Obedience

P 2447 We need to learn His Ways –

/ DVH

He already knows ours!!Judges 7:1-7 “Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against Me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.  But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men.

Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.”

The first thing I want to say, is that it is extremely important to:  a/ make sure you don’t miss any of the details when reading scripture;  and b/ today, take particular note of the fact that Gideon eyeballed every single man as he drank and there were 10,000 men! There were 22,000 cowardly custards BTW! Our God is always in the detail! Human beings love to run on and start planning how to make what God says work.

Maybe like this? … “Oh so the lappers stay, and the cupped hands guys go? Hands up all the lappers.” But Gideon had to listen to God for each individual man’s involvement. All 10,000 of them! God’s answer to prayer and Him helping us, doesn’t look like we think it will. I cannot begin to count how many times that has been my experience. My advice is this – don’t get ahead of Him – you’ll miss the blessing. HE’S THE BLESSING. 

When you are about to fight an army that is called, by reputation, ‘without number’ … eliminating fighting men does not seem all that clever. And that’s the bit I want you to take away today – the Lord does not do things the way we do them. HIS WAYS ARE NOT OUR WAYS – HIS WAYS ARE PAST FINDING OUT. I often wonder why people drive themselves nuts trying to figure out and plot the way that the Lord is going to do something or other, in the light of a story like this one. He exhorts us to wait for Him.

His ways are so far above ours! I urge us all to read the book looking carefully at the details, He reveals Himself there. Otherwise, it can seem out of touch and pretty weird … that He would even think of saving a whole city with an evangelist who spent his entire preparatory time for preaching, in the belly of a whale! Maybe getting swallowed up, helped with repentance and obedience.  

Let’s look at the New Testament to see if things like this are any different from the stuff in the Old… sh-a-ll we? How about feeding thousands of people from 5 loaves and 2 fishes … Now you and I don’t see that every other Friday at the fish shop do we? Or how about making a brand new eyeball out of spit and dirt? Granted, it was Jesus’ own spit, but … … you get my drift. You know I figure the Lord was there when Father God made man in the first place, so He knew all about how to make people’s spare parts out of dirt! 

What about walking past a pool, which was specially set up for sick people to congregate around, and yet the Lord went there and healed just one man! Where did ‘He healed them all’go?? We need to learn to laugh at ourselves and our pitiful attempts to understand what He is doing and WHY! To know Him better, and stand in awe of His awesomeness, we must begin to notice the details in the book. We can’t just cherry pick and choose the bits that suit us and our own understanding – which, BTW, we are not supposed to lean on (!) … when we read the bible.

You know, the bible says God Himself laughs!! Psalm 2:4 “He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision.” I thank God that I have an Advocate standing right by my Heavenly Father’s right hand explaining the way human beings think. No wonder the Lord laughs! We make such hard work out of everything!

Finally, have you ever reflected upon why the Lord God chooses such unusual methods of operation? Why was that snake allowed in the garden? What can I learn from that?? Why stick Jonah in a whale? Why take trumpets and lamps into a battle, or march round the city for 7 days in silence, and then shout!  Why pour gallons of water over an altar that is meant to be set on fire? God’s ways are past finding out … we need to stop trying to finagle Him into bringing about the results that we think are going to be great, AND instead start listening to Him. Let’s follow His implicit instructions, obey what He says and learn how to trust Him instead. Learning to listen… another great key.  Bye👋🏻

P 2441 Faith steps are essential.

/ DVH

“IF the Spirit is the source of our life, we must also allow the Spirit to direct every aspect of our lives.” Galatians 5:25 TPT. And here’s the NIV version: “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” And the last one, the MSG bible: “Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives.” 

We must always remember, salvation is not a one off – it’s an ongoing, active, co-operative process. You see, the problem is that we think that because we have been given an option, a choice, we can still opt out of obedience and it will make no difference to our walk with Jesus. Just because the owner of the vineyard is absent that does not mean we can do whatever we like! We can ignore His directives, but we do that at our own peril. This is why…

It is the Spirit of God Who leads us and inspires us, and when we ignore Him, or whatever God is saying to us, we are actively rejecting Him. We are telling Him we don’t want His help. Remember Samson?  That guy wanted what he wanted, and due to God’s investment in his life, he could get most things without any consequence. Boy, is this man’s life a cautionary tale! He shows us that disregarding the Lord’s instructions can have dire results. We can walk with the Holy Spirit and experience His power through our lives, and if we are not careful, we can see His power flowing through us as His approval of WHATEVER we do. Our God doesn’t take His gifts back – He’s not an Indian giver.

Samson was accustomed to the power of God being with him in whatever battle he faced. Then he got careless. A beautiful woman wore down his resolve and he disobeyed God’s instruction not to cut his hair. Because of this Samson lost his connection with the Holy Spirit … and he didn’t even know it.  Like I said – a cautionary tale! Judges 16:20; “Then she called out,“Samson,the Philistines are here!” When Samson awoke from his sleep, he thought,“I will escape as I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.“The ‘she’ in this story BTW, is Delilah, who would not stop until she rendered him helpless! …To return to the most important line in the whole story … SAMSON DID NOT KNOW THAT THE LORD HAD DEPARTED FROM HIM. Pause and think on that! 

Sincere repentance is great, do it! But making allowances for our pet sin(s) is not! We are treating the Holy Spirit badly when we act like that…He will leave AND WE WILL NOT KNOW IT – Samson didn’t. The Holy Spirit is not like a plane or a train! He does not announce His departure … He just quietly … leaves. This BTW explains the people you know who claim they are definitely Christians but they stay the same day after day, year after year. There are people who pay lip-service to God but they are not fooling Him. Transformation is always our own personal choice, and our responsibility – it is our response to Christ’s sacrifice. He will ALWAYS help us if we will just take a step of faith. 

Friendship with the Holy Spirit is to be desired and sought after. Those people who like to appear righteous, however, are living in presumption. All we ever need to do is ask for His help. Um… you and I cannot be independent and walk with the Holy Spirit, all at the same time. HE. WILL. LEAVE. The very purpose of being saved includes actively relying upon Him. Here’s another news flash … the Lord’s silence does not mean that He agrees with us.

Almighty God is always looking for us to use our faith. Ask for His mercy and grace, and then stop doing whatever it is that you know you should not be doing. Leave the room. Stop thinking someone else is going to make the difference and use your own faith. Nobody is making anyone do that stuff, and SomeOne, oh so precious, is right there, wanting to help you overcome.

We are saved to walk by faith and serve Him, and that always includes our transformation. When we tell Him “I can’t” –  our unbelief in His power to SAVE us from ourselves, will be our downfall. Tell Him, “I can’t, but I want to, please help me!” – and then do something differently. The Holy Spirit will show us the way through any trouble, one step at a time. Otherwise we are parking our lives in the middle of satan’s freeway. Change is hard but necessary – God has work for each one of us to do.

However simply praying God will change us, and then walking away and still acting like our mean old sorry self is not the way to be changed. Nobody else is going to put their hand over anyone’s mouth to shut them up when they’ve wandered off into giving people a piece of their mind. Our choice to disobey is our choice. Faith steps are not optional they are essential. Bye.👋🏻

P 2439 We are His children of the light!

/ DVH

“Once your life was full of sin’s darkness, but now you have the very light of our Lord shining through you because of your union with Him. Your mission is to live as children flooded with His revelation-light! And the supernatural fruits of His light will be seen in you—goodness, righteousness, and truth. Then you will learn to choose what is beautiful to our Lord.” Ephesians 5:8-10 TPT.

When I read this today, my first thought was this – we are His happy shiny people!  Everywhere we go we take His light with us … forget about long-life batteries … we have a source of light within us, that will last into infinity… and beyond!! Imagine that. This world has no comprehension of the treasure we have inside us. And ps … that’s very likely our own fault!  Moving on … because I don’t want to be a down-a-later… all the time!

What does it mean to be children of the light? Hmmm… I think it means, no matter what the problem is, no matter how hard things seem, we will always have an answer … because we know the Answer personally! He lives inside of us. Now some other people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet may not like His answer, but that ain’t our problem. We don’t even need to get together a bunch of people for us to shine, one of us and Jesus is a majority!  I’m pretty cheery about that thought too.

We have been re-designed to be optimistic people. No matter how big that problem is – our God is bigger. No glass half-empty here, we are totally overwhelmed and overjoyed to have His life-giving water inside us… Let.It.Out!  Because of this our catch cry toward others is: “How can we help you?” Jesus set that precedent in Mark 10:51-52: “What do you want Me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.” There ya go — another way to evangelise!

You know, without Him we can do nothing. How-ev-er!! That means WITH HIM 💥 watch out!! The Body of Christ has left this stuff to the experts for way too long. It’s time to get in the game folks. Here’s a red hot tip … you too, can be an expert on all things godly. Think on this – if I asked you about your fav movie, you could probably give me a pretty good summation of the plot and what you liked about it. Our interest in the bible is our thermometer, we just need to take our temperature – regularly.

Like Peter said in 1 Peter 3:15: “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”Studying the bible IS preparation, then doing what it says aids digestion. Your digestion of His book clears the grit and grime off the outside of your INNER light bulb. And just like moths and mosquitoes like the light – lost people who are sick of walking about in the dark bumping into awful stuff, love His light too!  His light through us is all the light this world needs.

Our God is so wonderful. He doesn’t expect us to memorise great chunks of His book– His word just needs to be a flowing river … because He is GOD … He can save people in seconds. Don’t believe me? Think about Jesus talking to the thief next to Him on the cross. That was not a comfortable conversation! Do you know how you get ready to witness etc? VOLUNTEER. “Lord I will talk to anyone You send my way today, but I am going to need Your help, as always.” Amen.

You and I, we have His marvellous light inside us. It could be as simple as saying to someone who asks you a question like: “How do you manage those difficult circumstances you are in?” I don’t even say I’m a Christian. I just say: “Without Jesus I can’t.” It’s always up to Him. The beginning, the middle and the end, I just grab hold of His thread of Love and then I follow the Leader. He knows where He is going. The Holy Spirit rides on our obedience … and it doesn’t even matter if you are scared to bits either, because the Holy Spirit LOVES this gig. You be you and let Him be Him. 

Finally, think on this – any light-bulb needs a power source. We have the power source that created this world, light bulbs and all! … inside us. It doesn’t matter how we happen to feel, faith doesn’t require feelings, it requires actions. It’s a ‘doing’ word! You and I can never ever be who we used to be, despite those awful pictures the other guy keeps throwing up in our minds… we’ve moved! Permanently. Out of the darkness into the light. 👋🏻

P 2435 You don’t have to be clever to serve Jesus.

/ DVH

1 Corinthians 2:4&5, 9&10TPT “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power… … However, as it is written:“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— these are things God has prepared for those who love Him—these are the things God has revealed to us by His Spirit.”

Some people say that the Apostle Paul had a really big brain — they say that about Einstein too. Apparently Einstein’s brain was 15% bigger in some areas than ours is. But in these scriptures above, Paul carefully explains that it is NOT his brain that comes up with the stuff he wrote! Those words came from the Holy Spirit’s inspiration and wisdom. And then Paul said something truly amazing – his words were a demonstration of the Spirit’s power. The Holy Spirit’s words are extraordinarily powerful. They heal, release, and open spiritually blind eyes, instantly.

The bible is not just there to comfort our soul when we are sad, mad or under the weather – the bible is a spiritual thermometer and diagnostician. The next time you read it, highlight the bits that really annoy you or puzzle you … The comforting stuff is great, but if we read just to gain comfort we will not grow.

There are often times when the way to get past something awful that you feel stuck in, is to persevere, and keep on reading the bible. Then go find something you don’t like, and you don’t want to do, and then go and do what it says. If you want a breakthrough this will give you one. This book can teach us about our real selves … if we let it. Human beings don’t just hide from others, we hide from God — and ourselves. Sometimes, WE don’t want to know what we don’t know!

The bible shows us our errors and missteps, as well as comforting us with God’s everlasting eternal unshakeable love – not just NICE thoughts that tickle our ears. Our God’s love is passionately fierce – He will not turn a blind eye to something that damages or is destroying His children … … even if they choose it.

We must be careful about what we let our faith REST ON. Seriously, keep that thought in the forefront of your mind as you read His book. We cannot rest our faith on what someone else said. We need to rest it on what the Lord says to us, personally. This is why it is good to read until the Lord speaks to your heart. Anybody can take 3 different scriptures and make them say 200 different things. Just read this blog every day, I take a stab at that with what I write all the time! 😂 

You and I need the Holy Spirit’s personal attention in our own personal lives, hearts and minds, so He can apply what we read into our own situations. Principles are great, but principles are an overriding umbrella, an impersonal thought, that can and will shelter you and I. But we need our own little Holy Spirit-given raincoat and wellies when we are struggling along against the wind and rain. We need to hear from Him, for ourselves. 

Remember what Jesus said: “Man cannot live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” The bible is our daily bread – our daily bread is not toast, coffee or weeties! It’s His word. Every single day we need a personal glimpse into His glory, to keep our faith alive and vibrant. We cannot do that without the Holy Spirit’s input. What we read when we read what Paul, or Peter, or John wrote, is the insight and wisdom they got from day to day as they too studied and thought about the bible as they knew it. 

We can only read the Epistles etc. with the Holy Spirit’s help – otherwise some concepts seem old-fashioned and irrelevant. The Holy Spirit knows what will settle our hearts when we are disturbed or afraid. We cannot possibly imagine what God will say … yet, when He speaks, that changes everything. He even speaks to little children who are not apparently, fully developed yet! But little children can come up with the most profound things. I think that’s because their childish faith doesn’t put what they know up against what He said!

Our wonderful heavenly Father has so much more He wants to give us. We must never leave His table, the one He has prepared for us in the presence of our enemies, feeling hungry or in despair. Stay there until you are full! Those times are the exact time to put aside what this world has said about our own ability to study or think, and go on to pick up the love, advice, comfort and wisdom of the One Who was here before this world began. It takes listening obedience to serve Jesus, not just a clever mind. Bye. 👋🏻

P 2432 In order to understand some things …

/ DVH

… we will need to look at them, standing on our head!!!.… Most Christians go to church to receive, and there’s nothing wrong with that! They go to worship God, receive fresh revelation, get prayers for help and transformation, and maybe a special experience. When we are all together, we have a collective faith. I know this is probably a new thought to some … BUT … despite the fact that I dearly love going to church – I don’t particularly want to borrow YOUR faith all the time, I want my own fully-functional faith!

Almighty God gave us all a portion of faith, and I want to use mine for His glory, under His direction. Along the way, I’ve learnt that using my own faith helps me grow, spiritually. Your faith is great and it holds me up — but YOU live far away, or you have a habit of going on holidays when I might need you! I love it when my Church family pray for me, and I have seen wonderful things happen because others have used their faith to believe for a change in my life. I will not ever stop doing that because we are all designed to be a part of each other. I have also seen incredible things in terrible situations when just one person has added their faith to mine. 

However… I will stay a baby in my faith if I never learn to use that God-given faith for myself. I realized a number of years ago, that I need to stop being a passenger, and begin to use my own faith under the help and supervision of the Holy Spirit. It’s my job to develop what I’ve been given. ““Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave His charge: “God authorised and commanded Me to commission YOU: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Then  instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20 MSG.

Well, that’s pretty clear! I’ve been saved to serve Him. And His special love is people, so if I want to live out this life as a Christian, I’m going to have to change. Obedience to His Word is not an optional extra that depends on the day of the week, and how I am feeling. satan can throw enough icky situations and feelings at all of us to keep us busy until the Lord comes back! While I am in this world MY time is HIS. My own faith needs to be used, because I will go places you will never go. Everybody who has been born again was given this command by the Lord. This means that we are going to have to stretch, and do things we don’t much want to do, because our new life has new responsibilities.

Many years ago. I had to have some major surgery. Directly across from me in another hospital bed, was a young girl who was sobbing, clearly terrified. I had already been given my pre-meds for this op, so my task was to lie still and let the meds do their work. But this girl is over there, crying her eyes out. So … I hopped out of bed and trundled over to ask her if she is OK? She is clearly NOT OK! She had stepped on a needle and it went right through her toe and she was there to have it taken out.

I had a choice. I could go back to my own bed, shut my eyes and go into sleepy-time or … pray for her. I opted to pray for her. As a result when the doctors came for me for my op, I was bright eyed and bushy-tailed and …awake. The doctors had to over-medicate me to anaesthetise me, and under that anaesthetic I had a terrible hallucination. Let’s skip that part. That young girl, however went home unafraid, with her toe fixed. My point? Obeying Christ is costly. We don’t always end up with sunshine and roses and somebody singing “nearer my God to thee” sweetly in the background!

We must stop thinking this life is a party that culminates in heaven. We are living in enemy territory. Stuff happens. Phillip had to strap on his Nikes and run after a chariot! Peter and John were off to a prayer meeting when they met someone who needed their help … and the authorities were not thrilled with them. Paul and Silas were severely beaten up and thrown in the clink. But that meant that they got to talk to a Philippian jailer. Now let’s put this in a full context for these men – Jesus had already died and He was resurrected … plus the Holy Spirit had come … BUT … they suffered anyway. We’ve been erroneously taught that if we have trouble, we are doing it wrong – what if trouble means … we are doing it right!

It is our job to tell others what we know. Not speaking is like walking past a house on fire and not trying to help the inhabitants to get out of danger!  Even a brand new Christian can give away what they know of God through their experience of Him – whether they know exegesis or not! We have as a group of people, spent so much time getting ready to do evangelism, or practising praying for healing, or giving prophetic words, or going to conferences etc. that we’ve become INSULAR. Christianity is not an insular faith – we simply give away what we have — and what we have didn’t happen 50 years ago. God and I did stuff yesterday.

Christians aren’t designed to fit in, they are meant to stand out!  And sometimes you quite literally have to stand on your head to understand what happened and why it happened like that… but you can’t always explain the eternal! 👋🏻

P 2431 He will change you.

/ DVH

Do you want to be ready to witness at any time? … As usual, the bible has the best teaching — like ever! “Let every word you speak be drenched with grace and tempered with truth and clarity. For then you will be prepared to give a respectful answer to anyone who asks about your faith.” Colossians 4:6 TPT

The Apostle Paul liked prepared hearts above everything else – he wrote heaps on transformation and the power to live differently. Speaking for myself having everything I say drenched with grace, and tempered with truth and clarity is plenty of incentive for me to go on with!  But I can definitely see that then there will be power in anything I say because of those three God-given things working in me and acting on me. This scripture is another way to to tell us how to walk with the Holy Spirit. I call it the ‘watch your mouth’ scripture. God’s truth must be truth in me.

My hubby said something brilliant this morning – it helped me define the above words, truth and clarity. “My own particular quirks, attitudes, or even some conditions I may have, that need to be treated or attended to, should not define ME. Those things are not part of who God made me to be. WHO I AM.  EG: If I have a broken leg, it is not part of who I am, it is a condition to be treated. If I am fearful, or anxious it is something I need help with. It is not all of me. That bad temper is not who I am, it is who I have become in response to the world around me. I can change – Jesus Christ’s death empowered me to change.”

I call that fantastic clarity about a subject that is often very muddied in today’s world. In today’s world we define most people by their traits. “She’s so pretty. He’s flabby. That family is stupid. That person is brilliant.” Facebook etc etc.. seems to be quite good at reducing very complex ordinary human beings, into simplistic one dimensional ones. People are never just ONE thing.

Part of our preparation for sharing with others is to define ourselves by who God says we are. We cannot afford to let who we are be defined by anything else. So things like: “that person had a difficult childhood, and I had a great one” – will not disqualify either one of us from obedience. We trot this stuff out as excuses to God — reasons why we can’t obey Him — because we think of ourselves as wounded and broken. He died to heal us! We need to let every word we say about each other and ourselves, be drenched in Grace. We are His new creations now.

Clarity says things like this: “My beloved is MINE and I am HIS and His banner over me is love!” “I can do all things through Christ Who gives me His strength…” Nothing can ever separate me from His love…” BTW, that word nothing means no thing — it includes how I feel about myself, or what other people may say about me. There is great healing in agreeing and acting in faith on what God says about us. His Grace is the great equaliser.

In the Christian world, Grace is our AIR. We receive His grace, minute by minute as a normal part of our lives. Grace is a language of the Holy Spirit and Jesus released that eternal quality at Calvary. Now it is a part of human history. We don’t have to feel gracious to know we have grace – no matter what we’ve done. You don’t have to take my word, I don’t have to take yours — we believe in it because Grace is explained thoroughly in the bible. The bible is our road map to a bigger world. One that lasts forever. The problem occurs in our faith … not in what He did. If our faith is in our sinful failure then we will act like everyone else around us and make excuses for our appalling behaviour!

Praise God, we do not have to hold ourselves ransom to the past – even if the past was 5 minutes ago! However, we dare not mis-use His grace either. Repentance is a fruit of Grace. This means we look at whatever we did, through His eyes, not ours. We must stop making a god after our own image – the god we make up for ourselves is weak. That god can’t change us! It allows us to stay the same old pitiable, wishy-washy, nasty grump we always were! Jesus Christ conquered all sin forever. Our failures cannot negate that reality… Ignore what you think you know and start believing His book. 

When I give away Grace to others I am releasing His power into their lives. I received that power when I asked Him to save me. For every word we speak to be drenched in these things we will have to go beyond pretending to be nice, and actually become like Him. We must go past saying we are sorry, into change. Transformation. Grace is a transformative power – it cannot bear fruit without actions. Jesus had to actually DIE to give it to us. Now the Holy Spirit is here to help us with applying what Jesus did, and the bible says.

Like hubby said to me today, believing that … “we are who we are, and we are stuck that way,” … is error. It is denying the power of Grace. Our aim is to walk with the HOLY Spirit.  HE’S NOT SINFUL or SPITEFUL. HE DOESN’T LIE, or HOLD GRUDGES. HE ISN’T POWERLESS EITHER!! Almighty God’s words bear fruit. No fruit means GOD IS NOT IN IT. We need to let His Grace have its way in us, and then when we speak to others, it’s with truth and clarity. Bye 👋🏻.

P 2428 Jesus Christ – Grace and mercy personified.

/ DVH

“So now we draw near freely and boldly to where grace is enthroned, to receive mercy’s kiss and discover the grace we urgently need to strengthen us in our time of weakness.” Hebrews 4:16 TPT Jesus Christ is grace and mercy personified. And every single thing He did and said was God’s incredible mercy toward mankind. But what does all that mean? Right here, right now, to us … where you and I live? Jesus Christ did not just provide us with a new copy-cat way to live – He has real life IN Him — and He paid for and gave that life to us. We gain strength when we are weak because of what He did.

Grace and mercy can often just be words to mankind, but to Father God they are a PERSON. “When the extraordinary compassion of God our Saviour and His overpowering love suddenly appeared in Person, as the brightness of a dawning day, He came to save us. Not because of any virtuous deed that we have done but only because of His extravagant mercy.” Titus 3:4-5 TPT.

If we are not careful, we can rush on by the words, and what we’ve been GIVEN. We were given a PERSON. Jesus didn’t simply have grace and mercy, like we might have kids or a house or a car – He IS grace and mercy!  And when mankind tortured and killed Him – grace and mercy came out… His life-giving blood flowed out and covered us all! Grace and mercy are the essence of Jesus Christ.

He is the perfect love of the Father expressed in a Person. Father God deliberately planned for that kind of love to come to earth and walk among us, so we could know, see and experience His love through Christ for ourselves. So now we know that these things are real and they belongs to us! We will not chase after what we do not know we OWN. Grace and mercy belong to us.

Sadly, our-not-so-grateful response to this precious gift was… … we, and people just like us, killed Him! It seems we liked the things we made up for ourselves, better! Jesus’ glorious truth about Who He is, and why He came, threatened our lies, our traditions, our very frame-work of what we chose to think about God Himself. This shows us a great deal about what human beings are really like!! We will make up a god that suits us rather than embrace the reality of Who He is. Does that sound familiar?

We cannot have grace and mercy in our lives, and sustain those things without the Author of those qualities IN us, helping us. They are simply not human qualities. When our long-ago forbearers, Adam and Eve, were caught in their sin, their immediate response was to blame someone or something else. Adam blamed God! He did the whole pathetic: “It’s-not-my-fault-God-You-gave-her-to-me thing.’ One of the hardest opponents we must fight in this life is our own overwhelming arrogance and pride. Sadly, we often think we know better than He does. That’s why we all need a brain transplant … via the bible renewing our minds! 

Lamentations 3:22&23.“It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness.” Our God’s Character is saturated in incredible qualities that are not greatly esteemed by mankind. He gave these qualities to us for free, although His gift cost Him everything! His mercy is the reason we are still here and not roasting in hell. His compassion is so rock-solid we can stand on it. We need to learn to esteem what He esteems, first … then any other stuff will get added unto us along the way – if we actually need it.

The thing is, we can learn from the Holy Spirit how to live this life the way Jesus lived His. He was there with Christ. Jesus Christ was totally and humbly devoted to His Father’s will. Our devotion to God and others matters! God’s Mercy gives us access into the kind of real obedience we need, and His Grace empowers us to make the same choices Jesus would. BTW, FYI, in His Name means Jesus would do whatever it is if He were here. It isn’t just an add-on tag to legalise the prayer! Mercy and grace are not qualities to be used to our own advantage or even glossed over – they are the very essence of His new life IN us. Bye.👋🏻

“Now it’s time to be made new by every revelation that’s been given to you. And to be transformed as you embrace the glorious Christ-within as your new life and live in union with Him! For God has re-created you all over again in His perfect righteousness, and you now belong to Him in the realm of true holiness.” Ephesians 4:23-24 TPT

P 2424 This is His way.

/ DVH

“So I kneel humbly in awe before the Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the perfect Father of every father and child in heaven and on the earth. And I pray that He would unveil within you the unlimited riches of His glory and favour until supernatural strength floods your innermost being with His divine might and explosive power.Then, by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of His love will become the very source and root of your life. 

Then you will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences—the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far-reaching is His love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding—this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!” Ephesians 3:14-19 TPT.

We don’t do the things that Jesus did or the things He asks us to do simply because He needs our hands and feet. We are not His robots, or even His portable advertising!  Christians do what they do to be obedient and their obedience expresses their loving devotion to Him. But at the same time the more we walk with Him in that obedience, the more we will see and experience His incredible Love for us. This is the very heart of these wonderful verses in Ephesians 3.

His love for us, as well as in us, these things are the riches we’ve been promised. Forget gold, silver and precious stones, His love is beyond price! And His Loving heart is toward us. He is like that King, Ahasuerus, who adored his wife, so he held out his sceptre toward Esther even when she  disobeyed the rules of his kingdom. God’s heart reaches toward us, to relieve us of our burdens and to help us with life’s difficulties. There are days when others do not like me or my company, but those days, those feelings, don’t reflect Him. Nothing will alter His love toward me. That is a huge gift. In those moments, I simply must believe what He says, not how I feel.

Years ago on ancient TV in the 1950s, we had an ad in this country for a man’s hair product, called Brylcreem. Its motto was “a little dab’ll do ya.” Father God’s love is NOT like Brylcreem! It is not mingy, or space-saving or economical! Christ’s sacrificial love sustains this universe and beyond. Despite what the scientists say, if God withdrew His loving favour from mankind the stars would fall out of the sky. Read the book of Revelation! You will see written there what happens when His boundless Love is withdrawn from the earth. His love is the incredibly powerful force that holds this world, including us, together.

The more we use our faith by being obedient, the more His love expands within us, until it becomes the very centre of our lives. Slowly His love transforms and replaces any imperfect human love we have that may have done damage to our hearts. Some of our responses are not sin – pain causes reactions too. However, the knowledge of His love is expanded in our hearts as we watch Him touch other people’s lives through us. 

While we were away this time, because of a series of God-ordained events, we managed to give an older cleaning lady a keychain. Her face seemed hardened by age and life, she was tiny but she looked tough. Scary even! But the Lord said to bless her, so we did. And the most amazing thing happened. Her face cracked open, and she looked just like a happy little child. Transformation happened right in front of our eyes. She danced up and down on the spot. This keychain was the most delicate one I have ever made. I probably would not have given her that particular one – my own judgment of how she looked would have gotten in the way! 

None of us know how hardened anyone else can become inside and out, because this life can deal each one of us terrible blows. In order to go on, human beings put on protective armour. That armour often changes our outward appearance, and at the same time it can alter what comes out of our mouths! Just like a barking dog that is scared of a stranger – we can become vicious and mean. But Father God’s love goes right around our disguises and touches hearts. Then we have the privilege of seeing someone else the way He designed them, that utterly transforms both parties, and opens their eyes to new possibilities. 

The bible says:  “perfect love casts out all fear…” The reality is, if we are afraid, it is not enough to just know this verse, that’s simply words. We need to know the heart of the One Who is speaking love over us. Watching Him work in the lives of the people around us opens our eyes to how incredible His love is. It seems upside down to think that in order to get love, we will have to give away Love. But that is His Way. It’s the way of faith. His way forward is for us to learn LOVE. 👋🏻

P 2414 Our own private Tutor.

/ DVH

“But when the Father sends the Spirit of Holiness, the One like Me Who sets you free, He will teach you all things in My name. And He will inspire you to remember every word that I’ve told you.” John 14:26 TPT

Just look at Who is always waiting for you and I when we read His book! I have a really bad short term memory, that appears to have turned up with age. It has required a lot of adjustment, for me as well as my family. It effects my family because I can be in the middle of a sentence and forget where I was going with my thoughts… 😂 … hilarious and humbling … all at the same time. Bonus buy! 

Moving on … I love the above verse because it directly deals with that malady in my life. The Holy Spirit is so faithful, He stands by me patiently and hands me verses when I type this blog daily. And sometimes He says: “look that up” Plus He says  … “read around it.”  Context always matters! So I can personally testify that He is an excellent Teacher. I can be reading away in the bible and He says: “Go back, you missed it.”  OR… “pause and think about this!” 

People make a really big deal out of encounters with the Holy Spirit or prophecies they have been given. It’s like they memorialise them or something. They build a statue, put a label on it and they live the rest of their lives camped at the bottom — hoping for more. 😳 To be strictly honest, perhaps I don’t value encounters that much because I have had hardly any! We must stop camping around a word, and start camping around the Teacher.

The one thing I do value mightily is this — I have this incredible Tutor Who shows up, day after day, time after time after time, and He guides me through the Word of God. He corrects me when I am ‘off-line’  and patiently repeats Himself when I am in thick-as-a-brick mode. He’s my Friend Who knows what I need, and He hands it to me. The bible is like a jigsaw puzzle to me – there are bits that make no sense until I have put together a part of the puzzle. And at other times I start with one piece and all the other pieces fall into place. And I do all that with Him guiding me, so patiently!

At exactly the same time, He shows me how what I am reading is relevant to me. He says things like: “you need to pay attention now!”  I often feel like I am watching a Master at work, creating something incredibly beautiful … because the Holy Spirit can’t help Himself! He’s always doing beautiful things. It is like His nature is always on display, particularly when I read the Word, or when I step out in obedience. I love this book! 

Today I was reading in Joshua, and the Holy Spirit pointed out that He told Joshua four times in the first chapter “to be strong and courageous.”  That repetition kind of got at me, so I wondered what it was about… four times is a lot of times! Then I saw that Joshua was the new leader and Moses had been a truly great leader, so Joshua was stepping into very big shoes … leading very disobedient people!  

God was instructing this young man about how to step into that role and how to apply whatever he was told to do. It takes courage to step out in faith and send a whole lot of Israelites marching around a walled city with no weapons, just musical instruments! Plus they did that seven days in a row!  It also took great courage for that young man to tell that army that’s what God said to do. Those men in the Jewish army were reliant upon Joshua’s ability to hear the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes when the Holy Spirit tells me to do something, it is easy to obey. But sometimes He tells me to tell my husband this or that for the person he’s going to speak to – and that takes faith! Because of my lack of physicality hubby often interacts with the people on the road more than I do, and he is more experienced than I am with dealing with strangers. 

There are times I feel to give a specific bookmark, or say this or that, and hubby goes and does it and the results are miraculous and extraordinary. We have over fifty instances of that on this last mission trip alone. This verse spoke to me today, because we both need to be strong and courageous, plus I need to speak up, otherwise I could simply take a backseat and let hubby do all the work and say nothing. We need each other just like that army needed Joshua’s leadership, plus their commitment.

My dear husband listens to me, and follows the Lord’s leading through me, and most of the time it makes very little sense to either of us – until the person in front of us starts crying their eyes out! That’s when we simply stand back and watch Him work. The best thing Christians can learn to do in this life is to learn to trust our precious Tutor. He knows stuff we do not know — about people we’ve never met. It’s AWESOME! 🕊 🙌

P 2413 Some thoughts about fatherhood.

/ DVH

“…This is your Father you are dealing with, and He knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this: Our Father in heaven, Reveal who You are. Set the world right; Do what’s best— as above, so below. Keep us alive with three square meals. Keep us forgiven with You and forgiving others. Keep us safe from ourselves and the devil. You’re in charge! You can do anything You want! You’re ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes.” Matthew 6 MSG.

Today I want to talk about a place some people may have a lack. Those of us who have not had a present, engaged earthly father, may find the entire concept of a father is hard to grasp. Personally, I don’t remember my birth-father at all, I met him much later in life, and to be perfectly honest with you – I had no idea what to do with him! At that time he gave me a big bag of jelly-beans, because I loved them when I was 7, which was the last time he saw me … However I was 27 when I saw him again … and not much fussed about jelly beans! He died not long after that meeting, and he had another family by then, so we didn’t get a chance to mend bridges. 

I totally fell head over heels in love with Jesus when I met Him. His willingness to accept me and save me from myself plus His unrelenting kindness and goodness blew me away. But, a Heavenly Father … that was a whole other ballgame. Father God was more of a written concept than an actual father to me. I said all that to say this … my early lack meant that I have had a limited idea emotionally, about a father’s generosity. How a good man cares or watches out for his children’s well being. His strength and solidarity in a time of crisis. I virtually grew up fatherless in the real sense of the word.

But I had two stepfathers. One of them taught me how to forgive people who sin against you, because his form of government was extremely physical. Unfortunately, at the same time, he taught me to be afraid of men. This meant that a loving, engaged, and a totally-committed-to-my-welfare-father, like our Heavenly Father is to all of us … was right outside my childhood experience. A good father helps his kids with their identity. These wonderful men provide abiding security, so that their kids do not major on minor things like they are the end of the world..

This is why the above prayer from the Message bible blesses me. It says so clearly: “reveal Who You are….” I know that I need that kind of revelation from Him. Obedience comes easily to me – fear of consequences is a terrible motivator – but it also means I have a fear of God that isn’t biblical or healthy. This verse explains that our God loves to help us in the places we have a lack. My advice is to simply ask Him to supply that particular need. He isn’t just talking about somewhere to live, or a nice car!

BTW, we are not being disloyal to our earthly parents just because Father God can meet our needs and they didn’t – or can’t – or won’t. Even a good earthly father can mess up! And trust can be fragile at best when someone ill-equipped to be a godly father, turns out to be your parent. All told I had 3 fathers and none of them taught me anything about what a loving Father was like – they did however teach me to be scared of loud voices and angry men.

Enter my dear husband. In the past 35 years. He has patiently taught me more about what men and fathers are like, than I ever learnt in all the years before we were married. He is still teaching me about man-speak — because the way that men think, is a total enigma to me. Until he came along there were no men in my life to contribute any insight into the male psyche;  so whenever they got loud, I wanted to run! 

However, I also expected men to ignore me, because that’s what happened regularly too. To avoid the grumpy disinterested men in my life, I learnt to hide my personal self away. I came from a female dominated family line, and that means I don’t understand spontaneously, or naturally, how men think. Why they do and say what they do and say – puzzles me and I have very little insight. Sadly, some of the things that we do, even as adults, we do defensively, sometimes automatically.

The bible tells us that our God is a “Father to the fatherless.”  I want to encourage anyone with the same problem that I have had, to ask for this heavenly revelation. We were not just born again into God’s family, we have also been ADOPTED by Him. Adoption means choice! Father God can definitely supply this kind of need for validation and security etc. because He is everyone’s Father and He knows all our names. People like me need to pray over every verse that talks about the Fatherhood of Almighty God, and deliberately renew our minds – this is how we will change our thinking.  👋🏻