Patience

P 3516 Abiding.   

/ DVH

Every now and then the pressure of a blank page stares at me and I want to bail out of writing this daily blog. I have been given an opportunity to abide. Two of the fruits of the Spirit are patience, and self-control, if I want to abide, I’m going to need both.

Abiding is one of those old-fashioned words nobody uses much anymore. It means: “To stay in a particular place, or to continue in a fixed state over time. Continuing for a long time or permanent (e.g., “an abiding friendship” or “abiding memory”). John 15:7 says: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” This verse reminds us we are never alone. He comes to us to stay within us. When His words stay, and live in our hearts, they become a part of our thinking, speaking and actions. They comfort and direct us and make us secure in His Love, daily.

Abiding is a place where we can allow the Lord to cultivate patience, self-control and spiritual restraint. Abiding is not really a buzz word today, because it implies the kind of stick-a-bility that is quite foreign in our busy gotta-be-gotta-do-gotta-go lives. We can pray we will have it, without a clue about how you get it. But the thing is, this grace is actually a necessity for spiritual survival. This verse is not just about praying for what we want – it is far more about cultivating a relationship centred on the Lord’s will, out of a desire to fulfil His mission for us, and through us.

I often think of stuff like ‘having patience’ as something I need the Lord’s help to do when things are very difficult — but today I realised that I need far more patience when nothing much is happening. When I am living with the same old, same old. So let’s start there…  because in most of our lives, one day often follows another fairly uneventfully, yet they are still filled with busyness. But sadly, nothing changes either.

Our lives can be like a desert with the occasional tumbleweed rolling over the screen of our minds. Not much spiritually happening! Then occasionally, there are those times when the stuff of life flies at us like the worst kind of blizzard, banking up at the door of our hearts … locking us in… And at yet other times problems just quietly drift in blurring and blocking our path ahead.

The lack of insight to make our way through these contrasting times can drive us crazy, but the never-ending silence can be worse. It quickly becomes the time we need to remind ourselves that we are not alone. We have Our Father, His Son and the precious Holy Spirit Who are always with us, even if we do not feel anything. And if we need someone with skin on … then we have brothers and sisters in Christ who will lovingly take the time out of their day to stop for a moment, listen and pray with us.

We learn to abide on ordinary days as ‘abiding’ faith becomes part of us. As we learn to live in His Love, and keep on sharing it – right in the middle of one day following the next. Let’s practice the kind of skills that will see us through the silence of ordinary days. By reading the bible, and prayerfully listening for what He wants to say to us, today. On those days we may have to seek His kingdom first. And take note of what we are saying. Let’s not give our enemy the opportunity to find out what is momentarily afflicting us.

These seemingly empty times give us an opportunity to cultivate self-control, and that leads to contented abiding. Of course it will take a whole lot of patience to do it. I ask the Lord to “set a watch over my mouth.” He will. All glory to Jesus! At the same time, He, Himself, has an endless supply of patience and He allows us to learn at our own rate! (Psalm 32:8) Let Him guide you through whatever comes at you, one step at a time. ”Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30.

Personally, some days, my own rate can be …kind of …slow. So I totally love this verse: “But  God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, …” Ephesians 2:4-6.

Almighty God Himself: His goodness, His mercy is already personally invested in our growth, and He wants to help us learn to abide in Him. Abiding means we are looking at this life from His perspective not ours. When we are seated in heavenly places, we get a different perspective. Think of it like this, I can stand outside my house and see how it looks from the street, or I can fly a drone over it and take a photograph of it from the air above the house. Same location – different perspective.

We need heavenly perspectives for those ordinary same-old same-old days, as well as the days when the roof falls in. Let’s choose to quit only having emergency faith! Abiding in Him fosters faith. Bye. 👋. Ps. Plus abiding produces that fruit in 1 Corinthians 13!

P 3515 The old person in your future.    

/ DVH

Senior Christians can be a huge help in our churches, especially with advice to younger ones. The negative thing about growing older is that these very important senior citizens sometimes think: “let’s leave all the moving forward and work, to the younger ones.” And they just sit back and enjoy the ride. When we do this we are forgetting that younger people can lack patience, faithfulness, self-control and wisdom. Those fruits grow slowly! Older folks have it in spades, because life demands it. It beats you up then you need Jesus’ help to cope, over and over again. And … tada! Eventually, unless you are thick as a plank – you get wisdom!

Living longer presents people with all kinds of difficulties that aren’t apparent to those who are quite young or in middle age. These saints literally have to learn new things, or this life gets harder than your coping mechanisms! The truly great thing about age is that you don’t only get wisdom, you get loads of humility. ‘I can’t do that’ becomes the new norm. However, us oldies cannot afford to let it become a cop-out. I pick myself up daily when my mind has wandered about, and tell it “one more time, let’s go again.”

My point is that the Body of Christ needs its senior members. Packing them off into Old People’s homes means they can bore one another silly, or they will vegetise ← I made that word up! Don’t just let them clump about talking to each other. They need fresh input or they will get so bored with their circumstances that they tune out and wait for death. Now there’s a happy future. Everyone wants to wake up and wonder if they will die today! We may long to go to be with Jesus, (Paul did!) – but Jesus doesn’t always seem to be in a hurry to pick some of us up!

Sadly, some younger Christians don’t want to look at the fact that one day … in their not-so-distant-future, because-it-is-coming-at-you-faster-than-you-think … they too will be hobbling about on walking sticks, or stuck in wheelchairs, or dribbling their soup! Here’s a red hot clue for you … the only way to avoid old age is to DIE! … you see my point.

Having a sense of humour and being able to laugh at yourself helps. Especially when your bodily functions … UM … pardon me while I digress … what a laugh!! … “functions” literally means things work! Hmmm. Hey ho, your bodily functions will probably let you down. Repeatedly. And you will no longer go into the cupboard and forget what you went in for … you’ll probably forget you HAVE a cupboard, or a house. It isn’t just that you can no longer find your glasses, rather you no longer remember to wear them and wonder why the world’s gone blurry.

Back to the Body, Christ’s Body needs its senior citizens because they have loads of experience. Older people can look like naysayers sometimes, but they can also prevent others from falling down holes in their theology, because they recognise repeated scenery as it scrolls by. We’ve seen it before and it didn’t work then either! However, our minds do sometimes play tricks on us, producing the spirit of grumpy. That’s your chance to practice patience.

An elderly mind can wander about a bit as parts of it rust out, but because we are the Bride of Christ we are the people who have cultivated gentleness, kindness and love, so we won’t make older folks feel like fools. Instead we’ll use our wits to help them when they’ve lost theirs! Whether they sleep all day, or call out at night from fear — or get cranky for absolutely no reason other than old age — all that stuff is nasty, and often inevitable. Older people are still people that Jesus died for. Love is absolutely transferrable, so love will help them when its time to go be with Him.

When talking with an older person ask them about their past. Like… what was school like?  What were the things they loved to do in their youth?  Ask them how they met Jesus, how have they served Him? The thing I’ve noticed about youth is that they can quickly grow impatient when someone can’t find the right word instantly. Computers aren’t the only things that have speeded up. People have too.

This is what the bible says about age: Isaiah 46:4 – “Even to your old age and grey hairs I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” Psalm 71:9 – “Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength fails.” Psalm 92:12-14 – “They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green.” 2 Corinthians 4:16 – “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”

We can learn all kind of important skills for this life from older people – things that education can’t and won’t teach you. They know so much about enduring faith and long-suffering, plus they are living proof of God’s faithfulness sustaining us, even unto our own old age. A church will have deep roots when those who are older are welcome.

Bye. 👋. PS As I grow older, I am often greatly comforted by the fact that Father God is called the Ancient of Days!

P 3513 Eternity minded.  

/ DVH

James 1:2-4: “Dear brothers, is your life full of difficulties and temptations? Then be happy, for when the way is rough, your patience has a chance to grow. So let it grow, and don’t try to squirm out of your problems. For when your patience is finally in full bloom, then you will be ready for anything, strong in character, full and complete.”

As you can see for yourself, God’s idea of Kingdom happiness does not look like this world’s idea of happiness. The whole idea of having the ability to be happy when life is full of difficulties and temptations, seems to be utterly ridiculous. But brother James has a different list of priorities than the ones we think we need to hold onto today! He’s following the way Jesus taught him. James’ mind, heart, emotions are all about what God wants, and he is seeking to grow the kind of graces we need everyday – eternal ones.

This is absolutely pure wisdom from above. Trying to maintain two points of view at the same time can unnecessarily complicate things. We can’t easily follow the Lord when one eye is obsessed with what’s going on and why, and the other is still trying to focus on Jesus. So we will need to learn to contend for our faith. Otherwise we’ll end up cross-eyed and bump into things and other people.

What James is saying is we cannot afford to focus our lives, our families, homes, energy, time and finances on anything else but our participation in God’s kingdom. We need to be singleminded. The Lord will take care of those things. James is teaching us how to live victoriously under horrible circumstances. As we obey Jesus’ instructions we will see, for ourselves, His power working in and through us, everywhere we go. Why? Because now we’ve learnt what faith in action looks like! Now we can identify the will of God in the middle of a storm. God’s kingdom is about how we live, not just ticking boxes.

Religion chokes spirituality – it instructs, orders, pats down, distracts and consumes us. Meanwhile, it’s good to remember that satan loves the word IF – he loves to drag in uncertainty. Father God has told us to do everything from faith and love, so we please Him when we make those two things our priority. He delivered us from the kind of slavery that ties us into knots by making the problem the priority, not love.

James is explaining that when our lives are in step with Jesus – and what He is doing – we will find our faith, our character, our inner man is enabled to stand up under trials or difficulties. Faith focusses on Him, not our circumstances. Jesus is in the eternal, He has an eternal POV. Now let’s take a quick look at Peter … Peter sank when his eyes went off Jesus, and onto his current circumstances. Big waves all around you can be a big distraction … ….huge!! But Peter’s adventure teaches us to keep our focus on the Lord.

Pray: “Help Lord, I’ve lost my focus, help me to get my eyes back on You.” When we stagger off and start looking at what is going wrong around us, that stuff will quickly fill our vision. We won’t be able to see anything else. Then our minds start searching about for solutions, because human beings don’t like feeling uncomfortable. Pray: “help!” That’s what Peter did. Actually that’s the perfectly abbreviated version!

It’s easy to lose sight of the Lord when the things around you get so huge it seems like you can’t see anything else. Change your prayer from “Why is this happening?” to “What are You doing here Lord, please help me to see it.” If the enemy can’t stop us from wanting to live our everyday lives for Jesus’ sake, then he will try to drown us with many problems and difficulties. Jesus has an eternal plan for those difficulties – He will use them to transform our lives. We need to be patient with ourselves, and faithfully turn back to our Source. Remember, we have His empowering life IN us.

We’ve chosen to build our house on the Rock. Remember, it’s harder and slower to build on rock, than it is on sand! But we have the Lord’s word that He will help us. Look at what He did with Peter. The Lord lifted him up when the man began to sink under the weight of his own fear. Then together they completed what Peter began on his own. Ask the Lord for His help.

James 1:5-8: “If you want to know what God wants you to do, ask Him, and He will gladly tell you, for He is always ready to give a bountiful supply of wisdom to all who ask Him;  He will not resent it. But when you ask Him, be sure that you really expect Him to tell you, for a doubtful mind will be as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind;  and every decision you then make will be uncertain, as you turn first this way and then that. If you don’t ask with faith, don’t expect the Lord to give you any solid answer.”

Don’t second guess yourself. What you begin in the Spirit must be completed in the Spirit. Repent if you need to, and return your focus to Him … His goodness, His love for you, His life in you, and what He willingly did and gave up for your sake. Otherwise we can become double-minded. Transformation is an eternal thing, so we need His help to get up and continue. We let go of the stuff we can see going on, and hold fast to Jesus’ faithfulness to get us through.

The saints of old knew about this concept. They used to sing: “Hold, to God’s unchanging hand. Build your hopes on things eternal … hold to God’s unchanging hand.” Nice place to say, bye for now. 👋.

P 3497 Cherish what you already have.  

/ DVH

There can be times when what we hear from other people, spiritually speaking, can become incredibly appealing. Some things  sound like a shortcut to where we want to be. Here’s what I know about that — I can’t frame my entire life with the Lord, by other people’s experiences. I am not saying you can’t — I’m just saying it has never worked for me! 

Let’s take Brother-I-have-written-lots-of-books-and-loads-of-people-buy-them … and, your pastor. That book-writing brother indicates that he has found something that helps when you are praying about this and that, and it seems to be very helpful and pertinent to your life. The author indicates that this is the Word of the Lord, to help you. Great. Buy the book. But at the same time, make sure you are listening to what your pastor says week by week, as well. I like to pray: “Lord help me to hear You through my pastor.” We can become overly familiar with someone’s style, and miss the point God wants to make, simply because we already know them.

Where I live, Christians buy loads of ‘help’ books, perhaps that is because they feel like they have no clue how to help themselves. Yet their pastor faithfully preaches whatever the Lord gives him, week after week after week. Who knows what we might hear if we take off our ‘impress me with your wisdom, pastor’  hat, and put on the ‘speak Lord, I’m listening’ one. 

Here’s a fun story … I read it in a book! 🤣… I read about a pastor in South America who preached the same sermon on ‘love’ for months. The exact same sermon. The congregation got a bit ticked off about it so they asked the nice man, ‘Why?’ He said: “You are all still not doing it.” I think that is hilarious, and …very discerning … all at the same time!

Let’s look at what the bible says we are here to do. “So now through the church the multifaceted wisdom of God [in all its countless aspects] might now be made known [revealing the mystery] to the [angelic] rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 3:10. Our God is so incredible, one person cannot express all He is by themselves, yet He can use that one person to correct us. We need to remember, our pastor preaches our daily bread and butter, the author we like preaches the optional sprinkles that go on top.

Your pastor, and the brother with the multitude of books, are preaching to more people than YOU. They are also preaching to angelic rulers and authorities in heavenly places. The bible says there is another audience listening and watching. Perhaps they are the people who have gone on before us, the ones who are cheering for us to finish our race!! BTW, that does not mean your pastor is right, and your favourite author is wrong, or visa versa – it means you and I just got a glimpse into a bigger picture of Who the Lord is.

Here’s the punchline … God’s Wisdom is so-oo-oo BIG we will spend eternity discovering new things about Him every single day. Angels continually fly around His throne saying: “Holy, holy, holy, holy …” over and over and over again, forever!! That’s because they can see something new and incredible about God Himself every single time, from every angle! What they see, compels them to cry out in worship. Is your view of Almighty God getting stretched a little? Good! Our Heavenly Father is not limited by what anyone says or writes. Somebody once commented that the world could not contain the books that detail everything Jesus said!  He is a magnificent subject, but we have iddy-biddy brains!

Your pastor and the guy with the multitude of books, podcasts, and grabs are not at odds with one another, they are simply looking at the glory of God … Who He is … from a different angle! Praise God for it. The more we comprehend just WHO we are serving, the easier it will become to lay aside the things that simply don’t matter. Let’s pray to see Him through the Holy Spirit’s eyes. However, I think the person we need to trust and submit to, is the one we call when the roof falls in and we are staring at the rubble of our lives wondering if we will survive … our pastor.

He’s also the one we need to regularly pray for. If you don’t like what your pastor preaches – then first of all check to see if he is hitting a nerve in you that you don’t want to face! And then pray for him. He is human, and the enemy specifically targets pastors with discouragement and despair. They have become well acquainted with trouble too. Begin to pray that  the Lord will give your pastor, His wisdom, Sunday by Sunday. If you don’t go to a church, then start going. We need to be planted in the soil of His Grace.

The bible tells us not to forsake meeting together  — that means don’t skip church. It says that for a good reason!  We can be easily picked off, distracted or led astray, when we are wandering about, reading this and doing that – flying solo. We need each other. Yes, even longwinded old people like me, who have a story longer than you have time to hear it. We all need to learn patience. Trust me, going shopping on Sunday morning, is worshipping at another kind of church, and I’m very sure that one is not on your side!

It is up to us to cherish what the Lord has given us, and our faithful pastors, and writing friends are gifts from God. Just because they don’t turn up on Sundays wrapped in fancy wrapping paper and bow, that does not mean they are not His gift to us. Let’s actively appreciate what God has given us — He is so much bigger than we think. We need a compass! Bye 👋.

P3458 Limitless.

/ DVH

“But the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is divine love in all its varied expressions: joy that overflows, peace that subdues, patience that endures, kindness in action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails, gentleness of heart, and strength of spirit. Never set the law above these qualities, for they are meant to be limitless.” Galatians 5:22-23 TPT.

Ages ago, I watched a TV show called “Limitless,” it was about an ordinary guy who took some new drug or other, and suddenly he was using all of his brain instead of 10% of it. My thought was: ‘I hope this never happens! Sadly most of us are already driven around day after day, by performance!” However, that show proved to me that people long to be bigger and more useful than they are, but self-effort provides us with a relentless boss. Performance is a sterile tree, it produces nothing sweet, tasty or lasting, except a whole lot of angst, and indignation. It is so easy to think to ourselves: ‘I’ve worked hard on that, where’s the fruit from it?”

The Holy Spirit on the other hand, is a brilliant gardener, He cuts off unproductive attitudes and actions. Plus He helps us when we allow Him to lead, and He produces all that spiritual stuff listed above, in us. Sometimes I think we miss the meaning of what the Lord is saying because the language is so foreign to us in today’s world. I think we can easily get stuck on ‘near enough is good enough’ – and that won’t last! 

The Holy Spirit produces this fruit within us. Who does it? HE does. The things most of us produce in a lifetime, aren’t worth all the effort to keep it, realistically speaking. Where I live, even our house isn’t much of an inheritance after the government sends it’s locusts in. As you get older you start to think about leaving behind a lasting inheritance, not money, or things, but a spiritual inheritance. 

That’s what that long list of people who were in Jesus’ lineage in Matthew and Luke is all about. I call them the “begat” people. They had kids who had kids, who had kids etc… you get it. There were generations of them and their forbears were important to them. Genealogy was a big deal, stuff was passed on down through the family, because recording stuff the way we do was not available, and not as useful as Great Grandma Mary’s antique dining room table!

This is where bearing fruit comes in – a solid strong tree will produce good fruit. Actually, if there is no fruit, the tree it is called a barren tree. Jesus talks about that in Luke 13:6-9. “And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

A tree’s purpose is to bear fruit. Plain and simple. However I love the way the gardener pleads on behalf of a mere tree to give it another chance. This man will have invested time and energy in that fig tree, with fertilising, watering it, and giving it a whole lot of care when it was just a sapling. This parable reminds me of the tender care the Holy Spirit gives each one of us. Nurturing, correcting, leading us, pruning us and guiding us – all that with the promise of His good fruit appearing and coming into fruition in our lives.  

My point is this:  do we have any fruit on the ‘tree’ of our lives? Have we matured enough in the things of the kingdom of heaven to grow any fruit? Fruit benefits other people not the tree. So if we have fruit, is that fruit better tasting, longer lasting and more evident than it has been in previous years?That’s a good question to ask the Lord – “are YOU happy with the production of the fruit of Your Spirit in my life?” We can’t afford to forget that the gardener has been giving our tree His own attention, watching over it. He knows us well enough to ask for a further chance and a bit of time and help so we can grow up into what we were planted for. 

Let’s not be fooled, we will do many things for Jesus’ sake in our spiritual lifetime, but the fruit of the Spirit is proof of His work in us. Our work for the Lord’s kingdom won’t produce anything edible if all we do is work for Him in this natural world. We need His spiritual fruit in our lives. It’s the fruit that other people need to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” All the talk in the world cannot produce God’s fruit. All talk does is put more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere! We need to submit to His ways so the Lord Himself can produce the kind of fruit in our lives that people only dream about. 

Let’s remember that “…divine love in all its varied expressions: joy that overflows, peace that subdues, patience that endures, kindness in action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails, gentleness of heart, and strength of spirit …” is what that fruit looks like. That kind of fruit is limitless, a healthy fruit-laden tree is a wonderful legacy for anyone. Bye. 👋

P 3442 Keeping our love ON.

/ DVH

One way or another, I have spent a great deal of my time in hospitals. I am not saying that to gain sympathy, it is simply true. Meanwhile I don’t like them. I feel like someone is going to pop out of the ether, and decide I need this ghastly test, or that. Or maybe some super keen doctor will sentence me to four hours of waiting in a chair. While I try not to mind my life being whittled away by people in white coats. Yeah, I have a bad attitude. The Lord reminded me this morning that sick people go to hospitals, “the fields are white!” He said. “I need more energy Lord,” I said!

Remembering to keep our love ON can be difficult at times, especially when we’ve spent a lot of our lives living the other way. Here’s what Jesus said:  “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.’ Matthew 7:13-14. Yeah, I wish He hadn’t said that too … but He did. The narrow gate needs to be sought and found – it isn’t like the yellow brick road, wide and obvious!

The people who travel this narrow road study LOVE. How it works, what it looks like when we do it. The Lord has said some tough stuff in the scriptures, but when I look at the way I’ve chosen to live in the past, I am so grateful for His wisdom – I need to hear it! It wasn’t that I didn’t try to obey Him, but I know I gave complaining equal footing in my life. A grateful heart is a fantastic blessing, in the list of blessings God has given us. Let’s stop searching for the fake gold of this world, and start digging for the real treasure … Jesus Himself.

However, we will have to fight any Goliaths that have taken up residence in our lives. Those things that bellow and hurl threats of doom and despair at us, and others, through us. He yells that he will kill us, our friends, our families, plus everyone we love, to create fear. Love can’t flourish in an atmosphere of fear. We must trust the Lord to take care of us. David ran at Goliath, but he left his big brothers up on a hill hiding behind rocks! His brothers had a problem … but David didn’t! His faith in Almighty God saved an entire nation that day.

The thing I love about this young man is that he believed in the God Who was with him, when he faced Goliath. We are so much better off than David was, we have the same God IN us. That thing that we think we can’t possibly fight, we don’t ever have to fight it alone. He will be with us. He promised, so let’s choose to believe Him! David was no more alone on that battle field than WE are. Jesus told us that He has given us His power, and we need to believe Him and act on it. Then we can go to our enemy’s camp and take back what he has stolen from us. 

People spend time praying to become everything the Lord God means for them to be. I want to add that it is also good to pray that we would identify and throw off all those weights the enemy has been laying on us since birth … “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” Hebrews 12:1. WE do that, God doesn’t do it for us – He does it with us!

We may not feel like we can outrun the Goliaths of this world, but we can definitely learn to outwait them. BTW, “outwait” is a verb meaning to stay longer than someone else, or to wait until a bad event or time finishes.” Perseverance is a vastly underestimated Grace. It comes directly from the fruit of “patience, faithfulness, and self-control.” We have eternity on our side – satan does not, and he knows  it! If we do not faint in our journeys with Jesus — we will win. Don’t look at problems as forever things, once we give them into His hands who knows what He will do with them?

Doing the things we hate is another form of worship, as we do them “as unto the Lord.” Let’s face it, without the Holy Spirit’s help, none of these things are actually appealing. They are easy to read, but it is much harder to motivate yourself to do it. We want to raise the dead and heal the sick, and have a ministry, etc. But Jesus wants us to be bullet proof — He cares about our hearts first. And Paul gave us a list of things that we need to remember to wear. So as we put on the full armour of God, we put on those things are illustrations of the new way we’ve chosen to live now. This is how it works:

‘Always speaking HIS truth;  remembering we have Christ’s righteousness as a gift to clear our path;  at the same time we are always ready to share the gospel;  and our faith guides us and prompts us to act. Together with the knowledge that Jesus died to save us and now we have the Holy Spirit with us.’ Let’s embrace active cultivation, through our own personal choices, and make room for the growth of the fruit of the Spirit. As we “…put on love, which binds …(all the other graces) … together in perfect unity.” Colossians 3:14. We can’t be patient, kind, self-controlled etc. without LOVE leading us. 

Doing things we dislike is a challenge, but there are so many riches that are already in place, waiting for us to draw upon them. So let’s focus on the Lord and His blessings, not our feelings.. Our faith when it is active, will give all these things, substance. They become evidence in our lives of His Presence.  The answer is simple — don’t take your love off … Jesus’ love is always on! Bye. 👋

P 3435 All is not lost.

/ DVH

“With tender humility and quiet patience, always demonstrate gentleness and generous love toward one another, especially toward those who may try your patience.” Ephesians 4:2 TPT.  Years ago, it was my children that tried my patience, nowadays … I think I try theirs! Time is a funny thing, it has a way of turning stuff around. With His help, we are all going to need humility, as well as quiet patience, gentleness and generous love, because the situations we end up in, may not necessarily be sweet or easy! 

This morning as I concentrated on the context of this verse, I decided to go and look at the scriptures around it, to get some clarity. The first thing I noticed was so interesting I am writing this blog about it! Ephesians 4:1 … “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” There have been times when I’ve read the beginning and the ending of Paul’s letters like it is advertising. You know what I mean, ‘Dear So and so, I hope you are well …. blah blah blah … the important part of the letter — and then send my love to Auntie Jane and Uncle Fred.’ Stuff we could call, politeness, or niceties.’ … Not this time.

This time, I looked hard at what Paul had actually said and it jumped out at me: “As a prisoner … FOR THE LORD!” Big clue there. Paul’s in jail that’s why he is writing a letter, because he can’t be there in Ephesus in person. Yet he sees himself as the Lord’s prisoner, not a Roman prisoner. He’s living under house-arrest in Rome but in his mind he is still God’s servant in that prison. Just bear with me I am getting to my point. 

There are people reading this today, who have been prisoners. Locked in by so many different, sometimes difficult, circumstances. Things like ill-health, unemployment, a crummy job, being married to a difficult person, having trouble with money, or kids. So many things can lock us IN. But Paul casually points out that he knows that the Lord is in charge. We need to see what happens to us, from God’s point of view. The Lord always has a purpose – He’s doing something else.

He has allowed our circumstances to prevail for a reason. Now we are ‘in Christ,’ we need to put aside the idea of going the wrong way. Or getting into trouble way over our heads, and feeling like we can’t make it etc. God Himself put each one of us where we are right now. And He has a purpose in it! Even if we sinned and walked away from Him to get there. He is bigger than we think! The Apostle Paul is in jail, because he insisted that he be judged, as a Roman citizen, by Caesar. Was that a good plan or a bad plan? It seemed like a very bad plan – because if you carefully read his writings, he is always planning to get out!  He simply had no idea what was coming next. US!

So he appealed to Rome, and ended up side-lined under house arrest because he was falsely accused of riots etc. in Judea. In the natural, Paul should be out there preaching the gospel, giving birth to churches, because that’s what his office in the Spirit does. An apostle gives birth to church-es …plural. But he’s not. And because of this seemingly unprofitable time, when he is stuck waiting for his turn to talk to Caesar – he wrote the Epistles! He had to, he couldn’t go to some of those places in person – he was in jail!

Here’s my thought for today: you may be somewhere that does not make sense to you … but God has got you! You haven’t fallen off His radar!! He’s not surprised by this postponement, or side-lining of your gift or ministry, it is part of a plan to extend the boundaries of your tent. Paul ‘fathered’ so many innumerable churches because he was stuck in that situation, unable to go out and go where he wanted to go. We know Paul has encouraged generations of people to press on. He thought he was just writing to the people of Ephesus and Philippi. If that can happen to Paul it can happen to us. Maybe your ‘stuck’ problem isn’t about YOU!

Don’t let the enemy lie, and cheat you out of the joy and expectation of what Almighty God is going to do next in your life. We don’t know that stuff, but that does not mean we have to throw our hands in the air and live in misery. Our job is to be faithful wherever we are. We can certainly ask the Lord about it, but even if He answers us in ways we don’t understand, we can still trust Him to work it out. Paul did! That’s called st-re-tch-ing our faith.

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unfathomable (inscrutable, unsearchable) are His judgments (His decisions)! And how untraceable (mysterious, undiscoverable) are His ways (His methods, His paths)!” Romans 11:33.  I’ll say! He blew my mind over six words at the beginning of Ephesians!  I never saw it before. It was like the Lord took His little highlighter and swiped it over those words. 

God has us in His heart and hands. Read Psalm 139:8 . We gave Him our lives and He took them. It will take loads of quiet patience, humility, and reliance upon His generous love filling us, to cope with just waiting. Waiting seems like we are doing nothing useful. Waiting can lead to doubting ourselves, others and Him. But Isaiah tells us in Chapter 40:31 that it also ‘… renews our strength! We will mount up with wings like eagles.’ Have you ever watched an eagle fly? It is effortless. Give everything to Him, put down your effort, and wait – all is not lost! You are going to come out of this stronger. Bye. 👋

P 3415 We simply need the right gear.

/ DVH

“We must wear faith and love as a breastplate, and our hope of salvation as a helmet.” 1 Thessalonians 5:8b. Faith and love protect our hearts. The helmet of salvation reminds us we are now new people because of what Jesus did, we don’t have to go back to our old ways anymore. The Lord is our ever-present, full-of-grace helmet, He helps us think right.

This verse means my active faith and demonstrated love for others protects my spiritual heart. How? Because these bits of clothing require that I do something. I have to pick them and deliberately put them on and then remember what I am wearing. I need actions to match my declarations. If I am in the middle of something difficult and I need reassurance that His love is always with me – I’m going to need protection for my heart. I pray that I will have this knowledge all the time. Salvation is not a one off gift … it’s the gift that keeps on giving! Jesus clearly tells me He loves me and YOU in John 3:16. That verse works great – even if you happen to be yelling at me! 

I dunno why some people feel they have to give you a piece of their mind. Speaking for myself, my mind doesn’t have that much spare stuff in it, so I can’t afford to give it away … under any circumstances. I’m far too busy paying attention to keeping my eyes on Him … !! So, I say to myself … “I can’t do this. HELP please Lord.” Free advice. Learn to be poor in spirit. God says we are blessed when we are poor in spirit. Don’t burst your boiler trying harder to be something you have already been given.

In Colossians 3:12 there are instructions: “Clothe yourselves therefore, as God’s own chosen ones (His own picked representatives), [who are] purified and holy and well-beloved [by God Himself, by putting on behaviour marked by] tenderhearted pity and mercy, kind feeling, a lowly opinion of yourselves, gentle ways, [and] patience [which is tireless and long-suffering, and has the power to endure whatever comes, with good temper].”

Who is ready for a rousing chorus of Man of la Mancha’s “Impossible Dream?” Me too. That’s when the Holy Spirit whispered to me: “Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with GOD all things are possible.” Matthew 19:28. And there’s the answer, right there. We can’t do it, but He can, and He already did. Jesus will help us – ask Him. He left this world so He could send the Holy Spirit back to us to be our very own Personal Spiritual Trainer.

Let’s be utterly ridiculous for a minute – Jesus could have stayed in this world. Imagine the impact that would have had on mankind … A MAN NOBODY CAN KILL! BUT, the Lord left this world to send SomeBody better back. And folks, we better start believing that! The Holy Spirit can be in a trillion billion places all at once, unlike Jesus, Who deliberately limited Himself to space and time.

The Spirit of the living God is so wise. Let’s learn to appreciate Him. If we need a hug, He’s there with a hug. If we need a smack upside-of-our-heads, He will do that too. There ain’t nuthin’ He can’t do!! And just to make sure we didn’t miss what He said in Matthew, He motivated Mark and Luke to put it in the bible too! Mark 9:23 & Luke 1:37. The Holy Spirit is talking about someone who takes what God says seriously. If He tells us nothing is impossible to God, three different times, then we need to start believing Him!  This means, WE are not impossible for God – He made a talking donkey, way before Shrek did.

It takes faith to go and see someone who has told you they hate you and will never like you, and why don’t you just … blah blah blah and disappear? Here’s the thing, people who say things like that have their spiritual eyes wired shut. To start with you can immediately start to pray for them that the “eyes of their hearts would be enlightened.” (Ephesians 1.) These people don’t know there is another way to live. We can give them bibles until they have so many they could open a bible store, but the best thing to do is … demonstrate His love toward them. And to do that we are going to need these clothes He talks about in Colossians!

We can go to our enemy’s house wearing a breastplate that says: “I don’t care what you think about me, I’m going to love you anyway.”  Here’s a helpful hint: you might like to take your hand and whack it across your mouth for the first few times, because when you are mad at someone and they are provoking you – you could end up saying something you wished you hadn’t. This is the voice of experience. Bin there, dun that … sadly it did not go well. I forgot I had a breastplate on, and flapped my mouth unreservedly. 

That response lacked faith, it was not good! It can nail one of your feet to the floor. This is why we need the helmet of salvation … because the dumbest thing might come out of our mouth!! Being saved is not just like someone pulling you out of the water when you are drowning … but if you are drowning you’ll definitely need that … being saved is like getting mouth to mouth ’til the medics come, and they use their happy little machinery on you and then they cart you off to hospital for further care. Being saved is coming out of that hospital so much healthier than when you went in there! 

Salvation is not just a free gift. It’s a way to live. When we live out the gospel we will not look down on anyone, because we still remember the bruises from the CPR they had to do on us! Jesus didn’t just save us, HE BOUGHT US. We belong to Him now. He looked at forever and said: “I pick you to be with Me there.” We don’t have to shout for Him to hear, He’s the Friend that’s closer than a brother. Let’s get the hang of making sure we have the right clothes and hat on, and choose our wardrobe carefully. Put on LOVE and remember you are SAVED. Bye. 👋.

P 3410 God is Limitless.

/ DVH

“But the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is divine love in all its varied expressions: joy that overflows, peace that subdues, patience that endures, kindness in action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails, gentleness of heart, and strength of spirit. Never set the law above these qualities, for they are meant to be limitless.” Galatians 5:22 TPT.

This kind of limitless love is not only ours to receive, but it is also ours to give away. We already have His overflowing love to give to everyone we meet … within us. When we have Jesus Christ in our lives, we have limitless love available to us. It’s our purpose. Just like birds sing, because it is what they do … we give away love. It’s natural. And it means we choose to stretch our faith by using it, instead of just talking about it. The thing to remember is that when we give away all of those things mentioned in Galatians 5, it is HIS love in different forms.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t seem have endless patience! However, I don’t have to have endless patience, I’ve learnt to ask Him for it, and then step out in faith and exercise it. This is a demonstration of His love through me, for someone else – and I give it away by not letting what I’m really thinking fly out of my mouth to punch someone else in the face! While I am doing this, two things are happening, I am learning self-control, and I am also learning what God’s kind of patience looks like. Meanwhile, I’ve also learnt that not everyone we meet needs our opinion.

LOVE, God’s kind of love – hopes all things, bears all things and it never gives up. Even though WE aren’t automatically like that, we can learn His kind of love by responding to His word using the faith, He has given us. The bible teaches us, in2 Peter 1:3: ”His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him Who called us by His own glory and goodness.” WE ALREADY HAVE IT!

So whenever we meet true joy, we are meeting His love. When we meet endless patience, we’ve met His love in action. even when we experience never faltering faith, this means we’ve encountered and been operating from the presence of His Love. We need to stop expecting other people to bring these things to us on a platter and start living a sacrificial life, because that’s what Jesus told us to do.

Love has so many expressions. That is what Galatians tells us. In our society, love has been downgraded into feelings, but God’s Love is a powerful limitless force – it constantly displays itself through actions. The Love that God Himself has for mankind displayed itself in Jesus Christ, and that is clearly explained for us in Galatians 5, and 1 Corinthians 13. Through these words, Almighty God’s passion for mankind’s destiny is revealed. It was fulfilled by Christ, and then released – and now it is a part of our history! 

Everything around us is a part of His story! Jesus Christ is Father God’s Way of endlessly saying “I love you and I forgive you.”  He says this to each of us personally, and those words are also an everlasting promise to all of mankind. Jesus is God’s Love perfectly personified. So what does that mean to me? I left my old self behind when I said ’yes’ to Jesus, now – day-by-day I choose to live that out. Read the book and see the Lord Jesus’ responses to other human beings. Do the same. He didn’t lecture people, He taught them when He had the opportunity and it was necessary, but most of the time He simply demonstrated what God’s love looks like in action.

Whenever we read about what Jesus did, do we nod our heads in agreement, smile, and go about our day without any thought of participation? This revelation of GOD’S LOVE CAN BE SEEN AND EXPERIENCED, daily. We are His demonstrators. As we read His Word, worship Him, talk and pray with others, or walk around enjoying everything He made, we are experiencing His love for us. Let’s pray for eyes to see Him at work in our lives and hearts. 

His kind of love was created to be given away, not kept in a box hidden from other people. God’s love is like the bread and fish that Jesus gave to the disciples, to give to the people who were hungry. Because we’ve been fed by His love, now we give it away. The disciples saw the miracle of multiplication He performed. That’s all WE do. We give away what He has given us, and He multiplies it.

And we give it away in the same form we receive it – by using our faith. Most days I don’t ‘feel’ anything when I sit down and start to write this blog. I start typing as He opens up His thoughts to me in ways that I can understand them. If you like titles, then let’s say that the Lord gives me insight. He takes the scriptures in the bible and turns it upside down and explains to me: ‘This works like that.’ That is how I write this blog. I am not wise, sometimes the phrases in the bible sound to me like someone tipped over a scrabble bag. But, as I pray, the Holy Spirit enlightens me. The second before that insight I’m as dumb as dirt. But there’s one thing I do know, He tells me stuff for ME first, then I am allowed to share it with you. And the Lord chides me if I am not doing what I write here. 

At the same time, I’ve learnt to press in, and ask questions. I marvel that SomeOne so wonderful, bothers to share with someone like me. That’s why I like to encourage others to press in and then act upon what the Lord says. I’m not special, but I know that He wants to relate to each one of us in personal, practical ways. His ways are limitless and they are there for the taking for everyone who wants more. Bye for today, 👋.

P3403  Let’s keep jumping in the river. 

/ DVH

Many people have been hypothesising about the type of fruit on the tree of life. The bible says that fruit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. I read 1 Corinthians 13, and it says “…the fruit of the Spirit is …” Huge hint there!! Right. Now that is clear, let’s choose to follow the Holy Spirit, deny ourselves, and take up the cross of whatever this life throws at us – and joyfully serve Him and His purposes, right in the middle of our strife and trouble. Keep your eyes on Jesus.

We often want to gather the strength to do what is good and right and profitable, before we jump into the stream of the Holy Spirit’s Love. Here’s my advice – JUMP IN FIRST. All that other stuff gets added unto you while you are in there! We can get so busy on the side of that river of life and love – trying to fix ourselves, our attitudes, our actions that sometimes we get stuck trying to figure out how to fix someone else. All that means is we never get around to actually jumping in! If our enemy cannot corrupt us, he will try to distract us with the things we can’t change. We need to utterly trust the Holy Spirit to finish what He started in us. He’s the One with the Plan.

Let’s use the fruit of self-control as an example. Our aim is for any self control in our lives to become a natural response. It’s good to know what you are aiming at! Clenched teeth, and yelling and shouting, kind of defeats our purpose. As we jump into His love, we need to repent and repair, then throw off blame, straining and striving – self control will flow out of us because self control is IN that river.

Like Jesus said, staying attached to the Vine produces fruit. We can’t produce fruit without the Vine, so let’s just grab hold of Him, jump into the river of His love and learn to float. If Jesus says “pruning” then we say “OK!” If He says “time for rest” then we say “OK.” Our task is to stay attached. Obedience to His Will – plus focussing on His Love which never ends – will keep us attached to Him and floating. Keep continually thanking the Lord for loving you, and teaching and helping you with this life.

We will begin to take on the Father’s characteristics toward us, as we deliberately choose to learn to obey Him – whether it is convenient or not. No matter what kind of fruit we are producing, that fruit develops and grows because of our obedient responses to God’s Word for us, today. Don’t excuse yourself from obedience, instead, be honest, tell Him ‘I can’t cope, it’s all too much’ – He’s kind and compassionate, He will help us. He knows we are all just glorified dirt.

Christianity is the way we’ve chosen to live now. Let’s learn to lean into His Ways and yield to Him, no matter how inconvenient it is, or how hard it seems to be. Obedience to His instructions facilitates His life in us. Read the Beatitudes, start there! Now there’s a lifetime adventure. Valuing the Father’s Ways above our own, also gives us glimpses into Who He is. 

Jesus was obedient to the Father’s Way even though it killed Him. He’s our Leader, our personal human illustration! The Lord Jesus had so much faith and trust in God’s goodness, He allowed Himself to fall into the hands of men who could not be trusted, because God told Him that was the way to complete His mission. 

Many other blessings will flow into our lives as we yield to the Lord, and let go of those things that are holding us back. Then those blessings start overflowing onto others. The point of Christianity is not sameness — it is about transformation. All kinds of individuals have been personally challenged, and then changed, by walking day by day with Him, daily jumping in the river of His never-ending love, while still doing the seemingly ordinary everyday things we usually do.

We will see the fruit of the Holy Spirit blossom and bear fruit, first-hand in our own lives, as we participate in doing things His Way. Jump into His eternal, unshakeable love and stay there. Hold tight to your birthright! We were born to live in the river of His love, and be washed, minute by minute in our fresh clean new life. We must learn to use our faith, because this is how we bear God’s fruit. Obedience to Jesus’ instructions, clearly written in the bible – will produce Almighty God’s life in us, as well as total transformation in our lives. 

Living for Jesus means we will release the Holy Spirit with every single step we take. We can’t know what He will do in that other person’s life, but we know it will be good. If eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil produced death —- then eating from the tree of His life in us produces His living eternal fruit. That life is not a feeling … it is the flow-on result of loving, walking and living with Jesus. All of the fruits of the Spirit are born out of His love.

We had trouble with our mango tree last season, the mango buds came in abundance, but the fruit didn’t ‘set’ and it fell off before it reached maturity. This tree that had dozens of mangos in previous years, but last year it had barely more  than a half a dozen fully formed fruit. Under pressure the tree dropped it’s fruit.  That was a big lesson for me. It can happen to all of us – we can let go of how much He loves us when we are swamped by this life all with it’s trials and sorrows.

Our God is so good- even these bad things have a purpose. Pressure and discomfort are potentially developing faith-filled resistance in us. These are the things we are going to need on the next stage of our journey as we walk with Him. They help set His spiritual fruit and keep it attached to the tree. Attachment to the tree is just total dependence on Him – we all know we can do “nothing without Him..” It also says in John 5:19: “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.”

Jesus chose to limit Himself, by simply obeying His Father. The fruit from the Tree of Life in our lives, will produce God’s life in us, for others. People will come and pick that fruit and take a bite out of it. The real question is — what will our lives taste like?  Heaven? Or unripe, unformed,  unpalatable fruit. Let’s just keep our focus on jumping in that river. Bye. 👋