Mandate

P 3240 Come up higher.

/ DVH

Sometimes we can become so earthly-minded we are no longer of any heavenly use. It seems to me that the church has become distracted by the cares and worries of this world. At the same time, it kind of looks like we expect Almighty God to enter our world and meet our needs here and now — He already did that. The thing is, He has higher priorities and I don’t think that it is His priority to make sure His kids have a cushy life.

Let’s take what the bible says seriously, and start making investments and withdrawals, using that book as our guideline. Then we can begin to bring His kingdom down here where the truly needy live. Truly needy people are the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet! Personally, I think telling people Jesus died to make them rich and prosper, is an abomination! 

None of Jesus’ disciples settled down into living in a grand house, in the ‘burbs, with everything they needed on tap. Instead they hit the road, and trusted Jesus to meet their needs. BTW, I am not saying, sell your house, go and sit on the curb and wait for Jesus to come back, but I am saying  – He is our priority. His agenda is now our agenda. We have given our lives to Him, so we can’t afford to let this life dictate what happens to us, through us and around us. 

As kingdom people, our destiny is to bring light and hope into the darkness. We may have to punch a hole in the darkness sometimes. The author of the book of Daniel punched a hole, and it took a while for the answer to come. Yet this man kept waiting for the Lord to do what He loves to do for all of us. Redeem the situation. Jesus loves to redeem situations, as well as relationships. It’s faith that gives us the impetus we need to pray, and keep on praying as we wait for Him to answer.  

Sometimes a believer’s problems can be a wrong attitude. Especially when we want to use God to make this life, our own earthly life, better. This world is a sewer. You can’t see the kingdom of God in a sewer, unless God Himself called you in there! This means we can’t afford to steep ourselves in the gunk that goes on around us – we need to soak in the Word of God to stay clean! We are called to be IN this world and not OF it. That means this world is not alive in us.

We can use our spiritual energy up by trying to praying our way out of this and that. But the bible says we are already more than conquerors, because of what Jesus has done. Let’s focus on that instead, and deliberately make sure all our relationships are based on the kind of love Jesus gave us. And when things are difficult, and “stuff” happens – while we are in the middle of it – let’s look for someone we are there to help, to witness to, to care for.

We seem to have given up on fulfilling the Great Commission. Sadly, we’ve become so involved in human affairs, we’ve forgotten our mandate. My advice is this – tell the Lord your needs, and choose to walk with the Spirit of God. Our faith is not designed to be like a credit card that is whipped out for use when we need it. Our faith is like an atmosphere that surrounds us. We live there, in good or bad seasons, we choose to focus on our glorious God being in charge. We comfort ourselves that He is doing what He set out to do … we just can’t see it yet. So we pray for steadfastness in trials and the ability to rest while He’s doing whatever He is doing. It is going to be for our good, we just can’t see it yet.

The Body of Christ is here to be salt and light — to lift everyone around us up higher, by the way we regard others. It is not lying to speak to the good in someone else who has been anything but good to you! It takes faith. We have the power to speak things into being – ask the Lord to show you what He sees in those people. Let’s stop rehearsing other people’s sins, and start looking for why they are here, and speak into that… … encouraging them into those things. 

In the last century, my age group made a mistake, we started exalting ourselves. Telling ourselves that we were  this or that and quoting verses from the bible to prove it to ourselves and others. It was a lot of hot air. Forget being the head instead of the tail – Jesus is our Head! I do not care if I am a toenail in the Body of Christ, I’m just glad to be included! Jesus is the only One Who is all this, AND that. We are here to encourage and bless and uphold others. We don’t need to big note ourselves spiritually. 

What stands us out in this world needs to be His GRACE and LOVE operating in us and through us. Let’s  decide what kingdom we want to live in, here and now – HIS kingdom is the Higher Place, living like He lived. We dare not call ourselves successful unless we are living to help others, because loving one another has become our priority. Let’s put our prayer, faith and energy into that. Bye 👋.

P 3230 Active faith is essential.

/ DVH

The Lord Himself chose the Israelites to be His own people, and He chose Israel as the place for His precious Son to be born. When you read the book, it is incredibly obvious that the Jewish people were not perfect. Ps neither are we!!… The entire bible is a demonstration of how people related to Almighty God and the way He responded to them.  Jesus Christ, God wrapped in human flesh, is our revealed illustration of our Father’s will and love for ALL mankind. 

The story of God Himself and His Ways with men, is a two-part story, lovingly and truthfully disclosed by the Holy Spirit. The New Testament does not replace the Old, it completes it! In the New Testament, at the beginning of the Lord’s ministry, Jesus’ mother told the servants who came to serve fresh wine this: the wine that Jesus miraculously transformed – “WHATEVER HE SAYS TO YOU, DO IT.” That’s our mandate. Obedient actions, made and acted upon in faith, as we follow the Holy Spirit, will transform our minds and soften our hearts. 

“This is why the Holy Spirit says, “If only you would LISTEN to His voice this day! Don’t make Him angry by hardening your hearts, like your ancestors did during the days of their rebellion, when they were tested in the wilderness. There your fathers tested Me and tried My patience even though they saw My miracles for forty years they still doubted Me! This ignited My anger with that generation and I said about them, ‘They wander in their hearts just like they do with their feet, and they refuse to learn My ways.’ My heart grieved over them so I decreed: ‘They will not enter into My rest!’ ”  Hebrews 3:7-11. 

What did the Jewish people do that made God angry? They ignored Him, rejected His Ways, and hardened their hearts with disobedience. They chose to indulge and control their own destiny, and make themselves at home with other more controllable gods. We can’t afford to follow their example. Almighty God has incredible plans for each one of us to make all our lives better in ways we cannot imagine. Why am I saying this? Because the bible says in 1 Corinthians 2:9: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love Him—“

We definitely cannot imagine what kind of life we would have if only every time somebody raised their voice or were spiteful to us, we chose to give away His love instead! If you add to that, the fact that He never responds the same way twice, we cannot live without the Holy Spirit to leading us! Sadly our negative experiences often take over and poison our thinking against change. We need His power to open our eyes to understand exactly what His Love, in us, for us, and through us … will actually DO TO US. And that’s where Jesus becomes the very best illustration we can ever have! His Presence on this earth transformed other people’s lives forever. 

Most of us have experienced the worst of mankind’s attitudes and actions, and that negative stuff has so seared into our brains and emotions, we can’t even begin to imagine God’s kind of goodness. Many times we think we already know the outcome to things that we have not yet experienced, personally. Let’s not follow the Israelites down that dead end road of unbelief in His goodness – let’s simply choose to believe and live and act on what Jesus taught us! 

The Jewish people themselves continually experienced so much goodness – God’s deliverance, His provision, but they couldn’t see the bigger picture – because they hardened their hearts against Him, and willingly applied their own view. They were slaves to their immediate position. Their fear of change negated the possibilities of new revelations. We need to allow the Lord to continually deal with our own hearts, so our receiver works! 

Having said all that, I want to quickly look at something that illustrates the incredible generosity of God and what the possibility of change looked like in the life of Abraham. Abraham gives us a brilliant example of what obedience means to God. He gave this man righteousness, because of Abraham’s active faith – he was an old man, old people like comfort. What did he do? He followed God and took the Lord at His Word! This man’s faith changed his life choices, and he became the father of our faith. You can read it about in Genesis 15. 

In Romans 4, we can also read that God Himself declared Abraham in right standing with Himself not because of perfect deeds, but because of his complete trust in GOD HIMSELF. As Christians we don’t just want the appearance of goodness in our hearts, we want the kind of transformation that has His power in it! Genuine faith leads to obedient actions – and Abraham clearly shows us how powerfully an ordinary life can change. Then Jesus came along and illustrated His own perfect obedience, unto death. Death is also a needed part of obedience.

The bible teaches us that in order to please God we must die to the kind of life we want, in order for Him to progressively enliven us into His purposes. It is not enough to say, “I will die for you Lord,” and then turn around and go away from that moment, and continue to live this life, our only life here, doing whatever WE want. That’s called paying lip service.  We ALL need active faith – like Jesus Himself had and only the Holy Spirit knows what that will mean in our daily lives. Bye. 👋

P 3219 A different kind of fasting.

/ DVH

Isaiah 58:5-11: “Is this what I want—this doing of penance and bowing like reeds in the wind, putting on sackcloth and covering yourselves with ashes? Is this what you call fasting? No, the kind of fast I want is that you stop oppressing those who work for you and treat them fairly and give them what they earn. I want you to share your food with the hungry and bring right into your own homes those who are helpless, poor, and destitute. Clothe those who are cold, and don’t hide from relatives who need your help. If you do these things, God will shed His own glorious light upon you. 

He will heal you; your godliness will lead you forward, goodness will be a shield before you, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind. Then, when you call, the Lord will answer. “Yes, I am here,” He will quickly reply. All you need to do is to stop oppressing the weak and stop making false accusations and spreading vicious rumours! Feed the hungry! Help those in trouble! Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you shall be as bright as day. And the Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy you with all good things, and keep you healthy too; and you will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.”

In my opinion Almighty God makes it perfectly clear, in passages like this one, how to walk with Him. Here’s another interesting one from another prophet, Micah 6:8:“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Our spiritual wellbeing, and our spiritual health, relies upon our choice to do things His way. God is quite simply not into alternative theories. He has laid out His own eternal plans, plus He has written down His interactions with other men and women just like us, for everyone to see and for us to notice and obey. 

If someone asks me, ‘what should I apply myself and obey? Well, Isaiah 58:5-11 keeps me pretty busy! So do the Beatitudes in Matthew 5. PS they are called the BE-attitudes because we are to live like this, personalising His instructions into our lives. Jesus doesn’t waffle on making ridiculous, ostentatious, new age remarks – He simply taught. Everything He said and did in the New Testament was teaching. Here He is teaching us how this new life we have been given works — what it looks like in action.

In the past in our home, we have had a procession of people – mostly young people – who had nowhere to live. Their relevant adults threw them out, so we simply applied Isaiah into our lives and made room for them. Now we choose to help other people who do the same thing we did, only they do it on a grand scale. We don’t act like an organisation when we do this stuff, because we are not. People get quite puzzled that we are not ‘official’ in what we do. To me helping others is just normal Christianity. Our first response to people in trouble is: “how can we help you?”  

Meanwhile, whether the other person is a Christian or not – what’s that got to do with anything? We can’t afford to be selective … Father God wasn’t when He picked us! Despite current theology none of us is any prize …Yet He is so amazing because we are all prizes to Him. The value you put on another human being can change their life. It will most certainly change you! If we only take care of those people who care about us, then we are more concerned about our own comfort, than obedience.

We look after our family, plus we help others – that’s the mandate in this scripture. Once, in a major city, we were walking down the street and a young man was sitting on the pavement with a sign that said: “I‘m starving.”Who could walk past that? It was a busy city and loads of people never even saw him. Someone might say:  “What if he’s a drug-user? It isn’t good to give them money!” Quite right! But you can go buy the guy food and a drink! I don’t have to solve his problems, but I can help him a little even in a small way even if I am just passing through.

Another time, an elderly gentleman was huddled in a doorway, it was so cold. He had a thin little jacket on, pulled tightly around him. The wind was freezing, whistling away … I was cold and I had a jumper, a coat and scarf on! Hubby gave the man his pseudo-suede coat, some food vouchers and we prayed for him. Hey, if you want to open doors, this is the way to do it. Help them. We prayed for him and told him how much Jesus loves him. He told us he’d never had a coat like that one before. That’s when I teared up then, because the coat was not all that good, but … it was warm. 

If you want to know Jesus intimately, then do what He did when He was here. Put God first. Then choose to see what He saw, hear what He heard, look at what He looked at, without judgment – help the ones He helped.

In this fast-paced life today it seems that we think we can’t ever have enough money, because the line for enough, always moves away from us. However, it is good for us to do what we can. Things like, treating other people with kindness and respect, no matter how they look or smell! The poor, the downtrodden, the weak, the disenfranchised are far more likely to listen to what Jesus says, than the supposedly comfortable people who are spending their lives making money and collecting things.

Father God has clearly told us in Isaiah what sort of fast we need to participate in. He even tells us He has chosen it. The next move is ours. Bye. 👋

P 3200 Know what you are fighting for.

/ DVH

Today I want to talk about three truths that I think are very important. Things that are worth fighting for. The Body of Christ is a wonderful, growing, messy, precious organism. It isn’t perfect because we – you and I – aren’t perfect, yet! The Lord Jesus simply adores His church, His bride. Unfortunately the body of Christ can sometimes draw lines about who is in and who is out. It is a line that Jesus Himself would never draw! If someone is trusting Him to save them, then they belong to Him, whether they share our overall theology or not. The main problem with division is a distinct lack of humility on everyone’s part! I strongly believe we need to make what Jesus treasured, our treasure. 

The Bible clearly tells us to recognise that: “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” Proverbs 4:7. In my limited experience, I have found that the Lord’s wisdom knows precisely what to do with any knowledge I may have picked up in my journey with Him. Jesus Christ Himself, is perfect wisdom, and He takes His wisdom from the bible and brings it down to a personal, practical level of: “what am I going to do about this?” As I see it, the only thing standing in the way of that happening, is our own theology, or penchant for evasion.

Let’s move on to another truth that fits well with wisdom. Reconciliation. Let’s remember that we have ALL been given a spirit of reconciliation. This is not just about helping others who aren’t Christians to see Jesus for themselves. (Who He is, and what He has done for this world.) Reconciliation is designed to work from day-to-day in our everyday relationships and lives.  “All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave US the ministry of reconciliation:…” 2 Corinthians 5:18.

We can reconcile with anybody as long as we follow the Holy Spirit’s leading. That’s because His mandate is now our mandate. It seems to me that many Christians can be reluctant to operate in the ministry of reconciliation. Yet it is part of what we’ve been given, and what’s more, it has a totally complete all-encompassing, world-changing, general application.

Meanwhile, Christians will happily line up for all the other gifts mentioned in several places in the Epistles, but not the ministry of reconciliation! When we received Christ we received the ministry of reconciliation. We will need His help, and wisdom, but it’s a huge part of what we do now. As you can see for yourself, when you read the bible, it is actually everybody’s ministry of reconciliation. We received it from Him, and now we give it away, to the-people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet. But let us not forget it is for each other as well! And yes, that includes the person who has been rubbing you up the wrong way since you joined that church. 

Our churches are not meant to be divided and carved up all over the place – when we divide churches we are dividing His body. If we refuse to give away what we have been given from the Lord, in the form of loving reconciliation, we are not living like His disciples. Jesus told us over and over to do it, and so did Paul, and yet we still stumble about in the dark, because of perceived differences. Some people keep wandering off out of our churches like clock-work. They think they know more than the people they are leaving behind. What a farce! Breaking up a church shows no wisdom, no reconciliation and no love. We simply must remember what we are fighting for.

And this is my last point. In Roman times, when there was a war, the guy who carried the banner representing his company, carried a great responsibility. If the banner dropped or was lost to the enemy, the whole battle was lost. But when the one carrying the banner went down, another soldier would pick it up. Any soldier who saw that banner was in trouble would battle his way through the existing fighting, to get to the banner and defend it.The banner said who they were and what they represented.

The Bible itself talks about banners. In one instance, it says ‘His banner over me is love.’ LOVE is meant to represent our company of brothers and sisters. We must choose to treat LOVE as our banner, because we cannot afford to lose that banner to our enemy! When we’ve lost love we’ve lost everything. That is not to say that we cannot fight to get it back, but it will be a very large battle, requiring discipline. The best way to live in this world is to do whatever we can to protect our banner of His Love for others.That’s going to mean a whole lot of sacrifice, humility, reconciliation, wisdom and probably even pain. Some people aren’t going to like us. Let’s simply remember what we are fighting for, and in adverse circumstances run to our BANNER.

Please, please … read the Old Testament with New Testament eyes whenever you read it!  The Old shows us what God is like and what we are like when we ignore HIM! We need to seek HIS wisdom like it is gold, and choose to reconcile with everyone we can, and chase after 1 Corinthians 13’s kind of love. Why? Because of Colossians 3:14, otherwise we are wearing the wrong clothes! The clothes this world wants us to wear! 

“So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offence. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.” Amen. Bye. 👋

P 3181 A new kind of knowledge.

/ DVH

“In this new creation life, your nationality makes no difference, nor your ethnicity, education, nor economic status—they matter nothing. For it is Christ that means everything as He lives in every one of us!” Colossians 3:11 TPT. Light years ago now, when I was doing my shopping in the supermarket, carefully picking out apples for my family. I looked up and there was a young woman about my age on the other side of the pile of apples doing the same thing. We smiled and then we both spoke at exactly the same time – “You’re a Christian too,” we said simultaneously. 

It was truly awesome and …pretty weird … all-at-the-same-time! We chatted about Jesus, and eventually she went off back into her world, and I went off into mine. Jesus in me, recognised Jesus in her. That’s because He is the same, yesterday, today and forever! The bible tells us other people will know we are Christians by our love— but in this instance, it seems to me the Lord went a little step further. I saw, for a brief moment, that there are no strangers in the realm of the Spirit.

The bible itself exhorts us to know one another after the Spirit:“So from now on we regard no one from a human point of view [according to worldly standards and values]. Though we have known Christ from a human point of view, now we no longer know Him in this way.”  2 Corinthians 5:16. Which brings me to my point today …

I have a question. Do we only know Jesus as the Man, the One Who walked upon the earth like we do now? Or do we also know Him as the risen resurrected Christ? Is He now the mighty One Who appeared to John in the book of Revelation? People make a great deal out of creating movies that bring an image of Jesus into this world. They retell His story with a human being playing Christ. Praise God for those who have come to know the Lord because of those films! But why must we reduce everything to movie land? What’s wrong with talking to people?

When is the last time somebody was healed because your shadow fell on them? Me neither! We sing ‘He is Lord’ and then go out of the meeting and do precisely whatever we want to do. Where did ”Live for Jesus” go? Are we excusing ourselves over and over again by saying, God understands? Does He? Or is that comforting voice that reassures us that we’ll be OK, not Him? Paul describes our society to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:2-5: It’s a warning!

“People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” Having nothing to do with people like that, could be a bit hard to carry out when the person you are looking at is in the mirror! Maybe that soothing voice is not the Holy Spirit after all, but someone else lulling us all back to sleep. 

During Jesus time on this earth, there were mixed reactions to the Man He was. Some of the people back then walked away from Him, and some actively opposed everything He said. These people were in the Presence of God Himself, and didn’t know it. Why not? I think their idea of religion blocked their spiritual sight. They saw Jesus as SomeOne Who was like everyone else but He had nice impossible ideals. Have we made religious decisions about the Lord, instead of being guided by the precious Holy Spirit?

Disobeying SomeOne we see as a man like us, probably won’t matter much, but disobeying our Almighty Ever-lasting Father, God will! Perception is a valuable thing.  We can let this world down when we do not make it clear that we will all one day stand before God Himself. Instead, it seems to me that we are hiding in holes, hoping this nasty, vicious, slimy world around us will wake up to itself. It won’t – not like that it won’t! What works in places like Africa with poor underprivileged people, may not work at all here in we have-pretty-much-everything-we-want-land.

Jesus is not merely a carpenter with dirty dusty feet, and good stories to tell. We dare not lose sight of the One we know as our Lord, because otherwise holy things can become common. Back in Israel in Jesus’ time some people immediately fell at His feet in worship. Those people saw more than just a man! We need to move on past our personal view of Jesus as a human being, and also see Him as God incarnate. Heaven and earth’s Darling, Who calls us brothers and sisters. What an honour!

What truly matters is Christ in us… and then our mandate is to release His love to anybody we meet, wherever we go. We can’t just live in our happy little Sunday clubs anymore – we need to take Him with us, out into the places of suffering and sorrow. And yes, we just might get our nice new blue skirt, or jeans dirty. A new kind of knowledge requires a new kind of response. Bye. 👋

“And so the Living Expression became a man and lived among us! We gazed upon His glory, the glory of the One and Only who came from the Father overflowing with tender mercy and truth!” John 1:14 TPT.

P 2957 Be fruitful not just productive.

/ DVH

After all, Jesus Christ Himself answered to SomeOne else – His Father! John 9:1-4: “While He was passing by, He noticed a man [who had been] blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi (Teacher), who   sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed and illustrated in him. We must work the works of Him Who sent Me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work.”

Sin is common to man, the bible tells us that, but isn’t it astonishing how quickly human beings go into blame, even right in front of Jesus? They say things like: ‘Whose fault is this, Jesus – him or his parents?’ Religion always wants a reason to blame, and sometimes it wants to excuse itself. ‘It’s not my fault my parents beat me, neglected me, spoiled me as a child I can’t help it.’ Right. So it seems to me that you are having trouble putting childish things away?? Read I Corinthians 13:11. How about you study the power of CHOICE?

I love 💕the way that Jesus sorts these things out… because this stuff really IS a waste of time! His disciples noticed that blind man and they wanted a religious reason for his ailment, but …  but… Jesus just healed him!  I mean I’m on the Lord’s team about that … just do something about whatever is wrong!  Love on the guy, restore his life, and throw blame out of the window. Don’t analyse it. Deal with it. Pray over it. After all we’ve been given His authority!

Not only that, then the Lord says something here we don’t even dare to discuss ……this incredible Being, Almighty God, Who ‘wraps Himself in unapproachable light and has no darkness in Him at all’ ALLOWED that blind man to be born blind so He could illustrate His glory! Ya might want to think about that for 3 months or so, ‘cos it kind of stomps all over all kinds of theology … like right … there. Our God is not the ‘when you wish upon a star, pretty blue fairy.’  When He came down upon the mountain in front of the Israelites they shoved Moses up the front and said “We are too scared of Him, YOU GO!” Let’s always remember that He’s the Mighty God Who rules heaven and earth, and — you’d better believe it buddy!

When Jesus took off His earthly human form, and He was revealed as God’s Son before 3 of His disciples – nobody had anything to say except Peter  — and that poor guy made an ass of himself… again. I always feel sorry for Peter, he says dumb stuff right out loud. Those things we might kind of whisper in corners to each other but we wouldn’t dare say any of it out loud at church. People might stop thinking we are holy if we did that. 

John 9:39: “Then Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment [to separate those who believe in Me from those who reject Me—to declare judgment on those who choose to be separated from God], so that the sightless would see, and those who see would become blind.”That sounds pretty clear and ‘user friendly’ to me. When the Lord was confronted with a blind man — He healed him. He didn’t form a committee to discuss what they should do next  didn’t care about the guy’s theology – or anyone else’s theology for that matter! He was simply fulfilling His God-given mandate. Is this a good time to mention that we have that mandate too?? Too soon??? Not ready??? Hmmm… I seem to recall the Lord said: “Live ready.” Matthew 24:42-51.

Moving on … Jesus knew that there was going to be a time when He couldn’t work anymore, so He did not waste a minute of the time He had at His disposal. That needs to be our blueprint for this life too. It is also worth noting that praying for the sick is a work that God has told all of us to do. Whether we feel spiritual or not, it’s our job now. I’ve prayed for the sick and they got worse and died, and I’ve prayed for the sick and they got better. And I can’t tell you why either one turned out either way! I simply know He said pray for the sick, so I did.

Whatever Jesus did, praying for the sick, deliverance, personal instruction – He totally did everything He did for the glory of God. He never justified big meetings by saying He had a ministry or some special gift … and yet He had ALL the gifts … better than we ever could. Instead He preached whatever He heard His Father saying to those who came. Whether it was two people or five thousand. He left everything to God and did what His Father told Him, and whatever He saw His Father doing. John 5:19. 

That verse in John 5 has always fascinated me. Jesus was not proud, He was humble, submitted to His Father.  The words “I do nothing by Myself” are pure gold to me. The Lord Jesus had no other agenda. I pray God will remove every one of my agendas and give me HIS! Amen. Now there’s a heart worth asking for! I wanna be with the people who only do what He’s doing and only say what He’s saying. The church has done enough advertising, talking and big mouthing, we need to learn to listen to the Holy Spirit and do what He says. It seems to me that sometimes we talk to cover up our lack. Did I say that out loud? Yikes… yes I did!! 

My current theory, (yeah, I freely admit it is a theory,) is that we need the Word of God to work on us, within us. Transformation will follow as we admit our lack and go after the Answer. Then we will freely flow in love, compassion and kindness. Jesus Himself never lacked those qualities, and we need to go after them, not just the gifts. We are meant to be fruit bearing vines, not libraries, or fun fairs. We desperately need the love and devotion that never fails. Sadly, in my personal experience, my human love can fail all over the place! I am especially convicted when I read I Corinthians 13:7. “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 

We will gain compassion and kindness by simply walking with the Lord, and seeing others through His eyes. Plus steadfastly walking through difficulties, sorrow and suffering, without losing any of our LOVE for Him, and others. I pray for everyone reading this blog today that they too would aim at Love over everything else because Love is the best glue known to mankind. As we too work the works of Him Who sent US, we must remember that unless we have Love, HIS love, we can end up clanging away like a fire bell.

We need to get our minds renewed to think like His, and “get our head in the game!” Fruitfulness is life-changing, not just productive. Bye 👋

P 2926 Compromise.

/ DVH

To die or not to die — that is the REAL question! One of the saddest deceptions that has gone vastly unchallenged today, is the idea that if we don’t want to die to self, then that will be OK. The logic behind that thought is this – after all Father God loves us, and He understands how hard it is for us – so we don’t have to be like … totally sold out to Him. He understands that we are only human! 

Yeah, that’s right, Jesus gets it. After all He took on our form and walked through this world, sinless. BUT! Jesus got His power to live an overcoming life, from His ongoing obedience and connection with the Holy Spirit. We always retain the power of choice, but the reality is, God knows the right way for us to go,so why the heck would you want to go any other way?? Obedience shows trust. Jesus obeyed His Heavenly Father – to the death!!  The bible says: “There is a way that seems right to a man but at the end of it is death!” Proverbs 14:12. Dying to self is not the same as losing the life of God in us to deliberate sin.

Everything about my natural man will try to protect ME, myself and I – and from personal observation, we are blooming good at it too! Not only that, but I can protect me, and make you look like a ruffian and then go on to prove you are dead wrong from the book! But the bible is not a club it is an implement of freedom.  And our inward, and often unseen choices, can undermine our spiritual life. We can’t afford to lose the Holy Spirit for a minute. We need Him daily – all the time. Temptation is waiting around every corner. When we choose to hide, or pretend, that’s when the precious Holy Spirit leaves us, quietly, unobtrusively. Sadly we won’t even know He has gone. Then our own vain imagination takes over …and boy! …  Is that a scary thought!

Jesus offered us a new way of life, not an alternative lifestyle. He said ‘this is the way walk ye in it.’It is extremely dangerous to try to walk, and/or balance our lives between those two worlds of total surrender and commitment … and living like Christianity is an optional extra – something I take part in when it suits me!  We cannot look after me and serve Jesus. We must leave looking after me to Him!

So the answer is simple – give up the power of choice, stop being double-minded and live this life like God is bigger than you are, and He knows what is best. We have a big book full of examples of what He can do with people who obey Him. Simply follow Jesus and see everything else as a distraction from that chosen path. Living like that is how we will learn to be in this world the way He was, because He was here to do His Father’s will. The Lord Jesus was always about His Father‘s business and that’s our mandate too. 

He told a lot of parables about people who went off and did their own thing. Stories about when the master of the vineyard etc. was busy or went missing. Those were not good stories for the people who chose to do their own thing, and they did not have happy endings. The safest way to choose is to choose to follow Him unreservedly. And because He is humble in His heart, that road will lead us down. Lower still. Less recognition for us, and more recognition for HIM.  

We will probably fall over and mess up a bit while we are learning these things, but the reality is the choice to remain on His road leads to life – and more life. That’s the abundant life that Jesus talked about. The Lord is so sweet, He will be very patient with us while we are learning. He will correct things “…and teach and guide us with His eye upon us.” But we simply can’t live this new life without HIM, because we will fail, get discouraged and fail again … just from sheer disappointment! There is no middle ground – that’s just something someone made up so they could live with a foot in each world! 

In today’s permissive climate this is definitely not the time to go skipping through the daisies doing whatever we like, and expecting the blood of Jesus to cover it! The blood of Jesus is incredibly precious, so we must not ever misuse it. We can’t afford to misunderstand and mistake God’s incredible Love for us as permissiveness. We dare not tell people that they simply need to be saved – without telling them they need to be changed – by His Grace and their own obedience! 

We need His wisdom to negotiate our way through all the things that will come against us. Personally I have found in the face of difficulties, it is best to immediately, verbally, yield. Tell Him you want His will, His way – no matter what. We are never alone, praise God, we have an Advocate Who understand what it is like to be human! Jesus prays for us all the time. After I do that stuff, I hand everything over to Him and I do nothing until I get further instructions, mostly from His book. Otherwise it is way too easy to be dragged about by the wind of this doctrine, and that clever theory/idea. 

At the same time we need to remember our aim is love, so when we fall short of love, we are falling short of what Christ would do. But when I am dead to self, and I have no agendas anymore, who I love is no longer up to me – it’s up to Him. Dying to self is not an optional extra … it’s the point! He died so we can have the power to live this life His Way. That’s what disciples do, they represent their Master’s wishes. Anything else is compromise. Bless you, 👋

P 2769 Be Gentle with people.

/ DVH

“Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.”  2 Timothy 2:22-26.

When people disagree with us theologically and we know they are wrong, we need to come alongside them, and go over the truth from the bible, mixed with great spiritual wisdom and kindness. There are many people today that would probably say nothing at all, because they feel somebody else’s error is none of their business and disagreement is not of God. But here, Paul is telling us not to fight about stuff, but we can’t ignore it either. Error flourishes when the truth is not explained, and error has a picnic when people stop reading their bibles!

Timothy is being instructed by Paul to dialogue with others about theological differences. The thing is, we don’t have to disagree about these things, but we do need to address them. It is part of our mandate to make the Lord’s ways, as written in His book, clear. In my own family there is someone who has some quite squirrelled-up ideas about God and what He will or won’t do. I remind myself often that love covers a multitude of sin – and love is not a feeling it is a choice. So love cares deeply if the other person is misinformed, but it doesn’t punish them for not knowing what the truth is, it demonstrates it, as well as corrects it.

However, please don’t overlook the fact that satan is the prince of the power of the air and he makes a lousy interpreter of what somebody else just said!! Clarification is imperative. Instead, no matter how either party feels, pray,  and release the Holy Spirit to bring about reconciliation and a deeper understanding. People can hear you better if you stand with them, not on the other side of some theological fence. We need to practise humility, and not blame. And if we are to correct others, we need to be humble and open to correction ourselves. Fighting doesn’t teach anyone anything, it just makes other people defensive.

Meanwhile, I think the Lord is on the move. The church at large, seems to think that God moving means ‘good times for ALL.’  Actually, I don’t think that. “…narrow is the gate, and few people find it…” I think this is the time to throw out erroneous theology and concentrate on what the bible says. We’ve been stuck on the “God wants to bless me and make my life great” turntable for way too long and many people were flung off it because it did not ring true in their own lives. The Holy Spirit is looking into our lives and asking each one us about what we believe and WHY. He’s levelling our theological roads to make a highway for our God. He knows how to fix everything. Meanwhile, in the Lord’s Presence, disagreements melt away. 

When God points out error it is not to condemn anyone.“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge and condemn the world … but that the world might be saved through Him.” John 3:17. So, I can say, unequivocally, that nobody should ever feel condemned, however, convicted works for me! Condemnation is not from God and it’s not why Jesus came! He came to save us from our sins, past, present and future. Jesus knows how to get through this stuff, He talked to the religious leaders in His ministry. He is truth. And He knows how anyone can escape from the enemy’s lies and traps. “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13.

Did ya get that? I had to read it a couple of times before I did. The word endure popped out. Sometimes the best answer is to lovingly endure someone else’s ignorance. Meanwhile this verse also means He won’t immediately fish us out of whatever is going on… remember – He promises to be WITH US in trouble!  And faith does not grow without str-etch-ing …. What we have at stake here is the mistaken perception that if God is good, why do good people suffer? That’s an easy one –  all have sinned! His compassion for other people won’t fall on us, we must become alive to it, and often experience will teach us more than a theory can.

We are told in 2 Timothy that we must not be quarrelsome. Speaking for myself, I hardly ever start out trying to be quarrelsome, I jump in when I can see someone else is hurting themselves with a false belief system. I have also observed that there are times when people seem argumentative, but they are simply trying to explain themselves. Sometimes, loudly and aggressively! But, listening carefully is the very best posture to take. Responding like this can let the angry hot air out of someone else’s bright red balloon and disarm the situation. We simply need to continue to live in love, no matter what is said … and agreement comes later. And conviction comes from the Lord Himself, not from our opinions, even if they are accidentally right.

It can be really hard to talk to someone we know about touchy issues. Stress is everywhere and people get defensive. Even nice people!  We can all feel anxious and attacked when somebody else points out our faults or mistakes. That is time to ask for the Holy Spirit’s wisdom and help. The world gently  stands out in 2 Timothy — that means we will need the Grace of God to help us to operate in all our conversations, ‘gently,’ and not get ticked off. The major thing in any argument is to remember that nobody likes to be misunderstood, or have their personhood maligned. Insulting the other person, and what they believe, is counterproductive.

We can’t change someone else’s behaviour, instead, we are looking to introduce God’s Love into the situation so both people stop focussing on the issue, and start to remember that even if they are wrong or misinformed that God already forgave them and He accepts them. We do not have to be held captive to any strategy of satan that has been sent to create pain, division and strife, instead we can choose to become God’s messengers of gentleness, accompanied by acceptance and love. Bye 👋

P 2664 On seeking God’s will.

/ DVH

Romans 12:1-2: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

So did ya get that? Changing our minds to think like the Lord does, by reading and obeying what He says — opens the door to discern what He wants. Meanwhile it is not just about thinking differently, it is about letting that different thinking affect our actions and reactions. Presenting our bodies to Him means WE are no longer in charge of what happens. We can always pray and ask Him for a different outcome, but the way to truly worship God is to give Him our bodies … and let HIM decide! Um, do you need a cuppa tea and a biscuit to cheer you up yet? There are a whole lotta people who won’t like that previous thought.

When we live this way, at the same time, the Lord will use our circumstances to reveal our own hearts to us. We test His will out, daily by the way we are choosing to live now. If what we are doing falls on it’s head — then it wasn’t God! BUT! … If bears good fruit it was! Meanwhile if we keep getting the same bad result over and over again, then there is no doubt about it … not. dead. yet! It’s no good blaming other people, or whatever – a transformed mind doesn’t look for things to its own advantage – it looks for God to get all the glory, and it continually chases love.

James, one of my favourite authors, helps us in Chapter 1:5-8: “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, Who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.  Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.”  All we need to to do, is to ask for His wisdom and believe He wants to help us through whatever is going on.

There can be times when we will mess up our ability to receive from the Lord – through our own disobedience, cemented attitudes, or insistence that we are not at fault, somebody else is!  Remember, James is talking about receiving Almighty God’s wisdom. You and I can easily short circuit receiving the very thing God wants us to have by the way we respond to it. We are no longer like the rest of the world … independently minded. We are not meant to be a people whose made-up god puts a big tick on all our ideas. We serve the ever-living, always present Almighty God – He runs this show! 

Human beings love systems. BUT, when we look at the Ways of God, He’s not like that! In the bible we can clearly see that every single situation needs a fresh revelation. For example, King David did not fight every one of his battles the same way, because God sent him out with different instructions each time. This man knew how to seek God to find out what came next. He was not interested in strategies that he could repeat at will whenever he went into battle. Sometimes the Lord gave him a strategy before the battle, and sometimes God said: ‘Go! I will be with you!” In other words although a rock killed Goliath, the next time David needed a different plan, he sought the Lord to get it.

This is why I have spent so much time writing about how to receive, hear and obey the Lord. Because there is no system that we can use to make our lives more comfortable… and still serve Him! The mandate is upon us to get to know God and His ways for ourselves. Our pastors can preach until they turn blue. If we do not follow up what the man of God says with our own prayers, and then look for ways to be obedient – all we will get is double-mindedness. That looks like a bit this: “Oh, I think what pastor said here was good but I don’t agree with this and that … I think this instead …”  

Good on you! Yay for you! But you just lined yourself up to be double-minded. Ask the Lord what He wants you to know and do, personally, from what was said. Here’s a good clue —-if whatever was said annoyed you then it’s a certainty that there is something there you need to learn, about yourself, others, and the Lord Himself!  Our personal responses are our personal diagnostic tools.  Anything less than learning more about loving Him, or how to love others – plus how to die daily, is pure advertising. Those are the sort of trimmings that make our lives look good from the outside. 

There is one attitude that will help us along our way … and that is this … we daily lay down our own right to choose our destiny and, simply follow Jesus. That’s what the disciples did, when they sought His will.. When He left them, they sat about and waited like He told them to ,,, because there was no alternative plan B! Bye 👋

P 2530 Reverence, respect and esteem.

/ DVH

Further to what I wrote yesterday, I began to pray and think about the elder son in the parable of the prodigal son. His attitude was less than fabulous about all this restoration stuff for his brother. Maybe he was glad the young man left in the first place! It seems to me he was obsessed with works, and he was angry that his brother had not pulled his weight. He was also resentful because he had to make up the difference, while Junior wafted about doing whatever he liked. So he spat his dummy out about what happened, and his Dad copped it. He definitely found an attitude in there amongst all that co-operation!

Luke 15:25-31 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.  But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours…”

How easy it is sometimes to be the older brother! Particularly when another son is such a whimsical character.  I must say in my life I have been the prodigal, so other people being restored doesn’t actually phase me, I get delighted instead…. A-n-d …that was when the Lord said!!!  … … “Oh really??? So when someone has acted badly toward a person you love, and they choose to forgive them, you don’t get snippy about it?”  At that moment I chose to plead the 5th amendment, and I’m not even American! Yes, I repented. 

Righteo. I can see I’m both guys in that parable. Then the Lord said this: “There are THREE people in that story. What about the father, do you also identify with the father?” O-k-a-ay. On reflection, it seems I can identify with all three characters in this story Lord!  Yikes. This story is a lot more complicated than I originally thought. But as I thought more about it, I found I can also identify with the prodigal’s father, because I too have had one kid that decided it didn’t like me and they went afar off. I am quite familiar with that pain. 

That was when I realised that – knowing the pain, and identifying the sin in my own life — are two different things! Boy did I get mad at the kid that left! I’ve also wandered out to the gate, when I could bear it, and looked up the road, but in the end I nearly gave up. I had to learn we can’t stop reaching out to difficult people in our lives, just because they don’t like us. That’s simply avoiding rejection. But the bible says: Love believes all things, it hopes all things … so we now have the greater mandate — restoration. 

He is right of course, I have totally had bad thoughts, plus words out loud, toward others who seem to get away with blue murder. That’s called jealousy … if you are interested. 🙄 The prodigal in this parable was careless and dismissive of his role in other people’s lives and he did not value what he already had, and what his father generously gave him. But, alternately the older brother was obsessed with what other people were or weren’t doing, and whether what he did was being recognised. 

Meanwhile their dear father loved both of these two young men, despite their shortcomings. In my own life I have found that one person’s sin can uncover a whole lot of things that were already there in a number of people – but they were not seen. And sometimes sin provides an opportunity for revelation for everybody!  However, God’s love remains the same. He is faithful and true at all times. 

I didn’t write these last two blogs to condemn anyone, because I know personally that God’s Grace absolutely covers all our sin. Instead my thoughts each time, were centred on not taking His Grace for granted. Like the prodigal did. Or striving to earn it, like the older brother! Which ever role we qualify for, we will always need God’s Grace. However, I can rejoice that there is not one word of condemnation on either young man. Our God is so amazing – He goes straight to restoration. We need to remember that our God is a God of reconciliation and restoration. So if we want to be like Him we must learn His Ways of reconciliation and restoration! It ain’t rocket science.

We need to allow the Lord to move us past the immaturity of our past, into the same way of thinking and doing that Jesus occupied. We are now eternally, gratefully, His. ‘My Beloved is mine and I am His and His banner over me is love.’ This is to be our focus now – and if we fall on our heads, then the Holy Spirit is here to help us. If we do not reverence, esteem and remain grateful for His Grace, that lack can lead us astray. Let’s remember the Israelites, they immediately forgot what Almighty God had done for them, and went off chasing other gods. 👋