Opportunity

P 3518 The key words … HE WILL!    

/ DVH

“We all experience times of testing, which is normal for every human being. But God will be faithful to you. He will screen and filter the severity, nature, and timing of every test or trial you face so that you can bear it. And each test is an opportunity to trust Him more, for along with every trial God has provided for you a way of escape that will bring you out of it victoriously.” 1 Corinthians 10:13 TPT.

If we start out by deciding for ourselves that we know what is good for us, and then we look at how hard our testing times are — we will total miss the blessing of what this verse says. I know this stuff is hard, like you, I’m living through it! I like to think of verses like this one as a statement of fact – not just a guideline. Analysing how we feel, and the difficulties we are facing from our emotions or mind can be deceptive. We will miss the opportunity to take HIS WORD AS THE TRUTH. The Lord’s character is our reference point.

Despite how demanding our feelings and situations can be, our framework must be: “Thy word is truth!” Which means my framework/interpretation/opinion isn’t! When Almighty God says He will bring me through it, I need to choose to believe Him and now that becomes my focus. When what I see, in me, and my own life, contradicts what His Word says, I have a problem. My problem is that the Lord and I are no longer on the same page. Many times my own framework has influenced my thinking because of my history. And my thinking can be squirrelled up from previous experiences and difficulties in similar situations. I can have a wrong perception because I am not infallible..

Even if things look bad from the outside, or where I am standing, I need to cling to the fact that God Himself knows what is best for me. He is calling up something into my personhood that needs development. We can see this with many people in the Old Testament – what He told them to do did not seem right to them. The Lord is not trying to discourage anyone. but our God is a faith God. Everything He allows, does and says is good for us. We don’t get to choose what is good and what is not, because we are not capable of that kind of unprejudiced judgment.

Often, we don’t actually care about victory, we just want the bad bits to be over, and resolved …preferably in our favour! However, God works “EVERYTHING together for good for those who are called according to His purposes.” (Romans 8:28) Just because we can’t see the good, that does not mean it isn’t there! He has other people who can benefit from my momentary afflictions. I’ve been sick and in pain and gone to hospital because the Lord wanted me to minister to someone. We must stop thinking our lives are our own!

At other times we quite literally, can’t see past the end of our own noses, because circumstances are influencing our POV. Then logic kicks in and suddenly we are on one side of the fence and God’s Word is on the other … because I chose my own POV and now I am pouting. Pouting doesn’t work with Almighty God … read the book! I cannot begin to tell you how many times I’ve thought; “I’m not going to be able to do this,” And yet! Here I sit at half past seven in the morning still here. It didn’t kill me!

Here’s a really hard thought. What if we take His Word as the only truth there is and let Him discern what is good for us and what is not?! Maybe we actually don’t know what is good for us – especially spiritually speaking. Human beings don’t like pain, discomfort, inconvenience, and suffering, and so we do all we can to avoid it. What if we are avoiding God’s will for our lives, and fighting His will is using up the energy we are going to need to use our faith in His goodness instead?

I’ll just pause for a minute so you can recover.

I’ve had to learn to accept that God knows what is best for me, even when everything around me looks terrible. I’ve also learnt that He does not require me to love it when it hurts. But He definitely has a way for me to get through that pain, and if I YIELD to His greater wisdom, I will find that His way ‘works together for good for everybody’ – not just me! Yielding is the key.

Even agreement is not particularly helpful, because I can totally agree with something in principle but don’t act on it. When I yield – I am staking my life, my happiness, my well-being on His goodness. I am trusting Him, despite my own misgivings. Let’s just refresh our memory of Hebrews 11:6: “But without faith it is impossible to [walk with God and] please Him, for whoever comes [near] to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He rewards those who [earnestly and diligently] seek Him.”

It seems to me that this verse is about more than simply asking Him for a parking spot! It is a way to live the new life He gave us. God exchanged His Son’s life for our sin – now we exchange our lives for His will.. If we want to walk with Him then we need to see His hand on us even in the traumatic awful bits. And if you are in pain, trouble, heartache right now let’s pray together. “Heavenly Father, please help my dear sister or brother to escape from whatever terrible situation they are in. Lord you promised us a way of escape. I’m joining my faith with theirs and asking you to please show them clearly their way out. You are a good good Father! Amen.”

Let’s remember that saying things won’t make them true, acting on it does. Folks we gotta get some skin in the game! The way to walk with Him and demonstrate His goodness is to act on what He says. What our God says is true, is true! I refuse to be moved, despite my current circumstances. His word is my plumb line. I know HE WILL HELP me, because He loves me and He’s a wonderful Father. Wait, just wait for the Lord. Bye. 👋.

P 3514 Things we can do to grow our faith.

/ DVH


Proverbs 11:25 TPT: “Those who live to bless others will have blessings heaped upon them, and the one who pours out his life to pour out blessings will be saturated with favour.” AMP: “The generous man [is a source of blessing and] shall be prosperous and enriched, And he who waters will himself be watered [reaping the generosity he has sown].”

Good morning! Let’s get into today’s thought …Hubby and I have been, financially speaking, living by God’s grace and allowing that life of giving to develop our faith for many years. We have learnt that this verse in Proverbs 11, in any version, is an excellent guideline. Using our faith and finances for the Lord’s purposes has stretched our faith in all kinds of directions.

I am mentioning this today because living by faith seems to be a huge step, and while many Christians aim at going to heaven, not quite so many aim at using their faith, here and now! Our faith can be suitably stretched and instructed when it comes to finances. Everything we have been given is for sharing with others….

So here we go again, with the same thought in four different verses. Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38: “But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.” That verse is in the bible four times. Repetition means pay attention! I have said on a number of occasions that the most practical way to step up into living by faith is to give. Money helps us live, and giving by faith outside of our human limitations, as Jesus leads us, stretches our faith.

We’ve also met a number of quiet givers over the 20 or so years we’ve been travelling for Jesus and giving away bibles. They have taught us so much about giving! These brothers and sisters are rarely seen, they give in secret. Jesus loves that idea – it’s in Matthew 6:1-4. These undercover brothers and sisters support others and don’t care if they get recognition or not. They simply love to give and help, as they trust Jehovah Jireh to provide for them. The truth is hubby and I couldn’t possibly do what we do without givers … but this is not my reason for writing about this subject today. I am not looking for your money!

My point today is that giving … no matter how strapped for cash etc you are… is a fantastic learning curve when it comes to practising faith. Tithing is great …do it. The pastor needs to live somewhere, he kind of enjoys EATING … plus his family may need transportation. However, I’m talking about giving above the tithe, because it is a way to love others. Give sacrificially. It has helped our faith grow when we’ve given, even when we didn’t have any spare finances. Can I be honest? We’ve found that there never seems to be any spare money! When we give sacrificially our faith becomes costly, and giving provides a great opportunity to use it for other people’s good, and our faith to grow.

When I talk about this subject I have had all kinds of lovely people explain that they don’t live this way because they can’t give cheerfully. See 2 Corinthians 9:7. Boy what a cop out that is! My advice is that anyone can learn to whack a smile on their face, grit their teeth and give their money, time, and help to … the Lord Himself. ‘Whatsoever you do, do it as unto the Lord.‘ The people we help are not the end of the line, they are the means God uses to teach and train us. When we do things for them, we are doing it for Jesus.

Almighty God uses our finances to diagnose what is really important in our lives! Money, or even the lack of it, makes a terrible god. Our God is a generous God – we can’t out give Him. Father God fed ALL the Israelites supernaturally in the wilderness … not just some of them, or the ones that were more obedient. If we want to be like Him then we will also need to be a generous people, guided by the Holy Spirit, helping others.

Loads of lovely Christian people flunk this test. BTW, God tests us – it says so in James 1:2-4! He tests and disciplines us. Hebrews 12:5-6 and Proverbs 3:11-12. Yet another excruciatingly popular subject. Back to giving. Giving is like breathing air. It provides us with opportunities to grow our faith. If your faith is down in the dumps and you are longing for a breakthrough, start by blessing other people. When we do that we are acting like Jesus did in Mark 1:21-38. The Lord had little money, but this passage shows us what Jesus did with His time, over the course of just one day.

James 2:14-17 says this: “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

Yeah, I know, bring that up! This is what James advises us to do to exercise our faith. Let’s not practice dead faith by doing nothing! James is giving us good advice. Faith needs to be exercised or it flattens out and stops moving. My last point today is this: “without faith it is impossible to please God,” see Hebrews 11:6. So cultivating faith is a great asset that will help us in other areas, including pleasing our Heavenly Father.

We exercise our faith when we believe that He is, and He is a rewarder of those who diligently … did ya get that? … diligently seek Him. It has to be worked at. Sharing our finances is one of the things you and I can do to grow our faith. Bye. 👋.

P3504 Look for the possibilities.

/ DVH

As we live our lives giving away that life for Jesus’ sake, we also need to watch and listen for His way through difficulties. There are times where there doesn’t seem to be a way, and that’s when I stand still and look out for possibilities. I know, He’s not done yet.

Our Saviour is a Redeemer, the Lord didn’t just make our sins go away, He let loose a brand new way for all of us to live. He exchanged death for life. We are participants who participate even while we are spectating! WE DO EVERYTHING FROM REST. Psalm 91:7-10 says: “A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. … … as we say – “The Lord is my refuge,” and we (you) make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you,…”

…. This is what being IN Christ Jesus looks like. He becomes the place we hide in, in good times or bad. Even when those huge house rattling storms of life come. When I am hidden in Him, He will reveal the possibility of something else He wants to do, while all that chaos is exploding around me. I can learn something about Him, or myself — and about how both of us can work together. He gives me insight about what is really going on, so now I know what to forgive, and what I need to give to Him. He has promised to show me how to love the unlovely, this means I shift my focus off the problem and onto that. And maybe this is an opportunity to develop further trust?

2 Timothy 1:12 says: “…for I know Whom I have believed and I am CONVINCED that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.” We cannot move forward without trusting and knowing our Leader. He’s the One we are following. Knowing His Ways gives us discernment, and our trust in Him takes us beyond the places we think we can go, or the things we think we can’t bear – into a new spiritually stronger place. “But as it is written, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9.

The Lord Jesus is like a Field Marshal, and He is a Master Strategist. He knows how to fight and He has a plan. However, He may keep His strategies quiet until the last moment – after all, someone else is listening! You and I may experience a false start if we rush on, trying to get ahead of the race. If you have ever run in a running race you will know that you position yourself to start, and then you wait for the gun to go off. This life is a race. Paul called it that in the above scripture from Philippians, sometimes we are on the sidelines waiting for our turn, and at other times we are on the track. We live ready to run that race. It is a marathon, not a sprint.

The society around us is actively dissuading us from our primary purpose, serving Him. Instead it brings up all kinds of postponement, “I’ll wait to serve Jesus until my kids are older” OR  excuses, “I need to pay off my mortgage before I tithe or give offerings.” Things that seem valid, but they are a distraction from our primary purpose — which is to serve Jesus first. We can still raise kids and wholeheartedly serve Jesus – He’s a fantastic money-manager!!

Otherwise, we will live our lives distracted into being like these guys who ignored a free feast: “The first one said to him, ‘I have bought some land. I must go and look at it. Please excuse me.’ “Another one said, ‘I have purchased five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’’ Another one said, ‘I have just got married and I am sure you will understand I cannot come.’ ” Luke 14:19ff. We cannot afford to have a divided heart.

It is not good to become an expert in making up excuses so we don’t have to engage in His processes. Then change becomes a ‘some day’ thing, but ‘some day’ never comes. And our faith starts sliding down into pedantic and predictable. We can even begin to despise those who are actually engaging with Him, because their devotion prods our conscience. This means we never get to the place where we can see this world through His eyes of love. Let’s remember that LOVE is a verb, not a noun!

The second we step into our blood-bought inheritance, the enemy will target us with all kinds of temptation and lies. he won’t hesitate to drag up the past, and colour in the future. We need to remind ourselves of what Father God, His Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit look like! “Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, … … keeps going to the end.”

The Trinity look like this! They are where these glorious qualities come from! Read the above passage like this just once, it will blow your mind. “Jesus never gives up, He cares more for all of us than Himself…etc…” These verses are a perfect example of the Lord’s character, and this is the real war we face daily. We are daily tempted to doubt His goodness. We will need to battle every single day, to put aside our own selfish aims and pick up His plan for the ever-present, ongoing WAR against love. The possibilities are endless, but we can find them in the beautiful character and personhood of Jesus Christ. Bye. 👋.

P3499 Remind yourself of who you are now.

/ DVH

“And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God. So if while we were still enemies, God fully reconciled us to Himself through the death of His Son, then something greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, and because we share in His resurrection life, how much more we will be rescued from sin’s dominion! And even more than that, we overflow with triumphant joy in our new relationship of living reconciled to God—all because of Jesus Christ!” Romans 5:9-11 TPT.

These are the things we need to remind ourselves about every single day, otherwise the distractions of this life will chase us into despair. Let’s remember that what the Lord wants, is not an afterthought, it’s the point. At the same time, the thief tries to steal away our blood-bought days of victory in Christ from us. Applying any section of scripture into our lives means we will need to stop telling ourselves we can’t help doing this or that – because we know if He said it, then there is a way to do it. So then we ask the Lord how, where, when, what and why the bible applies to our situation.

We simply can’t afford to skip over His instructions. They are there for a purpose, and it isn’t just to fill in the space! I don’t know if you have ever bought something from a foreign country only to find the instructions are teeny tiny, and illegible and or even in a language we don’t recognise. I have. Trying to figure out how to make the item work stretches the old brain box!

Meanwhile, I have a fun story about how the Holy Spirit will help you in all kinds of situations. Many many years ago, we went on an overseas trip, and we included Liverpool, England, because hubby is a huge ‘beautiful game,’ fan. So, we arrived at the stadium and he wanted to look at the museum … of course … and I would rather eat my hat. So he toddled off to look at memorabilia and I went to wait in Maccas.

I stepped up to buy a cup of coffee and I told the sweet young lady behind the counter: “one cup of coffee please.” And then she uttered some words I have never ever heard in my life before. I sort of cleared my throat, and said, in my politest tone: “I’m terribly sorry I didn’t quite catch that, would you mind repeating it please?” So she smiled cheerfully, and said the same thing again. I was utterly stumped. I did not understand one word. A queue began to form behind me …

For the second time I repeated: “No, I am sorry I still did not quite get that.” By now the young lady was probably wondering if I had left my hearing aids at home. I started to pray inside my head, and instantly I thought of the verse about speaking in an unknown tongue. I remembered we can ask the Lord for an interpretation of the tongue, so I prayed “help” and asked if the Lord would please tell me what she said.

At the same time that queue continued to grow, and then the Lord said … I actually felt like He had a twinkle in His eye … “She wants to know, if you want milk and sugar.” Phew! So I said yes please, I needed milk and sugar and then went quickly off with my cup of coffee to a discreet little hidey hole and shook with laughter for about ten minutes. Apparently the Liverpudlian accent is not an unknown tongue, it’s just unknown to me!

My point, apart from a bit of humour, is this – there is no situation we can get ourselves into, that the Lord can’t get us out of! Think-about-it … the bible says, my righteousness is like filthy rags, but Jesus’ righteousness is now ours. We have His resurrection life in us. On days when I feel less than fighting fit, I ask for “a bigger dose of resurrection life please?” No matter how I feel, I know I have peace with God. I may not have peace with you, for instance, but my peace with Him is always undisturbed. I am no bunny rabbit … I know where my peace comes from, and it is not from ME! My peace is in Him, and the minute I align myself with Him, I have my peace back no matter who pinched it!

I live ready to overflow with all kinds of joy simply because I belong to Him. Even if someone were to try very hard, they can hurt me but they can’t kill me. They can damage or exterminate my body, but as my body is old and creaky, I don’t much care about that. However! My inner self is safe, forever. Sin can’t boss me around, it has nowhere it can land! I live in true reconciliation with our Heavenly Father and He knows how to protect, keep and guide me — so nothing else matters.

I don’t have borrowed righteousness, peace or forgiveness – I have what my Heavenly Father gave me – and I’m not going to be tricked into giving it up! Jesus fought our common enemy to give me the opportunity to fulfil my potential in this life. Plus I am the recipient of God’s unfailing love, forever. Sometimes I forget those things when life gets hard, but the Holy Spirit is my Companion, and He reminds me of who I am now, because of the incredible Grace of God. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31.

Daily remind yourself of who you are now, and praise God that redemption is not just a promise, it is a reality! Live in it. You and I don’t have to live in condemnation, our personhood has a new purpose – I live, and daily die for Jesus now! Bye 👋.

P 3489 Our own personal purity of purpose.

/ DVH

Romans 7:6 says: “But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.” As you can see, we still serve – but now we do this service on a personal level. It is no longer one rule fits all, instead the Holy Spirit guides us, speaking to us individually, as well as corporately. We are here to benefit others. This does not mean we will become careless about our actions … instead our actions are to demonstrate His power in a broken world. Those actions are hallmarked by love, the way Jesus Himself defined it. His disciples are a wonderful example of love guided by purpose. 

So much of our lives can be lived upon the surface, of ‘gotta be’ ‘gotta do,’ ‘gotta go’ — but human beings need much more than that. They need love, hope and … a purpose. Christians experience heaven’s ways while we are still on earth as we choose to obey our Master, Brother and Friend, Jesus. This means our priority is not about strictly obeying the law, but about walking in the abundant Grace Jesus Christ released when He died in our place. And we live giving that Grace away to others.

The Lord never presumed upon the Father’s great grace toward Him, instead He lived His whole life, from beginning to end, to God’s glory, giving away grace. Through His teaching He taught us we are to live the same way He did. The stuff He said often blows my mind. He once said to a rich young man. “Why do you call Me good? Only God is good!” Mark 10:18.

Let’s just pause and think on that. When you think of good, don’t you think of Jesus? I know I do!  What do you think He meant by that? … How about you take the time to ask Him. Our relationship with Him is built upon the kind of freedom that asks questions. The disciples in the Gospels asked all kinds of questions. Usually when I ask the Lord questions He answers with scripture, and I learn something about Him, about His purposes. I also learn about myself … something that I didn’t know before.

This rich young man had an incredible opportunity to see what was really uppermost in his heart, it was handed to him by Jesus. It wasn’t about the Ten Commandments, this man had all of them down pat, however the Lord diagnosed his main impediment with one question. He didn’t condemn the young man’s passion, but Jesus totally revealed what was really uppermost in this person’s heart, to show him something that was in the way of what he said he wanted. 

Jesus can ask us a question that will cut through all the white noise, and our nice image of ourselves, and it will show us we are not who we think we are. God’s way of being and doing is not superficial, and it is not satisfied with the right answers, it wants the heart answers. This young man thought he’d get a big tick, and a ‘well done you,’ from Jesus. It says that Jesus loved him, virtually on sight – and asked the young man to follow Him! Sadly the man was challenged by what was in his own heart. He found out that he could follow rules more easily than He could follow personal instructions.  God will not slide neatly into our man-made, rule based, categories – He has His own plans.

And this is my point today. We have no idea what is going on in our hearts. We are much better at diagnosing what’s wrong with someone else and how it can be fixed! Jesus didn’t tell the young man an easy thing, instead — He told this man to sell everything he had and give the money to the poor. We can read this and think —‘right, I’d better be more generous, and pray that the Lord will help me give more.’ PS It’s not about money – He wants YOU not your money! He wants us to give up what dominates our hearts instead of hiding it from Him, or ourselves. We can ask the Lord to show us what is in the way of us being fully yielded to Him and if it IS money, then give it! We are not asking Him because He doesn’t know – we are asking the Lord because the reality is, WE don’t have a clue!

You know, when we don’t get the answer to our prayers that we were hoping for, instead of being disappointed with the Lord, why don’t we ask Him? ‘Lord, what is standing in my way?” We have the Holy Spirit nearer than our heartbeat He wants to help us. He will help us – but He won’t make us ask. Here’s something I have noticed over the years … I can remember past difficult situations quite well, but I often remember the bad things someone else did far more clearly than my own contribution. I think that’s called … “selective memory.” Sigh. In order to cultivate my own personal purity of purpose I will need to choose to put aside my need to be right, in favour of the truth. Most of the time those two things are not the same!

I love to read the Old Testament because it is filled with so many people who have no idea what they can do, until God gets ahold of them, and reveals His purposes in their lives. We can see ordinary people who were just going about their daily routines, some of them compromised their faith, while others were tried to doing their best to be obedient. But there were times when none of them had any clue what God can do through a man or woman … or even a little girl. Her story is in Kings – more on that tomorrow.

We’ve become so used to the whole idea of independence. The idea of relying upon SomeOne else, doesn’t even occur to us, and this is the very attitude that holds us back from living in fellowship with Him. Let’s live our lives sold out for Jesus. Not just in word, but in deeds. May the Lord bless you to find your own purity of purpose. Bye. 👋  

P 3486 Jesus is the gift that keeps on giving.

/ DVH

One of the biggest mistakes we can make today, is to allow our own thinking to justify us … instead we need to ask the Lord to help us to see our situations with His kind of clarity. As I see it, Christians seem to vacillate between: “Oh, I am such a bad person” … OR … “I’m trying, I’m doing my best!” That last one sounds like a great answer… but the truth is –  why would we try and try to do our best, when Jesus’ best is available to us? That’s just nuts! 

But as we walk with Him, listening to Him, on purpose — we will discover a whole other way to live. Let’s acknowledge that we might make mistakes— but we should never plan to misuse His Grace. Walking with Him is the entire focus of walking on the narrow way – He is the narrow way. We enter into His kingdom … the one we are told to enter into first! Meanwhile, repentance hasn’t fallen out of the book, it is still there, Jesus Himself taught about it. So is repairing any damage we may do to others. Denial is also a foolish way to try to live a life built on GRACE. It’s the truth that sets us free.

Otherwise we can end up spiritually, living like we have to clean our house in order to get ready for professional cleaners! Boy is that a waste of time, angst and energy. Why try to do the job yourself when it has already been done and paid for? This shows a distinct lack of faith in what Jesus has already done. Let’s get this straight once and forever OK? We are all sinful people. There is no worse sinful, or mostly good sinful people, who occasionally do the wrong thing. There’s just sinful! The people who captured the Lord’s attention were the ones who were prepared to go after Him, and admit their faults, then humble themselves. 

That woman who crawled into a dinner party to wash Jesus’ feet with her tears etc. most likely crawled past the men who had used her in the past! And the woman at the well ran back into the town that could easily have housed her previous four husbands in it! These women did not care what others said, they had found something worth more than position, or ego. Real life. Those Pharisees who turned up their noses and got legalistic with Jesus, had the personification of their rules right in front of them. Yet they yelled at Him for showing mercy because He healed the sick on the Sabbath.

However, the sinner on the cross next to the Lord, saw an opportunity and he took it. This opportunity is always ours to take. Life is short – live for Jesus right now, and keep on doing it day by day. This is an odd thing – the worst sinners often know how to repent better than we do. I sincerely exhort you, please don’t let your pride keep you from bonding with the One Who died to save you. Humbling ourselves helps us with true perspective. It hones our focus. It helps us take His … “…yoke upon us and learn from Him, for He is gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and we will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for our souls.” Matthew 11:29. (Alterations mine.) 

Did you get that? Rest comes from being yoked with Jesus. Walking with Him at the same pace He is going, following His leadership. It doesn’t come from looking inside, it comes from looking at Him, and making adjustments with His help, wherever necessary. Looking inside only muddies the water. We can end up blaming others for our behaviour or endlessly berating ourselves. Neither of those things are profitable. However, the Word of God on the inside is designed to guide our daily thoughts. That’s what renewing our minds means. We exchange our POV for His POV!

The Lord made His participation in that process clear in John 12:49: “For I did not speak on My own, but the Father who sent Me commanded Me to say all that I have spoken …” And in John 5:19,20 we see that He had guidance in everything He heard and did. “Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all he does. Yes, and He will show Him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.”

The church is living below the standard Christ Himself set and MET. He has already empowered each one of us to meet that standard. We simply need to totally depend upon the Holy Spirit to lead us. Press in, and remember, that our Lord is not a vending machine. Up until now, we’ve been following rules – not a Person! Now we follow Him, just like the disciples did.

He LIMITED HIMSELF so we can follow Him. Living and dying to self, like Jesus did, is possible. Many people have followed the Lord down that same pathway of dying to self and being resurrected into a new life — while they were still here on earth. Their testimonies to His Grace in action in their earthly lives, are filling up the praises of angels and saints in heaven. 

That’s what happens when you seek His kingdom first. He adds a whole lot of things to us as part of the package. He’s the glorious gift from God that keeps on giving and giving and giving. Hallelujah! Bye. 🙌.

P 3480 More attainable than we think.

/ DVH

It can be hard to adapt to new ways of thinking, doing and being. But when we choose to live this life totally sold out to Jesus, living out His Will, His way, that choice is far more easily attainable than we’ve ever realised. It is worth anything, but it will cost us, comfort-wise. Nowadays, bad stuff happens all the time.

As usual, I have what I hope will be an illustrative story. A couple of years ago, my dear hubby began to develop osteoarthritis in his hands, feet, fingers, toes, back, shoulder etc. and he not only experienced awful pain, he had to have injections for that pain regularly. His ability to do ordinary things easily, just disappeared. It was very traumatic, as you know, we travel a lot. Hubby had just begun to enjoy watercolour painting and he loves to give his paintings away. He paints whatever God tells him to paint and it speaks to the other person.

Because of his lack of dexterity and the awful pain, losing the freedom to paint was very hard. Then the Lord gave me a word of knowledge – the skill to paint does not come from our hands and fingers or their co-ordination.. that skill comes from God and it can’t be taken away. It is a gift. A visual word of knowledge. I passed that on to hubby and suggested he try to paint with his other, non-dominant hand. At first he thought I had gone a bit loopy, but he trusts the LORD, so he began to paint with his other non-dominant hand, which wasn’t as painful. He had never ever done this before.

Lo and behold the pictures he painted with his left hand, were fantastic! Even more full of life than the original ones. The original paintings were beautifully done, but his left hand produced things that were much free-er. Now here’s what I think … hubby could always paint, with his left, or right hand, it didn’t really matter – but using his left hand to paint meant he really had to extend his faith. What we do in faith reaches into God’s kingdom and it creates miracles. Read John 21:6.

Over to my point today. For years the church at large has wandered in the wilderness, trying so hard to please Jesus, and follow Him. But we did not know what to do with the “stuff’ that continued to happen to us, every single day. Everybody wants to cope and remain victorious, but we don’t seem to have the skills to help us to stay away from the very things that were sent by the enemy to drag us down. So we often have no personal victory over sin. We promise God over and over again that we will not gossip, or drink too much, judge others, or watch risqué films  etc. but it seems we have no power to change.

However, because of what Jesus did, now we have inside us the very gift and power we longed for, it just isn’t going to manifest itself according to our knowledge and our rules. God Himself has a WAY to do things. The bible is full of illustrations of what His Way looks like. His way looks like total surrender and confidence in everything Jesus achieved on that cross. It operates in faith and splashes love freely all around it. It knows when to say yes, and when to say no. Now we need to lay aside our coping mechanisms and learn to live this life dead to what we want and think we need, and alive to what Jesus wants for us, every day.

It is easy to say that we want to do everything the Lord asks us to do … until we don’t — because suddenly it seems too hard. Sometimes what Jesus asks us to do, doesn’t suit our plans, or make sense to our natural minds. Acting in faith is not automatic, it is learnt by practising it. Living this way. I know I need to take what the Holy Spirit said in the bible seriously, and continually choose to act on it at every opportunity, even when my flesh is desperately screaming its head off. I do that by returning love for meanness, faith for doubt, exercise real joy because of what Jesus did, no matter what else is going on. As we are following Jesus we continually need to make faith adjustments. We pray – do whatever He tells us to do – and then we follow Him. Human beings  want to escape trials, but the Lord has promised to take us through them.

Humility is one of our greatest strengths, and we get it by humbling ourselves and admitting we need His help to die to what we want, and live for what He wants. When some awful trial or other seems to be much bigger than we are, we have an opportunity to lean on everything Jesus did for us, and learn to trust Him, no matter how it looks. Let’s use our faith to respond to trials differently. This is not a passive thing. We must grab hold of Jesus, just like Peter did when he thought he would drown. 

Jesus once said this to Peter when he began to berate the Lord for talking about His death. “Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Matthew 16:23. But this man had been following the Lord for over two years! Then Jesus explained what God wants: “…“Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me will find it.” Verses 24&25.

In other words we have to be prepared to put down our own ideas, and agendas, and pick up the things of God, that are eternal. Returning love for hate. Faith for passive resignation. When we were born again eternity entered our hearts. Let’s begin to rely upon His ability to know what we can and can’t do and trust the Lord to get us through it. We can get through things we have never ever dreamt about because we have God’s Spirit in us, with us, to guide us. Just like my little illustration, we can paint with our left hand even though we can barely write with it! This new way of living is more attainable because of His Grace, than we realise. Bye. 👋.

P 3467 Our Joy needs to break out.

/ DVH

“Celebrate with praises the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has shown us His extravagant mercy. For His fountain of mercy has given us a new life—we are reborn to experience a living, energetic hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We are reborn into a perfect inheritance that can never perish, never be defiled, and never diminish. It is promised and preserved forever in the heavenly realm for you! 

Through our faith, the mighty power of God constantly guards us until our full salvation is ready to be revealed in the last time. May the thought of this cause you to jump for joy, even though lately you’ve had to put up with the grief of many trials. But these only reveal the sterling core of your faith, which is far more valuable than gold that perishes, for even gold is refined by fire. Your authentic faith will result in even more praise, glory, and honour when Jesus the Anointed One is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:3-7 TPT.

Did you see the bit at the beginning that says ‘celebrate?’ when I read that, I do it. Why? Am I pushed along by some sort obligation? NO! It’s an opportunity, not an obligation. I have just been reminded of how wonderful our Heavenly Father is, and how much He has done, and He will do, and is doing, right now in my life … and yours! That’s a really big reason to cheer wouldn’t you think? When I am in public I cheer inside. My “Yaaaaaaay Jesus,” can get a bit loud and I would probably scare other people. People find it hard to feel loved when they are scared. 

Did you get the bit where it says that His mercy is a fountain? That’s not a trickle, or a few squirts here and there, a fountain shoots water high up into the sky, and all over itself. It splashes anybody walking near it. Fountains remind me of freedom. There is nothing like running, leaping, flowing and bubbling water to illustrate that point. At the same time our hope isn’t just laying around, lethargically. No, our hope has energy it, moves  and gathers momentum. It is ALIVE. Well, of course it’s alive! JESUS CHRIST IS ALIVE forevermore and He is our living hope. Hallelujah!

The Holy Spirit says that… “We are reborn into a perfect inheritance that can never perish, never be defiled, and never diminish. It is promised and preserved forever in the heavenly realm for you!” If you ain’t smiling by now you are officially DEAD. Peter is telling us that our God is our constant guardian, so nothing can get into my life, that He and I can’t deal with. I hold fast to that. OK. Are you ready now? We just got to the jumping bit. Gird up your girdle Gertie … the Bride of Christ is going to get happy.

The whole world around us has been waiting for this … “For [even the whole] creation (all nature) waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God’s sons to be made known [waits for the revealing, the disclosing of their sonship].” Romans 8:19. The people around you are waiting for you to stand up and be His kid! We can sit about feeling sad because we don’t have this or that, or choose to get bogged down in the things that we haven’t done that we ought to have done … etc. Repent and repair stuff! And then we can go back to cheering and jumping, because Jesus took all our sins on Himself, voluntarily.

I like the way the bible acknowledges that trials do happen, that tells us they are normal, and we can be temporarily held by them. But there is a plus, the bible also reminds us that these times reveal how our faith is currently doing in spite of the strains and stresses. Our faith is subject to the difficulties of this world, just like everyone else on the planet — whether they-know-Jesus-or-not!

The idea that we are supposed to never have difficulties, or, if we have them, then somehow God is mad at us … is unscriptural. Jesus said:  “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33. Trouble is normal. It’s not the yardstick – but it is normal. The point of trials is to have PEACE in the middle of them … not just avoid them, escape from them, or pretend they don’t exist. It is always helpful to know the point!

These trials expose how our faith is doing, because our faith  is incredibly valuable to Almighty God. When we have faith we are choosing to reveal Him in a faithless world. Even more importantly our faith gives our Heavenly Father, God, the glory He deserves. Our faith guards and progressively reveals our full salvation, which is now, and … also … not yet. Our living faith, the faith that has been revealed by troubles and trials, gives the Lord glory, honour and praise, and we have to celebrate what we have been given. And look at that … we have arrived back where we started. We started with celebration and expanded into eternal glory and honour for the Trinity.

One day we will totally understand what we have been freely given and what a party we will have! Some people think about heaven as a quiet peaceful place, but maybe that is simply because they need a lot of peace and quiet down here… However these verses in Peter indicate that there might be also be a whole lot of jumping and shouting going on as well. The good news is, we won’t get tired of doing it, because every time the Spirit of God turns and moves, there will be a fresh revelation of the Father’s love and grace toward us all. “Divine revelation is dynamic not static.”  

All of this and far more, is ours. I think it’s time for joy to break out in our hearts and lives, simply because … while we were all sinners … He saved us.  We can have joy because He has us and we have Him, forever. Bye.👋. 

P3460 Trying is out, doing is in.

/ DVH

Following Christ is not about trying hard to find the will to do what He said … it is about doing it. I hear so many sincere people telling me that they are trying to please the Lord but it’s too hard. Trying means you are simply attempting to do something — in other words — trying includes the possibility of failure. To DO something means you launch yourself out into the action hoping God Himself will catch you. Don’t try — DO.  Don’t try for instance, not to gossip, or criticise others, close your mouth! Let’s not let any immediate feelings of impossibility or failure discount your ability to do what He said.

So we don’t try not to watch movies that create anger, or access sensuality in us – turn them off.  It’s dumb to allow the wrong kind of thoughts to sit in your head. Those things are leading you down an inevitable pathway, to all kinds of stuff that will steal your peace and make you hate yourself for failing. We can’t fail – Jesus did all the work for us! He conquered sin and death. That’s love. Let’s remind ourselves daily, how much the Lord loves us. Did you wake up today? 🤪 That means God believes in you. You have another opportunity to choose to change – some people didn’t wake up. Make the time to sit with Him and let His endless unconditional love minister to you, then go out and do what He tells you to do.

Let’s look at Matthew 14, and what happened to Peter, as he learnt that God can and will make a way! Verses 18-30:  “As soon as the meal was finished, He insisted that the disciples get in the boat and go on ahead to the other side while He dismissed the people. With the crowd dispersed, He climbed the mountain so he could be by himself and pray. He stayed there alone, late into the night. Meanwhile, the boat was far out to sea when the wind came up against them and they were battered by the waves. At about four o’clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them walking on the water. They were scared to death. “A ghost!” they said, crying out in terror. But Jesus was quick to comfort them. “Courage, it’s Me. Don’t be afraid.” Peter, suddenly bold, said, “Master, if it’s really You, call me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come ahead.” 

Peter didn’t just ASK for help … you and I can’t just stand there waiting for Jesus to come and fix things – there’s no active faith in that! Faith has substance, in other words you can see it. Instead, Peter acted on what the Lord said! Jesus said, “Come,” and Peter actually had to climb over the edge of a perfectly good boat, and start walking on the water. That’s faith! That’s what it looks like. Faith is obedience in action. Peter kept his eyes on Jesus and kept right on walking. He only failed when he took his eyes off the Lord. Keep your eyes on Jesus! … BTW, failure is not the end of the world because Jesus took that to Calvary too.

Here’s my advice: find out what the Lord says about that thing that you are struggling with, and act on it! Do something. We are only failing in some areas because we are leaving the things we need to do ourselves, to Him. We are not puppets, He will not make us. He will show us the way and help us, but we will have to decide to act differently, and then do something about it, using our faith. If you have trouble with swearing, stop. Seriously. Don’t believe that voice in your head that tells you, you can’t. YOU … “can do all things through Christ Who strengthens YOU.” So when you feel weak, ask Him for strength, and … whack your hand over your mouth!

I’ve learnt to do stuff like that all the time. If the Holy Spirit tells me to do something, then I start moving – despite the fact that I know I can’t do most things easily – it has now become an automatic response. Especially when I get grumpy. We all get angry sometimes, but the thing is … don’t stay there, ask the Lord to help you. Our faith is meant to be operating all the time. It is not just an emergency stop button on a runaway train. It’s the way we live now. ”For in Him we live and move and have our being.’  As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’” Acts 17:28. 

We are wrestling with our own will when we feel like we can’t do this or that. Jesus died so we don’t have to do anything anymore. Now we have the freedom to choose. Just because we don’t like some choice or other, that does not invalidate the fact that we actually have one! Let’s turn that around, when we want to do something we know is bad for us, other people can’t stop us. That’s what our will looks like in operation. We simply can’t live a life of faith, and indulge ourselves at the same time. Nor can we say to the Lord: “Thy will be done …” in our prayers, when we know full well that we only do what He wants, when and if, we feel like it! … Did you notice that word ‘feel?’ 

The real struggle is against our own flesh. Our will has survived thus far because we gratify it through the stuff we’ve done that we ought not to have done – so stopping it is bound to be a wrestling match. Let me put that another way — neither of us will probably want to participate in this wrestling match. It is so-oo much easier to just give in to our feelings. Plus this sort of scenario is usually accompanied by loads of angst and temptation. After all, we don’t live in a blameless holy society! Someone else will have done something to set us off. The point is … Jesus is bigger than anything we face, so we put Him in charge, and step out onto the water of change even though it seems like it will not be pleasant and we don’t feel like it.

BTW, this does not mean we are not supposed to have any feelings, it just means our feelings are not supposed to be in charge of us anymore — Jesus is now. How do you think the Lord endured the cross? “Saying, Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but [always] Yours be done.” Luke 22:42. Faith is not faith if we only believe things in our heads. Faith is faith when we let it change our behaviour. That will mean some wrestling matches. The upside is we will stop blaming other people for what we do, and start to take responsibility for our own choices. We don’t want to be the bad people, we want other people to be in that role. The truth is we are ALL bad, and … “It’s by Grace we have been saved, not because of works lest any man should boast.” 

The glory of Jesus and what He did for us, is that He gave us the Holy Spirit Who wants to help us to obey. Obedience is a wonderful smell to God, it is better than a sacrifice. Along with the Holy Spirit – Who gave us the power to obey our Father – we also have in writing, what the Lord likes and what He doesn’t. Feelings don’t come into it. I never feel like saying sorry when I am angry and I know I am wrong – how about you? Let’s ignore how we feel, and obey what He said. Nobody is making you or I choose to indulge ourselves — those feelings of helplessness and powerlessness are simply not true. The bars on the jail you have painted yourself into are not there anymore. Take a step of faith – you will walk right through them.

What I think I know about myself is not all there is to know, there’s more. Father God made me, and He knows me, and what I can do, I can choose to trust Him over my feelings. We will fail to use our faith when we don’t believe what He said, instead of what we think about ourselves. Trying is out, doing is in. Bye. 👋.

P 3419 Keep on… keeping on!

/ DVH

“My beloved ones, just like you’ve always listened to everything I’ve taught you in the past, I’m asking you now to keep following my instructions as though I were right there with you. Now you must continue to make this new life fully manifested as you live in the holy awe of God—which brings you trembling into His presence. God will continually revitalise you, implanting within you the passion to do what pleases Him. Live a cheerful life, without complaining or division among yourselves. For then you will be seen as innocent, faultless, and pure children of God, even though you live in the midst of a brutal and perverse culture. For you will appear among them as shining lights in the universe,” Philippians 2:12-15 TPT.

It’s important to look at the things we end up focusing on day by day. If we constantly and consistently focus on the immediate, we will more easily lose sight of the eternal. These verses make it clear that there is only one way to live. In AWE of God Himself. Ignoring what He says won’t help me – instead I will be presuming upon His grace.

I think that most of us have absolutely no idea what our Father is like … or we would all live differently. God has withheld revealing His glory to us, for our benefit.  When Jesus revealed His glory once, Peter started babbling on about building shrines. He was in the middle of something awesome, yet this man was so overcome by what he saw, he wanted to memorialise the event, instead of worshipping Jesus. It’s one thing to know in our minds Who He is, and totally another to be confronted by His reality!

The fear of God is a real thing, and we all need it. A whole-hearted reverential respect for the Lord and what He says, plus following His ways, just might save our lives one day. Paul is saying here that we need a deeper passion for the things of God. I’m a big believer in grace so if I know I don’t have it, then I ask for it! Jesus is so kind, He will give us His kind of passion as a gift. So if I am to serve and worshipfully love and honour my Father in the way Paul mentions in Romans, I will need to accept that the Grace we’ve been freely given to approach our Father, is way out of proportion to who we really are. We can’t earn anything!

However, we are sadly mistaken if we think that the Lord doesn’t require our actions to match what we say. Change is not optional, it is essential. God wants to protect our hearts from the stuff that is coming next in our lives. It’s our choice and we have to exercise it, and live a new way – the way of faith. Let’s seize every opportunity to deal with our flesh. Our Heavenly Father loves faith, and He wants us to respond to Him in good times and bad, by believing in His goodness. Faith can’t be an optional extra.

I think most believers really want to do what pleases our Heavenly Father, they just can’t come up with the goods by themselves. Like Paul says in Romans 7:24, 25: “Wretched and miserable man that I am! Who will [rescue me and] set me free from this body of death [this corrupt, mortal existence]?” As believers we need to move past the diagnosis of our lack, into the arena of continuing to use our faith in His amazing goodness toward us, despite our shortcomings. God really is THAT good! Jesus has done the work for me. I just need to appropriate the GRACE He daily gives me, by using my faith and following His Ways now – “…not my will be done … THY will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” 

This is how Paul follows up Chapter 7 … in Romans 8, he says: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” What Paul is saying is that we might fall over as we are learning to live a life of faith, but we are to no longer to live believing we have to mess up, it’s inevitable. God Himself has already provided for everything because of what Jesus did.The Lord Jesus’ death and resurrection is utterly complete. What He did for each one of us is like paying 2 trillion dollars for a 1 cent stamp. He overpaid.

Plus when Jesus died, I died. Dead people don’t sin, they don’t even want to, they are dead, they want nothing. When I chose to live this life dead to what I want, and live it for His glory, then I am free to live my life the way Jesus taught me to live it. I will always need to rely upon His Grace, love, mercy etc. to get me through my days, deliberately going after these things for myself, and then I freely give them out to others.

I live my life with Him in mind … which means I am learning to live my life in Christ Jesus. Believing and acting on what we’ve been told to do, is our outward expression of inward faith. This does not mean life is going to be easy. It simply means we know He will help us through things step by step, growing our faith all the way. The bible helps us remember whenever we forget, and we have the Holy Spirit, Who never ever forgets anything.

Now I live this life, here and now, attached to Him, obeying His ways, looking to Him to start and finish growing my faith as I learn to exercise it. We must keep on, keeping on. It is our God-given destiny to get the hang of the Spirit-filled life, loving what He loves, doing what Jesus would do. Our new life has been already bought and paid for, and we need to move our old thinking out of the way, and start thinking like He does. Bye 👋.