Plans

P 2771 The kingdom of God.

/ DVH

In Isaiah 55:8-9 the Lord said: “My plans aren’t your plans, nor are your ways My ways, says the LORD. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My plans than your plans.” That kind of clinches it eh? Because it can’t get any plainer than that! We have not got a clue how God operates, and without the Holy Spirit’s help we never will … He is far too complex for us to understand. Aren’t we blessed that He reaches down to us, and shares how He wants us to participate? The Lord has plans for everyone’s good – not just mine. His plan is to save the world … one person at a time … and He wants to use us to do it.

Sadly, at least half of Christianity, at this moment in time, are not even trying to participate in His plans. We pray for His kingdom to come, and then we go out into the world and try to further our own kingdom instead! It is impossible for someone to live in two kingdoms. We are either living for His, or living for ours. And the sad fact is this – we postpone participation in His kingdom, in favour of organising our own. BTW, age does not factor in this reality, Moses was 80 when he started living the life God planned for Him. 

It seems like Almighty God is looking for “Onward Christian soldiers” but most of us want: “The Happy Song.” So, what do we do with the fact that we seem to like “The Happy Song” better? Here’s what I think — I think we can have the Happy Song AND Onward Christian soldiers, when we have learnt to stop allowing this world be the source of our happiness. And we make Jesus, together with obedience, our source of inspiration and action, instead. How do people know I am an Aussie? When I open my mouth! Kingdom people have a different focus in their conversations.

The bible says in Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Seek His kingdom first. That’s not hard to understand! There are apparently 46 scriptures that point out a facet of what God’s kingdom is like. Obviously I can’t list them here, but looking those verses up is worthwhile. If we are going to aim at something it will help us to know what it looks like! We are told to seek His Kingdom first, after that comes the righteousness that only Christ’s death and resurrection can give us. And after that we use our faith and believe what His book says … and …we step out using our faith. Participation in that process means we will get our needs met. 

Most of the time, I have observed when we pray, we feature our own needs. That’s backward. Start with the Kingdom. Seek the kingdom first. Pray like this: ‘Your kingdom come in me,’ OR… ‘I‘present my body as a living sacrifice.’ OR …’Your will, Your way, Lord.’ When we start with His kingdom, a whole lot of unnecessary stuff falls off instantly. It means we’ve put down our little list of needs and wants, and started to focus on Him and what He wants. We need to remember Christ’s position before His Father is now our position. So we live this life, the only one we have, like His kingdom is more important than ours … because it is. Our needs are temporal, His kingdom is eternal.

Here are a few examples of what His kingdom looks like in action: a/ righteousness, peace and joy. We can have these 3 things in the here and now, because they are part of living our new life IN Christ. b/ Being spiritually helpless and ignorant doesn’t cancel His kingdom – it gives us access to it. c/ His kingdom is activated by faith, not knowledge or wealth. d/ It’s a treasure and it’s often hidden. e/ The kingdom of God starts out small but then it grows. f/ It blossoms in us as we embrace it. g/ In His kingdom HE is the ruler. h/ This kingdom is not just a place per se, like heaven! His kingdom comes in a ‘people’ wrapping. You and I, we are kingdom carriers. i/ Final one for me, the kingdom of God is a treasure – it must be sought, dug for, paid for by surrendering every bit of our lives to the King.

Remember, His kingdom is now within us but it needs to be released through us by our obedience to His word. The Holy Spirit is our Helper, He will teach us which way we should go, and how to serve the King. So if we go to school, or work, or to the shops, etc. He goes there with us.  We carry the kingdom of God – what a privilege! Jesus wants to be wherever we are, because He loves us and…He wants to reach the people all around us.. Seeking His kingdom is like seeking the King – the rewards are out of this world. They are priceless. Bye. 👑

P 2770 God has a plan.

/ DVH

If you have been a Christian for a while you may have bumped into Jeremiah. Jeremiah is, in my mind, one of our great faith pioneers. He kept his faith strong even when his life was awful. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11. But when you look at Jeremiah’s life, it was a far cry from being filled with great plans and fab future! I want to comment on this particular verse today, because I believe it has been misused on occasion, to imply that our God is more like a genie, than our omnipotent, omnipresent, always wise, sovereign God and glorious Father – Who made heaven and earth!

Let’s just look carefully at what this verse says: God totally declares that He has plans for each one of us. We have not been left here, in our often difficult circumstances, all alone. Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to help us with every second, of every minute of every day. We can now walk with Him like Christ did, that’s the plan! In order to walk with the Holy Spirit – emphasis on the word ‘holy’  … our lives need to change. Our focus has to come off our own comfort, and be firmly planted into whatever the Lord wants for us.

This verse says that His plans are about giving us hope. The New Testament makes it clear that Jesus Christ is our ever-present hope, and this scripture is a prophetic statement about Christ! It is not a promise that this life will never ever be bad again. The hope in our future is Christ Himself. Jeremiah did not live an easy life. His whole nation went into captivity. However, our God has incredible plans and if we ask Him, He may even let us in on them! He has promised He will listen when we pray, and answer us. But we may not understand His answer right away!

We need to consistently remember that Father God will never ever mislead us, quite often we simply can’t see beyond the end of our noses and our need to control everything and make it peachy! However, our future always lies with the Lord. It is very important that we understand that – the scripture above is about security IN God. You and I have eternity ahead of us, so we have an ever expanding future!  Heaven is real and we will go there. I think our God is incredible – He’s planning to spend eternity with all of us! Imagine that!

Our Heavenly Father, has already provided everything we will ever need IN Christ. Sadly we can spend our short lives looking for monetary or physical gain, and we do live this life celebrating the reality that eternity is ours, now and forever … and LIVE that way. Unfortunately we often want ease, now. It matters where our hope is, because ours is always in Christ. …Our hope is not in some scripture that I picked up, or one I decided suited my problem, my hope is in Christ. Christ is God’s demonstrated goodness.

In my opinion, Jeremiah, makes a very interesting example of God’s input into one man’s life. He remained courageous and loyal to his calling despite his difficulties. He faithfully told the Israelites the bad news about their future, over and over again. Sometimes … lucky him!…. he also got to physically demonstrate it too! He was beaten and ridiculed simply because he spoke out God’s truth. The people who follow Jesus Christ do not always have easy carefree lives. However, He will ALWAYS help us, so our faith is in His Character. These things flow out of intimacy. And intimacy is about God always being with us, so we live by faith – because that is the reality.

We must stop thinking that serving God means we will remain trouble free! Our wonderful Father is doing more than one thing at a time. He is answering our prayers for transformation, preparing us for eternity, and restoring and healing relationships, here and now. Jeremiah was carted off from his homeland along with everyone else, despite the fact that he was busy being obedient … doing and saying what God said!  He continually prophesied bad things were coming, not good ones, and sadly the Jews didn’t like it, or him. And he also pointed out that there is a great difference between saying something – even sincerely believing it, and… doing it. Belief must turn into action.

Personally, I think the Old Testament brings a much needed balance into the church-at-large’s current theory of: “let’s all have a jolly old party down here, because SomeBody else paid the bill!”  We cannot choose hedonism and indulgence and expect everything to be AOK with the Lord. What part of ‘take up your cross and follow Me,’ don’t we get? We serve Him – He doesn’t serve us. He proved His love for all mankind when He gave us His Only Son. Our choices from day to day matter, because Father God does not wink at our sins, they were far too costly for His Son. The very least we can do is acknowledge them, and live this life, here and now, differently.

He has a plan to give us a hope and a future. Our future is with Him, today, tomorrow, and forever, and His plan has already given us hope in Christ and all He did. Let’s stick with HIS PLAN and leave behind the idea of some sort of a trouble-free cushy life. Bye. 👋

P 2766 Contentment.

/ DVH

God is so good. He’s a good, good Father. He loves it when we sing songs, and preach sermons that talk about Him, and Who He is. … but He loves it even more when we go out from church, and live this life – the only one we have(!) – like we belong to a good good Father!  A Father we trust. A Father who has plans for us. Hope-filled plans for a future that we can embrace because He is in it. Those plans include our total transformation – we end up being the “ME” I was designed to be. Paul says this in Philippians 4:11: “Not that I speak from [any personal] need, for I have learned to be content [and self-sufficient through Christ, satisfied to the point where I am not disturbed or uneasy] regardless of my circumstances.”

The essence of who we are now, is IN CHRIST JESUS. God did that for us. His love was squeezed so tightly, that even when the world chose to reject Christ  – all that came out at that moment was even MORE LOVE. That’s our  hope and our aim too. ‘No matter how tightly we are squeezed, dear Jesus, let pure love come out!’ Amen. God loves us because it is His nature – He IS pure Love. But pure love is not permissive, nor is it wishy washy – read the book!

I know one place where anyone from any circumstance, crime, or foul attitude can go, where they will always be welcome to live.  His door is always open, and the lights are always on, and there is love and acceptance in our Father’s house! Even for the vilest sinner. They can exchange their old life for His new life. He died and took my place, my punishment – so now I choose to die and take HIS PLACE. Our FATHER did everything He could to snatch each one us from the fires of hell — and it cost Him dearly. He had to watch His beautiful, godly, pure and holy Son die, covered in our filthy sin.

Contentment in God is acquired as we voluntarily choose to learn, for ourselves, that He is enough. It is not second-hand knowledge. True contentment is about trust. Trust is built into our lives by taking faith risks, and watching Almighty God redeem things that we thought were unredeemable. He doesn’t actually need our help – He simply enjoys our company in those adventures!  That’s because nobody thinks like you, nobody loves like you do. Your uniqueness is His treasure. We can wander along through this life thinking only we know what is good for us, and what will make us happy and produce contentment. BUT true contentment is found by living in Christ’s transforming Grace.

Learning to love like He does is our destiny. There is a higher love than human love. It is the kind of love that sees everything that you and I can become. That kind of love wants to work everything that happens in our lives for our own good. Which is why I pray, all the time, that the Lord will redeem stuff that crosses my path. I pray:’Change me please.” OR … “Please give me the Grace to live through this like You would Jesus.’ I never know which answer I’m going to get — sometimes it’s both. PS — He’s God, HE can do that! I have learnt over time that I like His way better than my way. My way means I might get what I want … but His way everybody benefits.

1 Timothy 6:2c -8. “These are the things you are to teach and insist on. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.”

Paul is talking to a young pastor, Timothy, he pastors the church at Ephesus. Paul’s teaching him that contentment can be learnt, and it is a sign of God within us. Those awful things Paul describes in these scriptures we hear about every single day in the news!  However, we understand that Godliness can’t be bought, or sold, because SomeBody Else, Jesus Christ, already bought it for all of us. Our response to this truth, makes all the difference to our ability to live in contentment. Hallelujah! You and I can both learn to be content – Paul says so.

Almighty God is our ‘enough.” He cannot disappoint us. Deuteronomy 31:8 says:“And the LORD, He it is that goes before you; He will be with you, He will not fail you, nor walk away from you: don’t be afraid or dismayed.” And that’s what true contentment looks like. (That’s my version BTW). Bye 😌

P 2753 “It’s the little foxes …”

/ DVH

Things happen. Plans that were well-made and prayed over, can change in a heartbeat – and sometimes we can’t figure out why! I have to have a number of blood tests regularly during the year because of my health. When we looked carefully at the blood form we were given, it included fasting. It never includes fasting. That’s because I don’t  “do” fasting — for no other reason than my body over-reacts. 

Any-wa-ay we couldn’t do what we normally do, regarding the tests, so I had to skip breakfast until I came back home. Now we had to hurry … and we quickly scooted off to the phlebotomist for the tests. That clinic was closed. Yay! Off we go to another clinic, further away, to get my blood taken. There was a queue, because the second clinic was busier, which is why we always go to the first one… moving on … 

We got the only new phlebotomist in the entire place. He was kinda slow, and he couldn’t find my veins, so he had to go and find someone else to help him. Plus he also took an age to fill out the forms. Well he would, he’s new! Being new is not his fault. Meanwhile I’m sitting there telling myself how I feel is all in my head, I will be fine. At the same time I prayed that I would make it through all the delays without something awkward happening.  Praise the Lord, by God’s grace, I did.

My point today is this, we never know what we can do until we do it. And sometimes we can limit ourselves by not including the Lord and what He wants, into the equation. We tell ourselves that God is not interested in our every day little lives. It is far too easy to divide life into categories. Then sl-ow-ly … Almighty God goes down the bottom. My blood test was a practical thing and it seemed like nothing to pray over … until it did! Today I realised how important it is for all of us to have practised adaptability – because this world keeps changing. Sometimes overnight! 

There are people right now in Florida who no longer have a house because Hurricane Helena dropped in for an unprecedented massive disaster. They can’t even go for a blood test, if they happened to need one. They can’t buy their medicines. The pharmacy, doctor’s clinics, and hospitals are all gone! Ya might want to pause and think on that.

If I weigh my inconvenience this morning against people with no house any more, it isn’t hard to see which side is going to be heavier! Humanity has become so convenience-minded that a little inconvenience, looms like a giant test. I think that the reason our Western society is out-of-sorts a lot is because we expect things to go a certain way, and we don’t like it when it doesn’t. Enter cranky! Leaving adaptability behind –  we have become comfort-gluttons. 

People work very hard to pay for wonderful fantastic gadgets and appliances that are supposed to help us — but!... They are so expensive, we will have to work longer to get the money to pay for them! It’s like the never-ending story. If we are not mindful we can end up living our lives like hamsters in a wheel. Allocating time for this and that, yet very little allocation is made for a common subject that we all share  – interruptions. BTW if you have kids interruption is now your middle name! 

Picture this — you want to get a 2 year old into the car when they are already having a great time playing a game at home. That’s a little like trying to stuff the oozing toothpaste back in the tube. As fast as you can you dress and put said kid in the car, and make sure you have their favourite stuffed toy – and a non-spill drink, and a not-messy snack. At the same time you are using up your slowly-decreasing energy, trying to convince a kid that was already having fun, that it will be even more fun at the shops. I used to bribe mine with rides!

You put on the little one’s favourite music on to amuse them. It’s that mind-numbing stuff that kids love and you feel is costing you your brain cells. No wonder people get radically confused in their old age – they’ve been Wiggled and Bluey-ed to death. All this is to keep tots amused while you negotiate traffic, and drive round and round and round, looking for a parking place… now you can go and buy something that you didn’t need in the first place, but it looked nice and it was on special!

Our sense of daily purpose in God has been swallowed up by false advertising, and the need we have to distract ourselves from ordinary! Sadly we are living in a world where it appears that nobody wants to know Jesus, and it is easier to drift along under the grinding wheels of doing the next thing. Jesus Christ ends up a PS in our lives instead of our focus. The answer is, we will have to deliberately choose to change our lives, one awkward, uncomfortable step at a time. Something to think on … bye. 👋

“The little foxes are ruining the vineyards. Catch them, for the grapes are all in blossom.”S of Songs 2:15.

P 2699 Nothing happens by chance.

/ DVH

I read this yesterday, and I thought it might be a blessing for others. It’s an exhortation from the translators of the Passion bible written by Brian Simmons and Gretchen Rodriguez: It’s a great word, it lifted my spirit and I hope it does you good as well. We’ve been blessing people all week, and today it’s your turn! The Lord says to YOU –

“Come into the secret place and find encouragement that waters your thirsty soul. I have words of life to share with you today and living-understanding to strengthen you. Run into the shelter of My presence and let My love wash over you in a fresh way. I don’t offer stale bread to My hungry lovers. Eat of My now word. Tune your ear to My Voice.

Give Me the heavy weight of the burden of fear you are carrying. There may be uncertainty in your life, but I see everything clearly. There are no mysteries to Me, and I won’t let the tides of confusion sweep you away. See how My hand holds you steady. You cannot escape the grip of My glorious grace, child. 

What wondrous plans I have for you. What a future you have in Me. Let Me guide you further into My goodness as you follow My leading. I promise never to let you go or get too far ahead. I give you eyes to see from My perspective. Look to Me, and nothing will ever shatter your hope.”

Praise God for their gift of exhortation! Moving on to some real life testimonies … … we had a brief break last week and it seemed to us that the Lord is much more ready for us to speak to people than we are to do it! Any time we go anywhere, we find that there are suddenly numerous opportunities to talk to strangers. In the shops, or even to tradesmen in our home.

At our house, we have had some things break down and afterward we realised what happened wasn’t about the broken item … it was about us talking to the person who came to fix it!  We’ve seen this over and over again, Father God will bring people to us. He really is looking for His kids to share the wealth of heart knowledge He has given all of us. We need to freely talk about Him! This past week we have had all kinds of opportunities to encourage strangers..

While we were away, the internet in our rented holiday unit fell over, so a tech guy turned up to fix it. We were chatting away to each other, and we just included this guy in our conversation. After about five minutes, told us he had been very sick recently and he was very scared because he thought he might have had cancer. Now that is definitely God! People rarely go that deep that quickly with strangers!!

This young man went on to say they discovered it was coeliac’s disease. So hubby prayed for him. Meanwhile, the silly internet still kept blanking out…!!  You know, God isn’t interested in our comfort, but He IS always interested in people. Like I’ve said before, knowing His Ways helps a lot!

On Tuesday this week, a carer came to our house to clean the floors for us. To be truthful, I was a bit annoyed because I found out that our usual lady wasn’t coming …again! I never do these spiritual sums until afterward – I guess I’m a slow learner!! It has taken me four weeks to work out that we’ve not had our usual helper each time because the Lord wanted us to talk to other helpers about Him! 🙄 

This particular young woman was delightful and we very much enjoyed her company. She did a great job too. We had a very profitable time talking about her life, our lives, and the Lord. So much so she said; “I could stay here all day!” She also kept saying, over and over again: “There is so much joy in this house, I’ve never been in a home with this much joy before.”  You know, sometimes I’m so dumb I don’t notice things, unless the Holy Spirit sticks a great big “look here, dummy” sign on it! Hmm… you might think I’m joking … I’m NOT!

Hubby decided to call ahead to a place we are going to be staying at next week, as we make our way up north to give away bibles. He spoke about bringing blankets, toiletries and food for the poor. The young lady on the phone nearly came through the phone she was so excited. Apparently most small towns are quite overlooked when it comes to government aid. However the Holy Spirit personally picked that town. Who knew they had a homeless problem there? He did. 

I just want to finish today by saying that the Lord’s plans for us, to bless us, include everyone around us. Nothing happens by chance. It is good to see even inconvenient interruptions as opportunities for His kingdom. Bye 👋

1 Peter 2:9 ESV“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.”

P 2632 Will you yield?

/ DVH

When I hear that sentence I am transported back to the days of knights and quests etc. I can see some big guy in an overgrown sardine tin suit pointing a lance at some poor peasant’s chest, and the victor is giving the man a chance to continue living.  As I went looking for a picture to use in today’s blog, I discovered that there seems to be an exciting video game – ‘Aerial Knight.’ And the theme of the game is – WE WILL NEVER YIELD. 

Yeah, well that explains a lot! No wonder there is so much suspicion, rebellion and anger floating about in this world. Many people are stuck in an angry stage – they’ve never made it into reconciliation. The whole point of Christianity is yielding! The thing is, now all that ugly internal stuff is outside where we can see it. It seems we took off all the pretty bows, plus the sparkly paper we’ve used to hide a whole lot of garbage, and there is no hiding now from how truly selfish and wilful we really are. 

Jesus Christ has set us an incredible example. He voluntarily gave up His life on mankind’s behalf! Nobody pointed a sword or even an uzi at Him to get Him to do it either. That’s been a huge problem in the church, over the years – in the past, and it still happens today … The church at large has used blackmail, guilt, oppression and misrepresentation to push and manoeuvre people into compliance. Meanwhile, if you don’t happen to like what your group says, then it’s OK to vote with your feet and …go over there. Those people think like I do, so I will be much happier with people like you. 😳 

Christians move churches like other people change their undies, because they can’t agree with what the previous church’s pastor said!  Lunacy!! Where’s that in the bible? Where does it tell us to shop around until we find somewhere we will want to go to church, because it will make US comfortable? Jesus isn’t remotely concerned about our comfort! He will always comfort us, and He helps us to comfort others – but making us happy by saying things we will like and approve of is not on. 

Read the book! The Lord Jesus made everyone around Him uncomfortable by what He said and what He did. It was almost His life-theme – right after redemption that is. He loved upending wrong concepts. I think He is saying:  WILL YOU YIELD? Today. Will you and I voluntarily lay down our lives, the only ones we have? I mean that life that we’ve so  carefully and neatly planned, and put aside our agendas and plans, to live this life HIS way? 

“Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. Many, Lord my God, are the wonders You have done, the things You planned for us. None can compare with You;  were I to speak and tell of Your deeds, they would be too many to declare.” Psalm 40:4&5&V8:“I desire to do Your will, my God; Your law is within my heart.”

You know, if we think this life is all about our comfort then we definitely aren’t spending enough time with Him! God doesn’t want us to be happy MORE than HE WANTS US TO BE… HIS! The God Who made you and I, is looking for volunteers, but He’s not above giving us a bit of a shove to get us there. He will even push us from behind if necessary! Think about Jonah, or Moses, or Jeremiah.  Pick someone in this book that doesn’t get their life turned on its head by following and listening to Almighty God. You can’t can you?? However, we can limit an omnipresent, omnipotent, almighty God simply by thinking about Him, and His Word, from our human POV. 

Jesus came here to show us what God is like. He chose to become one of us to reveal the Father’s heart to us and then He chose to die to make it possible for us to belong.. He followed His Father’s plan! If He can do it then so can we. In that time He exhibited love like we could not imagine. The Lord talked to and healed people that nobody else would touch. He dealt with demons like they were dandelions. And at the same time, He was totally devoted and dedicated to His Father’s will. Jesus did everything He did, His Father’s way to show us we can too.

When I look at churches today, we are falling short of our glorious ideal … CHRIST.  We’ve underestimated everything about Him and His purposes. The Person Who made eyeballs, whales and platypuses isn’t limited like we are! So when we are interacting with the LIMITLESS ONE — WE, that is YOU AND I — may need to adjust our ideas and attitudes. Jesus did not die to give us everything we will ever want or need in this life. It’s time to think again … 

“These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful.”(Revelation 17:14) Jesus is the Almighty Everliving One, the First and the Last, The Beginning and the End. Learn to YIELD. Bye 👋

P 2586 Stars and grains.

/ DVH

Genesis 15:4-6 “Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.”

Genesis 22:17: ”I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,…”

If I were to give this blog an alternative title I would call it — “Dust off your prayers, hopes and dreams … and start thanking Me.” 

We have all been through some incredibly hard times spiritually speaking, and not just recently — some of us have been stuck in hardship for a prolonged period of time. The Lord spoke the above word to me last Sunday, and I’m sitting here at 2.30 AM today, typing this because He told me to do it. You may be on the other side of the world to where I live, it makes no difference. The above verses from Genesis show us that God always has plans bigger than we can imagine. We all know, from experience, that His ways are past finding out – but we will see Him working with our own eyes – start looking.

When we pray, we often think about a truckload of blessings, but in these passages from Genesis the Lord shows us a SKY full of them. Abraham had his mind blown twice, and I sincerely believe we are about to see the Lord do what seems to be the impossible, again. Our part is to watch and give thanks, knowing only HE can do these things – we can’t.

There are relationships and the enmities between people that seem hopeless and broken, and I believe that they will start to turn and mend. Thank Him for every single one you hear about, whether it is at your house or somewhere else. The financial situations that seem doomed to worsen will see a trickle of help turn into a stream … People are going to listen and be touched by Him when you share His love and tell them about the Jesus you know, personally and intimately.

I want to be clear, I am not talking about some huge explosive revival, I am talking about a groundswell that starts small and builds over time. Breakthroughs are upon us, and our job is to thank Him for every single little tiny change and keep on thanking Him. Our God loves a grateful people so we need to be alert and thank Him, for everything no matter how small it seems. We need to thank Him for Who He is and what He is doing.  We need to stay alert and pray we will be awake and aware to see every little detail coming to pass.He’s looking for a groundswell of thanksgiving … even for the tiniest things, that seem almost insignificant.

Now, more than ever, we are to be grateful to be one of those tiny little grains of sand – one of those billions of unnamed stars. These are the days of the nobodies and God has been waiting for you and I to step up to the plate. We don’t have to be perfect, or gifted, JUST WILLING. The big rock stars of baseball or cricket have come and gone, and it’s just us now, the tail end … the guys who are lucky if they can see the ball, let alone hit it! 

We may well be a people with not a lot of talent, but we know that Jesus is so big, He can break 5 loaves and 2 fishes and feed thousands. He can multiply anything. He has been breaking our lives and our hearts so He can begin this multiplication process. Give the mess that is in your little life to Him and start thanking Him for every detail that changes, no matter how small.

God spoke to Abraham and He told him that WE, you and I, are the answer to his prayers for a child. And no I have not lost my tiny mind! He told that man that His descendants would be like the stars in the sky …and Abraham did something amazing, he believed God. Something spiritually is turning that will not turn back again and we need to be alert and thank Him for everything He is doing. Every bit of hopeful news, every smile from someone who has forgotten how to smile. Every teeny tiny prayer that seemed to fall to the ground dead, is going to be resurrected. Watch and see what He will do with your little life.

Jesus broke bread the night before He was betrayed and gave thanks. We are that bread and He has been breaking us. As a result now we know that we cannot do anything without Him, and we’ve learnt, from experience, that we don’t want to, either. Now we can watch as He takes the broken crumbs of our lives and feeds the people around us. Just keep thanking Him for every single detail you see that changes. No matter how small –  we are going to start looking for the good. Stars that are without number … fill the sky. Grains of sand that cannot be counted make up the seashore. 

We are the nameless, faceless ones, who only care that people remember HIS NAME, not ours. Bless you. 🙌 👋

P 2545 Living this life revitalised.

/ DVH

Read this like the Lord Himself is speaking to YOU! —“My beloved ones, just like you’ve always listened to everything I’ve taught you in the past, I’m asking you now to keep following my instructions as though I were right there with you. Now you must continue to make this new life fully manifested as you live in the holy awe of God—which brings you trembling into His Presence. God will continually revitalise you, implanting within you the passion to do what pleases Him. Live a cheerful life, without complaining or division among yourselves. For then you will be seen as innocent, faultless, and pure children of God, even though you live in the midst of a brutal and perverse culture.For you will appear among them as shining lights in the universe, holding out the words of eternal life.”Philippians 2:12-16 TPT.

Our wonderful Father has not asked us to do those things that are impossible, without Him walking with us. He has simply asked us to follow Christ, and live like Jesus lived. For others. Jesus paved the way by His death and resurrection, for us to be so sold out to God, and everything He wants, that everything else fades away … Instead of using our faith to make our own lives better all the time, we need to begin to use our faith to allow the Holy Spirit to transform us to be like Christ – one faith step at a time. It really is that simple!

As we begin to aim at what Father God wants, we will continually be revitalised. Doing what His Father told Him to do, even when He was exhausted, revitalised Jesus! (The Woman at the well.) Obedience is the key. The Body of Christ must stop listening and merely agreeing with what we read, and start obeying it. So what if we mess up? JESUS IS A REDEEMER. Let’s choose to live our lives dead to what we think we want, and alive to what He wants, as He reveals it to us through His word. All that takes is total commitment. He totally committed to us, now we need to be totally committed to Him.

I have lived this way for many years. I literally cannot “do” my life. Last night I counted myself fortunate to sleep 5 hours. I can’t possibly ‘go on the road’ for Jesus in 6 weeks! It actually got much harder for both of us, when I broke my arm. However, right now, my only aim is to get in that car on the day we leave —- the rest is up to HIM. For all of us to live this way, and go deeper, we will need to value our relationship with Jesus more than we value our own comfort, plans and agendas. Peter, James, John, and Paul had ordinary stuff to deal with too! So did a whole lot of other people whose names we hardly know. We are the generation who are laying the foundations for the people coming after us.

You and I can pray our kids will follow Jesus, but when we set an example by the way we live, that is part of the answer to our own prayers. These young people will need to know Him personally in their own lives to help them through their darkest days, and their hardest choices. They need to see us survive and still thrive under very difficult circumstances … because this world is not getting any easier. People everywhere are daily facing harder stuff than we can imagine. We can’t do any of this without the Holy Spirit’s help … we need Him like we need air. He gives us HIS life. That’s what revitalises means. 

For nineteen years hubby and I have followed the Holy Spirit’s leading. It was sometimes right, sometimes wrong – sometimes fun and some times not!  And we went wherever He said to go. Which means we’ve been some scary places! Places with bars on windows, gangs roaming the street, people hiding from bikies. That is kind of scary stuff for an old lady. I’d rather be sitting knitting in my nice chair, in my nice little house, thank you. We’ve tried to quit, but His love for people will not let us quit. Yet, after I broke my arm last year, we still managed three trips! So many things have happened to us that should have stopped us, but … He simply will not let us quit. Always, always — He says to us; “Who will tell them that I love them?”  

That question breaks my heart. The people who do not know Him are a vast OCEAN. I’m just a little strangely bent teaspoon! I know hubby and I cannot make a dent in those numbers. We can’t afford to look at numbers. Instead hubby and I look back at the faces of those people we’ve already met, who actually heard His voice through what was said. The point of this new life we have been given isn’t just to save US. It is to be a light in the darkness to everyone around us. To do that we have to go, and in go-ing we are always revitalised.

Hubby and I have been privileged to see the light of Jesus dawn on the faces of so many people we’ve spoken to. Suddenly, they know Jesus is REAL. He’s alive – no tomb could hold Him! Our Heavenly Father is their DAD and people know LOVE when they see Him and hear Him. They don’t need platitudes, or rules — they need HIM.  👋

P 2509 What if Jesus lived next door?

/ DVH

“The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.” John 1:14 MSG

I started to think about this verse this morning and chew over it. Meanwhile, I also like the Passion Translation as well – I put a picture of that one at the bottom of the page. The way John 1:14 reads inspires me. However, in reality, Jesus didn’t actually just move into our neighbourhood – He came even closer … He moved into our physical house! Think about it.

“Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, Who lives in you and Who was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourselves but to God;…”1 Corinthians 6:19. Imagine what life would, or could look like, if we took this verse seriously? The thing is … this verse is actually our new reality. Just because we can’t feel His Presence that doesn’t mean the verse isn’t true – it just means whatever He does is easy to ignore because we can’t see Him. We have to be determined to pay attention to Him, because we want to be dedicated lovers of Jesus.  

Here’s another big thought … your physical home is now His house too! Yeah. This is true whether we are renting or we’ve paid off the mortgage. The reality is, we work and slave and make a life for ourselves by owning things but, we actually own nothing. We can all go ahead and make grand plans for our stuff — that’s called making a will — but most inheritors can’t wait to sell Mum or Dad’s house for the money. Which is, after all, only a piece of paper that mankind has given value to! 

For me those things all come under a heading of “things human beings do that make no sense at all” — spiritually speaking. God says that in His book, like this: “… It’s useless to rise early and go to bed late, and work your worried fingers to the bone. Don’t you know He enjoys giving rest to those He loves?”  Psalm 127:2b MSG. You know, I can almost hear some people saying, “Well, it may seem useless to Him but I will get the sack if I don’t put in the time.” I hear ya! But what it actually means is this – Who are you relying upon? That’s the real point! Now we belong to Jesus, whatever we do, we are now working for Him. He gave us His life and we give Him ours.

Our financial circumstances can change in a heartbeat or overnight – Covid showed us that. This Psalmist is saying it makes no sense to slave your heart out, and sit up night by night worrying over how you will pay the rent or the mortgage. He’s NOT talking about being careless with your responsibilities, or wandering off to bed saying: “Whatever!” … and hoping that will do. He is talking about relinquishment and entering into God’s kind of rest. 

Almighty God’s rest doesn’t take effort. First we pray, and then we just hand stuff over and ask Him to help us do these things under His guidance. Then we carry out whatever He told us to do. It’s in the book, as well as in our hearts. Human beings like to think we are powerful, but the reality is that this life can change in a heartbeat … or the lack of one!

It is important that whatever we have, does not own us. When we are worried about our stuff, then those things own our time, as well as our mental, and physical effort. Maybe someone reading this is renting. You should thank God, that you don’t have to make sure the roof doesn’t leak, and the walls stay upright. That’s the landlord’s responsibility. Owning stuff can push our spirituality aside unless we are really prayerful and careful. My advice is this — hold whatever you have in an open hand. People, house, car, job … remember, we bring nothing here and we take nothing away. God has another way for us to live. He wants us to live trusting Him, not in what we can do. HE has no limitations.

Let’s briefly look at the ordinary people who are on earth right now, who are in the middle of a war or a famine. Everything they thought they owned is gone. All their clothes, mementos, personal stuff is gone in a heartbeat. And they come out of that awful situation grateful if their families survive. There are NO insurance policies in war torn countries. They have to rely upon the goodwill of those in other countries for help with food, medicine, safety. Now these people have to begin this life again … and their sense of safety within their own space etc. is gone. There is nothing like losing everything to remind us we own nothing!

Sacrificial giving is our new way to live, it is part of being His kid. Giving out of excess is a rumour, it won’t happen while we live in a an excessive, greedy society. The sun comes up every day for free! Those of us who seem to be living in some sort of safety, need to live gratefully, and prayerfully, and share with others who do not! You know if Jesus lived next door to us, we would actively see Him helping others. We can easily see Him living that way – it’s in the book! Bye. 👋

P 2495 Let God disarm you …

/ DVH

“Now, please listen, for I need to address an issue. I’m making this personal appeal to you by the gentleness and self-forgetfulness of Christ… … Now I plead with you that when I come, don’t force me to take a hard line with you (which I’m willing to do) by daring to confront those who mistakenly believe that we are living by the standards of the world, not by the Spirit’s wisdom and power. For although we live in the natural realm, we don’t wage a military campaign employing human weapons, using manipulation to achieve our aims. Instead,our spiritual weapons are energised with divine power to effectively dismantle the defences behind which people hide…” 2 Corinthians 10:1-6 (with omissions.)TPT.

Paul talks about this greater wisdom in the verses from 2 Corinthians above. This wisdom relies upon God’s power not man’s clever plans, or great counselling … or even avoidance. Instead it exposes lies, and disarms the sorts of excuses that men and women often make in order to stay the same and feel good about themselves. Paul is quite severe in this edict, as he first establishes the essence of this lie – there is no power of God in it … therefore … it won’t accomplish anything lasting!

He is explaining that the Lord’s spiritual wisdom goes beyond the stuff we understand with our minds, into the very heart of what is actually going on. It leads to complete exposure of the desire that human beings have to justify themselves, and hide our true selves, for one reason or another. That hiding gig started in the garden of Eden, the first thing Adam and Eve did after they sinned was HIDE. Hiding is not good because that action denies the power of the cross. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. IF we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness…”1John 1:8&9. Confessing sin means we own it!

Meanwhile, we don’t have to tell every single person every single thing about ourselves! But we do need to be ready to have the Lord uncover the things we have hidden …  sometimes … even from ourselves. I have found hatred in the weirdest circumstances in my life. If you asked me I would have said: “I don’t hate anyone, its a waste of time.” Actually what I was really saying was: “I hide my hatred under another name.”

But the Lord had my number, and He showed me what I called hurt was actually hatred, and I avoided looking at it because I did not want to know. It was like my own private warning system that flashed a sign that said: ‘this person is dangerous,’ when I looked at certain people, and that was my excuse for not loving them. These are the lengths we go to to justify ourselves! When all we need to do is confess our sin. 

Unfortunately, in reality, I think I sadly felt quite OK about having that attitude – the people I was scared of, and concerned about were very mean! Hiding was a way to avoid their meanness – but it also cleverly disguised my real feelings! None of these thoughts were allowed to prevail in my conscious mind, because I had become really adept at concealing this stuff from myself.  I would have noticed things like that in a heartbeat. So instead, I gave it another name. HURT. But as I chased after loving like He loves, things kept floating up into my conscious mind. Like gritting my teeth when that person spoke to me – a big clue right there!! 

That’s when I realised that I actually went out of my way to reward those who were good to me, and secretly avoided those who weren’t. I pretty quickly figured out that loving like the Lord loves, means my opinion, or experiences no longer matter. He does not love us based on our behaviour. He took that aspect of our lives out of the equation, when He died on the cross. Indeed, our bad experiences and attitudes actually need to be confronted because they create greater potential for His Grace to be released! 

He wants us to treat everybody the same way – we are to love them enough to die for them. And if we truly want to changed to be like Him – then that’s the standard! Here’s a red hot tip, taken from my own experience: you and I can’t do that all by ourselves – we need supernatural help. This is the place, mentioned in the bible, that is designed by God, for His power to be made manifest through us. His strength is made perfect in weak people.  And along the way we will gain, bonus buy …  self-control.

If we choose to hide our weakness – the result is we will miss out on that perfect strength. Father God is not interested in the appearance of good.  He wants His goodness to be immediately evident even when someone else takes a nasty big fat bite out of us. Boy is that’s going to cost us! It cost Jesus to save us, and we are following Him now on the road to total transformation. Praise God! Right now we have His power available to us, so we can overcome anything that paralyses us, by leaning on Him and following His ways – instead of pretending we are A-OK.  

We simply must let/allow the Lord to disarm us. This new life in Christ comes with honest transparency, not deceit, shame or guilt. Embracing transparency will, over time, help us to know that we are truly loved by Him – especially when His love reaches into the hidden corners of our hearts.  👋🏻