Misunderstood

P 3303 Tongues.

/ DVH

Before you freak out, because people do … I just want to say I think the subject of tongues have been bashed up a bit. Between some denominations who stay well away from this blessing, to others that insist we are not born again Christians without it – tongues have been misunderstood. However, I think about this subject like Paul does – I pray in tongues, and I pray in English. But I’m eternally grateful that when I run out of words, the Holy Spirit always knows exactly how to pray – for me, and through me, and for others. The bible says: tongues edify us, they build us up personally in the Holy Spirit, because speaking in tongues needs us to use our faith.

Today I want to look at what the bible says about it. Paul seems to be the most instructive and vocal person, but I want to start with the book of Acts chapter 2:1-13, where it all began. I think we are emphasising the wrong bit –what happens to us! And we seem to fly right over the fact that the Holy Spirit visibly arrived here on earth! A whole lot of incredibly unusual things happened. The Breath of God became seeable, hearable and people experienced Him. It was awe inspiring and terrifying all at the same time. The power of God was tangible.

“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

Indeed! What DID it mean? I think Almighty God, the Holy Spirit, arrived in Jerusalem, at the Lord’s appointed time, and the same Spirit that helps people speak in tongues —- helped people from so many different places understand what was spoken! No prayer, no urging, no force at all, no stress – God Himself just showed up!And people who could not understand each other suddenly understood what He said. When Father God did that He made it clear what happened was for everyone. The barriers we all carefully erect between each other, were gone. This means Almighty God speaks your language!

This wasn’t a ‘choice’ moment, it was a ‘sovereign’ one. Ordinary fishermen, started to speak languages they had not learned, and God’s message was broadcast aloud through the streets of Jerusalem by nobodies. People physically saw the tongues of fire, they heard the rushing wind, they felt the buildings shake. It was momentous. Jesus Christ came here as a little baby, but the Holy Spirit arrived with a huge blast of glory from heaven! Imagine it. The disciples start speaking words they don’t understand and perfect strangers are convinced and convicted that Jesus is the Messiah. And they repent!

Peter stands up and explains. How does an ordinary fisherman know what happened? Well, he had walked with Jesus for three and a half years, suffered through Christ’s death and burial and resurrection, and at the end of all that, all the disciples had to cling to was the word Jesus gave them. WAIT. Then suddenly the living Word stashed inside Peter’s heart, was ignited with a roar. He and the rest of the disciples had been with Jesus, day after day, listening, learning, making mistakes, seeing things they never thought they would see, and then suddenly the word of God came alive in each one of them. They were so impacted by the Holy Spirit that His Words burst out of their mouths and reached everyone around them. Nobody cared who the preacher was – all the listeners knew was Almighty God was speaking to each one of them personally. 

For me this is the essence of speaking in tongues. The enlivening of the listener’s spirit to the point where they see God Himself, and Jesus Christ His Son, more clearly than they ever have before. This gift is meant to impact our hearts. It goes right past our thinking and bursts straight into our spirits. This is what speaking in tongues is for – it helps us when we are stuck, or dismayed, or bereft or lost. It rescues us with God’s Words spoken through us or someone else, and our spirit jumps up and down and says: “I know that voice!” 

It’s not some sort of fairground party trick. God Himself speaks through us. I have prayed in tongues with tears pouring down my cheeks because the Holy Spirit gave me the interpretation as I was speaking. My ears didn’t understand a word I said, but my heart jumped up and down and said: “That’s it! There’s the answer.” 

We were made by the Holy Spirit in our mother’s womb, we know His voice. When He comes and breathes upon us, we recognise His breath. Tongues are a sign and a wonder, but they are a supernatural sign and a God initiated wonder. It is not just babbling. It’s the Lord!  The power of God, His wisdom, His authority and His never-ending passion for mankind, speaking into and kissing someone’s heart, spirit and soul. Impacting them with pure unadulterated love! Not man’s thoughts, HIS!  Bye. 👋

P 3078 Anger is like Hydra – it has a lot of heads!

/ DVH

Many people give up on God because it seems to them that following Him from day to day, doesn’t work, and so they just float off proclaiming “that religion thing didn’t work for me.” The good news is – Jesus never ever gives up on us. Even when we are kind of pretending we are OK, as we sob or angrily bob about on our man-made li-los. The Lord Jesus will always come after us. Reconciliation is at the core of Who He is. 

Anybody who has had a difficult person in their lives will tell you that being misunderstood;  or having your motivation treated with suspicion;  or even being judged by someone else’s standard —  is an awful kind of suffering. I think Christians are a bit like salmon, swimming against the pressing tide of the rest of humanity, waiting for the power to jump up the next waterfall. Meanwhile the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet are merrily cruising the freeways of this life, creating accidents and disasters for others.

This week I fell over, or under, or maybe into!  — an old learning curve and it knocked me on my head. My spiritual life lately has forced me to re-evaluate a whole lot of things, a death in the family does that. It included issues that I thought were kind of settled. I discovered that sometimes being ‘angry’ with someone else doesn’t go away permanently, even when I am trusting Jesus to help me with it. Instead it hangs about and waits for an opportune moment to pop its nasty little head up again and poke you! That aforementioned many-headed Hydra! Things often make a return appearance when we’ve been weakened by adverse circumstances.

I am astonished at how ordinary events can hit buttons you didn’t know you had anymore, because they have remained hidden. Even those things that you’ve given over to the Lord and forgotten, can still be dragged up and used by the enemy against you. satan will still remind us of our past grievances, and at the same time, we can get sucked into into a ‘poor me’ vortex. It is good to remember that when we confess our sins our God forgives us, and now our sins are under Jesus’ blood. We need that!

I’ve prayed about anger a lot, I had to!  And the Lord reminded me: “It says in the Bible: be angry but don’t sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger.” This is what I’ve come up with since then —I’ve been practising giving my anger to the Lord before I go to sleep! Because right now when I am in an unexpectedly pressing moment, I can’t seem to deal with my anger. It just keeps popping out, unbidden, in the darndest places. I was in the bank the other day, facing mountains of idiotic red tape — and what I actually thought just flew out of my mouth, at someone else, and boy was I grouchy.

And, even worse,I wasn’t sorry either!! I fake apologised to the person I grouched at, but the inner rumblings continued. So, I exercised self-control, but I practically had to whack my hand over my mouth. Then  I managed to shut up. I actually didn’t repent, repent, until we were back home again. That’s when embarrassment grabbed me by the throat, because I had been caught publicly being rude to someone who was very nice and polite to me. Sigh.

God’s Grace came to meet me, through my husband. He reminded me that part of any normal grief is anger. I always thought that meant you got angry at the person for dying and leaving you. Wrong answer!  I’m actually  happy for my mother, because she was very old and very ill. But at the same time, I was also relieved, because we often had a complicated relationship while she was still here. 

My anger came from many many unresolved issues between us over the years. Instead of confronting those issues at the time, I simply sucked it up because she was my mother. They say one straw breaks the camel’s back? Well, I had a bus load of straw that landed on my head — and the bank’s rigidity and inflexibility regarding their rules won. The lack of justice banged on a wound, and I ran out of Grace. It instantly reminded me of my past injuries. Our enemy is a snake, he knows right where to poke us and find a sore spot..

Up until then, I thought I had been a bit successful at overcoming anger, because I had defeated my bad attitudes after a bit of a skirmish or two. It sounded like this: … “that was so tough, but I made it through to love – ya-ay me!” Here’s a really good thought to remember, pride goes before a fall! But fortunately Jesus throws all our sins in the sea of forgetfulness … however, our enemy still has a whole other agenda. 

This battle we are currently living in, will not be over until the Lord Himself comes back. Plus anger has a lot of heads, and it comes at us in many different ways. However, the bible tells us that the martyrs under the altar are continually crying out to be avenged. Revelation 6:9-10: “…I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying,“How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 

I found this scripture oddly comforting. These Godly people have left here and now they are in the safest most glorious place and yet they still want to be avenged!  Ya might want to think about that yourself – I did. Bye. 👋

P 3048 Immaturity is not a bad word.

/ DVH

“Now, those who are mature in their faith can easily be recognized, for they don’t live to please themselves but have learned to patiently embrace others in their immaturity. Our goal must be to empower others to do what is right and good for them, and to bring them into spiritual maturity. For even Christ did not please Himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.””“Whatever was written beforehand is meant to instruct us in how to live. The Scriptures impart to us encouragement and inspiration so that we can live in hope and endure all things. May the God Who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 15:1-6TPT.

Encouragement is not just saying: “gee you are a great guy” no matter whatever a brother or sister-in-Christ is doing. It may make you popular but that’s called lying!. We must not deny the truth to save someone else’s feelings. We are not here to build up anyone’s ego, etc., rather we hold up the truth so we can all see our mistakes and adjust our course. Love demands that we persists for as long as the Lord says. 

Biblical encouragement consists of verbal, physical and emotional help others to walk away from whatever is holding them captive — without becoming their entire support system. We want Jesus holding them up – not you or I. We fall down too, remember? Keep pointing them toward Him, and stay humble! Love does not look down upon others.

Sometimes people have daft beliefs and they can’t see that there was anything wrong with what they just did. Simple stuff that slips by someone, but we can’t afford to put our stamp of approval on it. Situations like this one: “It’s OK, God understands that you’ve decided to keep the $10 extra change you were overpaid in that shop. We need to go back and return it.”

Meanwhile, if you are like me, then you might say something like: “What on earth are you thinking? That’s called stealing!” OK, I’m blunt, but nevertheless hinting around is not encouragement. But lovingly holding up what God says, IS. We dare not continue to try to weasel out of our personal responsibility to take ownership for our own actions. After all, Saul stood by and approved of people killing Stephen, and God held him accountable.

Biblical encouragement always has a point! It is a sign of love, and it can also be a correction for someone else’s course of action when they are going the wrong way. The truth is that there will be times we need to say the same thing 487 times before the other person gets a revelation. Initially, they may not even hear us clearly! However, if my family member-in-Christ needs spiritual hearing aids, that does not mean I am licensed to shout at them. But it could mean we will do a little bible study together, asap!  

Human beings can be proud because they don’t like to be wrong – and this sometimes means that people may not take course-correction well. This is a good place to pray without ceasing! There will be many times when you get to the maximum input with someone, and the Lord Himself will say to us: “stand back, this is not your assignment any longer – I will deal with this.” However, if what we do isn’t coming from love, then we need to go after love for ourselves and self-correct! Impatience isn’t love. Sigh. It has taken me a while to figure that one out! 

Sadly there are also times when we can lose our own hope, because we have misunderstood the meaning of the word encouragement and the other person failed to listen. We are not meant to be a generic cheer squad turning a blind eye, no matter what is going on. Encouragement means we will give someone else courage to keep going – His way. It also means ‘I will stand with you while you learn.’ 

Personally, when I can see someone is headed down the wrong path because of their own deliberate choices – I go away and pray for them. Next time it will probably be me down that hole. “Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees,…” Hebrews 12:12a. Maturity and encouragement mean that we stand in the gap until that person can stand with Him, by themselves. Love always looks for the good in others.

There have been many times I’ve suffered because I took someone else’s rejection and response to what I said, personally. There are things most of us don’t want to hear – and it is not personal at all, because the truth cuts right across our wrong theology. If someone else gets snippy at you because you held up His mirror, the Word of God – then that is their problem. It really isn’t personal. Even if it seems pretty personal when they tell you off!

Despite the fact that this whole area seems fraught with danger, true encouragement is actually His love-in-action, whether we like it or not. Immaturity is not a bad word, it is a place we all occupy from time to time as we follow Him. He is the Perfect One, we are His disciples, and some of us are on a giant learning curve. Let’s encourage one another with love and support in our hearts no matter what we need to say. Bye. 👋. 

For those of you who have been praying for me and the family about my mother’s illness, thank you. 🕊️I am so grateful. Your prayers were so powerful, they were tangible. My mother was finally released from this life last night, to go to be with the Lord. May God bless you for your loving intercession. 😢

P 2868 One choice at a time.

/ DVH

You know, if we are not careful we can say yes at an altar, when our passion for Jesus is high, and choose no the very next week, because somebody else is driving us crazy. What do I mean by that? It is much easier to make the choice to serve Him when His peace, love, hope and joy are upon us, and much harder when we are out there in the ups and downs of every day life! The Lord is still there, but our awareness of Him can dim. The Israelites sinned in the absence of Moses’ presence, and Moses was the duly appointed “God” spokesperson!

Let’s remember that choices like these need to be made over and over again. It is a hard choice to say yes to His Ways and no to how I feel at that moment of impact … when someone else is driving me bananas! When we choose to die at that crucial moment, our journey toward transformation flourishes. Actually the meaner the other person is;  and the more wrong they are about your motivation and attitudes;  the bigger the opportunity to die to self!

Being misjudged is probably one of the hardest spiritual tests to face. When you live inside your own skin and you know that another person in that particular moment has no idea who you are and where you are coming from – that’s when the temptation to escalate the angst and confusion grows. Nobody likes to be misunderstood.

Let’s just think about that idea for a minute. Have we ever seen anyone more misunderstood than the Lord Himself? The contrast between what He actually came here to do, and what other people thought and said about Him, as well what they did to Him is utterly terrifying. Pilate said it best in Matthew 27:22,23 “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked. They all answered, “Crucify Him!” “Why? What crime has He committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify Him!” And Jesus said nothing.

Tunnel vision took over. Crowd think. They went so far down the wrong road, they had no thought about going back. Their bad decisions had blinded them to their own faults and prejudices. Anyone can see that in those moments a wicked spiritual force was put in charge. The Jews were so in the passion of judgment, that they ended up cursing themselves. But even though Pilate knew everything about this situation was wrong, he wriggled out of his responsibility to set an innocent man free … by handing Jesus back over to them. 

Choosing God’s way isn’t a once off. In Pilate’s case his wife had already warned him about Jesus, and told the man to leave Him alone – but fear of man, or uprising, or whatever – meant he abrogated his responsibility and snuck out the back way. And before we waggle our fingers in disdain at that man, do try to remember the time when you snuck out the back door and left the boss, or teacher with the blame, or your spouse, or your sibling … The bible tells us sin is mankind’s common defect. 

“No temptation [regardless of its source] has overtaken or enticed you that is not common to human experience [nor is any temptation unusual or beyond human resistance]; but God is faithful [to His word—He is compassionate and trustworthy], and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability [to resist], but along with the temptation He [has in the past and is now and] will [always] provide the way out as well, so that you will be able to endure it [without yielding, and will overcome temptation with joy].” 1 Corinthians 10:13.

So there went all those excuses! The thing is, I know personally what that is like. I’ve done it, I stopped looking for the way out and I’ve given in to temptation instead. I missed God’s opportunity for change. There’s no point in blaming Him for not fishing us out of something we got ourselves into. However!! …I know, personally, that there are times that He rescues us anyway, just because He’s so good and He loves us – He chooses US. The application of the above verse is one of the ways we get endurance – by enduring, by suffering long, by believing for the best in others, when their worst is on display.  Which is not a popular thought really.  

It means we need to pay attention to what we choose all the time. Even in unguarded moments.  Blanket statements about choosing God’s Ways aren’t worth a hill of beans, in the day-to-day muddle of life. What matters is what we choose when we are being misunderstood or provoked. Those choices mean we are valuing our relationship with Him and He is our priority. Things keep getting added unto us when we make Him our priority – stuff like real love, and long-suffering. Bye 👋

P 2648 There is no instant reward.

/ DVH

OR… how I have been learning to love somebody His way. Someone who drove me crazy! There’s been an important person in my life that I couldn’t live without, and yet they literally drove me nuts. I have been so angry with them! They had a terrible effect on my wellbeing, first I’d cry, then I’d start ranting and raving, then I’d cry some more – mainly because I felt bad about the raving and ranting bit! Please note, I’ve used the past tense … but I am very aware that I can’t afford to be complacent about this issue!

One of the hardest things to do is to love somebody who is difficult. People who are dangerous and hurtful in our eyes. I secretly hoped the offender would move, and go and live far, far away. Then I was utterly condemned because Christians aren’t supposed to be like that! SoI repented until I was blue in the face, but this person continually kept jumping all over my heart… This situation is like an awful ride — you never want to get on, because you know you will hate it and go round and round, but you can’t easily get off either! In the past I used to get my hopes up that things were changing, and then the other person went and did something worse and I felt even more betrayed.

My bible-based learning curve started like this:  I was complaining to the Lord about how misunderstood and cheated I felt whenever I was around this individual. I tried to love them, I really did! I did nice things to please them and then they said or did something worse, and I sank back into anger and despair, adding to my failure. The list of their faults and infringements just kept getting bigger. There was no way of permanently pleasing them. It took me a while to realise that I needed to leave pleasing them behind, and start living to please God! 

I asked the Lord why He thought I had to have that person in my life. And this is what He said: “You asked me to help you to learn to love the way I love, and this person is your opportunity to learn!” Did you ever pray something when your heart was all soft and mushy at the altar, then afterward wish you hadn’t? Me too! I’d prayed He would change my response to this person – yet in the middle of the daily scrum I failed. I still wanted to punch out their lights! I was desperate, because I truly wanted to obey Him … but it seemed like I just couldn’t. My whole concept of LOVE God’s Way was wrong. I kept trying so hard, but my thoughts and emotions let me down. I needed to let go and follow instructions.

Then the Holy Spirit, my Resident Expert, said this: “You see giving someone else love, is a reward for their good behaviour. I see loving others as simply living in the River of Life. It’s always your choice, whether you live in that River or not. You are angry with this person because they hurt you. They bring out the very worst in your own attitudes. Actually, they are doing you a favour, because this is a fault in you that you can’t see, and their actions have brought that fault into the light.”

He was right. Duh! … I saw God’s love as FEELINGS not as a guideline for life. The thing is you can follow guidelines, it’s simple. You just follow the instructions – no feelings involved. When I consulted my feelings, I didn’t feel anything but anger, disappointment and disdain toward this person, so I didn’t think I had any love left. That’s when I did the smartest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I gave up! And I asked Him to show me how He loved people, whether they were nice or not!  I began re-reading the Gospels. 

As I read about how the Lord was treated I noticed that very few people actually appreciated Him! They wanted stuff from Him all the time, but He didn’t get many ‘grateful hugs,’ that’s for sure! He operated His whole earthly life under a different system. He was not interested in “What’s in it for Me?’’ He was far more interested in – “What can I do for you?” So I switched my focus from getting to giving. I asked Him: “How can I possibly bless this person?” Loving people God’s way is about how we choose to treat people, it is not about how they treat us. People cannot steal our emotional and mental health when what we are doing is OUR deliberate choice!

The Lord gave me some helpful hints:  “Don’t do a revision of how your time with this person went after you leave them. Give it all to Me, and leave it with Me. Continue on asking Me to help you love them. Then stop constantly bringing up why you are annoyed with them. Remain silent in the face of adversity.” Did you know we can talk ourselves into bad stuff? Neither did I! “The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you.” Matthew 12:37. 

Lastly, He said: “Let Me define HOW you love them. You think love is about you, because it makes you feel good. Loving others is about them, not you.” Through this time I discovered that loving difficult people means we give up the right to get any reward for doing right. So I took my ‘feelings’ – good or bad, back, and I stopped trying to feel loved by them. I simply chose to obey HIM and obey His instructions.👋

P 2481 We are personally responsible to restore love.

/ DVH

Here is an great excerpt from: “I Hear His whisper.” “All that I am is inside of you.My power is not diminished because it has found a home in a temple of flesh. I am vast enough to fill all of creation, yet wise enough to fit My Spirit within vessels of humanity. Never limit the greatness of My glory within you. Never let the frailty of your humanness be reason to doubt what I can do through you. My strength is not limited by the weakness of its surroundings. I am God, after all.”

“The voice of My Spirit is alive within you, and you were created to hear, to speak my truth, and to declare My love. My compassion tugs at your heart, but it’s up to you to respond. When you walk with Me and recognize the greatness of My glory alive within you, you will do what few have dared to do. You will be a light in the darkness, encouragement to the weary, hope for those who have no hope. Partner with Me and allow me to work through you, and you will see greatness and glory in ways you have never known.” (Brian Simmons and Gretchen Rodriguez.)

“The earth and sky will wear out and fade away before one word I speak loses its power or fails to accomplish its purpose.” Matthew 24:35 TPT. Good morning! Hubby shared the above thought with me, this morning, from the Passion bible translators. I thought it would be good to think about it and remember that this is who we are – His LOVE CARRIERS and PEACE MAKERS, by His Grace. There is enough bad news flying about telling all of us that this life is just too hard, so Christians need to live their lives remembering everything He said in the book.

Here’s some more Good News. The Christian life doesn’t have to depend on us … it simply must depend on Him. Our choices to go His way, plus our actions matter. However, it is not enough to choose Him, we need to follow those choices up with loving, peaceable actions. It is not up to other people to adapt, it is up to us, as individuals, to obey His Word. That is when our lives will slowly change, and we will see His glory. Remember Jesus Christ is a Redeemer.

Repentance is good for us, it humbles us, and brings us into submission to God. We need it. We live in a world teeming with ‘me first’ narcissists who don’t know any better… People who are always right, yet they are actually disobeying God’s written instructions so they can maintain their own disobedience. There is enough self-aggrandisement in this world, plus plenty of books to tell us how human beings are not wrong, just misunderstood. Baloney. It is God Who is at work within each of us, for HIS WILL AND HIS PLEASURE and His glory.

Romans 12:17-18“Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”  What a scripture! True peace belongs to Jesus. If we, or the people around us, have no peace, then it is up to us to go after it and revise what we’ve done to destroy it. But we are not the source of restoration – the Holy Spirit is. We obey Him and usher in His true peace, then His peace will affect everyone else around us.

To maintain love we must give our struggles to Him and take the time to check with others to see if they have been affected by what has happened. None of us live in a vacuum. After we have done all we can, when whatever it is comes up in our mind, we give it back to Him. Meanwhile, check your spiritual bible mail daily! God can speak to us in many ways, because He’s wiser than we can ever hope or imagine. He can use other people to point out our wrong responses. We must not fly solo, we have the body of Christ to help us. Remember when God acts, miracles and revelations flow – hearts are transformed. 

Speaking personally, Jesus has gotten me out of loads of stupid stuff I staggered into, sometimes with my eyes open, sometimes with them on things that were never going to help me in the first place! My advice is to learn to repent, repair and restore things, quickly –simply because we are peace makers and love carriers. That thought has helped me over many hurdles. In my heart I have a pending file. It is full of stuff I haven’t found an answer to, or I can’t explain. I can’t fix things or change the circumstances so far, but I’ve done everything He has told me to do. But I will never give up taking these things to Him be-cau-se …

… God loves sudden-lys and He is my senior Partner. Things can be topsy-turvy for years and my part is to keep my heart right with Him and others, stay humble, and stay ready to be wrong!  And then  … suddenly …. everything turns right side up and I have not got a clue how it happened. Like the nice translators from the Passion Bible said: ‘Never let the frailty of your humanness be reason to doubt what I can do through you. My strength is not limited by the weakness of its surroundings.’Bye 👋🏻

P 2479 Learn to live in love.

/ DVH

“We have come into an intimate experience with God’s love, and we trust in the love He has for us. God is love! Those who are living in love are living in God, and God lives through them.” 1 John 4:16 TPT

“What marvellous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are. …  … But friends, that’s exactly who we are: children of God. And that’s only the beginning. Who knows how we’ll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we’ll see Him—and in seeing Him, become like Him. All of us who look forward to His Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own.” 1 John 3:1-3 MSG.

Living in love means that we decide we will live, helped by His Grace, CHOOSING to love others. It’s the place we walk, talk, sleep and play in. We don’t move away from there. If we do, by accident, or on purpose, we immediately repent, fix whatever it is and GO BACK TO LOVE. We are designed to settle down into living a life of love for God and others and we never ever leave that neighbourhood. This is HOW we carry His Presence!

Living in love is not the same as living in today’s carelessly permissive atmosphere. God’s Love disciplines us, as I talked about yesterday. However, we watch over our attitudes and actions without any fear, because we are living aware of the Presence of the Holy Spirit – Who is the ultimate lover of our souls. We will not be afraid because … “(His) perfect love casts out fear” …

If we are afraid to talk to the Lord about anything, then we have not YET comprehended the magnitude of how much He loves us…. how perfect His love is toward us.The bible tells me that fear has to do with punishment and if I have fear, then I have forgotten that Jesus has already taken my sin to the cross. That is not a place of permissiveness, it is a place of great reverence for what we have all been given. I know that He forgave me, so now I can forgive you!

There are many times I may feel that someone has wrongfully accused me or misunderstood my motivation … only the Lord knows if they are right or wrong … but whenever I am in doubt, I ask for forgiveness. Whether I think I am right or wrong, that does not matter. I am protecting and esteeming my relationship with the Lord – not fighting for my own way or rights. I also ask you for forgiveness because our relationship together, matters to Him. I live this life remembering that I gave up my own rights when I gave my life to Him. Now I need to allow Him to do whatever happens in my life, His way.

You see the thing is we are to stay fixed within His love, not just work hard and hope we are getting this life right! Human beings are obsessed with stuff being right or wrong. The question we need to regularly ask ourselves is this …is this love? And to be honest with you, I don’t trust my own response – so I ask Him!! Living in love doesn’t just mean we love others, it also means we need to live this life we have now, knowing we are eternally LOVED by HIM. We are not spoilt brats, we are children of a loving Father Who gives us love freely so we can give it away.

Think of living in love like this, we need to check ourselves. If we start bad-mouthing or complaining or even repeatedly thinking badly about other people … something is hindering the flow of His love into our lives – out toward others. Ask the Lord what has gotten stuck… and deal with it… by choice. Most of the time we probably won’t want to do this, because this world around us says – whatever makes ME feel good is good.  This is where we have to go around how we feel, back into faith. 

The Holy Spirit isn’t concerned about how we feel – READ THE BOOK! It is what we choose to say and do, that gives Him room to move. The feelings come later. When we do this, despite how we feel, we are saying to Father God: ‘I love you Lord, and I welcome Your love, as well as Your correction in my life.’  That is when we are actively loving Jesus, when we choose to die to what we want, or what makes us happy. We are choosing to act like HE DID. Those steps are the beginning of spiritual transformation. 

Living a life of love is dying to self, every single minute of every single day. It is impossible to live in His kind of love and not die! Meanwhile, one person is not better at this than any other, we all need to actively choose to learn to live a life of love. Day, by day, by day.  👋🏻   🥳 Have love-enriched, God-blessed, 2024.