Opportunity

P 2380 Gentleness has been greatly underrated.

/ DVH

Today, gentleness can be sometimes seen as weakness, or even a particularly feminine quality. But Jesus said: “What blessing comes to you when gentleness LIVES in you! For you will inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5 TPT. Jesus Christ was Father God’s perfect expression of gentleness and mercy toward mankind.

Let’s look at the One Who gave us the best illustration ever of being gentle, and showing mercy under pressure, from the cross. “Then he (the thief on the cross next to Christ) said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into your kingdom.”Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in paradise.” Luke 23-42-44. And there it is… mercy and gentleness without rancour, or a lecture. It just automatically flowed toward the one who needed it, despite the Giver’s pain. 

Here’s something I’ve learnt that I will pass on for free. We need to LET gentleness LIVE in us. That means we need to be aware of what it is like, and then use every single opportunity to use this particular form of Grace to cultivate it. Let’s consult the dictionary about gentleness:  kindness, tenderness, mercy, understanding, compassion, kind-heartedness, tender-heartedness, love, mildness, humility, peacefulness, serenity, reverence, and meekness.

Yeah. I put this list in today because many of these words are no longer common. We are not often likely to use them in every day language …However, I believe many of the responses we meet from other people are based in fear. People who do not know that they are God’s original creations, hold onto the images of who they think they are, very tightly. They can use anger, pride and spite to shove others away. I’ve watched gentleness in action, and it does not threaten or create fear – it lovingly and carefully opens new doors for His love to go in and then it waits. Gentleness is aware of the other person’s need to be authentic and to feel safe and unthreatened. 

The bible talks quite a bit about sowing and reaping, and I believe we need to learn to sow mercy, and gentleness into other people’s lives because there is so little of it around. We are to live that way because that’s the way Jesus was. He gave us mercy when we didn’t deserve it in the first place. He didn’t appear, all guns blazing like Rambo! But He came here in the most vulnerable disarming form ever – as a new born infant. When the Lord Jesus spoke to people His loving kindness went right around their objections and piqued their interest. This is what I have found the Holy Spirit is like in His Character. He is not rough with people. He doesn’t threaten them, He walks with human beings, gently suggesting other ways to interact and approach things. He doesn’t push or pull.

I often laugh when I see people and their dog going for a walk, because, even though the owner will say they are walking their dog, to all intents and purposes, their dog is walking them!  However, on the market there is another form of leash, it is called a gentle leader. It wraps around the dog’s muzzle instead of its throat or chest, and the dog, no matter what size it is, finds it impossible to pull with its nose. So it trots alongside the owner peacefully. Without trying to be blasphemous, AT ALL (!!), the Holy Spirit leads us like that. He doesn’t push and He doesn’t drag, He waits for us to walk together, in agreement.  

The thing is, with the kingdom of God, whatever is given to us will flourish and grow inside us … if we cherish it. His kingdom is not like this world — giving love, mercy, gentleness away to the undeserving, or a perfect stranger, actually helps those things grow inside us. In this world if you give something away, you’ve lost it – but in the kingdom of God, generous humility helps gentleness and mercy to flourish in our hearts. 

When we sow gentleness into the lives of the people who cross our path – the love of God is released to create a harvest. We do not have to be a fierce people – our war is already won. So this is how we deal with others …”Brothers, if anyone is caught in any sin, you who are spiritual [that is, you who are responsive to the guidance of the Spirit] are to restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness [not with a sense of superiority or self-righteousness], keeping a watchful eye on yourself, so that you are not tempted as well.” Galatians 6:1. 

Save your warrior face for fighting our common enemy! Not the people you meet. They may never ever deserve it, but we are releasing His Grace into their lives and that means that a little seed of gentleness or mercy is planted into a life to flourish in His timing. So Instead of a harsh word, we have a gentle one to turn away someone else’s anger. That’s what sowing gentleness and mercy looks like. It means that thoughts of revenge or punishment disappear from our thinking.

The people who give His Grace, His peace, His gentleness, His mercy away, are not just being nice, or polite, instead they have an inner barn on the inside of them that is filled to bursting with these things. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Matthew 12:34. What’s IN there will come out under pressure. That pressure is simply life from day to day, but the other person’s need will create an opportunity.

Gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit, it is neither soft or girlish – it opens doors that would remain tightly closed because it does not push … it respects the other person enough to lovingly watch and wait for an opportunity. 👋🏻

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 2367 Our experiences with trouble are a cue to revise the way we live.

/ DVH

“We are like common clay jars that carry this glorious treasure within, so that this immeasurable power will be seen as God’s, not ours. Though we experience every kind of pressure, we’re not crushed. At times we don’t know what to do, but quitting is not an option. We are persecuted by others, but God has not forsaken us. We may be knocked down, but not out. We continually share in the death of Jesus in our own bodies so that the resurrection life of Jesus will be revealed through our humanity.”

Boy, these verses seem like my life story neatly expressed and typed out! Sometimes it seems like we lurch from one problem to the next. It’s like someone has been following me around and writing down what goes on. Can I be honest with you? Expecting this life to be like a Disney classic movie is more than optimistic, it is down-right idiotic. Life is full of sinful people, (I are one!), who seem to be getting more selfish by the minute. 

Meanwhile did you notice what it said in the above part of the scripture in 2 Corinthians 4? I bolded it to make it stand out. This life is destined to kill us …UM …Christians! … OFF, bit by bit. One heartache and/or pain after another. The Lord allows it so that people can see Jesus Christ through us. Trouble doesn’t mean we are out of God’s will, trouble means He is giving us an opportunity to let Him shine through us. The deader to self we are, the more He can shine. Now there’s an AIM! Let’s read on …

“We consider living to mean that we are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake so that the life of Jesus will be revealed through our humanity. So, then, death is at work in us but it releases life in you. We have the same Spirit of faith that is described in the Scriptures when it says, “First I believed, then I spoke in faith.” So we also first believe then speak in faith. We do this because we are convinced that He who raised Jesus will raise us up with Him, and together we will all be brought into His Presence.”

Did you get the bit that says living in Christ is actually MEANT to look like this? This suffering, this sorrow, this tide of disappointment and grief has a point. It is not random or just bad luck! Instead it is a gift to us to disentangle ourselves from striving and straining to make this life work! This means that now we have embraced Christ so thoroughly that His agenda is ours, and what He wants isn’t tacked onto a list of things we already have to do, or things we are supposed to do – in order to maintain our happy little lives. Instead it is the REASON we are all still here.

Have we forgotten that we are the people who have a HOPE? Our job is to spread that hope around. Our greatest sin just might be our SILENCE. We are not still here to have a happy little Disney-fied life and go off happily singing into the sunset. We are here to be His hands and feet in a world that doesn’t know Him yet. We have been given the privilege of showing forth His marvellous light in the midst of this world’s darkness. Ask Him to help you to talk to others about the hope within you, and then SPEAK. Find somebody to help and comfort. Our troubles don’t disqualify us, our trust in Christ qualifies us..

As an example of well carried-out-all-to-common selfishness, I recently watched a person in their 15 minutes of fame, telling a TV crew that they were fine after a 6.8 earthquake devastated Morocco all around them. They had not had one thought that maybe they could go and help those still trapped, because they are there on the spot! Heaven forbid that a catastrophe should spoil their holiday! What about the two thousand people who can’t say the same thing … because they died! Can it possibly be true that the Western world thinks these people in other countries exist for our holiday experiences and amusement? Boy at that moment I sure needed changing – my smacking hand got itchy! We watch disasters on TV,  feel sad, and then go about our own lives like we are not all living on the same planet. We are here to serve others, the bible makes it clear that we are to live this life with eternity in mind.

“….We view our slight, short-lived troubles in the light of eternity. We see our difficulties as the substance that produces for us an eternal, weighty glory far beyond all comparison, because we don’t focus our attention on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but the unseen realm is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:7-18 TPT. Focussing on the unseen does not mean we just pray and walk away – that’s when we ask Him: “What would you like me to do about this?”

Where are the mighty ones of God Who see those who are suffering as a personal responsibility? If we are still breathing, then there is still time to change the way we think. It is a choice to let His glory shine through your little life, even if it means sharing someone else’s suffering. 👋🏻

P 2366 Opportunity knocks …

/ DVH

… at the strangest times! It banged on our door all last week. We’ve had people coming and going and doing stuff at our house practically every day. More on that in a bit.

The last 3+ months have been filled up with opportunities, hospital visits, countless occupational therapy appointments, plus physio ones. Also doctor’s appointments, various specialists, endless xrays, workmen installing stuff, plus all my normal yearly check ups. It’s all been rather a painful blur, and now poor hubby has pulled a muscle in his chest wall. Between the two of us we make about 3/4 of a person. But in Christ – well, watch out! The weaker we get – the stronger He gets …  Man I live/love that verse!

Here’s another appropriate verse for the melee happening at our house.“…because we don’t focus our attention on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but the unseen realm is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18 TPT. Our focus is on His will, not our everyday lives. As I have said before  – OUR FOCUS MATTERS. Many days recently I’ve found I’ve needed the Lord’s supernatural energy just to drag my focus away from the day to day stuff that sometimes crowds in on me, so I can focus on the person in front of me. 

Have you noticed that one difficulty hardly ever happens by itself? Sometimes forty things kind of rush at you, like a herd of stampeding buffalo. That’s when I just want to sit down on the floor and cover my head until it’s over! I guess it’s called life, but it gets pretty intense for all of us sometimes. But with that intensity comes opportunities.

Now to explain those opportunities that fell on us this week. We’ve been changing our gas to electricity to save money. We put solar panels on our roof ages ago. Last week the gas guys came to take away our old gas hot water tank. We were expecting them at about 8.00am. Well, at 7.00am a young man turned up at our door to turn off the gas. Hubby greeted him and then kindly pointed out to this young man, who looked about 18, that he had planted some tiny plants between the gate and the HW service and could he be careful where he was walking please? I watched this young fellow as he carefully tip-toed through our garden, many, many times back and forth from his truck to the work site, and the Lord impressed on my heart how diligent he was, willing to take the slightest instruction. Do me like that Lord!

We have a small supply of compasses that we give away with a pass-it-on card, pictured above, and the Holy Spirit asked me to tell this young man how impressed with his work ethic I was, then He asked me to give him a compass to indicate God had plans and a direction for his future. To say he was blown away would be an under-exaggeration. He loved it all, and we had a wonderful conversation. I told him that God was so pleased with his attitude to his work. And I praised him for his diligence.

He kinda teared up then, especially when I said that I thought he was a such great example of what a responsible young man looks like. Apparently he had previously been running around with a very bad crowd, and until he found this job things had not been good for him. We told him that God has a great plan for his life and he went back to work smiling all the way. Some time later, a second, slightly older guy turned up to complete the job, and low and behold, there was the younger man out in our garden pointing out the little plants the new guy should avoid! 😊

We decided to give this second man a pen, with a dove on it and … his face also lit up. Apparently he had just come back from Herron Island. And he was walking on the beach, when he looked up, there was a dove in the sky hovering over his head. He felt our pen was a fantastic reminder of an event he could not explain. He kept telling us that you really wouldn’t expect to see a solitary dove on Herron Island! Hubby talked to him for a while about the Lord and then both workmen went on about their work. But they still carefully tiptoed around those plants every time they went back and forth! 

Then a third person, an electrician, came along, and our precious 18 year old, (I wanted to adopt him by this time!), went out and patiently explained to the electrician about the plants he should avoid stepping on. 😂  When they had all finished working, and packed up, the 18 year old deliberately came back to our door and told us that our talk was extremely significant to him, and he was greatly encouraged the conversation. He’d been having a hard time lately. He was beaming all over his face. BTW we gave the electrician something too, and hubby prayed with him and his wife, for their business to prosper. 

How cool was all that?! God brought those people here to our house. The only times I’ve been out since the accident have been to see professionals to help with my arm. (We gave stuff to them too.) And this is what has become apparent to us, when you make yourself available to the Lord, things will happen. We keep cans of lemonade in our fridge to give away to anyone who comes to our door. Maybe 2 in 10 people say ‘no thanks’ – but it definitely opens the door for a conversation with the ones who say “yes, please.”

So my final comment today, about reaching out to talk to others is this, be prepared to have your happy little routines interrupted. I figure my time is now His time, and I’ve watched Him give me back the time so often it isn’t even an issue anymore! Make preparation to bless other people in a way that seems appropriate to you. A cold drink, a pass-it-on card, a bible. We also give away small boxes of chocolates to say thank you to the staff, when we go into a hospitals or clinics. It opens people’s hearts and then you can encourage them with His love… and, if you are fortunate, you can talk to them about Jesus. Opportunity is knocking !!! 🤗

P 2365 We need to pray for the veil of our ignorance taken away.

/ DVH

“And I pray that He would unveil WITHIN YOU the unlimited riches of His glory and favour until supernatural strength floods your innermost being with His divine might and explosive power. Then, by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of His love will become the very source and root of your life. 

Then you will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences—the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far-reaching is His love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding—this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!” Ephesians 3:16-19 TPT

Verses like these ones are kind of a mouthful, and if we don’t stop and pray and WAIT for Him to open our eyes – we can easily end up hearing …blah blah blah blah blah …. ……’constantly using your faith’ … ‘transcends our understanding” Those phrases can unfortunately easily translate into – I must try harder!! 

Trying isn’t in it. Especially when the veil comes off and you realise Jesus Christ already did all the work. We simply need to keep walking alongside Him … like the disciples did. We give up our agendas and dreams for His sake because He died for our sake. It’s our choice. Will our focus be on ‘our day’ or ‘the day Christ gave us!’ Those 12 disciples in the Gospels did nothing to merit the honour of walking with Jesus! They were going about their daily business, when the very real Presence of God showed up in the Person of Christ.

But, sadly we sometimes try to fit our faith in around our already established ordinary lives. OUR LIVES ARE NOT MEANT TO BE ORDINARY. Jesus died to give us HIS LIFE IN US. However, life itself can quickly overwhelm us and we end up praying quick prayers at the beginning of the day, and tired half-asleep ones at the end.  And eventually our failure rate is bigger than our success rate, and we coast along not sure about what we believe, and if it works or not but well-meaning people keep telling us we are missing the mark. WE CANNOT MISS THE MARK – CHRIST BECAME A MAN TO HIT THAT MARK FOR US.

We were not reborn to FAIL. We were reborn to bring His kingdom into our ordinary everyday humdrum lives. We need that veil removed so we can see and comprehend everything Christ already did for us. satan will fight you over that veil. But we have the power now to win! Simply ask the Lord to show you what He wants you to do with your day. Don’t promise Him tomorrow, or Monday, give Him today. And keep reminding Him, (not because HE forgets but because WE need the reminder,) that today is about Him, His kingdom. Tell Him you are willing to listen to what He wants done. Then live listening for what He says next, AND DO IT.

We will actively have to choose to look for His way. The real secret to walking with Christ minute by minute is choosing to live in love. Be like a plant that has put its roots down deeply into His love and then make a quality decision to give it away at any opportunity, whether the other person deserves it or not. Just keep giving it away. Jesus died to give us His life, now we give Him ours, by choosing to live this life as a life of love toward others. That’s how you spread the kingdom of God that is in you. 

We, you and I, already HAVE everything we need for this kind of life! Listen to this: “Everything we could ever need for life and godliness has ALREADY been deposited in us by His divine power. For all this was lavished upon us through the rich experience of knowing Him Who has called us by name and invited us to come to Him through a glorious manifestation of His goodness.”  2 Peter 1:3. 

All this stuff in His book, is in a heavenly bank account with our name on it. We just gotta use our faith and go to that bank and make faith withdrawals. Our faith is not meant to be about having a new car, or house or holiday or staying safe when we travel – that faith was deposited in us so we can live a brand new life that pleases the Father. The Son’s blood now covers our lives so we can walk with Him unafraid.

That veil produces the rumour that a Spirit-filled well-lived life for Jesus, is only for some people. It is for all of us. This is something we have to value so much we go after it deliberately for ourselves. And that means we will end up taking risks – using our faith to obey what Christ said, and pouring out His unmerited love on other people.  👋🏻

P 2357 Love is about choices – not feelings.

/ DVH

Hubby and I just celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary a couple of months back. I still think he is the nicest and best man I ever met. But SOME DAYS … that’s a choice not a feeling!  And I’m pretty sure he shares that sentiment with me. 😂 Not as often, of course – ‘cos I’m MUCH nicer than he is! Okay. That’s a joke. Haha!!

What I mean is this – some days we have to choose to love each other, because we don’t always understand the other person’s POV. I so-o don’t man-speak and he has no clue how to speak female, so we collide. Because we are both quite passionate people, there are times we collide loudly. No fun is had either side in that collision. People make times like that about individual issues – points of differences – you won’t get anywhere that way, trust me. The real ‘issue’ that needs to matter in those moments IS THIS: who is gunna repent and ask for forgiveness first? Sigh. It is usually him not me – he’s way better at saying ‘sorry’ than I am. It’s mega-annoying. 😡

I said all that to say this:  just because we disagree and feel horribly abused, misunderstood, and uncomfortable – that does not mean we quit the marriage or give up on the relationship. It simply means we have temporarily lost our common ground – and one, or both of us, has dug their heels in and refused to compromise or even listen to the other one. My particular fault in these matters is that I always have a point, plus I absolutely loathe not being listened to! 

People often say sagely: “Marriage is about compromise.” Phooey!! Marriage is about CHOICES. I choose to forgive because it’s in the bible! That’s true wisdom. At that moment when I am no longer feeling like my precious hubby is the nicest man in the world – I still have a life-mandate to fulfil. I promised to follow Jesus and He is offering me a new opportunity to choose to follow Him and die to self. These moments are the little foxes that spoil the vineyards of a husband and wife’s love for each other – we need to seize those moments for the Lord’s sake. The power of agreement opens doors that will not open any other way – we need to cherish and protect it.

If I choose to stop fighting the current issue and instead ask the Holy Spirit to help me keep my mouth shut, I will accomplish two things. The first is establishing His Lordship and the second is an opportunity for the Lord’s wisdom to prevail instead of chaos. I may have to insist about these two choices … and, to be fair, I quite often fall into the trap of seeking to be understood – instead of working to see the other person’s POV. However, even if what is happening makes no sense to me – it makes sense to the Lord – I know He can guide me through it.

It is extremely difficult, but not impossible, to lay aside your claim to be right – when you do it for the Lord, and not just for the other person. When you lay down your arms for His sake, whether you are right and they are wrong, THAT IS WHEN JESUS’ LORDSHIP PREVAILS! In that moment I have yielded my control back to Jesus and the Holy Spirit because I love Them more than winning or being right. Meanwhile, do not be fooled – those moments are hard. The other person may not have the same view of Lordship you have.

Here’s what I have observed – it only takes one person to turn things around … but that Person needs to be Him! Get a load of this scripture: “If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates (works against) his [Christian] brother he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (1 John 4:20) At this point you could be thinking that you don’t ‘hate’ your spouse – yeah! But at this moment you are not in the middle of some dumb argument that you both feel it is imperative to win!! You can hate anyone given enough provocation trust me. Plus spouses often know each other so well they can lean all over each other’s buttons. In the middle of an argument neither of you are working together!

One of our biggest faults as Christians is that we try to wiggle around what He said in the book so we come up with a hundred reasons about why this particular verse does not apply to me. We all hate to be wrong and in those moments we forget about the One Who hung on that tree for our sake, so we would have the power to resist temptation. Please remember this line: It is not about winning a point or an argument, it is about losing the Holy Spirit’s Presence and YOUR PEACE. We have a choice. Selah. 😶 👋🏻

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 2262 How not to go up, or down the stairs!

/ DVH

Well, we had a difficult day the day before yesterday. Have you ever had one of those days where everything you already know about the Lord is tested, and then tested some more? That day had more surprises than we anticipated.

We have a routine in the morning, certain things happen before other things happen. Our bedroom is downstairs, so in order to have breakfast and type this blog I have to go upstairs. There are seven stairs and I slipped, and promptly   banged my chin etc and a few other things, on every step on the way down. 

And there I sat at the bottom of the stairs having broken off the neck of my humerus. A couple of hours later they managed to get me off to the hospital. We discovered low and behold, it would need a huge operation to fix what I broke. And liver transplant patients really should not ever have huge operations.  In this case, breaking my humerus was not all that funny!

A couple of hours later, the hospital sent us home because I can’t have an awful lot of pain killers either.  And I haven’t even got any plaster to show for my adventure!  I feel gypped.  It is an amazing thing when your world goes upside down, because you learn even more strongly, that you really can’t control anything.  Hubby and I were chatting on the way home because some disasters give you a fresh POV about what the Lord Jesus suffered on the cross.  We probably don’t think of things like that when life is normal.  

So now we have to wait for my body to heal itself, and hubby is helping me lots more than he usually has to…..what fun!  The healing process will take awhile so I am on restricted duties, not that I had many in the first place, and I am developing a distinct dislike of stairs.  Needless to say, nobody slept very well at our house last night.

“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.

I got to thinking about that scripture today and realised that Jesus figuratively, and literally, DID overcome the sorts of things we have to overcome.  I’m going to try and list a few, but I bet you will come up with a bigger list than me.  Mary got pregnant before she got married – that would have made her an outcast, so Jesus was rejected in the womb.  People would have looked sideways at Joseph too.  They were very poor.  The Lord was a refugee by the time He was barely walking. They had no family to help them because they left them all behind.  satan tried to kill Jesus right after He was born. 

His dad was a carpenter so Jesus knows all about the troubles and trials and sorrows that plague ordinary people like us.  He lived His life, literally, at war with the religious society around Him.  People came to Him for what He could do for them, very few came for Who He is.  He suffered from conspiracies against Him.  His stepfather died when He was young and He had half brothers and sisters.  He was stolen from, betrayed, misunderstood, called a liar, heretic, and this is just a sample of what He faced.

When they murdered Him, among many things, His shoulders were dislocated.  People fought over His clothes whilst He was dying … and, yet, the Lord still took the time to give the man hanging next to Him the opportunity as He was leaving this world to go and be with Him in the next.  He was the victim of somebody else’s jealousy, religious proclivities – and everybody left Him at the end.  Food for thought.

So as you go about earning your daily bread, doing chores or studying, remember He overcame the things that will bury us if we let them.  Because He did that, now we can do it too.  👋🏻🤕 Bye.

P 2260 Kingdom farming!

/ DVH

Matthew 13:31-32 “He (Jesus) told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”

The kingdom of God it is described by the Lord, as being like many things: a treasure, a pearl, many seeds, family treasure, leaven, sprouting seeds, a net, and for today’s blog – a mustard seed. The more we tend to His kingdom in our lives, the bigger it grows. The more we cultivate, acknowledge, and obediently interact with His kingdom in our lives, the more we will grow. This means that other people can come to our little ‘kingdom of God mustard tree’ and shelter in its safety.

We don’t make this tree grow by ourselves – the ground it is planted in does. A whole lot of people move around from one church to another in Christian circles, because they decide they don’t like the soil they were planted in! Imagine a tree that moves around?? In His kingdom we do not grow because of the soil – we grow as we accept that it is our destiny to grow, and dry ground or rocks provide us with the opportunity to adapt and grow stronger. 

Every time you and I do whatever the Lord says in the book, on purpose, His way … we are nourishing the kingdom of God within us. Just like we would fertilise and water a mustard seed plant. That seed inside us is nurtured by  obedience and by us choosing to abide where we were planted. Saying ‘no’ to yourself in difficult moments, and ‘yes’ to God’s way, can seem very insignificant, but when we live that way, we are providing the right atmosphere for the Kingdom of God to grow inside us. We are abiding!

Sadly, we can’t just speak about growth and claim it, and hope it will magically appear. Like I said a tree when it has been planted – does not pull up its roots if it doesn’t like the spot it is in and go walk-about. It yields to and adapts to its circumstances. This means WE will need to change. The major point of this parable is that this particular seed is destined for greater things. It is there to grow and provide safety for others. When we have deep roots, our ‘tree’ won’t just flop over when a storm hits. Storms, I have decided, are inevitable. We cannot prevent them. Despite all our efforts to the contrary, we can’t control much of anything. Sadly, in some circumstances, we can’t even control ourselves!

It is also important to take the time to meditate on the fact that His kingdom has no end. So every time we co-operate with His kingdom coming into our lives, we are touching the eternal… and the eternal is touching us. Like I said before, we are providing for others when we live this way. I’ve watched this happen through my husband’s attitude toward strangers. He believes in the kingdom of God within Him and He knows God wants to touch others! 

Recently our bank changed its system. Yay! We were told if we did thus and thus all would be well. Naturally, we promptly did thus and thus – BUT … all was not well! The bank had provided for this time of change by listing a number we could call. Hubby called the number. But as he was talking with the bank operator, he empathised with her about what a tough day she must be having, because she had to deal with so many calls. Hubby cared for her, instead of getting grumpy because this new system inconvenienced us. She opened up to him like a sunflower. The young lady came into his mustard tree’s shade and was able to rest. For a few minutes she was free from having to explain her work’s policy and she was able to be herself. They had a great chat and in the end, all was finally well!

Matthew 13:10-12 says this: “The disciples came to Him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance…”

The way to get an abundance of His love to give away, and provide shelter for others, is to cherish and nurture His kingdom within us. His kingdom must go deep inside us – this means it will challenge and expose flaws and hindrances to growth. But many many people will find rest, comfort, encouragement, healing and a greater knowledge of God Himself in our own personal mustard tree. This is why we need to be good Kingdom farmers – so people can personally, “…taste and see that the Lord is good!” 🌳 Bye 👋🏻

P 2256 Move!

/ DVH

Some people, in the past, have said that I’m a bit prophetic. Hmm I don’t know about that! However, yesterday, in my mind’s eye, I could see time like a large wall, stretching backward and forward. In this wall I saw a window. It was a large window but the scary thing is – it was slowly closing. I believe this window is called the window of opportunity. 

Meh! Ask the Lord about that for yourself.“And if anyone longs to be wise, ask God for wisdom and He will give it! He won’t see your lack of wisdom as an opportunity to scold you over your failures but He will overwhelm your failures with His generous grace.” James 1:5 TPT. He straightens out my theology all the time!

Back to my point: what with Tsunamis, 9/11, Covid, the war in Ukraine, earthquakes, monetary markets crashing, food and medical shortages, plus various other awful things happening;  these things have polarised the world and affected everyone on this planet. It seems to me that nobody feels really safe anymore, because we have quite regularly experienced worldwide destructive events in an unprecedented fashion. 

However, this also means that the church all over the world, has a huge opportunity, because the people-who-don’t-know-Jesus-yet are ready for something real. And we are incredibly blessed because we know that Answer, personally. And, right here, right now, it’s our time to shine with the light of heaven, Jesus Christ. It is remarkably easy to put your light under a basket when things are overwhelming. But our time to live His way – I believe, is here and now. We must stop sort of squashing Jesus in, around the edges of all the fun things we can do, and live up to our Master’s faith in us. He is our place of safety.

I know that I know, that this is the time to start taking our Christian lives VERY seriously. We must stop thinking that going to church Sunday by Sunday is all there is, and take the faith that Jesus died to give us, and use it. If we do not start to use it, I am deeply concerned that we will lose it. As I said before, these are unprecedented times with unexpected and terrible pressures. That’s when the pressure to survive becomes more important than anything else, and real active faith goes on the back burner. The thing is, we need our faith now more than ever, because the enemy is distracting us away from our true God-given purpose.

Let’s believe and act on what we talk about. Hubby and I have been out there, where people are, and we know they are ready for something real. Like James, said, we need to show forth our faith by our works. Obviously I mean the kind of works that originate in His heart and are led by the Holy Spirit. It’s time to prime the pump of obedience. Sadly, because we’ve had a lot of unknown factors recently  – we are all a bit wary of more bad things happening – so we’ve kind of bunkered down, waiting for the storms to pass. But they haven’t. Praise God, it has opened the hearts of the people outside our churches, instead!

So what happens when we decide to take a risk and to talk to family, friends, and strangers about Him? We could get to look like a goose … and in my case, that wouldn’t be the first time!  Many people have crashed and burned in their desire to bring glory to their Master, Jesus. When we do that we are in some really great company … like the people who have gone home before us! It’s also time to face those things in our lives that we would rather ignore and hope they will go away. Our faults, our flaws, our generational, soul-destroying stinky attitudes and actions!  The Lord Jesus is absolutely excellent at putting broken Humpty-Dumpties together again. So true active repentance is the order of the day as well.

Getting this stuff wrong, ironically … is good. It is like a cleansing fire, it burns away all the dross that this life has accumulated. Pride disappears, so does fear. Instead, living for Him and obeying Him humbles us and sends us to our knees. This is not the time to sit back and look at our hypothetical barns, (Luke 12:16-21). We can’t afford to relax, or maybe even plan to build a new one! Our time has come. And we need every single one of us active and ready to obey Him. We all have a part to play in His plan. There is simply nothing like seeing the light of illumination come on when you are talking to someone who does not know Him. 💖

The alternative is to try to wait the bad times out, promising ourselves when things get better – then we will try to follow Him. There is another kind of trap that says that we will obey when we are more informed. It doesn’t work that way. First we obey and then we learn of Him. Stepping out is putting on His yoke. This yoke is not about Him blessing me while I am going in my direction, but it means I am following the lead oxen – Christ – and going in His direction instead.  Submitting to change, no matter how settled we are, or how old or young we are, stretches us. It’s time to wake up and stretch. Move it or lose it. 👋🏻