Obeying His Word

P 3290 Choose your weapons.

/ DVH

2 Corinthians 10:3-5  “For though we live in the world, WE DO NOT WAGE WAR AS THE WORLD DOES. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  This scripture always evokes the same thought in me, ‘so why on earth are WE acting like everyone else does?’ Like brother James says: “this ought not to be so…”

We quite simply can’t use this world’s weapons in our daily ongoing battles that we fight. Let’s always remember we aren’t fighting people – we are fighting those things, spiritual forces, that people have embraced to protect themselves and often they are deceived. BTW, this immediately makes me wonder why we think talking aboutstuff will fix it!  2 Corinthians tells us His Word is meant to demolish arguments and pretensions. We definitely need to know what that looks like. To me: it looks like knowing God is always good. Plus we live this life knowing our side WON … but sometimes, we have momentary afflictions. However, our Saviour and our Comforter will never leave us. 

We need DIVINE weapons. The armour of God, the fruit of the Spirit, plus His Wisdom and spiritual gifts to combat whatever comes at us. Let’s look at that statement for a minute  …  because our weapons are divine, then they are weapons from the Lord. So our next question is – what do they look like? Do some research in Ephesians 4&6, or 1 Corinthians 12&13, or Romans 12. But let’s start with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control those are Jesus’ kind of weapons. I recommend using them liberally under the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Start by showing the Lord you love Him … by LOVING AND OBEYING HIS WORD.

Here’s something that could raise your hair and your eyebrows! Almighty God used the weapon of His own Son’s obedient death, to defeat sin and death. We don’t use normal weapons, we don’t have to … HE WON! Hmmm. Those particular weapons don’t look like the stuff you buy in your local gun-shop. You will probably hardly ever see a bible lying side by side with a gun. Why not? Be-ca-use … Jesus said: “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].” John 10:10. We simply can’t get to abundant life using carnal weapons! Those things diminish and destroy it. Carnal weapons are motivated by “look after me and mine.” Abundant life is motivated by “what did Jesus say?” 

Prayer is another one of God’s most potent weapons. It takes you and I out of the equation, and puts the Holy Spirit in charge. Ain’t nobody out there that wants to mess with Him! He made the world and everything in it!  Do that stuff at your own peril. The Spirit of God will love us and help us, until we feel so-oo-oo full, we will wonder why any of us went the wrong way in the first place! This is why Jesus said: “Love your enemies!”  He inhabits that kind of outwardly looking passion. Jesus has passionate eyes of fire in the book of Revelation.

Love will set captives free, and do even more things that we haven’t personally discovered, yet.  When it is carefully uncovered and digested, loving people is a revelation of Universal proportions and a weapon of mass destruction! It destroys the work of the evil one. If we try to use our own love, we will probably run out fairly quickly and come up short. But God’s love is endless. It is shameless in its passion. It smashes any stronghold of unbelief, fear, mortification, spite, anger etc. and restores and heals everything it touches. This is why love is the best weapon ever – it simply can’t be defeated. You can stuff love into a tomb, and 3 days later it will come bursting out, destroying every one of your theories and theologies!                                                                     

We need to cultivate love in even the smallest things, because it doesn’t come naturally to us. We are far more used to self-preservation. We often end up using our tongues like swords and knives and cut people up into little bits because they have somehow threatened us “…These things, my brothers, should not be this way [for we have a moral obligation to speak in a manner that reflects our fear of God and profound respect for His precepts]. James 3:10 sure has a handle on humanity and the way it thinks and acts!

Let’s choose our weapons carefully – we can’t possibly live this new life well, unless the Holy Spirit helps us. He is pure love in action. And He can love both sides!  We need His weapons that cut people free, not maim them.  I think we should always start by applying love first. When love is uppermost, there is no room for hatred.   Learning to love others transforms our minds. Bye 👋

P 2642 Aim at the Long Game.

/ DVH

Lately, I have noticed that the Holy Spirit says to me: ‘do this.’ So I do it. Or He says: ‘don’t do that,’ so, hopefully, I don’t do it! However, after following His instructions, there have been times when I’ve seen nothing whatsoever after my obedience. No visible results. I can often walk around wondering what all that was about? Did it have a heavenly purpose? Did I make it up? It’s good to remember that faith is about not necessarily knowing the outcome until later … sometimes … much later. At those times I believe we are cultivating obedience. Abraham believed and obeyed the Lord and he acted on what he was told, and the Lord counted it as righteousness. Remember to ask the Lord’s input about anything, by reading the scriptures and waiting on Him.

Our Heavenly Father is not tied to our ideas and methodology.  He interacts with us way beyond those things – most of the time, He is doing something else. And at least some of the time we probably have no clue what that is. Sadly our current society likes instant results and immediate gratification – we like to know about everything! So — I put in my five dollars and out pops a candy bar. Or if I don’t like what is on TV, then I change the channel. However, our God has everyone’s good in His heart, as well as a distinct purpose for us to be alive at this time in history. I believe our greatest task in this world is to learn to love the unlovely.

Whenever we deliberately choose transformation, we enter into our own personal inheritance. The Lord has gifts for us that are appropriate to our ministry. They are personal, but they are given to us to do other people good. My deliberate obedience to His ways, means that Almighty God can take my no or yes and change or turn my life away from some things – toward others. It means I’ve chosen to die to self. Because of that surrender, and purposeful obedience, my bad habits, or inadequacies, drop off somewhere along the way. 

I have learnt, from personal experience, to cheerfully say no to my way of thinking and yes to His. There are times I understand … but there are also times that I don’t understand immediately. Loving grumpy selfish people who are mean to me makes no sense! That is why it seems to me that God’s system (?) is far more about following Jesus and looking for higher aims and accomplishments than this world can offer. We need to have eternal AIMS. That thought relies upon hearing, listening, and seeing the Lord, plus … obeying His word. Following Him is part of the transformation process.

The Old Testament gives us a number of examples of people who didn’t do that. Here’s one. Moses and the Israelites wandered about for 40 years accomplishing nothing – but a circuitous journey. They were not transformed into TRUSTING GOD despite their experiences. Their rebellion cost them more than a long walk – it cost them character growth. That was the very thing they were going to need when they got into the Promised land. They were slaves, they had a submissive mindset. Fighting their own petulant ways to obey God would have given them the power to fight their enemies. Although we never know what is coming next, God is incredibly good to us, following Him, step by step, provides the transformation, character and strength we are going to need, for what comes next.

However, our current society encourages us to hold onto our personal sense of self. We say: “God loves us the way we are.” Yes He does. But there is far more to this life than that. We cannot afford to entertain a false finishing line. Our personal happiness and contentment outside of God Himself —is a false finishing line! The Apostle Paul tells us his aim was to ‘finish HIS RACE well’ … walking with Jesus all the way, doing what the Lord wanted. He further indicates that he knows that living like that will take effort, and ‘he does not want to waste his energy boxing like a man punching into the air.’ Whatever Paul does, or decides not to do, to him, everything has a purpose. It’s to help him know the Lord and walk in His ways.

I said all that to ask a question – how are you and I going with aiming at transformation? Are we still inclined to be self-centred, or smart mouthed, or argumentative, or fudging on our income tax and tithes, walking our own way and getting petulant if God does not do things to suit us etc.? Have we yielded to the Lord so that humility and repentance are a way of life? We ALL need to know how to repent! We need to know the difference between saying sorry and deliberately turning away from that sin. That means we are actively entering into the process of transformation.  

Human beings can have many aims: to buy a house, or a car, or raise a family, or a great job, or have a ministry. The very best aim we can have is to let the Holy Spirit transform us so we look, act, speak and LOVE others like the Lord Jesus does. Lives around us will change if we choose to be a person that will accept His premises. Let’s not stop at instant noodles and an instant life! Let’s learn to aim at the long game = ongoing transformation. Bye. 👋

“Everyone who hears My teaching and applies it to his life can be compared to a wise man who built his house on an unshakable foundation.” Matthew 7:24 TPT.