Obedience

P 2394 Releasing His Grace.

/ DVH

Forgiving someone is simply the starting place for the process of releasing Grace into a sinful atmosphere. We ask the Lord for His Grace, and then we release that God-given Grace toward the person who has sinned against us or offended us. This is a deliberate act, using our faith. Most of the time we probably won’t feel like doing it immediately – but immediately is definitely the best time! 

However, I’ve found that the memory of whatever happened to me, can come up again and again. So I need to release His Grace again. I don’t have to forgive again, I just need to release more Grace toward that person. We step into the flow of the Holy Spirit and, living with His Grace toward us, we don’t step out again. Grace is like air, it comes in and goes out.

When we go to the cross and confess our sin of judgment or whatever, and repent, we are reminding ourselves that the cross of Christ is our source of endless eternal Grace. No matter how hard I try, I cannot forgive someone who sins against me, in my mind, or even my feelings. I need to use faith to do it. I ask the Lord for His help and then I deliberately pray and release that person from my judgment. I know I personally have a tendency to steer clear of people who hurt me. That’s not GRACE … it’s avoidance. BTW, the more you hold resentments against others the more skilled you will become at finding fault in them.

Now if I think about a bad thing that has happened, EG …’they did this, but I didn’t deserve it’…and ruminate over what happened, then I can easily rehearse myself back into the same state that I started in – or even worse. Instead I must go back to the cross, and Him ask for His Grace, and repent for digging up someone else’s sin. This needs to be a daily habit, because some bad attitudes sneak up on all of us, and we end up 200 kms down the wrong road without even noticing it! We need to acknowledge other people’s sins, then forgive them, and start releasing Grace every time we think of them.

We have been saved to be His GRACE dispensers. That’s what healing is – God’s Grace toward the sick. It’s what wisdom is, it’s what the power of God IS. We embrace the companionship of the Holy Spirit and cherish Him by our obedience. Grace is God’s unmerited favour over our lives, and His people can release that power toward others by forgiving someone else who doesn’t deserve it. Jesus set that example. But we cannot manufacture this stuff without humbling ourselves and admitting our need of it, first. Grace is heaven’s currency.

Transformation occurs when we walk in, and value His Grace for us, and through us. Instead of making our own needs our priority. If we choose not to participate in the flow of His Grace we are actually holding other people captive, because God gave us the power to release them into His hands. (John 20:23)… That power is designed to flow through us. We become acquainted with the power of the Holy Spirit when we live this way – we can’t, or won’t live this way of ourselves, but when He is in charge, we can.

Personally, I can’t live the life I currently have, without utterly relying upon the Holy Spirit and His Grace. Most people I know don’t think about stuff the same way I do. We simply do not gather information the same way. God’s way of Grace is the great undergirding that brings us all together. Outside of His Grace I know that I am probably going to get clunked upside the head by someone, or something or other, and spend a week trying to simply stand up again so I can keep on walking with Jesus. I’ll probably tread on someone else as well! And, if I am not paying attention to what matters, I will fall right out of Grace into judgment. Then judgment picks up resentment and that leads to bitterness.

The good news is Christ overpaid our debt so we have a limitless supply of Grace. What do I mean by that? Let’s start with the obvious. I don’t mean that we can do whatever we like, and live however we want to, ignoring God’s wishes and His instructions in the bible! That is treating God’s costly Grace, disrespectfully and irreverently. We have more than enough Grace to give away, not to horde or misuse for our own agendas, pettiness or deliberate sin.

His Grace received into my life is the beginning of a production line. It produces the kingdom of God in me, and releases His kingdom toward you.  It facilitates a better relationship between me and God, and me and you! Grace washes us both clean, so we can live God-conscious lives instead of sin-conscious ones. Part of the function of this Grace production line is that it becomes the new way we live, as we practise it. We automatically release it to others, and that Grace flowing into and out of our lives, continually washes us. It is much harder to be proud when you know that without His Grace you are sunk! 

Finally, Grace produces gratefulness. It is an equaliser. Everybody needs it. It will produce the kingdom of God in our lives, if we choose to live and walk in it and work with it. Here’s a huge clue that might help you, so you can step into the flow of God’s Grace – if you roll your eyes, or grind your teeth when you see someone – you need His Grace to help you. Releasing undeserved Grace to others gives us balance, we know full well, at any minute we will need it too! 👋🏻

Romans 12:18: “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”

P 2389 Learn to fight for your spiritual rights!

/ DVH

“We CAN demolish every deceptive fantasy that opposes God and break through every arrogant attitude that is raised up in defiance of the true knowledge of God. We capture, like prisoners of war, every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to the Anointed One.” 2 Corinthians 10:5 TPT

Everything in that verse, in my opinion, hinges on that one little word – “can.”  There are times that I forget that I can do whatever He has asked me to do. No matter how I am feeling at the time — the truth is, I can do it. The power to carry out what He says is in the word He has given me… not in my own ability. Our experiences, BTW, never negate what God says! Everything has to bow to Jesus!

Sadly, faith is scary AND costly – but we cannot walk on water inside the boat.  We will have to deliberately climb over the side of it, step away from the safety, and take a risk. That’s what faith does. Now, those dratted waves can seem to be extremely high, when you’ve start to contemplate the things in your life that look impossible … unless He helps you. This is a good time to know that you know, we can do nothing without Him. Our faith cannot just be in the answer to our prayers, it also has to be in the fact that He has promised to take us through and make us stronger while He is doing it! We get to know Him in these times.

Our biggest fear sometimes is this … when will He turn up to help us? That BTW, is insecurity and a lack of trust. I struggle with that one a lot. Even though I have seen Him do fantastic things … I still struggle to trust Him, but the more I exercise trust, the stronger I will get. Meanwhile, we do ourselves a great disservice if we are constantly beating ourselves up for our failures. Instead we need to keep our eyes on the One Who defeated everything for our sake. We aren’t leading, we are following. Even our leaders are following the Lord! And the Master always knew where He was going. 

Life is tough, and the truth be told, it doesn’t matter who punches you in the head – other people, or if you do it to yourself – either way you will end up with a sore head!! The best thing is to forgive others, or yourself, or both … repent and fix whatever is needed, and then just move on. Ask for His help and work with Him toward change, so you don’t end up holding yourself hostage to some dumb thing or other, or some sin or other. You have enough to do without dragging around weights behind you. Remember, Jesus paid the full price for our sins, so sin has no authority over us, to torment us.

There is only one direction for any of us to go in when we are under attack…we get up and keep moving. We must go on. Once we have honestly dealt with the past, we have to leave it behind, because it will just drag us under. Our enemy is only too happy to play his nasty horror stories of past disappointments onto the inner screen of our minds. Close that theatre of pain and shame – pick up the bible – and renew your mind. Even when we are tired, we call on His Name. He will help us because we are His kids. “And He (the Lord Himself) passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin… “ Exodus 34:6-7 NIV

That’s God’s attitude toward US, His kids. Sometimes we end up falling down, and getting up a lot, and weeping while we are doing it. But faith MOVES … it is not static. It is not a theory that we trot out in an emergency – it is the way we have been designed to live now, in this new life He gave us. Everything else is white noise sent to distract us from our main purpose. Our purpose is to glorify Him – in what we do, in what we say, in what we think and in the way we live. Bad stuff happens to everyone. Learn to pick up your God-given sword and hack away at stuff as it comes at you.

BTW, there are some battles that other people will never understand, they are like massive operations that seem to pull everything that is inside you, out, and leave you feeling exposed and vulnerable. 😶  At those times I remind the Lord I am just glorified dust and without His breath in me I will go back to dust again. So I stagger to the book and pick up a sword and slash away at what is trying to demolish me.

This society we live in has learnt to rely upon feelings to the extent that feelings can eclipse everything else when life gets tough – even what God says. But that’s what renewing our mind is for – choosing what He says over what we see, feel, or think. However, we CAN demolish every single argument, that rises up against us, because He gave us that power! Ask the Lord for the right sword (bible verse/s) for the fight you are in, and don’t put that thing down until your enemy is defeated and he leaves. 👋🏻 

P 2383 Love is not the same as … ‘Like’.

/ DVH

And love doesn’t look like tolerating others, either. Yeah, I don’t like those two sentences much myself.  But Jesus gave us clear directives about love… 1 John 3:16  “By this we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”  

Matthew 5:44-47 ““You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the supple moves of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives His best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the loveable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.”

John 15:12, KJV. “This is My commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” – Love is a great subject to study because it will definitely give everyone plenty to pray over and act on. It is like most things in the bible if you apply them into your life you will know about it!! Jesus said, ‘love your brothers, love your friends, and love your enemies,’ and none of that is easy. Especially when we take into account that the people who can hurt us the most are probably not our enemies! 

Here’s some stuff that has helped me to cope with dealing with people who are a black hole where love is concerned. First of all I remind myself that I don’t have to feel like it, to do it. Love is a verb not a noun – it’s something I do, not something I feel.  I deliberately bring to my mind that … ‘I can do all things through Christ because He strengthens me!’  So I ask for His strength, then I do whatever He says in the book. Take emotions out of your effort and obey instead.

In my experience feelings always come later. Sometimes MUCH later. I have people in my life that I have been loving for years, I wish I could say that living this way changed them —- but it hasn’t – not so far. Instead it is changing me. I simply need to learn to fight disappointment and resentment and as I did that, I learnt about self-control. This became another way to invest my life in the kingdom of God. And it also showed me stuff I did not know I had – until the resentment etc. bubbled up!

When you make a big effort in your own strength toward people and they flick it off like it is nothing, it takes real dedication to continue to love them. I discovered I didn’t want to make that kind of effort for careless people, because I quite quickly ran out of dedication … But when I did it for Jesus — my expectations and motivations changed. So now I do whatever I do, for HIM. I do this to obey Him. I stopped putting hope in someone else to get it right. Because Jesus is my hope, my anchor and my source of strength – I’ve learnt to put my hope in Him, not others.

This means I’ve learnt to love others literally ‘under orders,‘ and now I do whatever He tells me to do. Often a bible verse pops into my head. Previously, I had become used to being motivated by need, or human affection, or some other feeling, but there were also times that Lord asked me to do something sweet for someone else at a time when I had no desire to do it. Choosing to love in the face of lack or need is powerful. When the people you love don’t love you sacrificially, you can suddenly find a whole lot of anger you didn’t know you had!

I also learnt the wisdom of Colossians 3:23 … “…whatever you do, do it with all your heart as though you were doing it for the Lord and not for people.”. That phrase ‘and not for people’ really resonated with me. The Lord explained to me that when I did things for others, hoping they would appreciate my efforts, I was doomed to fail because I can’t ever control other people’s responses. But when I do whatever HE asks me to do, I learn obedience… plus I ‘die’ to self in the process. I am renewing my mind. 

Obedience always brings us closer to Him. The Lord Jesus was obedient.  Loving by choice is not easy, but it sure beats the heartache of ‘trying hard’ with people who have no idea how much they are hurting you! Love is not the same as human emotion – whether it is ‘like’ or ‘tolerating’ – it’s an investment in someone else as the Holy Spirit Himself leads you. 👋🏻

P 2379 You shall receive power …

/ DVH

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts1:8. The power Christ sent back to us, through the Precious Holy Spirit’s Presence, isn’t simply the power to raise the dead, heal the sick, preach the gospel, give words of knowledge, serve thousands lunch, or walk on water! That power is with us to help us read the bible, and live out our daily lives bringing glory to God. However, the Holy Spirit is also the power to overcome the daily stuff that often trips us up.

Please don’t quit relying on Him before you’ve won the prize – I am talking to myself as well as you, OK? Learn to press IN when difficulties overtake you – insist. Tell Him you don’t want to go a step further until you start, thinking, acting and looking like Jesus. Risk takers see miracles – in themselves, as well as others. Imagine what this world would look like if every single professing Christian in it at this moment, started acting like Jesus would? What if we all started loving people, and putting others first? What if we all lived our lives for His sake, and obeyed what He told us to do in the book?

Let me put that another way – if a squatter came to your house and sat down in it, and started to say things like: “This is my house now …you have to leave.” What would you do?  Would you sadly pack up your things and head for the front door and leave? NO-OO-OO-OO-OO!!! You’d tell the guy: “What?? Have you lost your mind? I have a piece of paper that legally says this is MY house.OUT!!  Get the heck out of here. Or I’ll call the police to turf you out.” 

WE HAVE A BOOK! That book is a heaven-sent legal document that tells us what God will and won’t do. It tells us what we can do on His behalf. Because of Christ’s sacrifice, we now have His power of attorney. We are legally able to act like He would if He was here … because He IS here – He lives inside US now. Please don’t let satan lie or trick you, by influencing your feelings out of what is legally yours!

Don’t lose your birthright over a bowl of stew like Esau did. That young man gave away his future, to bring relief into HOW HE FELT in the immediate moment. Sadly we can do this often, I know I do! I can easily let how I feel, rule what I do, how I pray, what I concentrate on. We can’t afford to do it. We are giving away our birthright so we can try to deal with the difficult or sad things in this life. Instead of leaning on Him, we lean on our own understanding. Or … we try soooooo hard to ‘look’ right, and feel like a fake.

The most difficult moment there ever was … was that moment Christ died. To the disciples, it looked like hope died. I can’t imagine what the world was like for those three days, but I bet nobody from that group was walking and leaping and praising God! Then, the change slowly unfolded. First the tomb was empty, then someone else said they saw Him, then two other someone’s said they saw Him … BUT in those terrible moments…the disciples valued what they saw and humanly understood – more than what Jesus had told them would happen. Those guys still went back to what they knew. That’s the biggest danger for us as Christians. The old life, the life we are familiar with … beckons.

Nobody was waiting for Jesus to walk through a wall! Let me tell you the Person of Christ got incredibly bigger the moment He walked through that wall!! This was SomeOne Who had defeated death and was even more alive than they were. We cannot afford to limit God. We have to let Him do things the way He wants to do them. Our obedience to what He has said, and what He is still saying today, is paramount. 

For example, He told us to love our enemies, to do good to those who deliberately hurt us. (Read the Beatitudes!) Our journey forward as a Body depends on our willingness to obey no matter what the cost is. Disobedience to His Word makes us deaf. We often can’t hear HIM, because we are listening to self, and then we start making pretty excuses so we don’t have to do what He said. We tell ourselves that that sort of devoted obedience belongs to missionaries and pastors and evangelists etc etc.. Go back to the book. Did it say it was only written for an elite few? We ALL need the mind of Christ – to get that we must stop simply reading, and start doing.

“Please Lord Jesus we want our hearts be on fire like Yours! Help us to use Your power in our lives to defeat our own personal enemies and failings.’ Amen. It’s OK to realise you are spiritually poor, because our God is so rich in the things we need – and that’s a good place to live! Depend on Him. Just remember we have the power of heaven behind us to be transformed choice by choice. 👋🏻 

“What happiness comes to you when you feel your spiritual poverty! For yours is the realm of heaven’s kingdom.” Matthew 5:3 TPT.

P 2372 Confess your faults.

/ DVH

I’ve been reading in Leviticus … 27 chapters. Man that’s some hard core stuff to try to remember right in there. So, I’m reading and reading, and rolling my eyes, and I said to the Lord: “This stuff is he-avy.” To be utterly honest with you I was kind of reading and skimming, I was not actually reading word for word – some of that stuff is hard to read! The things human beings do to each other. 😱  Then the Lord said this to me: “Rote obedience, and enforced obedience will not change a heart – it simply changes the person’s actions. The heart needs to be changed.”

So I prayed for a bit, and then I remembered God’s criteria for holiness was totally met in the Person of Jesus Christ  a-n-d … He lived and breathed on the hard side of these commandments. Yay Jesus! The bible tells us He was tempted to sin just like we are … but He didn’t. Hallelujah! Because He didn’t, I have another way to choose to live… thank God He didn’t fail! That’s why He is the perfect Saviour. Listen to this and get happy!! “God has UNITED you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made Him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; HE made us pure and holy, and HE freed us from sin.” 1 Corinthians 1:30 NLT. We are joined to Christ, so now Almighty God sees us like He sees Jesus.

Repentance is brilliant, it’s goof-proof. But the whole thing entirely rests on one of my much advertised little words. “IF (if if, IF!!) we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” 1 John 1:9-10. We desperately need His word IN us.  Sin happens. People treat each other badly … it’s what we do about it that matters. Pretending we never sin is telling Jesus He’s a liar – why on earth would we want to do that? He’s not only faithful — He’s fair!

Everything Jesus did, was for our benefit. We don’t have to be afraid anymore – we’ve been set free from the system that forced others to remember and keep hundreds of rules and regs. “For He (the Father) has rescued us and has drawn us to Himself from the dominion of darkness, and has transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, …”Colossians 1:13. In short – we don’t have to live hiding our sins, or putting up with them anymore, because we are in a new kingdom where light prevails… Jesus Christ prevailed. Feel free to do a little dance .. 🕺 Somebody paid. We just have to own up!

“You are clean because of the Words I have spoken to you.” John 15:3. Jesus said this to His disciples, this shows how powerful His word IS. It cleaned the disciples as they listened – the bible will clean us as we pay attention to it! Accepting and acting on what He says changes everything. Ephesians 5:26 “Christ did this so He could set the church apart for Himself. He made it clean by the washing of water with the Word.” That phrase the washing of the water of the word applies to us, the church. In other words we need to take an intentional bath and get clean all over by reading the bible and let it convince and convict us of sin, and the things we must walk away from.  

There are people in my life who would never ever confess their faults to anyone else – they hide them instead. That’s called PRIDE. Instead of excusing or covering up this bit of dirt and that bit of nasty goo on you, repent!  It is so simple, don’t deny your faults own them — we’ve all got them! Get rid of pride with confession and repentance. Confess them to one another. The very act of confession includes a huge bonus buy – you confess your sin and you get to humble yourself all at the same time! Win, win! We simply agree with God’s assessment of our actions, repent and repair.

I do that one a lot with my hubby and he smiles discreetly and nods – that’s because he knows exactly what I’m  talking about – he’s been living with it!!  But I don’t have to be ashamed of my sin, I simply need to repent – then actively go on to pray that the Holy Spirit will help me. The things that cause me to sin are rarely other people – it’s ME!! Blame is a total waste of time – my response to your stinky attitude is still my response. If I give into the temptation to speak my mind, I weaken my spiritual muscles when I do it.

I have a bad time with other drivers. I don’t drive, but people who drive like mindless numpties really get my goat. What I am thinking often comes out of my mouth. All those bad drivers aren’t to blame … it’s my impatience and anger. They are simply giving me an opportunity to diagnose what’s already in my heart. What comes out of our mouth tells us what’s inside our heart. That’s why the bible is essential. We need to be washed by it all the time. Take a bath, read the book! The answer is so simple – humble yourself, then confess your fault, pray to be healed – and practice listening to the Holy Spirit for answers. 👋🏻

P 2371 Transformation.

/ DVH

Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in His eyes.” Romans 12:2 TPT

Jesus Christ did not just provide our redemption on that cross – His death provided us with TOTAL lifestyle TRANSFORMATION. Now we have the POWER and ability to grab opportunities to figuratively and literally change our minds. To change our thinking, change our reactions, change and transform the way we were taught by family, life and the people we’ve associated with – into something life giving and redemptive. 

You and I don’t have to be the same old cranky easily provoked grump we always were. Now, we have the power and the Person inside us Who will help us to get that soft word that turns away anger! (Proverbs.) We can be transformed by believing what it says in the book – and acting on it, using our faith. If you wait to feel like it, you will never feel like it – trust me!  The power to change is in the Holy Spirit’s Presence in our lives. We have to put away the idea that this life is about the Holy Spirit AND …EG: the Holy Spirit and what I want. We can’t have both options. Dead people don’t have options or opinions.

I have learnt that if I find myself resistant to transformation, that is an indication of how rebellious I have allowed myself to become. I love this illustration of how inner transformation works: “There is a legend of a grandfather or elder using a metaphor of two wolves fighting within him to explain personal inner conflicts to his grandson. When the young person asks which wolf will win, the grandfather answers “whichever one you feed.” Whichever one you feed!? So, what are we feeding our thought life on?

People freak out and say that you should or shouldn’t watch this or that, or you shouldn’t go here or there if you are a ‘good’ Christian. But the truth is obedience is about Who you are actively following. The real question is this – what will help me to obey the Lord and what will lead me away or distract me from thinking about Him?! Christians love Jesus but they do not necessarily foster that love as the most important thing in their life. The everyday humdrum things-that-need-to-be-done stuff swamps them, and they forget about Him and start living this life like everyone else.

The secret to total transformation is in the book:“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Colossians 3:23&24.  We are not working for a man anymore – we are working for Jesus in our school, home or job. That other person is HIM to you and I. That’s how deeply the Lord Jesus identified with mankind. So if you are yelling at someone else – you are yelling at HIM! “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me.’ There is no accidental or incidental happenings in His kingdom! Everyone we bump into is sent.

It doesn’t matter if you are doing the washing-up or teaching your kid how to tie their shoe laces. That other person is Jesus standing there. We have so much power in our choices. Unfortunately, in this generation, our wills have become weak because we give in to them all the time! Instead we need to stand on the Word and refuse to go the wrong way. Ask for His help to resist the temptation to act like you rule the world, and yield to the ONE WHO ACTUALLY RULES THE WORLD. This world will not explode if you acknowledge that you do not know how to do everything – remember His strength is made perfect in weak people!

We have His book. The bible tells us His thoughts about behaviour and life. We do not have to remain ignorant. We now have the power to overcome the things we have probably deliberately cultivated along the way in our lives. Before we met Him we did stuff to protect ourselves and make us feel good about who we are. Ask yourself, do I see myself as a victim or a servant? The answer will diagnose your position before the Lord. 

We have mistakenly tied Christ’s Presence in our lives, entirely to our behaviour, not to what He has already done. His Grace propels us into obedience, it empowers us to make right choices. Our behaviour actually changes because we want to live and remain in His Presence, rather than roll along day after day, doing what we want. We are His servants. We’ve been left here to serve Him and serve Him by serving others. And transformation comes from obedience to His word as He leads us – – and BTW if you read it then you are responsible for your response.. 👋🏻

P 2368 So what does saturated look like?

/ DVH

I dunno — yet! But I’m aiming at it. I’m sick to death with living a namby-pamby safe life that is dominated by the things around me that hurt, inconvenience or distract me. More Lord! 🙌  Wherever it takes me! I want to return love for hate, and kindness for carelessness and selfishness, without even thinking about it! I desperately want to leak the Lord’s love wherever I go, no matter how tightly I’m squeezed. That sure sounds like saturation to me!

That word saturate means to permeate until no more can be received, to soak thoroughly. Like a sponge that can’t hold any more fluid, saturated people drip the Lord’s goodness, loving kindness and His precious heart wherever they go, even under pressure. I would love to see the day arrive when His saturated people will leave puddles of His glory behind them. Puddles that heal and transform, just like Peter’s shadow healed the lame man in Acts. Wow, even that thought blows my mind!

I believe Jesus is looking for wild, unbridled men and women like John the Baptist. Passion is meant to motivate them. We are to return HIS passion with OUR PASSION, because our Saviour deserves it. Passion drove Him to the cross. Today, our response needs to match His example. I know a certain SomeOne Who would be de-lig-ht-ed to help us with that! The Holy Spirit.🕊 I think, BTW, that two of the most valuable things we can give the Lord are our time — as well as our obedience. Saturated people are passionate and devoted to His will, by being around Him.

They crave His Presence more than anything else. They love to be near Him, whether that means, prayer, bible study, or helping others etc. All of these things come from a saturated overflow. When you are saturated you don’t have to think about doing what He tells you, YOU DO IT simply because you know He will come with you. And that is the best bit – it’s everything! You enjoy watching Him work, seeing Him reach out to somebody else the same way He did back in those days before His crucifixion. Jesus Christ loved people. He didn’t have agendas – He just loved people. That’s where we are aiming – to be so full of His love it cancels out our own preferences and prejudices.

My testimony is this: I know He saved me, so He definitely can save anybody who wants in! I truly don’t see anyone as being too hard for God — outside the pale, so to speak. If you need a Saviour then Jesus is the One, He cannot let you down because it is in His very nature to be FAITHFUL and TRUE. Read the book. I encourage you to read what He said, for yourself, in the gospels. My premise is —“whosoever will may come …!”

So when hubby and I talk to people, we have that in mind and we just let them be themselves. We have no judgment toward what they say or how they live. It is the Holy Spirit Who convicts, challenges and convinces. It’s our job to “go” and let Him do what He does best, through us. He loves to love on people.  We just tell them what we’ve seen and what we know about the One Who is everything to us. 

I enjoy the example in the bible where Paul and Silas’ jailer falls on his knees in front of them. The bible says this: “In desperation the jailer asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Never missing an opportunity to share the good news, Paul and Silas said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” And that night, as Paul and Silas shared “the word of the Lord,” salvation came to that jailer’s house… “ Act 16:3-34.

Now that’s fantastic saturation! I would love to be so kind, so forgiving to those who deliberately hurt me, that that would be my automatic response!  I want them to see Jesus Christ in me. Knowing the Lord personally, has changed all my aims. I used to aim at being loved, feeling accepted – now I aim to give those things away to hungry people around me. 

I believe God wants a passionate people who will do whatever it takes to fulfil His will while they here are on this earth. A saturated people. 👋🏻

P 2361 What’s next?

/ DVH

“You can pass through His open gates with the password of praise. Come right into His Presence with thanksgiving. Come bring your thank offering to Him and affectionately bless His beautiful name!”Psalms 100:4 TPT.

I believe we need to take verses like this one literally, instead of simply reading it and nodding our heads in agreement …  we actually need to do what it says. We must get into the habit of seeing the bible as a book of instructions, and not just a book of nice thoughts, interesting stories and stuff that God said to other people! I use His own words to form my prayers as He reminds me of an appropriate verse for my current situation.

The verse above is filled with instruction. It is a road map into the throne room for a personal interview with our Father!  A bunch of people can participate together, or one person can apply it just for themselves … it doesn’t matter. This means we stop what we are doing and use the password! I never thank Him for the problem … instead I thank Him that He is going to get me out of it!  “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them ALL, …” Psalm 34:19… Man, how I love those little words!!! Learn to insist no matter how long it takes.

At the same time I truly believe our fantastic Father can use any verse in His book to bring somebody to Himself! Sadly, I think we have limited our own comprehension by making exceptions. “Oh, that’s just for the Jewish people. Oh that’s just for sinners. Oh that’s just for people who never met Him.” And we miss the blessing and the deeper knowledge of His ways. 

Praising God means we will get blessed too, it’s just an automatic flow-on effect. So when it says, bring your thank offering to Him, do it. And if you find it hard to think of something to be thankful for, ask the Holy Spirit for His help… and then thank Him! And then … repent, because you obviously have not been paying attention to what God is doing in your life! No I am not joking. 

Almighty God uses His book to tell us how we can have fellowship with Him, so we’d better be more concerned about His thoughts than someone else’s! You might wonder: ‘will my fear of failing God ever go away?’ Here’s my answer –  does satan ever fall asleep? 😳 That war inside our heads is normal, it wouldn’t be FAITH if we didn’t get stretched in the process! 

“Whatever He says to you, do it.” Mary said that to some servants at a wedding once. She had a right to ask them to do that – she knew Father God’s ways first hand! She put her body on the line. I’ve practiced doing that scripture for 50 years, ever since I first read it. Boy, I’ve done some monumentally stupid stuff, trust me – I’ve mentioned that on this site … but I’d rather try than excuse myself, and miss the blessing of seeing God do what He does best – He loves to surprise people!  Including me.

How can we affectionately bless His holy Name if we are standing way off in the distance, too scared to be seen??Maybe we are scared He will bring up something we hope He doesn’t know we’ve been doing, or something we have already done?! Get over yourself, and fix the things that need fixing. I know other people are difficult, I have a bunch of those people in my life. He knows how to handle them. We need to just follow the prompts and watch what He will do with our obedience.

Personally, I have a bunch of awkward messed-up things in my life that look like a cat got at my knitting! Stuff is tangled up so badly I have no confidence it can ever be untangled, unless He does it. But I know my God, and I’m not taking my faith back, because I know, that I know that – HE IS GOOD and His mercy endures forever. (That’s another Psalm BTW.) I learnt that stuff by using my faith – especially at times when things didn’t work out and I could see no solution. Our God loves the impossible. I loathe the impossible, I get so stretched by stuff I feel like I am going to break – but so far … He just keeps bailing me out. However, you probably won’t ever hear me say: ‘Oh goodie! Another terrible test for me to trust God with.’ 

But those moments are the time to enter His gates with thanksgiving and go right on into His courts with praise. Why? Well, first of all, praise and thanksgiving won’t change God’s mind –  He is always for us. Praise and thanksgiving changes ME! We all need to stop paying lip-service to what He says and act on it instead. The bible is a book filled with instructions, plus stories about other people who followed instructions! It ain’t rocket science. 👋🏻

P 2360 Look at what Almighty God can do with obedience!

/ DVH

Exodus 40:16“Moses did everything just as the Lord commanded him.”                                                       

Exodus 40:19b “… as the Lord commanded him.”    

Exodus 40:21b “… as the Lord commanded him.”       

Exodus 40:23b “… as the Lord commanded him.”     

Exodus 40:25b “… as the Lord commanded him.”    

Exodus 40:27b “… as the Lord commanded him.”    

Exodus 40:29b“… as the Lord commanded him.”     

Exodus 40:32b “ …as the Lord commanded Moses.”

Exodus 40:33b “…and so Moses finished the work.’

Exodus 40:35 “Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” I just want to mention that Moses was familiar with God’s Presence – he’d been in it a bunch of times. Yet this time Moses couldn’t get into the tent! The Lord’s Presence is not measurable – it is without measure. 

Eight times God specifically gave Moses instructions about how He wanted this place of sacrifice and worship assembled. And then God kissed the work of men’s hands with His Presence, because of their obedience and attention to detail. As Christians we cannot afford to diminish or dismiss our call to obedience. That is the cornerstone of our relationship with the Lord Himself. Jesus obeyed God unto death.Why on earth would we think it is OK to skate right on over whatever He has told us to do, in the book?! 

The whole of that glorious tabernacle was assembled under the Lord’s oversight. It was designed by God, downloaded by the Holy Spirit to Moses and his team, and carefully worked into a cohesive whole by Him as well. And God approved every single stage of the tabernacle’s assembly so much that He did not just make suggestions, HE GAVE DIRECTIVES. Ya might want to think about that for a month or TEN. 🧐

At the end of Moses’ life, after he had led this group of difficult and demanding people around for 40 years, and watched all his peers die off;  He hit a rock twice, instead of once, and missed out on seeing the point of that whole journey! However, lest you think our God holds grudges, it has been said of Moses – that God Himself buried the man when He died. Wow. Nobody else but the Lord knows where Moses is buried. How He loved that man!!

Back to us today, and that option-out button we all like to use when God tells us to do something or other, and we don’t like it, or we aren’t sure if it is Him speaking or not! The devil likes to cloud our minds and throw doubt into the mix of what the Lord tells us to do. I’ve learnt to obey anyway. Sometimes I stand there and look like a goose, and sometimes He does something incredible, and that would be me, standing there again, this time with my mouth open like a cod-fish – astonished. If it doesn’t surprise you, it wasn’t GOD! The only Person destined to look good when we serve Him is Him. The glory is always His when He speaks.

He’s an amazing God, so He does amazing things.  We simply have not learnt that the way to partake of such things always involves our obedience. He once put me into my car to go across town to meet someone I didn’t know, to talk to them – and I didn’t even know what I was supposed to say when I got there! When I met this person, in my whole life I never met someone who seemed so together. They had been a Christian for years and years, and ran some wonderful thing or other for the Lord. I was intimidated to the max. On the way there … … did you get that??? ON THE WAY THERE !!! … the Holy Spirit gave me three scriptures for this person.  

I read them out to this person and they melted like snow, right in front of my eyes and wept profusely. All I can tell you is this, all of us have secret buttons, other people may not know where they are, but boy, GOD KNOWS WHERE THEY ARE! I have never seen this person since, but I do know their life changed in those moments. And all I had to do was to be willing to obey, even though I felt like a lunatic, temporarily. 

If you want to see miracles, and watch Him work in astonishing ways – trust Him, take a risk and learn to obey. Start by obeying what it says in the book, and go on to do the things He asks you to do. Treat His book seriously and do what He talks about. Be the kind of person who forgives and repents, and learn to change your behaviour, with His help – even if you think you aren’t wrong! Let God Himself be the One to excuse you, instead of doing it yourself – or taking a personal census to try to excuse yourself! 

BTW that tabernacle Moses built was destined to be an illustration of something much bigger … SomeOne far greater Who was to come.  I’ve said it so many times – Jesus is all over the Old Testament and the New. When you and I obey, we release His Grace into this world. His GRACE is unstoppable. Obedience is not optional, it really is mandatory. You never know what God will do with your faith!👋🏻

P 2358 Priorities

/ DVH

Following the Holy Spirit and His leading, is the greatest choice of all. I dare to say that it is essential. However, we must get the thought out of our heads that walking with the Holy Spirit means we will always feel something, or get some benefit or other. HOW ABOUT THE BENEFIT OF BEING SAVED while we were yet sinners!! I exhort all of us to leave the idea of constant wonderful overwhelming spiritual feelings behind us, and do what we do because we love Him. That’s what Jesus did for His Father and us.

Here is something for free that I’ve learned the hard way when I walk with Him. When the Lord’s POV crosses my own, often all I feel is grumpy and hard done by. At that particular moment I can give you about 900 reasons why what I think is more right than that other person is. However there is no actual faith exercised when we think we can prove our point by walloping some poor unsuspecting schmuck over the head with God’s book. 

That’s not what His book is for – we have it to get to know our God and His ways, not just to search it for the things I might want make my life better, or to prove a point. The bible is a beautiful story of salvation and redemption, so that now we can live our our lives acknowledging: ‘that without HIM we can do nothing.’ 

You know the Holy Spirit will point out our sins and flaws, but only with the thought in mind of smoothing out the pathway in front of us. You and I are a highway for the King to travel on – we just need to be willing for the Holy Spirit  to smooth out those pathways, by filling in the potholes and removing bumps. There is nothing on this earth better than watching King Jesus reach out to one of His lost little ones ….and He just used our unconditional loving words to do it!

Sadly, instead, many of us have used our time thus far memorising all the “ME” verses… ‘I am this and that and I’ve been given this and that.’ Here’s something worth thinking on —Father God has given us Himself – HE is our treasure and gain. Not some promise or other that we demand He fulfil. He is our priority.

I hardly ever feel happy happy joy joy all the time. – I figure that’s in the book too! Nor is this life of mine all sunbeams and rainbows …sometimes its creaky painful joints and  a complete lack of can-do motivation! HOWEVER … I’ve learnt to obey the Holy Spirit, because I want to follow Jesus. This process is not meant to be tried, it is meant to be learnt. All that means is this:  I’m probably going to bump my nose into my own particular cross regularly… and I won’t like it much. I’m not convinced that this life is actually meant to suit us. 

We can easily fool each other with our ‘nice’ smiles and faces that look like we are listening to others. But we don’t fool Him. Living this life as a laid-down, totally surrendered lover of Christ is not easy. Learning obedience through suffering isn’t easy either, but it does become more natural when we practise it. Dying to self means we are making room for Him. I urge you to weigh up those attitudes in this life that act against His unconditional love for us and others. And then go on to think about what we are losing every time we give in to the temptation to look after me, myself and I. I know I lose the opportunity to see God at work IN MY OWN LIFE. 

I was saved to serve Him wherever I am. At my school, job, house, and in my ordinary little unspectacular day-to-day life. That is what is actually really powerful. When ordinary people who serve an extraordinary God – but they have no grand destiny to speak of — when those people choose to give up living for themselves, and they choose to live for Him instead. To them, nothing else matters.That’s called single-mindedness and the Holy Spirit loves it! Jesus had it and it needs to be our great, never-ending quest. Let’s keep watch over our priorities.

We can go through this life praying desperate emergency prayers as needed, or we can choose to walk constantly and ever-increasingly with the One Who knows the way. He not only knows the way, He knows US inside and out! There is nobody better equipped to help us to deal with our day to day problems and heartaches than the Holy Spirit. Make Him and His will your priority and watch your whole life change. 👋🏻