Opinions

P 2344 Let go and LET GOD.

/ DVH

Just a few thoughts regarding ‘letting go‘ and learning to get out of His way. When the body of Christ fights, we don’t fight like this world does. We fight on our knees. Plus we fight by the way we choose to live and die.“For although we live in the natural realm, we don’t wage a military campaign employing human weapons, using manipulation to achieve our aims. Instead, our spiritual weapons are energised with divine power to effectively dismantle the defences behind which people hide.”2 Corinthians 10:4.

We don’t need to fight like this world does – we have miraculous weapons. Those Godly weapons will tear through the enemy’s schemes and lies like they were made of tissue paper. Our overriding theme/weapon is LOVE that just won’t quit. It renders hate into sad oblivion. God’s LOVE won’t quit on us! It’s never-ending – eternal!

Today I want to talk about another interesting verse in 2 Chronicles 20:17 “You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.’”There are times when our current battle belongs to the Lord. This kind of battle means we stand and wait to see what He will do. Oh, how I love to stand and wait and see what He will do next! It is so much fun! He never does anything the way I think He will, so that means I am able to glean more revelation about Who He is. I just love the surprise of it all! He loves to fight for us.

When I asked Him why this kind of battle is so important, He said: “It takes great faith in the face of overpowering adversity to DO NOTHING.” Well that made sense to me! I mean I‘m all for heavenly armies turning up and fighting on our behalf, but faith often touches the invisible and makes it visible. Faith is so much more powerful than what we can see. And faith that is motivated by love cannot be stopped. Even if you were to kill the person who is praying, love is eternal. So that kind of faith stays out there, waiting for the right opportunity to land. 

Did you know that one of Jesus’ prayers has not been answered? … SO FAR! Here it is – “I pray that they will all be one, just as You and I are One—as You are in Me, Father, and I am in You.’  First of all, can you see that the answer to this prayer is participating in a sacrificial relationship? We cannot keep our own pet way of doing things and participate in Oneness. Big clue about Unity right there! We need the fellowship of the Spirit. When we all walk with HIM oneness follows and HE is not divided. We need to let go of the things we keep declaring to be right and allow Him to fight for us on our behalf.

We have never seen the Lord’s prayer for total unity answered so far. It is out there waiting for the right time, the right people, and the right place. None of those things are fixed so we could easily be those people. The reason we are not those people is because we tolerate selfishness, our own opinions and desires, over other people and their ideas and needs. We keep straining out gnats unity-wise and letting through camels. 

Back to my original point. In some battles our job is to wait and wait, and wait, and … not take our faith back. Just like Jesus did. We do this in an undemanding way. We become steadfast because our eyes are fixed on the One Who cannot lie and He never changes. He’s faithful. If Jesus has had to wait 2000 + years to see one of His prayers answered, some of ours might take a while… He let the answer go, and He is waiting for His Father’s plan. No immediate answer to prayer does not mean we were not heard and He isn’t going to answer. HOLD ON!!

In the meantime, we get the opportunity to look carefully at our yet-to-be-answered prayer and with His help, discern whether it is for His kingdom or our comfort! Obviously things may need some adjustment, and sometimes – as it is in Jesus’ prayer for the Body of Christ’s unity – the answer doesn’t entirely rest on the pray-er. He doesn’t care who thinks what is right or wrong – He’s waiting for the fruit of the Spirit to show up. And for all of us to drop our prejudices and let them go.

There are times when Almighty God fights for us. He is not taking sides per se, it can simply mean one of us has stumbled into His purposes. AND … it can also mean that He is being just plain undeserved merciful. We need to start our prayers by letting go, and the Holy Spirit will show us what He wants us to do next. Remember when He fights for you, to watch … and be grateful. But get out of His way – OUR SOVEREIGN GOD IS COMING THROUGH. 👋🏻

P 2258 So many denominations

/ DVH

Yeah, let’s established first up, on this blog you have one older lady’s opinion … right? I’m not a theologian, I haven’t been to bible school, I simply met Jesus Christ eons ago, and I’ve been following Him ever since. IF I know anything at all – HE taught me. Sadly there were some times that I ignored Him in favour of what my denomination taught me,  and yes I’ve repented! My point is, my opinions are limited.

I saw the above cartoon and I loved it. It seemed to me that it was the best explanation for why there are so many Christian denominations in this world. We are all looking at the same thing, we are just standing in different places. Please forgive me for intimating our Heavenly Father is like an elephant, that is not what I am trying to say! I am commenting on the fact that we all have so many different doctrines.

Some denominations even have sub-denominations! 😳 It also seems if you are in a denomination and want to make a splash, then you can skive off and start your own. Especially if what you believe seems important enough. That’s like expecting our arm to work by itself. Can’t happen! The Body of Christ is fragmented by its belief systems.  

The best I can offer by way of explanation is this – even if you have only two people you will still have a whole heap of different opinions. BTW, that could be why some marriages don’t work – people fall in love, but they don’t share the same basic beliefs and opinions. It’s the nitty gritty stuff that divides us, and “true love” often blinds us all! Well that was free! Moo-ving on …

… The fact is Almighty God is too big, too wise, too wonderful to be explained by any, or all of us. He is so much bigger than we have allowed Him to be. We are not acquainted with the fact that we don’t have to understand Him to relate to Him. And we don’t have to think like Him to explain Him – I suggest we let Him explain Himself. He’s so big He can say one thing to one person and something else to someone else. And both things are true. We must return to the place of wonder. It’s OK to not know stuff – instead let’s just fall in love with the God Who made it all.

If we think we can explain Him, no matter how clever we are, or how many words we take to do it, we are fooling ourselves. A truly wise person lets God explain Himself. And that’s called revelation. “We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing Him directly just as He knows us!” 1 Corinthians 13:12.

We need to be in a relationship with Him, and treasure His Presence far more than we need to understand how He thinks. People grab at this thing and that thing and think … “Aha! I finally have the Answer.” Denominations occur when we start trying to explain God. Even though some of those explanations or revelations are fantastic … but those things are not all there is. As soon as we think we have some sort of basic idea that sums up Almighty God – we just limited Him. We keep trying to fit  Almighty God into our teeny tiny boxes, and because He truly IS God, He will burst out of them!

We don’t have to prove Him. Let Him prove Himself! I don’t have to prove the sun is out when it is daytime or nighttime. Even if it is raining or cloudy – the SUN is still there. I just need to position myself into a place where I can see beyond my earthly restrictions. Like board a plane, or climb up above the clouds. Our position before Him is what matters, and to stand in the right place we need to realise that He is God and we are not. It is OK to have a Daddy Who knows more than we do. 

God forgave us all. He does not see the restrictions and boundaries and doctrines the way we see them – He sees people. And He loves them. Read the book! It is all about God relating to His people. Because of Jesus Christ, we are all now His people. No matter what denomination we belong to. We waste our time on this earth fighting, or abusing one another over things that won’t last. Father God does not care what colour skin we have, what sort of accent we have, what we believe – or not, HE JUST LOVES HIS KIDS. It’s in the book.

He’s so glorious He loves the people who actively hate Him. Imagine that. Not just loving your enemies, but deliberately actioning a plan to save them from themselves and then sacrificing Your only Son to provide the way to do it. That blows my mind. Let’s just agree that we don’t have to understand Him to love Him back. They will know we are Christians by our love … not by our denomination. Bye. 👋🏻

P 2250 Value His opinion.

/ DVH

We should never be surprised by this world’s actions and activities – this kind of hate filled stuff has been going on for centuries. Sin is common to mankind. After all, we were like this from the very beginning. God said to Adam and Eve: ‘You can have everything you see, but that tree over there – don’t eat from that one.’ He had a great reason, and He gave it to them … but they didn’t value His opinion.

So Adam and Eve ate from the only tree that was forbidden. Did you know that there are 73,300 tree species? Approximately 20,000 plants are edible by human beings. That’s a whole lotta choices. Yet the tree that attracted those two was the one they were not allowed to eat – and it wasn’t about hunger at all. It was really  about ambition. That teaches us a lot about what makes people tick! The power of choice was always going to be our downfall – as well as our salvation.

satan put a caveat on that fruit when he told this couple if they ate it they would be just like God Himself. satan, BTW lied, by twisting the truth and not stating the consequences. Adam and Eve were already like God, they were eternal pure beings. satan implied that the lack of choice in one area was robbing them. However when they sinned, it corrupted them, the same way satan had been corrupted. he was ambitious too. Many people want a God who provides – but not one Who is in charge. 

Now let’s look at Genesis 9:1 for another illustration: “Then God blessed Noah and his sons. He said to them, “Have children so that there are many of you. Fill the earth.”… But they didn’t! … Genesis 11:2-4: “The whole world had only one language, and everyone spoke it. They moved to the east and found a broad valley in Babylon. There they made their home. They said to one another, “Come on! Let’s make bricks and bake them well.” They used bricks instead of stones. They used tar to hold the bricks together. Then they said, “Come on! Let’s build a city for ourselves. Let’s build a tower that reaches to the sky. We’ll make a name for ourselves. Then we won’t be scattered over the whole earth.” 😳

That is in direct disobedience to what they were told to do. And here’s human defiance and ambition sticking up its nasty little head. Father God told those people to fill the earth, literally … spread OUT. But they clubbed together instead. Then they built a tower because their building was going to get them to heaven – their way! They even changed their building materials to make that tower more permanent! They had to work to make those bricks!

Humanity wants the freedom to decide what is good for us, and what is not. Instead we need to recognise that what holds us all back is common to mankind. Sin. Defying God. Wanting our own way. Let’s look at Job 5:1-7: ““Call for help, Job, if you think anyone will answer!To which of the holy angels will you turn? The hot temper of a fool eventually kills him, the jealous anger of an idiot does her in. I’ve seen it myself—seen fools putting down roots, and then, suddenly, their houses are cursed.

Their children out in the cold, abused and exploited, with no one to stick up for them. Hungry people off the street plunder their harvests, cleaning them out completely, taking thorns and all, insatiable for everything they have. Don’t blame fate when things go wrong— trouble doesn’t come from nowhere. It’s human! Mortals are born and bred for trouble, as certainly as sparks fly upward.” 

The bible tells us that sinful attitudes are inevitable – because human beings think that what WE know, is all there is. That, and blaming others when we get it wrong, is our downfall. Sin isn’t just sex, booze and deviancy. Sin is saying: “I know better than You do God.” That’s what happened in the garden. Blame and disobedience. However, Almighty God already had a much bigger plan. If satan had had even a whiff of God’s plan he would have left those two newbies in the garden alone! 

We are more than capable of corrupting ourselves – we once gave away purity for independence.  We gotta stop blaming the snake for our own proclivities. All satan did was give Adam and Eve an opportunity. he’s a tempter, and he studies humanity for flaws, but he’s not able to make us do, anything. Our will can oppose his temptations, but instead we allow supposed needs, and our own opinions drive us. We need to value God’s opinions above our own, and see what He will do with our obedience. 👋🏻