Patience

P 2845 This is what love looks like.

/ DVH

Grace, hope, peace, joy, mercy, patience, kindness, these things are the love of God freebies we are to give away to other people every single day! The bible tells us that giving away this stuff is not even illegal. Galatians 5:22-23:“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Well, yay!! It’s great to find things that are legal! Sneezing on your kid is now called child abuse, so there isn’t much around us that isn’t illegal. The thing is legal systems can’t change hearts, but He can!

Regarding Love, Father God’s barns are always bulging full – there is no trouble with OUR SUPPLIER! I keep hearing from the Lord, it’s time to feed the poor in spirit! You and I have an all access-pass to that bulging barn of love-joy-peace-patience-kindness-goodness etc. we simply need to use our faith to grow the fruit, and then we can give away what He has grown in us. You get patience, kindness etc. as you lean on Him and ask Him to give it to you. Then you go out and act like you have it… Does that actually work? It has so far … !!! 

The spreading of any sort of excess is a very current subject in our household over the past few weeks. Our mango tree had stacks of fruit on it this year, so we have given away lots of huge mangoes, the largest was nearly 1kg in weight! We gave them away everywhere, to everyone around us. That’s what happens when you have an abundance of something, it means you have plenty to give away. I urge all of us to daily let the Lord overflow your spirit with loads of … lots of … an abundance of … as well as a huge excess of … all these things!! So you can give them all away! But make sure you take in some yourself OK?

The only thing that can take away our knowledge of His incredible excess is our focus. If we focus on our lack, of  patience, kindness, goodness etc. we will always see and feel that lack. That’s a good time to remember that Jesus took 5 loaves and 2 fishes and fed thousands. He can multiply and create anything, even intangible things. He once gave me love for a spoiled brat… strangely — after I began loving this child, I found it was a sweet kid after all! That’s what I mean when I say, most problems are both sides! The Lord has also multiplied bibles in the boot of our car. We counted them about 20 times, and sure enough, there was more than we put in! 

The poor in spirit, the unlovely, the forgotten, will never be hard for us to find because they are all around us. I’ve decided to just love everyone I meet the way He would. I figure that covers it, and makes it easy for a bird brain like mine. That’s not modesty BTW, as you get older things fall out of your ears far more easily than you would like!  I forget words all the time, always in the middle of a sentence. My poor hubby gets to be my memory bank, concordance, and dictionary all at once. And you thought your spouse was a pest! Meanwhile, hubby just shared these thoughts with me regarding God’s love:

“The expression of God’s love toward others is the fruit of HIS Spirit in us and through us. So His fruit is simply an expression of Who He is flowing outward. When we display His fruit of love, through us, it will produce life, simply because it flows from Him. But when we try to mimic the behaviour of the fruit of Spirit, without His help, those things without His love as our source – eventually produce judgment, intolerance, guilt, obligation and religion.” “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”John 3:6. 

The sap of God’s love in and through His chosen vine is constantly flowing … we will receive its benefits as we choose to remain in that vine. Remaining “in Christ” is the secret to living a life of love. Jesus simply can’t help loving people, despite their personal proclivities – He simply wants what is best for them without using force or manipulation.  Remaining in Him means that we learn to want what He wants, instead of living a life that makes us feel comfortable.

That will happen without us even thinking about it. This is what His Love looks like…. letting the Holy Spirit have His Way … and … loving every bit of it!  🥰

P 2843 Do yourself a favour.

/ DVH

Proverbs 8:32-36 “Now then, My children, listen to Me; blessed are those who keep My ways. Listen to My instruction and be wise;  do not disregard it. Blessed are those who listen to Me, watching daily at My doors, waiting at My doorway. For those who find Me find life and receive favour from the Lord. But those who fail to find Me harm themselves; …”Proverbs 17:16 “What’s this? Fools out shopping for wisdom! They wouldn’t recognize it if they saw it!” … It’s in the book!

We need to show the Lord we value everything He gives us by the way we live, loving Him, others, and applying His wisdom. People rush here and there looking for that thing and this thing to ease their pain, when the answer to everything is in the Wisdom and Love of God. Humanity has learnt to value our own knowledge above His wisdom, that fact is our very great personal loss! 

The thing I want to say over and over again regarding the Lord’s wisdom is that God’s love language is time, followed up by obedience. It doesn’t have to be hours, but we must cultivate our hearts to be listening hearts. Our life-motto needs to be this – don’t go anywhere or do anything without Him!  We choose to daily get filled, so we can spill whatever He gives us … onto other people – His wisdom is for sharing.

This means continually being filled up with His Wisdom, and then we give it away to others … however He says to do it. Wisdom means taking the time to listen for His heart, and that takes patience as we wait for Him to speak – we need a heart that wants to learn and change. A heart that runs daily after Him. Waiting for God to speak is true wisdom. Sometimes I read the same verse in about 6 different versions before I finally get to “OH! I see!”

The people who live all around us don’t understand these things, they don’t have a clue that they are harming themselves, because they don’t know any better. They think we worship a theory – one theory amongst many! Simply because everybody else around them lives without any faith. satan has snuck in a new normal. People don’t know anything else, because Christianity has spent a lot of our time telling them what not to do, and very little about WHO they need to meet. Many people have no clue that Christianity is about a Person, not just a set of impossible rules. This is why we need to carry His Presence with us everywhere we go. – He wants to be with us!

When we pray and read His book, we are interacting with a Holy Person, not a legal document. That Person knows exactly what every single human being needs to hear. This means when we search for and seek His Wisdom, we are going after Him. Read the Gospels carefully, and watch how Christ Himself interacts with people. He is our primary example of how Christianity works. He spent quality time with His Father on purpose, and then He knew exactly what to say and do for each person. He treated people as an individuals, not just a succession of tasks to be done or sins to be sorted out. 

Did ya get the whole ‘don’t disregard His instructions’ bit in that scripture above? When we disregard what He says, we are tuning out from His frequency. True Godly wisdom listens and obeys. Otherwise we are literally saying: “Talk to the hand, the ears aren’t listening.” And then we complain that: ‘God never speaks to me’ — when He could easily say to us: “You are not listening to Me!”  And at the risk of repeating myself, endlessly! … we have a whole book of what He has said to keep us busy.

Living out even one of the gospels could keep us busy for years! I urge us all to tell Him that we are here to spend time with Him, because we really really really want to know what He thinks. That’s what wisdom looks like. It looks a lot like depending on every single word that comes out of His mouth. Father God doesn’t throw His pearls in front of pigs – that’s in the book too – just in case you think I am being insulting. Pigs rummage about in the mud and dirt looking for whatever they can find. Pigs may be smart but they are not even remotely discerning, they eat anything. 

God’s Word is the treasure buried in a field that some smart guy sold everything he had to buy. Don’t skim and skip, instead, read His book like a love letter to you. When it reveals something you are doing wrong, thank Him for telling you, and for valuing your relationship with Him so much that He told you what you needed to know. He never accuses us. That’s the other guy. Father God reveals His word to us so we can be transformed.“As silver in a crucible and gold in a pan, “so our lives are refined by God.” Proverbs 17:3. Our negative experiences are a part of His refining processes. Everything is Father filtered – He never takes His eyes off us.

His wisdom is our treasure. Anyone that takes the time to unwrap and uncover that treasure and buy that treasure with their time spent, will find even bigger revelations inside it than they can imagine. I urge you not to dismiss what you read, by saying, “I know that bit …” Wisdom is available to everyone, it simply needs to be our treasure, not an optional extra.  Bye 👋

P 2836 Live under the canopy.

/ DVH

“Above all, constantly echo God’s intense love for one another, for love will be a canopy over a multitude of sins.”1 Peter 4:8 TPT. Let’s get down to business – love, the love of God that we give away … that reality that is described in the bible… is NOT a feeling. Feelings don’t come into it, except sometimes, later on.  Love is an action. Jesus Christ took that action on our behalf. That’s why 1 Corinthians 13 lists qualities we can expect to see in our lives when we walk with Him and exhibit His love. The truth is, I already have this love for you, it is mine, and it is just as real as this computer I am typing on.

Those verses mentioned above are also a promise from HIM toward us. He will be patient, kind, etc. etc. with us. That’s how we will know that whatever we receive, is from Him! If what we have been given doesn’t produce joy – it ain’t Him because God’s love has clothes that it wears! (Colossians 3:12) … Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience etc. If what you choose to wear for yourself – your behaviour, or what you hear or read does not sound like those things – it is not HIM! Christ is kindness and compassion etc. personified. 

Read the book. Then watch Him, in your mind’s eye, walk about amongst those large, never-ending unruly crowds … He never got impatient with them pressing in on Him, or getting in His way, or even when they interrupted Him as He was about to do something else. Kindness and compassion are the very scent of the Father that Jesus carried with Him.

Those people who truly hate God, don’t want to read His book. They don’t want to know Him. We give the bible away a lot, and some people refuse it. However, not all of those people actually hate Him, some are afraid of the book. They are afraid of conviction etc. that’s why they don’t want to read it. They think they can’t change their behaviour to suit Him.  Isn’t it tragic that some Christians think that way too? We have a powerful ally – a HELPER!!

On a happier note about giving away the bibles, we sometimes return to the same places on our many journeys, and we find we need to give out more bibles, even though we already gave away plenty the first time we passed by!  People have pinched them. It’s probably the only time I approve of thievery, because true conviction lies within that book. Over to You, Lord.

Living under His canopy means living this life the way Jesus would, as a fit Bride for the Lord Himself.  My Saviour had to leave this earth to validate His vow to me, and He poured His own blood all over the heavenly mercy seat. I needed that mercy so badly!!!  Praise God, that Christ’s blood was complete and final. No bull, sheep, dove would need to be sacrificed ever again. Almighty God has provided the perfect, finalised agreement between Him and mankind forever. In effect, when we stand under that canopy of what Jesus did for us, we are reminded of our pledge to marry Him. 

A canopy is a place of agreement. Two people vow to be true to each other, before God, under an object that covers them both. How fortunate are we to have the blood of Jesus Christ, as our canopy. His blood not only washes us, it covers us. When God looks at us He sees His dear Son’s blood. Now, we can stand firmly in our place under that costly canopy. I will not be excused from the practicalities of living a life on earth, instead now I can embrace them, knowing the One I love best, lived for God every second, of every minute, of every day. He did it  and now I know it can be done with the Holy Spirit’s constant help! 

If I hurt you, then part of my agreement with Jesus is that I will repair the damage, by asking for your forgiveness and changing my behaviour. I will probably need to spend my lifetime, changing my behaviour one way or another, but only with His active guidance and help. To do that I must choose to live in constant fellowship with Him, and obey whatever He tells me to do. I have found that sheer obedience has opened doors in my life and heart that were forever nailed shut in my eyes. I can take no credit for those things, He did it all. I just followed His prompts and along the way of obedience, my heart was changed. Boy was I surprised!

All the gold, precious jewels, and metals this world has ever seen cannot provide a better, more beautiful place to stand with our Beloved Saviour... than under that canopy of His sacrificial love. Jesus died to make us all like Him, so we can love God the way He loved His Father – by being obedient. The Lord was incredibly obedient …unto His death. All of the joyous, enthusiastic singing, praising, worship, and dancing we can do, does not substitute for the sheer gritted teeth “YES” of obedience that flows voluntarily from our hearts.

You and I now live under that canopy. Bye.👋 “He escorts me to the banquet hall; it’s obvious how much He loves me.”Song of Songs 2:4.

P 2834 Clear out the cupboards.

/ DVH

In order for our lives to be transformed, God has given each one of us so much help. We have His book. Full of the Lord’s dealings with others. Plus the ongoing Presence of the Holy Spirit. Who is always active to remind us of what our Father has said.

However, when I want to follow the Holy Spirit, that means I am going to have to learn how to WAIT for His answers, and learn to trust that the Lord knows what’s going on.  At the same time I will need to believe that Almighty God is bigger than any of my immediate problems. I need to choose to change my behaviour, as well as my reactions, to facilitate and undergird my new belief. I cannot enforce that decision I’ve made upon you — because you need to learn for yourself! This means I will be stretched even further because I’m not living in a vacuum. 

Living this way is part of God’s ongoing process for us. It isn’t always easy, but it will teach me patience and perseverance, and draw me closer to Him and the Way He thinks. As I digest how He thinks, by doing what His book says, I will need His help – right from the minute I open my eyes every single day. Meanwhile, Father God doesn’t want me to learn  how to wait just because He likes to take His time … actually the bible says that ‘He is quick to answer us…’Father God wants me to learn how to wait, because I will renew my spiritual strength and because of that, I can resist any temptation to give up easily. We have His book full of His Ways to use as a prayerful reference point.

Today, I want to look specifically at something difficult that Jesus said. Matthew 18:21-22 gives us a tough illustration.“At that point Peter got up the nerve to ask, “Master, how many times do I forgive a brother or sister who hurts me? Seven?” Jesus replied, “Seven! Hardly. Try seventy times seven.”  When I read this I chose to do the Math – that means every 2.9387755102 minutes in a day, if someone were to sin against you or I, over and over again, the Lord is saying to us – we still need to forgive them. Let’s round that number up to someone sinning against us every 3 minutes, all day. It is easy to see His point when we do the Math! Nobody would want to forgive someone if they sinned against them that often and consistently. I’m pretty sure that the person sinning against us might even run out of the energy to sin with those numbers!!

Jesus went on to tell us a parable that we all wish we hadn’t read – the unforgiving servant. Personally I don’t think that the Lord’s point is even remotely about how many sins and how often – Jesus was telling Peter if he wanted to be forgiven then he needed to have his reference point changed. It’s not about numbers … because of His Presence in our lives, we are changed. It was all free to us but it was incredibly costly to our Lord.

Through these verses I believe the Lord wanted to show Peter that human beings cannot forgive others without God’s help, and oodles of His GRACE.  Jesus was exaggerating to illustrate His point. He became sin — so we can become the righteousness of God. We were given forgiveness for free from the Lord, but it was incredibly costly to Him. Now we give it away to others for free, but will cost us, just like it cost Him. Our gratitude expresses itself in showing mercy to others, when they don’t deserve it either.

One of the things that can definitely hobble us spiritually from acting like His kids, is our unwillingness to forgive the way we’ve been forgiven. People sometimes say that they can forgive easily, but they can’t forget. Personally I think if we can still remember what happened, that will probably have the worst effect on our forgiveness factor! Those two things can’t go in the same equation, because one shoots the other one in the foot. So why am I writing about this today? Because some of us are going to have families descend upon us as we move toward Christmas. Family can, and often does more damage than anybody else. 

Our families don’t always consist of beautiful Godly people who always get it right. After all, WE belong there, and that fact alone just plain ruins that idea! Jesus is saying to us we need to live a lifestyle of forgiveness… and let past hurts and injuries go. Why? Because the greatest power on earth is released when we forgive, it’s GRACE. Some of Christ last words spoken from the cross were: “Father forgive them for they know not what they do…” When He said that … God’s Grace started raining down upon the earth out of all proportion to whatever would be needed for all time.

Grace moves mountains. It heals the sick, it restores our souls, it changes our circumstances. It opens up things that have been shut down and left to fester, so they can heal. Grace is the AIR of His kingdom. We can’t afford to count how many times that dumb person we know did whatever they did – because when we do that we step out of Grace, and literally stop breathing in the Spirit. God takes no pleasure in our grudges. So we need to clean out our spiritual cupboards asap. Then we will be amazed at how differently we can view the people who are around us. We all need to: “learn the unforced rhythms of Grace…” Bye. 👋

P 2824 Hanging on by a thread …

/ DVH

I found this picture the other day and I my first thought was this – if I can identify with what it says… maybe someone else can too. Here’s a few lines in a song from a great movie – The Fighting Temptations, that sum up how hard life can be from day to day.

“I used to wake up some days And wish I’d stayed asleep ‘Cause I went to bed on top of the world Today the worlds on top of me. Now everybody’s got opinions  But they ain’t been in my position That it breaks my heart when I hear what they have to say about me, yeah Seems like I always fall short of being worthy ‘Cause I ain’t good enough – But He still loves me (but You still love me, Lord) I ain’t no superstar The spotlight ain’t shining’ on me ‘Cause I ain’t good enough (oh, no) But He still loves me…”

Not every day turns out to be a day when we will knock the proverbial ball right out of the park and end up on a high. There are days, that the stupid ball machine malfunctions and every ball lands on your head. I have those days and I have the bruises to prove it!  Meanwhile I’ve learned a thing or two along the way of desperation… It only seems like that kind of day/week/month/year is endless. Sorrow and suffering weigh us down, and they seem to slow down time. Plus emotional, mental or physical pain can render us inactive. 

People, in their efforts to help, may tell the suffering person to ‘cheer up, get over it, it will all be OK.’ But in those dark moments they may as well be speaking another language — because they sure don’t know how to speak the language of pain! I have found there are people who are decidedly unhelpful when it comes to difficult circumstances  — they would rather preach happiness AT you, than come and sit WITH you. Then the sufferer gets to forgive those cheery Charlies for their ineptitude, on top of feeling like they’ve been run over by a truck.

Pain is nobody’s friend, and nobody in their right mind stays deliberately in a bad frame of mind and heart – not when they know the Lord. Nobody gets depressed, temporarily or not, on purpose!  Some people have either forgotten their bad times, or they have a grand happy solution that simply will not fit into your situation. “Just do this and all will be well,” they say. Yeah, yeah, great. Hmmmm. “Please go away now, my ears have stopped working.”

It is a good thing to try to limit your exposure to these happy enforcers, especially if they annoy the living daylights out of you. They seem to have an endless barrage of utterly useless thoughts .. like: “There are many people so much worse off than you are.” And how, pray tell, is that meant to help me? Should I feel sorry for them, as well as struggling to breathe? Christians do struggle – this life can be terribly hard! Sin is still rampant in this world and we have an enemy who wants to target us whenever he can. That other guy does not want us to believe and stand up! he wants us lying on the floor counting the ceiling tiles. 

Now let’s look at the fact that when Jesus said: “Cheer up” …  the power of God was present in His Words to overcome the situation! We need to remember sometimes it can be impossible to cheer-up without supernatural help. Sadly there also times when any one around us can lack compassion for someone who is suffering. The thing is, life itself is weighing this person down, and they are drowning in their own sorrows. These things are real … not over exaggerated or imagined! Personally at those times I pray for truck-loads of MERCY for that other person. You know, sometimes there is more to be gained by living through those dark moments, than there is by escaping.

Sadly, sometimes the way we feel about people we don’t like, or someone who has deliberately hurt us, when they get sick or hurt etc., those reactionary thoughts are a fantastic personal diagnostic tool. Our immediate responses can take the inner temperature on the condition of our hearts, and whether we should repent or not. Those unsympathetic symptoms we feel, mean we are going to need lots of His GRACE right alongside MERCY and compassion, ASAP. I like to remember that the bible says God will supply all our needs, so I ask for what I need …which is mercy, grace and compassion.

The woman in the bible with an issue of blood had the right attitude for recovery from her pain. She just kept right on pressing through the crowds to grab at His hem. Meanwhile, imagine the noise, the dirt, plus the feet nearly stepping on her! She had to crawl to get her answer! We have this kind of power on someone else’s behalf — to crawl through the noise and heartache to bring healing and comfort. Kindness and understanding are the vehicles that can transport someone out of their negative focus and into His Love. We can always go to God on their behalf.

There are times when anyone can end up feeling spiritually flattened by their circumstances, as if they are hanging on by a thread. In those times if we cannot press through to grab at the hem of His garment, then we will need the Body of Christ to intercede for us. Human beings always need grace, mercy, peace, kindness, patience etc. far more than anything else, we need those things for ourselves, and others… Bye. 👋


“For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, But My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, Nor will My covenant of peace be shaken,” Says the Lord Who has compassion on you.”Isaiah 54:10.

P 2794 Be spiritually focussed.

/ DVH

Here’s a thought:  attitudes that we PUT ON to look spiritual, can be taken OFF when it doesn’t suit us!  We need to become intimately aware of spiritual things, instead of leaving everything to the minister or pastor. The secret to abiding in Christ is to keep His attitudes ON, and if and when we ever choose to take them OFF, then we need to quickly repent and put them on again. It is a new way to think. Just as you and I once learnt to read and write, we can also learn, with the Lord’s help, to live a Kingdom-focussed life. Listen to these scriptures in Colossians 3:3-15 ESV.

“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your  life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry… … But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator… 

 …but Christ is all, and in all. Put ON then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body.”

Action needs to be our middle name. We don’t just read things, smile and agree with them – now we put them into practice by choice! Many Christians are totally unaware that they have not changed their lives. They avoid and frown on supposed identifiable bad stuff, like swearing smoking, drinking, taking drugs, sleeping around, stealing, lying, gossiping etc. This means they are often ‘good’ people ‘on the ‘outside’ … but they have very little power to witness, or to overcome the habits and attitudes of their former lives. So they live, they sin, they eventually repent, but they are never changed. 

Transformation is not an optional extra – it’s a part of the deal! These people I am talking about do not move on from getting to know Him, into living their lives, here and now – differently. Prompted by the Holy Spirit’s help and guidance. It’s a progressive thing. We can see an example of this ongoing learning in the New Testament. These people kept faithfully doing what they knew and were taught to do, but they were not taught everything, initially.  Paul says this in Acts:“And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” These people did not know the Helper, so Paul laid hands on them and then they did! When you read parts of scripture like:  Matthew 16:5-12, you can easily see the difference between carnal thinking and Holy Spirit inspired thought.

Meanwhile I’m with Paul, things like fasting or praying in tongues, will definitely help my devotion to the Lord… but it will not change my character without my consent! I have to choose, every single day, sometimes minute by minute, WHO I will serve, There is a world of difference between salvation and transformation. Meanwhile, there’s also a whole ARMY of Christians stuck in that valley of decision! The decision facing them is whether they will serve Christ with their whole hearts, and lay down every single bit of their lives, for His sake. This path has just gotten a whole lot harder, because we are living in a hedonistic society.

We need to choose to submit to the Holy Spirit’s promptings and be governed by what the bible says. It’s called OBEDIENCE. I’ve met heaps of Christians who pray up one hill and down the other, God bless them for their devotion, but they are still as internally ornery and rebellious as they ever were. Their hearts aren’t soft, or changed. Transformation is part of the deal. Jesus didn’t just die to save us from our sins – He died to give us the power to live this life differently. To live life like He did… here and now! People will get saved if we stop living for ourselves and start living our lives for His sake.

However, the Lord will not do anything without our consent. And a blanket “I surrender all” at the altar once, long ago, doesn’t cover it.  God is looking for our active allegiance, not lip service. Our minute by minute lives need to be under the Holy Spirit’s control to make a difference. We have the power to release His Presence into this world by our God-given chosen attitudes and actions. Otherwise, sadly we can all be motivated by self-preservation.

Any manipulation and control, so I can feel ‘happy,’ will short-circuit this process. When I live that way, I cannot bring His life into anything I touch. I have to let go of what I want, and what I think is best for everyone else, and allow the Holy Spirit to have HIS WAY … and He’s not pushy. To be spiritually focussed I need to choose to DIE – every minute, every second, of every day I live. But when we choose to die to self – the Holy Everliving One – lives in us! And He makes all the difference. Bye. 👋

P 2793 Learn to value peace above everything else …

/ DVH

…including toilet paper!More on that in a minute! … Peace can become quite elusive in this world today. My best advice to help maintain your peace is to make every effort to get along with others. I’ve learnt over the years that our emotions and wrong thinking can led us onto a slippery path where tempers flare and little things drive us insane. The bible tells us to “pursue peace.” We will have to run after it, it rarely falls on you, and it will take some pretty specific choices to avoid quarrelling. Loving others despite their behaviour, can stop any reciprocal attitudes. My rule of thumb to disengage from crankiness is this – what would love do? Then say something nice instead. 

Here’s a laugh… back when Covid was ruining everyone’s world. In my country there was absolutely no toilet paper in our supermarkets. It was all over the news. People were panic buying toilet paper … rolls and rolls. Why? I dunno! 😳 They tore about like demented loons chasing toilet paper. Peace went out of the window! Obviously some people can’t live without it. How hilarious! When I was a kid, our toilet paper consisted of torn up newspapers hanging on a hook. It totally blows my mind that at the same time in my history, fish and chips came wrapped up in newspaper too! 

The thing to remember, in times of unrest – the Lord’s peace often seems elusive and it doesn’t seem to make any sense. We want to defend ourselves. I am talking about internal peace – external peace is another story. That takes humility and a willingness to forgive. Our world around us can be exploding and/or falling apart and yet when we have His peace, we are internally, supernaturally removed from whatever is going on. We become spectators, not participants. (Psalm 91) So we can totally see what’s is going on, but we’re watching things happen from the outside. We cannot afford to leave that place of His peace to participate with the bad stuff – because we will lose what the Lord has given us.

Peace disappears, slowly … one bad decision at a time. We give it away when we start using our minds and emotions to analyse trouble or other people’s actions. That’s when we begin to participate. It helps to remember that dead people have no rights! If we talk, talk, talk about how I feel about this or that, or I choose to have an opinion on why someone else is behaving the way they are – I am giving away my God-given right to live in HIS PEACE in those moments of agitation, I become enmeshed within the perceived problem.  Even if I allow myself to become secretly angry with someone else’s behaviour, I will slowly lose His peace. We need to learn to value peace more than self-expression.

God’s kingdom is a PEACEFUL KINGDOM. There are no enemies there. No battles to fight. It’s a real place where everybody’s aim is to glorify the Trinity! We can also be faced with the same choices to overcome that Jesus had in Matthew 4:1-11. The Lord used the scriptures against our enemy. We too have the power to overcome sin, the world and the devil, the same way He did, but we need to choose to allow the Holy Spirit to show us the Way He wants to do it. There were times when Christ was silent in the face of His accusers. The value of saying nothing is often greatly underestimated. At the same time, the Holy Spirit will hand us the scriptures, (the sword) we need to fight with – we just need to calm down enough to hear Him. Spectators do not participate, they WATCH.

God’s peace is not fragile, it is robust when it is established, but it needs to be treasured and respected.  It was given to us for free, because of what Christ did for us. When Jesus suffered for our sins He became our new identity. He shows us the way to cultivate this peace in the following scripture. ““I leave the gift of peace with you—My peace. Not the kind of fragile peace given by the world, but My perfect peace.Don’t yield to fear or be troubled in your hearts—instead, be courageous!” John 14:27 TPT. 

Fear, anger, and worry will always come knocking in times of trouble, but we don’t have to answer the door, we can use our courage to fight those things off. And refuse entry to our hearts and minds through the enemy’s ghastly thoughts, painted scenarios and hideous suggestions. Our enemy is always there, like he was when Christ was tempted – he will hand us the next nasty line to throw at the other person. There is no winning in a war –  even the guy fighting with you has an eternal soul. At the same time, we need to remind ourselves, through bible verses —who we really are. We simply tell the enemy that we are not going to accept his nonsense – God’s in charge here! 

The way to keep His peace with us all the time, is to die daily to what suits us, and live for Jesus. He will help us but we must ask, and in some stressful moments we may need to keep on asking, because God stretches our faith. However, the Lord is never demanding – so if a demanding thought comes into your mind it is not Him. Jesus is kind, gentle and lowly in His heart, He simply wants to help us, the same way He was helped when His life seemed so bleak.  He sent us the Holy Spirit so we can learn to live with His peace prevailing. We need to learn to value that peace. Bye 👋

“You are always and dearly loved by God! So robe yourself with virtues of God, since you have been divinely chosen to be holy. Be merciful as you endeavour to understand others, and be compassionate, showing kindness toward all. Be gentle and humble, unoffendable in your patience with others.” Colossians 3:12 TPT

P 2776 Learning occurs in a process.

/ DVH

When we live this life accepting our faults;  as well as dismissing the fact that we are not what we can be;  but at the same time refusing to choose to learn to overcome – that’s when we are lowering the standard Christ set before us. The bible says we must press on … continually … toward that new mark. Human beings often make the right noises, so that they can remain comfortable. However – comfort is not our new aim. Our aim is to live this life like He would. Christ is not petty or mean, nor did He ignore human suffering, and He spoke constantly about His Father’s kingdom. My point is this: I believe we are stopping short of the mark Father God set for us when He sent Christ.

When I was born again, I knew I was different, inside. But, at the same time, there were parts of my personhood that had been previously damaged, in the way life damages all of us. At that time I did not know that I had left my sinful nature behind so instead, I tried to avoid sin, and I failed. I gossiped, or thought lustful thoughts etc. in secret. As I behaved like that I got mad at myself and I tried and tried even harder to be better. Avoidance, sin, denial, despair, guilt and condemnation plagued my faith. At that time I knew nothing about how real faith works. In the end, I slowly reverted to the old insecurities that had plagued me in my previous life. But, praise Jesus, He always kept after me. 

We ALL need to die to self. We all fall short of God’s glorious ideal Man. That goes right across the board. There is no easy way to do it or say it, that’s why Jesus told us to pick up our cross and follow Him. We must choose to go on a journey – it’s called dying to self. That’s where mercy and compassion grows. As I learn to die to self, I can easily see that life is hard for you too, because this kind of dying is not easy for anyone! It involves, discipline, self-control, and patience, as well as listening to and being guided by the Holy Spirit. I think that spiritual correction is normal, the Epistles have a lot of instances of it. However heart knowledge of the love of God toward us, will help us go higher – Christ already did the work, now we step out in faith and follow His lead. But some things are learnt under pressure. Christianity is not for cowards or slackers, it is for the dedicated.

Around about the same time I read in the bible that obedience is a key that unlocks the door to living out the kingdom of God – here and now. It is not good to read His book and disobey what it says. Instead, it is essential for Christians to read the bible looking for things to do. If it says to repent wherever you are reading, then stop reading, and ask the Holy Spirit to show you where you need to repent. Even when you don’t get an immediate answer just keep on pressing in. We already know we are not perfect, so we must have done something that we have dismissed or chosen not to remember! In those moments I refuse to excuse myself because I know I probably ignored the Holy Spirit’s gentle nudge.

So then I ask Him to forgive me for ignoring Him, and that opens the door to revelation of my own motivation. The things-I-have-said-and-done-recently that had their roots in selfishness, self preservation and cruelty. We are in a learning process. However, there needs to be a visible progression as we learn to love others. We are to love them like He does. Now our faith life becomes active. It shows up outwardly as it flows out of sheer, gut-wrenching obedience. I regard the bible as truth that has been written down. It becomes solid, seeable, when we ACT on it. That means I need actions and appropriate activities to validate His word, as it changes my life. 

When I act on what He says, I begin to learn – from experience – how I can change. I can’t just say I believe the bible, and then still look and sound like everyone else around me! Or even say the word “sorry” and hope that will cover the fact that I keep repeating some sins over and over again. Doing that is a patch. Sadly, it will not transform anything. Jesus said in Matthew 9:16: that you can’t put an un-shrunken patch onto an old piece of cloth, it will tear. Our ongoing efforts to change ourselves, are that patch. We gain humility when we begin see ourselves realistically and we stop excusing the very things we are meant to crucify. Yes, we are dearly loved by God, but we are still not perfected. Our old man is incredibly active and selfish through and through – so we need to die – day by day, minute by minute, using our choices, perseverance, by acting in faith.

To re-present Christ we need transformation in the ranks. This life we live now is to be lived by faith, doing what the Holy Spirit tells and teaches us to do. It will not become a reality by simply pretending we are nice, and blaming everyone else for how nasty we can be when no-one else is around to hear us. Our potential needs to be realised by our whole-hearted participation, and true humility is knowing who we are without Christ’s ever present guidance. SomeBody Else paid to give us the right and the power to choose to change our ways. Now we voluntarily enter this life-long lesson of learning to love the unlovely… and we choose to stay there because that’s the teaching moment. Learning occurs in a process.  Bye. 👋

P 2757 Flowers ain’t fruit!

/ DVH

We have a large mango tree in our backyard, and it has grown heaps in the last couple of years. Now its taller than our house. However, last year there were hardly any flowers on it, and what was left were little nubs of potential fruit, that got blown off by some high winds. That large tree gave us about 12 mangoes. Boy were we disappointed. Especially after feeding it, watering it, and protecting the fruit from the birds of the air who think they have a right to eat anything and everything. Stupid noisy minas. Grrrr. 😖 Where was I again? Hah! Growing fruit … hmmm.

“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. Did you get that? The life and health of any tree is the reason we can produce good fruit. Our mango tree must have had a tummy ache last year or … it was a bad weather year for mangoes. Sadly we can’t use that excuse for spiritual fruit!

The thing is, this year I totally refuse to get excited about fruit any more, even though this year our tree is covered in mango flowers. So what happened? Where did my enthusiasm go? I learnt something. I learnt flowers ain’t fruit! Some fruit trees have masses of beautiful flowers everywhere, they smell so pretty … spring is in the air, the sun is shining, the sky is blue and the bees are buzzing away around each little flower. and the whole idea, at that moment that there may be no fruit from that tree is far far away … 

The Lord Jesus had that happen to Him once. He was hungry and went to a fig tree that should have had fruit on it but it had none. (Read Mark 11:12-25) So the Lord used that tree as an object lesson for the disciples. We should pay careful attention to that little story. I’ve heard people speak about it in sermons — they said that this bit means that, and that means this, and the tree is the other thing … on and on…  Do you know what I think? I think if our trees/lives have no fruit of the Spirit, then we better look hard at our tree and find out what’s ailing it! 

Simply because fruit trees are meant to produce fruit. And we know that the Holy Spirit living within us will always want to produce His fruit. So what does no fruit mean? I think I’ll just leave you to think on that, I did. Long and hard!  You know we can comfort ourselves by the fact that our lives have produced pretty blossom flowers that smell so lovely – but! … Ya can’t eat the flowers! Well, you can … but I wouldn’t – there is not much nourishment there. 

There are many people living around us today who are eager to take ‘a bite’ out of us, just to see what our fruit will taste like, how we will react. Think about it. Some clown cuts in front of you and your precious kids in your car, in traffic, and you have to slam on the brakes and tell the kids to hold on. What kind of reaction does that invoke in us? Do we say unprintable things and curse the idiot who did it? Or do we bless the young man – let’s be fair, it is often a young man with little sense, who thinks he is a racing car driver … So. Do we bless him with wisdom and common sense so he won’t kill himself or someone else? Hmmm. Probably not.

Moo-ving on … Some pretty young thing pushes in front of us in the coffee shop and turns and gives us a dazzling smile and she says; “you don’t mind do you? I’m in an awful rush.” And you stand there, smile back and say .. “of course not.” Meanwhile you are thinking: ‘You are not the only one with a busy day lovey!’ Or other things I will not mention… 🤬 And there we are, wearing a fake pasted-on smile. That’s not real fruit by the way, its wish-fruit. We just made plastic fruit. That stuff falls off the minute you shake the tree and it tastes like plastic be-ca-use … it’s … plastic!

The point is – fruit can’t be faked. It’s either real or it isn’t. And the faked stuff is inedible. So what conclusion can we come to? We need to ask ourselves what actually comes out when I am under pressure? That is what is actually INSIDE my tree – it seems I lost my connection to the sap that flows from Jesus along the vine. Now, I can’t blame you for that, because no matter whatever is inside me, the truth is I let it stay until it got good and rotten and expressive. 

To bear good fruit we need to value the Holy Spirit and His ways and, as I said a minute ago, we can’t manufacture good fruit. Farmers grow fruit, and manufacturers churn out the plastic stuff! That’s why the bible says: “The fruit of the SPIRIT is …’ It’s His fruit in me, not mine. It is also what Jesus meant when He talked about abiding in the vine. Here’s the cruncher … without the sap of the Holy Spirit flowing through us, we can’t manufacture fruit at all … Our pretend, isn’t worth a hill of beans, and flowers ain’t fruit! 

We gotta go to the tree, our own tree, and see what is stopping us from letting the sap of the Holy Spirit flow through us. We need to ask ourselves questions. What are we hanging onto that grieves the Holy Spirit? It doesn’t have to be too much TV etc. it could just be a lousy attitude that we won’t let go of! Honest repentance starts the fruit growing again, and watering our lives with the knowledge of His unconditional love for us, plus feeding ourselves on the bible by doing what it says – all that grows fruit. Christianity is not a club, it’s a lifestyle, and fruit takes time to grow. Let’s get rid of any blockages to fruitfulness with His help — be-cau-se… …flowers ain’t fruit, they are simply po-ten-tial.  Bye.👋   

P 2748 Faith is now our reset button.

/ DVH

Colossians 3:1-4: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, Who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

Colossians tells us that we have a clear focus – it’s a forever focus. Because of Jesus we have eternal eyes, so we can see what He sees. Now we see beyond the here and now, into whatever the Lord is doing – we don’t always understand … but we can learn. That broken-down car, or that angry person yelling at me, won’t bother me because now I am dead by choice. I’ve hidden myself in Him, under His blood, that made everything eternal possible.

This is what our PAST looked like — Colossians 3:7-10: “You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” 

Because of what Jesus chose to do for me, to set me free, now I have the power to choose to actively get rid of the ghastly stuff of this world, that weighs me down. Colossians says: ‘rid yourselves …’ I think that shows us that we have work we must do – with the Holy Spirit’s help. Our old way to live is no longer compulsory. It’s gone. Now we have the power to overcome our old ways of thinking and doing. So we become focussed on getting rid of that stuff, step by step, as the Lord convicts and convinces us of sin. The old grouchy way of life still rears its ugly head, but we choose a different response. We do everything we do now, simply because we love Him. 

Currently, I am learning to identify, then take off those old clothes, the things that have been fashioned by this life … through my personal choices and experiences. Even the things I think I feel comfortable in — I deliberately put behind me. The Lord’s clothes seem to be difficult at first, as I learn to leave my old responses behind. Maybe these new clothes aren’t always smooth and silky, because in the past I carefully chose my clothes so they won’t irritate me. But choosing to follow Jesus means change and dealing with my irritation.

Anyway … here’s what the bible says to wear! Verses 12-14: “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

That’s a much nicer wardrobe! But how does this happen? Do I pray a prayer and bingo bongo – suddenly I have this brand new wardrobe. Meh! Not-so-much. The transformation happens whenever I use my faith to obey and walk with Him, and listen to Him. I have to deliberately choose to change my behaviour, (my clothes) and continually remember that I will always need His help. Meanwhile, those old clothes can be like a siren calling out me to drown in my feelings!

Life happens to everyone. Someone else accidentally bumps into a pain deposit inside us and we realise we are still wearing an old coat of anger, or shame or hurt. Our new way to live means that we pray and step out of that boat of same old same old responses — and step onto the water of a new miraculous way to live. His way.

There is healing in His new clothes. We can walk out of things that seemed to be just our lot in life, and daily discover that Almighty God has a bigger plan for us. There is nothing quite like looking at a difficult situation, knowing full well that 6 months ago you would have had anger issues and now you don’t! The thing is we won’t care if someone else seems to win, or not, because as we walk with the King we start to see this life from His perspective. And that changes everything.

Living like this means we use our faith. We step out in faith, every single day. Faith feels odd when you first use it, it seems risky and scary —  like maybe people will have an advantage over me. However, using our faith brings us into a much bigger arena. Who knows what gift the Lord has put inside us to benefit others? Or what gift they may have that will bless us? Faith will now become our reset button. 🙌

“Wherever I go, Your hand will guide me; Your strength will empower me.” Psalms 139:10 TPT.