One lives His life through me—we live in union as one! My new life is empowered by the faith of the Son of God Who loves me so much that He gave Himself for me, dispensing His life into mine!”Galatians 2:20 TPT. Bye. 👋

P 2878 Unconditionally forgive everyone.

/ DVH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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