Nieghbour

P 2315 The Way ahead, is dead.

/ DVH

If we want to see God’s way ahead of us in this life then loving the people who hate us – is actually the way to go.  Meanwhile we are going to need His ‘eyes of faith’ to see that pathway. And I don’t care if those mean, unpleasant people are Christians or not. If we want God permanently making His home in us, instead of Him just being a Sunday visitor, then we need to make the Holy Spirit our new BFF and let Him change our lives accordingly. 

The bible tells me that I have been saved, delivered, and changed, but unfortunately … none of that can show up in who I am, without me choosing to change. Long ago, I had a huge expectation of what Christians should be like. Now that was a crushing blow. In the church I met people who were supposed to be nice … but … actually they hadn’t got that memo yet, so they were sometimes nice and most times NOT! Some of them were meaner than the people out in the streets..

Meanwhile the difference between who the bible said I was supposed to be, and who I still was, was wider than Bass Strait! These new lovely people of God stuffed me full of information, bible studies, prayer groups, conferences, but the gap between what I read about who I was in the book, and who I really was IRL, or even who I was supposed to be, was ginormous …to say the least.

Eventually I actually realised I was never going to fit in, because the Lord made me into the kind of person who wanted to know … why not? If it was in the book, then why weren’t we doing it? Why did we not make the poor a priority when Jesus clearly told us to? Why didn’t we pray for the sick? How could Christians live a life of pretending to be nice – when they could be mean etc. at the drop of a hat, and then smile at you next time …without ever asking for forgiveness?!  

Disappointment and discouragement dogged my footsteps for years. I would try my best, get provoked by circumstances, then fall flat on my face, cry for a bit, get up and … try again.  … I had no idea that Christianity was to be gloriously lived by totally transformed people –  not just better actors than me! Also I was ignorant of the fact that I now had my own personal Guide, Helper and bible translator … If I just paid attention to what He said instead of merely reading the bits in the book that made me feel good!

I did not understand that transformation is not just about trying harder.  Or even about praying about stuff and if God did not answer my prayer to be a sweeter Christian, then that was not my fault. That was on HIM. AFTER ALL I HAD PRAYED, I had asked … and if He didn’t answer me, then maybe my behaviour didn’t bother Him, or He just hadn’t gotten around to that stuff yet. Fat chance. 

In a nutshell I pushed away my own personal responsibility to co-operate with the Lord and humble myself enough to tell others that I did not know how to live the kind of life Jesus did. Privately I was of the opinion, given my current circumstances – that I probably never would make it.  Nobody told me that in order to be changed I would have to give up my right to live my life my way and do it HIS way instead. When I finally realised this truth, I hit another snag. I HAD NO POWER TO CHANGE because I had been feeding my flesh for wa-a-ay too long.

The way through stinky attitudes is death! Death hurts. We cannot bury these things and hope no-one will notice. GUESS WHAT? They will notice!  Christians can’t come out of following Christ alive. We need to get honest and admit we are not special spiritual people, but human beings who have cultivated wrong attitudes and habits that need to be killed off with His help. Jesus suffered and struggled with this truth and we do too. WE MUST DIE!

The way ahead is death to self, and living for Him and others. “You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And your neighbour as yourself.”  Good luck with living that way by pretence and effort. Good luck with praying it falls on any of us out of the sky. WE DIE DAILY, or we ain’t dead at all. Read the book. 👋🏻

P 2133 We do not have to look the same to serve Him.

/ DVH

I Corinthians 12:4-6 “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.” These verses help us to understand that God’s gifts in action do not have to look the same. Just because your church does not do stuff the same way mine does, it does not mean what happens is not the Holy Spirit and your group of believers is not being led by Him. This whole thing works by faith – your faith may manifest itself differently than mine.

At the same time, I think we need to teach new believers how to individually hear Him and then supervise them and prayerfully instruct them. This step needs to come before teaching people how to use their God-given gifts. Teaching people how to listen, is about activating that person’s faith so they can hear Him for themselves and follow Him consistently. It’s called making disciples, not just cultivating spiritual gifts. Each individual in the body of Christ needs to have Godly character, and that takes time, patience and someone willing to encourage the person as well as correct them.

The Lord Jesus Christ wants to activate His army. We can go to this bible school and that one  – a good thing to do BTW… but if you are learning and not doing, then whatever you are studying is not doing you a penny-worth of good. Christianity doesn’t need more information, we need to start acting on the info we’ve already been given! Use it or lose it! We have enough Christians right now, out there in this world, to change and challenge everything around us, by simply loving our neighbour as ourselves.

It is clear that the Lord does not want us to be ignorant about the Holy Spirit’s gifts. However, just because what we do to contribute does not look like what someone else does, it does not negate the gift He gave us. What matters is obeying what He tells us to do, not just the gift. The real thing to watch out for is “Who is being glorified?”For years I was so intimidated by what the Lord gave me to do, I almost wore an invisibility cloak! I felt judged when I did what He said because it did not look the way other people’s gifts did. I had no revelation about the bigness of our God. Practically everybody mentioned in the Old Testament, was not normal by human standards – yet God chose these people to manifest His loving care and correction to others.

When we serve and bless others with what God has given us, it opens the door to the supernatural, however the supernatural is not always startling. Read the Gospels again. Jesus did some stuff other people didn’t even notice! We don’t have to be famous to be effective. We were ALL given something supernatural to share with others, but not all of us will be seen. We must appreciate that the size of the spiritual contribution does not matter – because if you butter buns and do it because the Lord told you to do it, then somebody is bound to be touched by Him and blessed! 

It is so sad that the Body of Christ has a bunch of ambulance chasers who only know how to watch and they do not know how to participate. My advice in any kind of difficulty is this – YOU pray and do what He tells you to do.  If it happens to be your enemy lying on the ground – then all the better! The Lord Jesus spoke to the entire body when He said: “GO! Heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons …” That won’t happen if we all just stand around the sick person waiting for the pastor to be free.

Meanwhile, there is NO ongoing value in looking at what Brother Wilbur does and trying to pray like him because the way he prays seems successful. Instead, ask the Lord, each time – “How do YOU want ME to do this?” The Holy Spirit does not want clones – He wants the many-sided wisdom of God to be displayed in front of this world. We are each a tiny facet of that beautiful wisdom. Glory! What a privilege. 🙌 Jesus said: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matt. 5:14–16.)  Meanwhile, no wonder this world seems to be circling the drain – most of us have gone and hidden our particular light under a basket!

Staying in relationship with people is also important – first with the Lord, and then with others. The bible does not say it is OK to be in fellowship with Him and ignore the rest of the world … or even worse … be mad at so many people you can’t count them. Jesus Christ so identified with mankind that if we are mad at them  – we are mad at Him! Our personal faith can make a huge difference in someone else’s life when we choose to love them, as we are led by the Holy Spirit. “Each believer is given continuous revelation by the Holy Spirit to benefit not just himself but all…”“…Remember, it is the same Holy Spirit Who distributes, activates and operates these different gifts as He chooses for each believer.” 1 Corinthians 12:7,11. TPT 

The most important thing we can ask ourselves about whatever our gifts are … is this love? It doesn’t matter if my gift does not work like yours, what matters is this: is it my aim to be led by Him and demonstrate the love of God without prejudice or partiality, wherever I go? Our faith needs to be activated and used for the benefit of others. We have no excuse. The bible clearly says we do not have to look the same to be a part of what HE is doing. 👋🏻