Natural mind

P 2628 “Don’t You care??”

/ DVH

“Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”  Mark 4:38. Of course you would never say that … and I would never say that either! 🙄 Hmmm… while we are all on this learning curve called life, I believe that there are times when we’ve all prayed, we’ve hoped, we’ve stood on the Word and …. and! … nothing changed. It’s what we do after that happens that matters. Fear makes a poor leader – yet we all know how it feels and what we sometimes do to avoid it!

We had one of those times recently. Hubby and I have been married for 37 years, and there are times, not often, 🙌 – when we disagree. That chaos, of course, is instantly replaced by something spiritual and peaceful…  we sing ‘Kumbaya’ and it is all fixed!! It is a wonder my nose is not in Pakistan by now … Me and Pinocchio, just like that.🤞

So, long story short, we argue just like everyone else. My primary reason for talking about it today, is that the only way for all of us to get to the other side, like the disciples wanted to – Is to be real about who we are and the fact that we aren’t totally transformed yet! I like to throw blame in the bin. However, there are also times when I can miss! … I always was a lousy shot!! That’s when I discover, all over again, that I still need His help and transformation badly.  I too, can get tired of cheerily singing: “I’ve got a new way of living”  … 😊🙌 … and instead I want to have a tantrum.

So I’m praying, with tears, of course! ‘God don’t you care??’ And somehow, in the back of my mind, I can see these 12 guys stuck in this boat going up and down, up and down, taking a violent seawater bath … Now, let’s look at this …Jesus is up the back of the boat taking a power nap. Yeah.I’m pretty sure I would have had a “Don’t you care Lord?” in me too.

Now let’s be clear. The Lord Jesus needed that sleep. He had just delivered an amazing sermon about planting seeds in good places and watching them grow. Of course, the disciples all thought they were getting a horticultural lesson! But the Lord was teaching them how to retain good seed and become fertile ground. Stuff like getting rid of rocks (of unbelief) and weeds (of fear and arrogance) as well as shoo-ing off the birds that want to steal and peck at your faith. (Other people’s anger, and rotten behaviour toward us.) 

These guys had had a great meeting, right before this. They learned lots … they took lots of notes … well, … probably not, … because they would have looked like nerds. Anyway!! The blooming boat starts to sink and things look pretty terrible …!! It’s not just a bit of a splash in the face, BTW, this boat starts taking water in. Boat in water OK! Water in boat NOT OK!! Anyone knows that. The disciples let their KNOWLEDGE of the sea drown out their FAITH.

These experienced fishermen were frightened out of their wits by the power of the sea and they knew a bad storm when they saw one.  So there were “we’re gunna die” shrieks and shouts … and then they remember that Jesus is up the back of the boat — and — “How on earth CAN HE BE SLEEPING??!!” Just like little kids run to their mum or dad and demand that they fix something that is broken – we too sometimes run to the Lord and drop our faith along the way. We simply can’t work out why He isn’t helping us.

In times like these we need to tell ourselves – one more time  … and press on, remembering that we are stretching ourselves a little bit further.  Do yourself a favour, try not to set false finishing lines. The bible teaches us: “WE STRIVE …WE STRETCH toward the goal …”  that doesn’t mean we always get there! Sometimes knowing where to run TO is everything —  especially when life produces chaos. Even though these men had just learnt about being careful about where to plant the seed of God’s Word, they immediately planted it in earthly fear instead. Don’t we all?!!  

Whatever we think we’ve learnt, is going to be tested. God is not interested in raising up a whole lot of people with fat heads and skinny, dried-up hearts. Pain will overcome our faith unless we cling to the SAVIOUR … not just focussing the result we think we need. It is not about finding the answer or not, it is about: ‘where is MY faith, right now?’ Sometimes my not-so-spiritual-answer is: ‘I dunno! I think it fell right down the well of my unbelief!”

If we want to follow Jesus with all our hearts, even though we know that we do dumb stuff, or sometimes we are oppressed by terrible things – then WE’ve won. Press on… !! We simply must stop throwing away our faith … or even other saints because people make mistakes or they are not perfected yet. None of us are. Redemption is a process. Half the time none of us know what’s IN our own hearts until we get squeezed tightly by circumstances. These fishermen walked with Christ and fear still jumped on them.

The bible wouldn’t teach us how to overcome fear if we didn’t need to learn it. Some awful thoughts attach themselves to Christians like rampaging elephants, crushing the life out of them. Those thoughts do not make us a failure. Hold on … if we can just hold on, and breathe, our faith will come out the other side stronger. When we cling to Jesus in the storm we are doing OK. Remember, the God of all LOVE stood up and HE CALMED THE STORM. We cannot begin to understand the Lord’s aim in whatever is going on in our lives… all we know is that He’s been there before us!

Here’s something to chew on …“the natural mind perceiveth not the things of the spirit.”  1 Corinthians 2:4. So we can’t trust what we think or feel, we must learn, progressively, by pressing in, to trust what He says. We know He cares. It’s in the book. 👋

P 2177 Keep stretching your faith.

/ DVH

Matthew 14:17-19 “And He commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, He blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to His disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.”

In this story of the feeding of the 5,000 all the disciples could see was the lack – their faith was limited by their own understanding … however Jesus was about to stretch their faith! After all, in the natural, there were only five loaves, and two fish found amongst all those people. Tee hee – obviously the people at that kind of meeting didn’t come prepared with tea, coffee and snacks! However, the food everyone ate, came from an earthly, insignificant source, but it was given freely.. and in the end it was supernatural bread and fish. So was the sermon, BTW, that sermon is still feeding and challenging mindsets 2000+ years later! Meanwhile, if you want to spiritually authenticate a sermon – maybe multiplying the food will help! 😂

The thing I see from this incident about the boy and his lunch, is this: very little in the hands of our mighty God can always become more than we can ever comprehend!  Which means people like you and I can see miracles too. He was a very ordinary little boy – but he had the faith to offer his lunch. I think our greatest oppositional difficulty sometimes comes from our own personal head knowledge. We are taught to value what we know from school, uni etc. The thing is, in the SPIRIT earthly knowledge isn’t worth bupkis. Earthly knowledge has to take notes and write books!  But ordinary people can live this way – it doesn’t take this world’s knowledge to multiply bread – it takes faith in the One Who multiplied it!

“But the natural [unbelieving] man does not accept the things [the teachings and revelations] of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness [absurd and illogical] to him; and he is incapable of understanding them, because they are spiritually discerned and appreciated, [and he is unqualified to judge spiritual matters].” 1 Corinthians 2:14 AMP.

The Holy Spirit takes the things we cannot possibly know, and explains them to us in words that we can understand. Reading the bible does not depend on head knowledge. I think it was written for all kinds of people who have connection to the smartest Person ever! The Holy Spirit speaks every known language and some unknown ones! He can translate His meaning into something important each and every individual person can understand – even in a huge crowd. He goes around our heads and touches our hearts.

I think most of the time we can be too clever for our own good, and we end up explaining away holy things and we ignore others, because our educated idiot-boxes think they know better! The bible is full of people who put faith first. The disciples thought you couldn’t feed 5000 people with five loaves and two fish, and they were wrong. 

This, BTW could be the reason the Lord was so unhappy with these men later that day, when they started to talk about bread, out in a boat in a storm. Jesus wondered where their faith went because they went back into human reasoning! We are all supposed to live by faith – faith isn’t wish thinking and it often includes stuff we know nothing about. That day the disciples acted in faith when they distributed the bread and fish … then they went back to reasoning and went into fear over a storm! Big mistake. 

Many times it is way too easy to cancel out the ‘God’-factor, and start reasoning about how to solve stuff, because I am looking at whatever is going on around me … instead of praying over it first. Learn to ask the Lord what HE thinks. Because … “the natural mind doesn’t understand the things of the Spirit..” Duh! That’s why we need to pay attention to His life in us. You can call that life whatever you want … born again, new life, making a decision for Christ, becoming a disciple – whatever. I don’t care what it is called – our spiritual life is about a new way to live and see this life! The real question is – who is in charge of your life? You or Jesus?

Our old life requires us to figure everything out using the resources around us. But His new life in us blows our minds over and over again. Renewing our minds through reading the bible is the only way to learn how to think like He does. Changing our minds won’t just come through simply memorising stuff from the book, but that won’t kill you. It’s called ‘hiding His word in our hearts so we won’t sin against Him.’ A renewed mind also doesn’t come from rushing about claiming this and that – that leads to us telling Father God what He should do.  A renewed mind comes from reading the bible, and walking with a PERSON Who knows everything. So we only do what we see Him doing. This will mean we all need more stretchable faith.  👋🏻