Miracles

P 3323 Follow the thread.  

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Last night we stayed in a Motel room that was the worse for wear. The tiles were coming off the bathroom wall, and it looked like there had been a fire in the room at one time. It was however, immaculately clean. Yet, today we are staying at a resort-type place on the Murray River, right on the border of NSW and Victoria. Here’s the fun bit – the room with the tiles coming off the wall was only $AU9 cheaper than the resort. Go figure! 😂 

Life on the road is like that, and we have learnt not to concern ourselves about small things, because getting upset means we will most likely miss the blessing. Letting in anxiety also uses up heaps of energy, and we are running low on that at the moment. 1,250 kms in 5 days, 360 things given away! If we did a rocket imitation we could have driven the distance in 2 days. But then we would not have had time to stop for the people who turned up in front of us. We’ve had 6 or 7 close encounters of the God-kind, not to mention being blessed by these people just because we met them.

My poor hubby has to do absolutely everything. My contribution is to move things one at a time toward the door, then fold the dirty towels for the cleaner, and …. I do my best to stay out of his way. He’s kind of a skinny blue and grey blur that rushes in and out, packing the car. We’ve also given away 3 bags of blankets, 30 blankets in all, plus toiletries and bibles. But we have 7 bags and loads of extras to go, yet. 

One of the roads we traveled on is known as the worst highway in our state. We agree with that assessment BTW. Road trains of 3 trailers or more, were hurtling along swaying and bouncing all over the bumps. It ain’t boring!! But on one of those bad back roads – the Lord picked it – we met a Muslim man and his wife and shared Jesus with them.

In our very elderly motel, we met another Muslim couple, and hubby told these two young people about the Lord’s love for them too. They told us they were so lonely, because nobody in the country town talks to them. They even wrote us a thank-you-for-coming letter! Please pray, there are so many lonely people out here. A lot of the churches have closed, and there is limited support and a huge need.

Hubby sometimes has a hard time with me, not just because I am disabled, but because the Lord tells me stuff and he – poor sod – gets to do it for me. But there is a side blessing for him – he gets to talk to people, face to face. He loves that part. I honestly think he really was born to do this, it comes so naturally to him. I have to gird up my loins and pray like mad, or the words fall out of my brain. I can forget what I am saying in the middle of a sentence when I am tired!

We met one guy through a series of God-sent miracles, and  the Lord said to me: “Tell him he needs a compass.” We sometimes have compasses to give away, they often have a profound message for people. So, there he was, a youngish tough looking guy, and I blurted out: “God says you need a compass!” And as I handed it to him – he said, with tears in his eyes. “I’ll say!” What I’ve learnt from things like this is that the Lord Himself picks the people He wants you to interact with. This young man needed straight talk. Tee-hee, being older has its perks, old ladies can pretty much say whatever they like, so long as it is caring and sweet and fluffy. I like to take advantage of that.

We don’t have to individually be the whole ballgame. Jesus is the whole ballgame … He’s the ground, the sky, and in the players etc. Plus the Holy Spirit is the best Coach and our Father is the team’s owner! The Lord wants YOU to be YOU, but that doesn’t mean you are destined to sit in the bleachers watching on, while the game of life progresses. Too many precious saints are in the cheap seats thinking they don’t belong on the field because of this and that. The past is gone. It’s time to pick up a ball and bat and join the game – it will take all the members of our team to help us win, and you definitely have a part to play. The Lord has something planned for you that will knock that baseball out of the park and bless you at the same time.

When I was a teenager I wanted to be a journalist/reporter. Much later in my life, God gave me my dream. He kind of turned it upside down and tweaked it a bit, but now I ask questions and write things down. I listen and then obey. Now I write for Him. Like I’ve said before – it ain’t rocket science. America just sent 4 astronauts around the dark side of the moon, and they discovered something amazing – the earth is not just fragmented bits floating about in space. You might think it is, the way we all act! He made our earth with love, it was never His plan for people to chop it up in pieces. 

Today, together, we can each do our bit. Some of us trundle down dusty roads to meet the one person who needs to hear about Jesus, and some of us will have a conversation with a stranger in the supermarket. Some teach Religious Instruction in the schools, and some talk to people on the train. There’s an interesting bit of a verse in Genesis 24:27:  “I, being in the Way…” The no-name guy who said that ends up being an integral part of the story.

I think none of us need to continue to sit on the bench or in the bleachers. Let’s decide to live our whole lives in His WAY and get our head in His game. I hope to see you there, and you might see me. We’ll both be following His thread. Bye. 👋

P 3300 We rely upon Him.

/ DVH

Lately I have been thinking about the kind of things that that can keep us from walking in everything Jesus died to give us. Unfortunately, discouragement can send God’s kids into despair. Some of us are physically, mentally, or spiritually ill. I want to point out that the lack of an overcoming, miraculous testimony, is not a sin. 

I know some brave, persevering souls who soldier on in the faith, even when everything is not quite so hunky-dory at their house! Sometimes we relegate those people who don’t have an amazing testimony of a miraculous cure, or life-turn around – onto the back burner. Do that at your own peril. These people have been smacked about by circumstances, yet they have learnt to cling to Christ like a limpet. In a storm, they know how to stand on their faith.

It is sad to assume that because these people are physically, or mentally impaired, obviously they have nothing they can contribute. Or perhaps we think we shouldn’t bother them because they are already burdened. In my heart of hearts, I have such a passion for these brave souls, who turn up Sunday by Sunday, simply because they love Him, they love His Presence, and they love the joy of fellowship. When it comes to testimony time, their simple contributions breathe out trust and faith in His goodness.

Maybe they’ve persevered for another day, week, or month, in a marriage that clearly is not working for them. God loves it when we do things in obedience, despite our feelings to the contrary. We might think that a real testimony is about a joyful reconciliation and restoration, but a true soldier of the Lord continues to fight and love the other person even when wounded and under fire. Maybe some other person has their precious child missing, and they don’t know if that son or daughter is alive or dead. So they stand at their door daily, not just actively waiting for the return of their child, but steadfast in their belief of God’s goodness.

We are encouraged in the bible, to weep with those who weep! Our God is a Father, He longs to comfort His children. The thing that becomes incredibly important when you are sidelined by illness, or adverse circumstances is looking after our faith. Faith takes a battering when we don’t get well immediately … or the problems continue over a long period of time. Pray for, and with these people, they need your support.

The Lord was incredibly compassionate toward those who were suffering, no matter what the cause was, even if it was the person’s own sin. Jesus is always truly kind and gentle with the sick. Compassion is a sorely needed heart-action toward those who are living their Christian lives suffering. These dear people live holding their breath, wondering when that next attack, or relapse might happen. But they go on to rebuke those thoughts, and focus on Jesus instead. They already know that focussing on the suffering makes it bigger. 

These people are not second-class Christians! The perfectly well, the happily married, the parents with kids who are model children, can never be the criteria. Jesus is! And He loves mankind. He paid for every bit of sickness, disease, unfaithfulness, sinfulness, and suffering in the whole world, and so that love for this world must become the motivation for everything we do toward others. 

In John 8:11 He says something so beautiful when He asks where a woman’s accusers have gone. “She answered, No one, Lord! And Jesus said, I do not condemn you either. Go on your way and from now on sin no more.” And John 9:3 says this about a blind man: “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.” The Lord’s answer could easily jump all over a lot of people’s theology, yet at the same time it highlights our God’s sovereignty and utter faithfulness. God is not interested in our formulaic approach to faith, He treats each person individually, so we dare not treat any one of them as a member of a herd. 

When we make healing into some sort of proof that we are saved and going on with Jesus – we are in error. Our efforts to simplify our faith, can result in over-simplifying it, by attributing blame when there is no blame. And even if we can see blame, who are we to judge? Most of the time these things are just part of this sinful world.. However, we can’t ever afford to stop praying and believing for miracles, healing and we need to do so with compassion. That’s why Christ came here in the first place. 

Jesus never tolerated illness or the demonic, so that’s the position we need to occupy too.  But at the same time,  let’s actively support the person who is suffering. We are oversimplifying the Lord’s work when we claim that nobody should ever be sick, and there must be some hidden sin in the life of the sick person.

Sometimes, because that person is so desperate for their blooming awful lives to change, we can actually harm them with our unbounded enthusiasm for the wonderful things God does. I’ve seen this scenario happen many times. Someone prays, announces that the person is healed, and walks away leaving the sick person feeling condemned. The person prayed for now feels that they are letting God down if they aren’t healed. People lose their faith in these circumstances. People should feel loved after any kind of prayer.

Always pray as the Lord leads you to pray, but please … don’t leave the person in need, worse off than they were before! That is devastating. Let’s remember we rely upon Almighty God, Who is always good!  Bye. 👋

P 3248 Let joy REMAIN.

/ DVH

“Yahweh, you are my soul’s celebration. How could I ever forget the miracles of kindness You’ve done for me?” Psalms 103:2 TPT. “When You speak to me, I devour every word. Your word brings me such boundless joy. The endless delight of my heart is in knowing that Your beautiful name is attached to me, O  Yahweh, Commander of Angel Armies.” Jeremiah 15:16 TPT. ‘I have told you these things, that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing.” John 15:11. First of all we let JOY remain by remembering Jesus has chosen to walk with us here and now – and the Holy Spirit is here to lead us.

Joy is like peace, don’t lose it! If you lose it I urge you to go and find it again. His joy, in us, makes this life worth living. It is precious and costly – it cost Jesus His life. Let’s treat our lives like an operating room. Nobody operates on a patient without first thoroughly scrubbing themselves clean, so we must make sure we ask Him to help us look after our hearts. This means if and when, we get angry etc., we need repent quickly. Nurturing anger and feeding irritation, facilitates letting our hearts harden against that other person. Sorrow and suffering are joy murderers, unless our joy is permanently in the One Who saved us. Then circumstances can’t rule us.

Our enemy comes at us with whispers about this and that, and before you know it, there is no joy, no peace, no reconciliation – there is only RAGE and SORROW left. To let JOY remain, we need to guard our hearts against pride, self-satisfaction, revenge, bitterness, self-pity etc. And deliberately repent and remove any reason to justify ourselves, our actions and words. Take all that ugliness to the cross and leave it there. Humble yourself and fix things with others. We can’t serve two Masters … we will end up with divided hearts. Let’s choose Who we will serve and permanently settle it inside us. 

Then we need to deal with the state of our hearts, and the all pervading feeling that we are entitled to be angry, because the other person did or said this and that! Rehearsing other people’s sins is not only a dead end road, it’s a disaster! When we go to the cross we leave our entitlement, our judgment, our need for retribution there – my best advice is this – don’t go back and dig it up!  

Baptism isn’t just a ritual, some people go under the water and come up exactly the same! That means the water of the Word has not washed them clean of this world’s attitudes and systems. Instead this life continues to feed them entitlement and anger – over and over again. There are others who like to think of themselves as wounded beings, and they feel the rest of the world owes them something, because this life has wounded them. Here’s a big revelation for all of us, we are all wounded one way or another. Hurt is not a reason to indulge ourselves.

Thankfulness in the face of adversity is one of the biggest keys to allowing our joy to remain. Meditating on what someone else did or said, feeds the wrong spirit. Eventually that becomes a defensive way to think, and the habit of not seeing the good in things, will drag us under. But God is bigger than the spirit of stupid we can so easily succumb to – cry out for help, and He will rescue us, over and over again. Consider this life to be a journey, and point yourself in His direction and don’t allow detours. 

This is what the Lord said in Matthew 26:53 when people were deliberately murderous, vicious and cruel to Him.“Do you think I cannot call on My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”Right there, is the well-spring of our joy. The Lord didn’t try to save Himself, instead He chose to rescue us. Our choices are also powerful! We can help each other immeasurably if we simply stop putting our expectations onto other people. Other people cannot hold us up, that’s like putting your expectations on a badly broken chair. You’ll hurt yourself when you fall down! 

There’s real joy in what Jesus did. JOY is one of God’s glorious traits. Jesus didn’t sail through His earthly life without conflict and confrontation, He walked carefully, prayerfully through it, sometimes one step at time. And every single time He did that with that with US in mind. Our focus matters! “Keep your eyes on Jesus, Who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how He did it. Because He never lost sight of where He was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—He could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now He’s there, in the place of honour, right alongside God.” Hebrews 12:2.

The joy we experience here and now, when we see what Jesus can do with one ordinary little changed life, that is our way through to the finish line. Where incredible eternal joy awaits us. We need to put immediate gratification, or instant relief from annoyance and irritation down … In favour of the greater good. Jesus looked through the pain of the cross, the separation from His Father and the Holy Spirit, and He saw us —- all of us together, in His Father’s house – forever. It is HIS joy we are learning so we need to learn it HIS way.  The Lord Jesus is the best reason of all to choose to learn to let joy remain. Bye. 👋

P 3244 Father God is for us!

/ DVH

Isaiah 64:4,5a AMP. “For from days of old no one has heard, nor has ear perceived, Nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who works and acts in behalf of the one who [gladly] waits for Him. You meet him who rejoices in doing that which is morally right, Who remembers You in Your ways.”

Our Heavenly Father, clearly wants us to know His will – that’s why He gave us a book! In this book the Lord has put so many incredible testimonies of His activities – plus His interactions with very different people. We have a record of His people’s glorious victories, plus their ignominious defeats. Some people burst across the sky like a shooting star, others fizzled out like dying fireworks. At the same time we have a clear and comprehensive record of what Jesus is like, and what He valued most – His Father’s Presence and His Father’s will.

The part of this scripture I want to accentuate today is the bit that says: …”a God like You Who works for those who wait for Him.”  In every other world religion human beings have to do the work to achieve some sort of spirituality. But our God works for us, as we wait for Him… Let’s pause and reflect about that…the God of the Universe also waits for us to choose Him.. We can now see how important waiting is! Jesus has already done all the work for us – however, that does not mean we can coast along blowing smoke rings, drinking like a fish and doing whatever we like! Faith isn’t presumption, it is a deliberate interaction between a Holy God and His people. He has earned the right to tell us what to do – but He won’t make us. 

The bible tells us that the Jewish people waited several centuries for their Messiah — they were longing for Him to come, because He was the One prophesied Who would set all things right for them. But when Jesus came they didn’t recognise Him! His words and miracles caused a stir, but His only recognisable parade consisted of Him, sitting on a donkey. Perhaps the Israelites expected grandeur and excitement — but the Lord arrived without pomp or ceremony and He left the same way. That thought ought to teach us something about Almighty God. He is not averse to doing things in secret.… a-n-d … ya might want to think about that!

The church today desperately needs eyes to see Him, or we can totally miss whatever He is doing. Our fallibility to distraction is legendary! Only people with active faith, who are looking, waiting, and wanting Him, will notice whatever He does. Here’s a little bit of advice … be very wary of anyone who tells you they know what’s coming next. The bible tells us that no-one knows the time or the hour of things like the Second Coming. The first time around, Jesus came and went and many people did not even identify Him. Like I said, our God is great at keeping things secret! 

Back in His time, ordinary people saw those miracles, they probably even ate the multiplied bread and fish … but what happened did not touch their hearts. We have to leave our hearts open to hear from Him – continually hitting the refresh button, even when it comes to reading the bible. One of Jesus’ twelve disciples did not appear to understand His ministry and purpose, despite the fact that this man walked around with Him for over three years! Our biggest danger as Christians is that we read in the bible about what He wants us to do, but then we go out and continue to live our lives thinking we can postpone our response, without applying these truths to ourselves! That is not how you get to know Him.

Our God loves loyal people, and at the same time, He cherishes each personal relationship with every one of us. It isn’t about praying at Him – it is about enjoying the time we spend with Him. Awareness of His goodness needs to be present with us in the everyday hustle and bustle we face. As we honour His wishes, by living the Way He has asked us to live, we will keep His Presence before our eyes. Everyday life gets bigger when we choose to make Him a part of it! Even the fact that the Lord has given us a choice in these things, is such an incredible privilege. Think about it. He made us, He quite obviously could have used force, yet He didn’t. Instead, He woos us with His loving kindness. Our choices reflect how much we take Him seriously as our Lord and Saviour.

Other so-called gods threaten people or lull them into a false sense of security. They appeal to physicality, or mental gymnastics – concepts and words that seem to have truth in them, manageable stuff!  But God’s truth always leaves me astonished. His way of looking at other people goes right round my brain! Some of the things that are done in the name of other gods are meaningless, even brutal, or vicious, self-serving and demanding. Eventually those things impinge upon the person’s freedom, not to mention scaring people half to death with their reprisal threats!  Father God cherishes our freedom to choose – He respects our choices even when they are not good for us. 

Let’s live like this: “And so, dear brothers and sisters, you are now made holy, and each of you is invited to the feast of your heavenly calling. So fasten your thoughts fully onto Jesus, Whom we embrace as our Apostle and King-Priest.” Hebrews 3:1 TPT. Our God is not like any other – our Heavenly Father is for us. What other god would die in place of His followers so they can have the freedom to choose Him …or not? 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 3192 The joy at the other end.

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In order to move forward into all the Lord has for us, we will need to stop relying on instant answers, and start choosing to enter into His processes. As promised in Psalm 23, the Lord Jesus Himself is our good Shepherd. He wants to walk with us through any and all deep valleys in our lives, and give us what He has personally prepared for us from His own bountiful table. All of this with our enemies looking on, as they watch us, receive His anointing – together with His goodness and mercy. To walk with Him, we will need to put away our own devices, and have faith in what He has said. 

Sadly, I think indulgence has grabbed hold of us and held us fast. The other guy has taken hold of the ball, so to speak, and he is almost in his own end-zone. We’re going to have to push back hard in the Lord’s strength to gain back the ground we have willingly, or inadvertently, given away. Here’s what I have learnt about that — the strength to push back does not come before I need it … it comes as I start pushing, praying all the way! But the joy that comes at the other end of what God has planned, is worth it. I can’t lose, because the 23rd Psalm clearly shows God’s intention for my good.

Jesus and His disciples spent three and a half years together. He taught them as He demonstrated His love in action, and they listened and saw. Even at the beginning of their time together He sent them out to do what they were called to do. HELP OTHERS. Those men could do those things because the Lord gave them His authority! 

Even though they had not yet met the Holy Spirit in Person, the Lord Jesus’ authority alone ushered in miracles and things beyond their own wildest dreams. So they returned and reported to the Lord full of praise and wonder.Let’s pause and think about that — because those blessings have not changed!  We still have that power! But we have allowed this world to distract us from our God-given authorised purpose.

Apart from the cross itself, when all our sins and the punishment for them plus the weight of them fell on HIM— I think, that when Jesus left His disciples behind – He took yet another enormous step of faith. He knew the Holy Spirit so well, He was able to walked away, even into a painful death, Jesus trusted the Spirit of God to look after those men! That is enormous. Human beings can be so proud that we can have a terrible time letting someone else take over something that we have started. However, Jesus is so devoted to His Father’s will, He was prepared to step aside.

The Lord is incredible. His faith is incredible. And the good news is this – Jesus Christ is the AUTHOR and FINISHER of our very own faith! Our faith in the Living Word of God is what changes this world. With one act of total humility Jesus transformed and sealed all of mankind’s destiny. And He knew that the very best Person to help His disciples to remain steadfast after his death, and be obedient to all that He taught them … was the Holy Spirit. These men needed the Holy Spirit’s power to transform them from the inside out …and so do we.  When we obey, no matter what the cost, the Lord is right there, with us. Jesus knows all about COST. We need to be so unafraid that even death cannot stop us.

Obedience is everything. We have underestimated its value in our lives. We cannot taste the wonders of a fully redeemed life without it. Jesus Himself was obedient to His parents even from childhood… Luke 2:51. He was obedient to His Father’s will …Matthew 26:39. He was so obedient, He chose to die because that was what His Father wanted. Philippians 2:8.

Let’s become so intimately acquainted with the Holy Spirit’s ways, and pay attention to Him whenever He speaks – and please remember that sometimes He whispers! In the past we have done Him a grave disservice, because we took one aspect of the Holy Spirit’s Personhood and let it eclipse everything else. The Holy Spirit is power AND FIRE! The Gospels show us His power in action in people’s lives. He was given to us to help us with our God-given right to operate in Jesus’ power. Matthew 28:18. 

Now we need to digest and embrace the fact that the Holy Spirit is also a purifying fire. We may feel the heat of that fire, as He purifies our yielded lives, but we will not be burned. We will be spectators kept safe in the secret place of the most high God. Don’t be afraid of His ‘Holy Fire’ – God’s dealings in our lives. This has been given to us to purify us, our motivations and aspirations. Because of the Holy Spirit’s ministry we will end up the best version of ourselves… so much better than we ever thought or dreamed about!  All we will care about is God’s kingdom and seeing that kingdom come into the lives of others to set them free. 

The joy always comes at the other end. It came when the disciples saw, with their own eyes, that the Lord Jesus was not DEAD. Psalm 30:5. Press on, beloved of God. He wants us to be bigger, more well-armed and informed, as well as  purified for His purposes. There is nothing in this world like the joy we feel when we see His kingdom in us, on us and around us, and it is flourishing! Bye. 👋

P 3166 Judgment kills faith …

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… Even when our judgment includes whether Christians can or can’t eat MEAT! Sometimes human beings seem to love to make up rules, especially where there are no rules. These man-made rules tie themselves and others up in knots. But Father God is far more concerned about our attitudes toward each other, than He is in splitting hairs over whether we order a vegetable or meat lover’s pizza! Order both and share. Here are some verses to think on, in Romans 12:1-4&23b. 

“Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarrelling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. Who are you to judge SomeOne Else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.”… …“and everything that does not come from faith is sin.”

I cannot stress enough how highly dangerous judgment is to our spiritual lives. We won’t always understand the people close to us, or even the ones that live around us, the way He does. This means we will have no idea how this person, or that person arrived at the way they think, because only the Lord knows their hearts. Drawing conclusions about someone else, is a waste of our God-given time and energy. Yet it is incredibly easy to do!! We simply must learn to celebrate each other’s strengths rather than point out any failures.

Let’s choose to remember what the above scripture in Romans says: not all of us have great faith! Some of us have faith in some areas, and zero to none in others. At the same time, life daily deals every one of us crushing blows, so putting weights on someone else’s feet when they are tired, or sick, or overwhelmed, and still trying to run, is cruel and unfeeling. It seems to me sheer honesty about your own flaws is far more useful! I think we do things like this to justify our own position, or give us an excuse to keep on doing the very thing we should not be doing. This attitude is not worthy of Jesus’ disciples. He was compassion personified when He walked among us – if anybody was right – He was! But He didn’t use what He already knew to make someone else feel small – His compassion set them free instead. 

I enjoy meditating on this next scripture. It is meaningful to me, because I mess up a lot — and I know I need wa-ay more patience toward other people. I really get tested when someone else hurts the people close to me, and then they want authentication for their own aggressive stinky attitudes. That’s like asking me to put a bow on a pile of manure. Not.Gunna.Happen! Isaiah 42:3 says this: “A bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick He will not quench; He will bring forth justice in truth.” If the God of all the Universe is so particular and watchful over each one of us, let’s do our best, with His help, to remember that our careless words affect others. I don’t care what they said – my real problem is this – how did I reply?

Verse 3 illustrates what walking with the Holy Spirit looks like, He sees the broken, and the broken hearted. He is so gentle, and easily grieved. Nastiness and judgment immediately takes us away from His influence. BTW my theory is this – at the same time that we choose to get uglier about someone else, we can longer see what He sees, and we also get deafer and deafer to Him. But, hallelujah! Heartfelt repentance opens the door to restoration of fellowship with Him and others. Words are like bridges, they can join people together, or break us apart. So let’s ask for understanding to go hand in hand with wisdom. Like Romans says above, we must learn to accept each other in our weaknesses. We need to come alongside others and help, not undermine.

Here’s more from Isaiah, 35:3-5, and it’s a great exhortation for all of us today:  “Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way, say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, He will come with vengeance; with divine retribution. He will come to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.” Miracles can be side-lined when we sail off into judgment! I believe that our faith in God’s power through us, very much depends on allowing His Word to minister to us first. Then humility stretches out its hand to someone else and says: “May I help you up?” 

Personally, I think it is deadly to faith to look down on one another. Instead, we need to practice, corporately, every time we are together, looking up at Him. We need the practice! Judgment, even when it is unspoken, hinders the flow of the Spirit between us. His freedom IN me, means I’m not scared to deal WITH me first. So when we get alone with Him, let’s ask Him how to fix things in us, first. Remember – our log has to come out so we can clearly see to help someone else with their speck.

Lastly, I cannot recommend highly enough reading the bible purely for your own benefit unless you want to get a word of blessing for someone else. Using God’s word as a club to beat people into submission to your pet theory is ungodly. We are exhorted by Paul to come alongside one another and bear each other’s burdens. Judgment kills faith – but the Spirit always brings life. Bye. 👋

P 3135 Baptism.

/ DVH

Baptism is not only an outward sign of an inward heart response – it is a sign to the whole world that we are choosing to change our allegiance. Now, we live for Jesus! The act of baptism is making a statement that we want to die to this old life, and enter into His new life and live in God’s kingdom! Baptism shows us, and everyone else, that the person who used to live their lives doing precisely what they wanted, whenever they wanted to do it, is gone. Now, we have chosen to live under our King’s reign. We live this life, His Way. 

It means that person being baptised has deliberately chosen to die to our earthly ambitions and talents and proclivities and leave them behind. Those things are not gone, they may come back and jump up and down and demand that we pay them some sort of attention – but baptism is the pivotal point where we die to our old responses. Now we live for Jesus, and we respond with obedience and Love – just like He did. Baptism is a symbolic act that now we want what He wants.

“We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we will certainly also be united with Him in a resurrection like His. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.”Romans 6:2-8.

The difficulty I’ve often encountered, when studying books like Romans, is that sometimes the old fashioned language gets in the way of my perception of the truth. Some of the words are big and cumbersome and not many people use words like these in today’s society! I found, if I am not watching out, that I have a tendency to skip over the hard bits, instead of giving them prayerful thought. The Holy Spirit loves it when we ask Him for His help. I ask Him all the time. The truth is, I could not write this blog without Him.

Baptism is a statement of intent. It is not a ritual, or a religious routine – it is an action noted in heaven. Jesus was baptised! I think that the Lord did it as part of His identification with us, but, I’m no bible scholar. It is not like joining a club, it is more like moving from one country to another. Renouncing your former previous loyalty and affiliation to your country of origin, and declaring your allegiance to a new one and then standing by that choice. We literally move kingdoms – forever – when we choose to be baptised. 

It is a serious choice. And I think many times people don’t understand the spiritual implication of that physical activity. For some people it is experiential, like moving from darkness into light, and others don’t feel anything but they simply obey. Like Jesus said to Thomas, ‘blessed are those who don’t feel a thing and obey anyway!’ (That’s my slant on that story!) 

Years ago when I chose to be baptised, nobody took the time to explain to me what happened to you spiritually, when you chose to let somebody half-drown you! I was not told the life-changing spiritual implications of baptism. They are huge. The person being baptised is publicly declaring their allegiance to Jesus, and they choose to illustrate that decision with this action. The next step is to go on from there living out what they just symbolically did. They are literally moving from death into life, by their own choices, in front of our eyes. It is a solemn statement of intent. This is where they have chosen to die for Jesus’ sake and now live for Him.

Sadly nobody talked about living by faith back in the ark, only ‘special people’ lived like that. We talked about physical things like healing and money. The favourite subject for discussing was speaking in tongues, being baptised in the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts and miracles.They are my favourite subjects too! But understanding what was going to happen the moment I went under that water was not explained – except in religious language.. I did not know I was telling everyone I was choosing to die to self from now on!

That in effect, I would need to die over and over gain, every single time my will and the Lord’s collided! When we take our sin to the cross and ask the Lord to wash us clean, we are actively participating in the well-being of our spiritual life. Like many things in Christianity, It is a symbolic act, followed up by physical, emotional, and spiritual implications for change. So is baptism.

To be truthful I cannot recall anyone telling me that my salvation was something I had to live out as an inner and outer lifestyle, with the Holy Spirit’s help. That living like this would cost me daily, sometimes minute by minute. Particularly whenever I want to grump at my dear hubby! However, the Lord and my husband (!) are both so patient with me, and the Holy Spirit keeps me pressing in to know Jesus better. 

Baptism, as I said before, is a declaration of intent. It isn’t just about getting things right, and cleaning up your act, it is about choosing the same road Jesus chose. A road of voluntary self-sacrifice and contentment in God alone. Bye. 👋

P 3117 Listen.

/ DVH

“I will graciously give you a new, tender heart and put a new, willing spirit inside you. I will remove your hard heart of stone and give you an obedient, responsive heart instead.” Ezekiel 36:26 TPT. A stony heart is a liability. It does not allow the Word of God to penetrate the surface of our lives and bring about inner growth and change. Plus the birds of the air can easily steal away whatever God wants to reveal to us. We must learn to listen with our hearts as well as our ears. It is our heart that will lead us into acting on what we hear.

Today I want to look at the type of stuff that hardens our hearts and how to collect our new God-given tender heart — by cultivating the willing spirit He gave us – exercising our faith. This message, from Jesus Himself, shows us how important a soft heart is.“Some seed fell on the stony ground. That is like a person who hears the message and right away he is glad to hear it. But it does not go down deep in his heart. He believes it for a short time. When trouble or a hard time comes because of the message, he stops believing.” Matthew 13:20,21.

“As has just been said: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” Hebrews 3:15. Rebellion will harden our heart faster than we can say hippopotamus! Our enemy hangs around watching for us to fall head-first into set-ups he’s already laid in front of us. he wants us to be disappointed with God, and our lives, and our relationships with others. Rebellion wants its own way. It does not want to bend like bamboo in the wind, it stands like a telephone pole daring someone else to push it over! For this person, their own strength and purpose reigns over everything else. Those attitudes will harden any heart.

Repeated, unrepentant sin can cause our hearts to harden. Sin does not have to be outward, where everyone else can see it, it can fester inside us, like when we mull over other people’s sin in our minds, and we stubbornly refuse to allow gentleness and kindness to prevail. Instead those things are seen as weakness or giving in. We all need to be discerning because that’s one of the Holy Spirit’s gifts, but not to the point of suspicion.

“Love suffers long, hopes all things, believes all things …” A hardened heart ceases to understand the Spirit’s promptings, so when He speaks to us, or even when our Helper acts, this person misses what He says or does. This kind of hardened heart can become spiritually obstinate. Many people refused to believe the time when Jesus fed so many with the loaves and fishes, …”For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened…” Mark 6:52. Truth will slide right off a hardened heart. Miracles are His gift to us, in spite of our  inner attitudes.

We can also harden our hearts because of fear. We can be so fearful of walking into error, that we step away from other people to protect ourselves. God’s definition of Love needs to be at the bottom of everything we do and say. It is not good to have caveats on our love. Like: “If you do that, then I will not forgive you.” If we feel prickly when someone else points out a fault of ours, we revise our response. That perceived blow, merited or not, can help us keep our hearts soft, when we identify what is really going on. One thing that helps me to identify if I am cultivating a hard heart, is whether my response is defensive, judgmental – or willing to learn.This means our hearts need to remain soft and pliable or we will miss what the Lord is going to do next.

At one time Jesus was teaching the disciples, while they were all in a boat together. Jesus says something they don’t understand and they are immediately concerned that they should have brought some actual bread with them. However He is talking about the kind of yeast that comes from Pharisees, because that group think they are the only ones who know … and their attitudes are contagious. The disciples don’t get it because they are focussing on the natural world. A lack of comprehension can mean our heart is hardening, because our eyes are only fixed on what is in the material world, in front of us. But Mark 8:17-18 says: “Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?”

All of us can easily be sidetracked by the things around us that will pass away and then we miss the spiritual implications of any situation. Being dull of hearing also hardens hearts. Ask questions. Don’t close the door on anything you don’t understand until you have had some revelation. The very best way to soften our hearts is to soak in His Word and His Presence – humility is a key component of a soft heart. Let’s let His Word work on us and in us, because we can’t afford to just agree with it. Jesus needs to be our Lord and Saviour, not just our Saviour. When we live with Him as Lord over our lives that becomes a transformative way to live.. 

Lastly, God Himself says He has given us a new soft heart, and the willingness to walk in Grace. To pick those things up we have to take our old hardened heart to the cross and leave it there. That means we refuse to hate the people we hated before, instead we choose to love, like Jesus did, over any hate. We deliberately make the Holy Spirit the Guardian of our hearts, because He alone knows what God wants to bring out in our lives to be a blessing to others. And then we listen when He speaks to us, even if we don’t like it. Bye. 👋.

P 3104 Cultivate living faith.

/ DVH

“For although we live in the natural realm, we don’t wage a military campaign employing human weapons, using manipulation to achieve our aims. Instead, our spiritual weapons are energised with divine power to effectively dismantle the defences behind which people hide. We can demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One.” 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 TPT.

I don’t have to think, or negotiate my way around your little peculiar habits or quirks or sins. I have the Holy Spirit as my Counsellor, and He made us both. He knows how to get through to you and I when we  shut down and we can’t hear anyone, anymore, because we are hiding. We can hum and haw about this and that, and obfuscate about why we did whatever it was – He knows the reality. We are so blessed, we have a secret weapon that cuts through everyone’s angst. He promises to show us how to reach others with His love and understanding. The Holy Spirit is our secret weapon!!

These verses are not about any on of us winning anything—instead we have chosen the Lord Himself to be victorious in all things. If we use the power of choice to get snarky and nasty and pay out on someone else, satan is the only being that will win. Plus he will postpone change in our hearts, in favour of petty squabbles and life-long longings for revenge. The way to be transformed is through God’s LOVE shed abroad, not just explanations! Or ignoring stuff and hoping it will go away. If you have sewerage bubbling up in your toilet, putting the lid on the top is a temporary solution. CALL A PLUMBER! 

Here’s some wisdom in its purest form … we can’t fix each other … we are ALL broken!“ ALL have sinned!” BUT! We know the Manufacturer and if we have faults and/or flaws, HE KNOWS HOW TO FIX THEM. Praise Him!! 🙌 

The Holy Spirit does these things in the quietest, most extraordinary way, and in our difficulties, nobody involved has a clue that at the same time, He is changing everyone who says ‘yes.’ Personally, I often figure it all out much later! Transformation happens when someone obeys Him – I love the way He does things. Retrospectively, we can see what was His doing, it was something He initiated that diffused the situation. However, the Holy Spirit will not blast His way in—instead He gives us understanding about Himself, ourselves and each other and a choice.

God is for us. We say that a lot, but sometimes I wonder if we know that when stuff happens. If we live most of  our lives, doing day to day things, unaware of Him – we will miss His miracles. When something unexpected and difficult happens, we can often drop into head knowledge and react in the flesh. I’ve found the very best thing to do is to pray that what we already know in our heads, will drop down into our hearts-–where it will do everyone good. Here’s a little test to see the difference between what you have carefully committed to memory and remembered – and what you know inside your heart. 

Are you doing it? Are you living your life differently because God Himself showed you a new way to do what you have always done? Has He helped you change your response to hard situations and difficult people, plus the way you see the Lord, yourself, and others? Otherwise all we will have is theories—or other people’s spiritual ideas. Those things that we desperately paste on the outside of ourselves hoping somehow that will do. Christianity is a personal, intimate experience with Almighty God and His Ways.

We are always going to experience some tension between knowing what He wants us to do, and our flesh. That is the place where what we want goes to the cross and dies. We always have a choice to die to self. Jesus Himself had a choice. He could have refused the cross. It was not inevitable that He died for us, it was His choice! “Not My will but Thine.”Jesus Himself set the example for us, He showed us that the seemingly impossible can be possible, with God Himself helping us.

If we are not aware of our spirituality, we can look at our lives as though we are all meant to be bright shining stars, and it is our attractiveness – spiritually, physically and mentally, that is meant to lead others to the Lord. But the truth is—one of our greatest achievements ever, might be learning to love someone who has treated us despicably! Yeah! I bet that is not written up in someone’s Facebook hall of fame! We must never ever forget the incredible POWER contained within redemption! When we choose redemption, instead of revenge God’s power of Grace and Mercy is released.

A living faith means we will put what the Lord Himself wants, first. Jesus shed blood through His pores because the pain of what He was asked to do, by His OWN FATHER, was so incredibly great and weighty on HIm. Yet His disciples slept through the whole thing! The truth is sometimes we would rather live this life asleep in the light, than face the pain it takes to put down our old self, and let Him help us put on the new one. Bye 👋