Make room for Him

P3500 The Bible is Words of life!

/ DVH

“Cause my heart to bow before Your words of wisdom and not to the wealth of this world. Help me turn my eyes away from illusions so that I pursue only that which is true; drench my soul with life as I walk in your paths.” Psalms 119:36-37 TPT.

Let’s daily give the Lord permission to change our hearts, our minds, plus the way we choose to walk, and what we look at. This life is filled with a whole lot of time-wasting illusions – I’ve found that very little turns out to be exactly what I thought it would be  … how about you? Illusions seem to be occupying our children’s minds and hearts, so this Psalm could be a good one to pray over your kids. However, we read the bible, choose to bow our hearts, and wait and watch to see what He has to say, and then treat it like medicine by following what it says under the Holy Spirit’s guidance. That’s what obedience looks like.

The bible is not a irrelevant old book, it is the wisdom of the ages. It has been tested and retested over time, in other people’s lives and their experiences. We have witnesses everywhere in that book! Let’s remind ourselves that we cannot afford to focus on the fact that once we were yoked to a yoke of slavery, but now the past is gone. It died when we chose to die, and it happened when we asked Him to save us. Total commitment is not an optional extra. After all, there were no part-time disciples! The ones who followed Jesus walked away from their old lives.

The minute we choose to live for Him, and put to death the deeds of the flesh that hinder us, we go on a death-to-self march. You will notice I refuse to sugar-coat what it costs! That”s because it’s a choice, and it’s a tough one! But, the more we say yes to His way, and follow through on our ‘yes’, the easier it gets. Many of us have spent much of our lifetime struggling and striving to be heard and seen, and now, because of Who He is, we’ve chosen to let all that go. Instead of proving our point, we choose to prove He is Lord. In these dark days we need to say ‘yes’ to dying to self, with the full understanding that the life we once lived for ourselves, is gone.

Our part is to live this life, the only one we now have, the Way God Himself prescribes in the bible. Father God is constantly speaking to our hearts on every page of His book, regarding all sorts of difficulties, situations, and unhappy people. His words are now our life blood, they are so firm we can stand on them: “Surrender your anxiety. Be still and realize that I am God. I am God above all the nations, and I am exalted throughout the whole earth.” Psalms 46:10 TPT. This is true clarity.

So, obeying this means, we choose to give up our anxiety in favour of knowing He is God. BTW if we feel anxious, that does not mean we have failed – it means we are under enemy attack. Everything that  happens to us, is Father-filtered, even if it seems earth-shattering. I’ve had some of that stuff lately …  panic has grabbed me by the throat. But I know I will find His peace when I prayerfully give up the right to defend myself, and walk away from conflicts. I may often feel rejected, but the God of the Universe has not, and will not ever reject me. “… He knows the way that I take [and He pays attention to it]. When He has tried me, I will come forth as [refined] gold [pure and luminous].” Job 23:10. We’re going for the gold folks!

This world around us loves to live in grey areas, but personally, I think grey areas produce grey people. We are designed to be like our Saviour, full of love, life and colour! We don’t just talk positively, we are positively convinced that: “ … I know Him [and I am personally acquainted with Him] whom I have believed [with absolute trust and confidence in Him and in the truth of His deity], and I am persuaded [beyond any doubt] that He is able to guard that which I have entrusted to Him until that day [when I stand before Him].“ 2 Timothy 1:12. I urge you to pick verses like this one up like a sword and use them to fight with whatever is going on. For me that comes out like this: “I know my God and He’s got this!”

Choosing to deny ourselves is not the end of anything. It means we now have the opportunity to come alive to His POV – those things that are a theory can become a reality. When love reigns, we are to be occupied with spreading His love wherever we go. We no longer have to live in this world’s grey, grabby, me first attitudes and actions any more. We can add colour and beauty everywhere we go because we choose to carry His love. What a sacred duty!  Living like this is a by-product of our relationship with Him. Those people around us can be refreshed, revived, and have their lives utterly touched and transformed because they’ve met the love of God through us.

We don’t have to be the source, Jesus Himself is our source. But we’ve chosen to make room for Him to reach out to others through our lives, and as we do that, He will change our life at the same time. We don’t have to be fabulous, famous or clever to drip the love of God onto others – we can do it  because we know Him personally. Death to self is not an optional extra it is the point. Our bible is merely a book, but when the Holy Spirit kisses something in it, that book becomes the Words of life. Bye. 👋.

P 3438 Yoo-hoo! I’m home!

/ DVH

“Guard and keep [with the greatest care] the precious and excellently adapted [Truth] which has been entrusted [to you], by the [help of the] Holy Spirit Who makes His home in us.” 2 Timothy:1:14.

This our aim, making a home for the Holy Spirit inside us. Anyone of us can smile and look pleased outwardly, when inside we are unhappy. We all know what polite looks like! However, the Holy Spirit doesn’t do polite. When you read the Old Testament He is often quite blunt, even though He is always very kind. We can have a funny opinion of what we think He should say, or do, it’s almost like we’ve made Him into SomeOne He isn’t.

He likes humility more than appearances. It is a fantastic thing to be able to quote the word, and I have known people who could quote whole chapters. Plus a couple of really clever people I’ve known could quote a whole book – word for word! That was mind-blowing and impressive. But one quiet word from the Holy Spirit can transform my heart.

Personally, I always have to rely upon the Lord bringing what I need into my mind! He loves to help us through the problems of this life. He won’t always make them go away, Instead, He leads us through. Today, let’s remember we want our hearts to be HIS HOME  whatever that might look like. 

Maybe you have a room at your house, that you keep for visitors or long term guests? If it is like our spare room it rapidly fills up with stuff that doesn’t fit in other rooms! But when we have a visitor or a guest, we clean everything out, and get rid of the dust-bunnies, and make the room welcoming for that prospective guest. This is what we need to learn to do for the Holy Spirit. Make room for Him. We do that by focussing on Jesus and what He has already done for us. Our bit is to step into our faith and follow the Leader.

Making room for the Lord can seem to be costly — spiritually, mentally and emotionally. It hurts when we suddenly see the need to give up something that seemed OK – until the Holy Spirit put His finger on it! Learning to love Him and treasure what He does, makes that transformation easier. There are times when decisions must be made about what we say and what we don’t. I sometimes hear Him say: “Don’t say that, you will be misunderstood.”

This too, is part of clearing out our hearts to make room for Him. I think I have a big under construction sign over my heart permanently!  Life is full of surprises, not all of them are good ones. The people you love and value go away — pain and grief are things the Holy Spirit understands. He can be grieved so He knows what grief is like and Jesus is well acquainted with pain and suffering. They know the Way through the hard bits.

The fact is, we can quite easily turn to other people and rely on their faith, and not cultivate our own. The Person we need to learn to lean on is Jesus. He won’t go anywhere. Talking to other people may help in stressful times, but only the Lord knows what is happening in your heart.

Trusting Him grows our faith. Our God is so gracious to us, but accepting that He knows what is best for us, can cause us to get out of sorts. It’s that out of sorts feeling that can shift our focus off Him and onto what we think we need right now. In my experience that means my brain is working overtime and rebellion and frustration are knocking on my door. And then my faith is pushed into the back seat and my brain whizzes around and around, trying to solve things that are too hard for me.

We need His help to identify the times when we are acting out of fear instead of faith. The bible tells us that Jesus Himself is the Author and Finisher of our faith — He is utterly committed to helping our faith grow!  When the distance between the Holy Spirit and us becomes obvious, it can take a while for us to work out what is at the bottom of that pile of stuff we’ve become used to walking around! … Instead of straining to clean up the mess, I just turn my heart back to Him and then I follow His prompts.

He points out what is motivating me, blocking me from seeing Him clearly, and I follow His quiet advice. The Holy Spirit is our live-in helper, counsellor, teacher, guide, coach, advocate, our Father’s truth Speaker, and Witness to what is good right and profitable. That’s why we need to make room for Him. This isn’t about prayer or bible study, or other great things, we simply need His Presence in our lives.

He is the One Who will guard all the truths we long to keep in our hearts as He takes His stylus and writes each one on our hearts. Here’s one of my weird questions for you — when was the prodigal son rescued? When he realised his foolishness, or when he repented in front of his father? Selah!  

Hanging around with the Holy Spirit transforms us, day by day. Once we start to clear out those piles of irrelevant stuff we’ve kept, for one reason or another — we can see more clearly how to make room for Him. You know, once I decided to make my heart His home, things that had been hanging around for years, just disappeared. I simply did what He said and He did all the work. Then I heard His familiar cry: “You-hoo! I am home.” Bye. 👋.