Plans

P 2253 One step at a time.

/ DVH

Our God is overwhelmingly limitless … so we must never limit what He is able to do with one person who is prepared to live their life for Jesus’ sake!  I love the Old Testament, there are huge glimpses of Almighty God’s Personhood for those who take the time to look.

Take the book of Job – he was a happy man. Then God and satan had a word war over what was the source of Job’s happiness. Job lost everything he owned, plus his wife, kids and friends! Then God did an amazing thing – He showed Job the difference between man’s wisdom and HIS. Almighty God shifted Job’s reliance over to Himself, and He made Job’s faith even deeper by revealing Himself. One step at a time.

Moses was a murderer. He ran away from his destiny as Pharaoh’s adopted son. Instead he was living a happy, quiet life, looking after his father-in-law’s sheep … when God confronted him. Through Moses we see how God handles perceived problems, situations and people. We get insight into His Ways. Our God moved that man from shepherding sheep, to boldly confronting Pharaoh and demanding that he let his Israelite slaves go. Moses followed the Lord’s instructions … one step at a time.

Gideon was another ordinary man, living an ordinary little life. He was hiding grain from the multitude known as the Midianites. The conversations that Gideon had with an angel the Lord sent, show us the way Almighty God takes into account our character, our weaknesses. The Midianites stomped all over the Jewish people, they stole everything that wasn’t nailed down, but God used an ordinary fellow to defeat the very people who oppressed them. One step at a time – that’s how the Lord taught Gideon. 

Peter, Andrew, James, and John were simple fishermen. But their Heavenly Father had other plans. One day an itinerant Teacher turned up and told them to follow Him, so they did. They saw more in their lifetimes than they ever imagined they could. God gave them a commission they couldn’t turn down, and they followed it – one step at a time.

Stephen in Acts, was Greek. He waited on tables, looking after widows and orphans, then God made him a deacon. He taught others about Christ, by what he did and said. Then he was arrested, and ended up preaching the gospel, going from Moses to Jesus in front of all the religious leaders of that day. A brilliant sermon. They promptly hated every word he said – and even as he lay dying, surrounded by their rocks, he pointed to their Messiah. He did all this … one step at a time.

Paul was killing Christians when God knocked him to the ground and made him blind. Truth be told, that man was already blind, spiritually! And Almighty God just let his outsides match his insides for a few days. However Paul was irrevocably changed by that encounter. He went into God’s private bible school – the accelerated course – for three years, and then he trundled all over the known world. He also spent time in jail on and off, and he wrote letters that are still changing our world. One step at a time.

I could go on and on – Mary was simply a devoted peasant girl. She had ordinary plans for her life, and Almighty God interrupted them with His own plans to bring His Son into this world. Esther was the town pretty girl, and God had plans to make her a queen so she could save her nation. Ruth was a widow, and so was her mother-in-law – yet God made her one of Jesus direct fore-bearers. Ordinary people living ordinary lives until an extraordinary limitless God transformed them all into sign-posts, keys, and examples of what His Grace can do with an ordinary life – one step at a time.

My point today is this: … what does He want to do with your life?? We will never know our real purpose for being here in this world, outside of His plans. Our lives may be ordinary and hidden – but when we read the Old and the New Testament, these people who went before us, are a blazing flashing neon sign in the sky that our God can do anything …if we will just follow Him … one step at a time. When we follow Jesus we don’t arrive, we begin a journey … one step at a time.

Will you let Him use you? It is highly unlikely that most of us will have a book written about our God-given exploits – but I believe, in heaven, there are books and books and books. Why? Because the things we do down here, are the things of faith, and they point to Jesus, just as surely as Job, Moses, Gideon, Paul, Peter, Andrew, James, John, Stephen, Mary, Esther and Ruth’s faith steps did… one step at a time. 👋🏻 

P 2231 Encounters.

/ DVH

The blessing of being on the road for Jesus’ sake, is the terrific people we meet. The day before yesterday, we went to a look out (see above) in Nambucca Heads. The sun was out and it was so pretty. People came, admired the view and then went, and then an older lady came along. The Lord told us to give her a bookmark, so hubby did. She loved it so much, she came right over to the car to say thank you to me. 

Nancy is a delightful aboriginal lady, from the Gumbaynggirr people. She knew heaps about this area because she was born here. Nancy passed on a big secret! The best place to go fishing – only the local aboriginal people know it, so we wrote it down, memorised it … and then promptly chewed it up and swallowed it. I felt like James Bond! Well, not really … but you get the vibe. 😂 Meanwhile I’m incredibly sure Nancy would know where to fish!  After a lovely conversation we gave her a word of knowledge and she hugged us because she was so glad to meet us. And all we did was drive up to look at the pretty view!

After that we drove on to visit caravan parks. The first one was down below the above view, you can just see the edge of it in the picture … if you take a magnifying glass that is!  Nambucca Heads is such a pretty postcard place. The ladies behind the desk at the first cara park were Donna and Joanne. Hubby said they looked a bit fierce like Aussie country women do sometimes, tatts, bronzed and all! …. But they melted like butter when he gave them a couple of bookmarks. They took bibles for the cabins and hubby had a great time talking and sharing with them. 

As he came out of the office, he noticed an older man, Sean, sitting outside having a smoke. The Lord told hubby to talk to him – so, fishing being our new area of expertise – hubby asked Sean about fishing in that area. Meanwhile he didn’t mention the fishing spot our aboriginal friend mentioned, because it really IS a secret spot!!  Hubby ended up giving Sean one of his prophetic paintings and a word. The older man teared right up. Loving people, on purpose, is so precious when you are walking with Jesus.

Before we left for this trip, I made some bookmarks with some expoxy gummy bear charms on them for younger people. Boy are they chewy!! So, when we stopped at the next park,  hubby met another much younger girl and she was de-light-ed! Pink is her favourite colour – she loved the pink gummy bear one. You know, every place we took bibles the managers received them joyfully. “The fields are white …!!”  Everybody has room for more appreciation and love. 

We’ve given away 145 bibles so far, plus 12 bookmarks, 3 prophetic paintings, one prophetic letter, and 3 prophetic words. Counting everything, we’ve given away over 189 things. And we’ve only been on the road for three and a half days. Lastly, we also went to two places where we couldn’t find the owner – sometimes you drive miles and miles … a-n-d ….there ain’t nobody home!  

Yesterday, was a travelling day and we had to go past one of the parks where there was nobody home and lo and behold … somebody was in. Sharon, an ex-school teacher who loved her bookmark with a wise owl on it and she took bibles too. Isn’t the Lord amazing? An owl for a teacher?  Man He cracks me up!!

So here’s an inconsequential story for you – just for today! When we arrived where we are currently staying, here in Forster, we unpacked. Unpacking consists of hubby jumping about like an energiser bunny putting things in useful places, while I watch him and make unhelpful suggestions. (Unhelpful suggestions are in the wife’s manual of things to do that drive husbands crazy… FYI) 😱 

Any-w-a-ay … I took off my very pretty, and extremely precious earrings that hubby bought for me many years ago, and carefully put them together … and then …promptly lost them. We both searched high and low, down the back of the sofa, as you do … under the sofa … everywhere I had been, about four times. In the end, we prayed the help help prayer …a-n-d … nothing. My dear hubby looked places I’d already looked at, and I looked places he’d already looked as well. Nothing! When nothing happens … I “oh well” whatever it is and leave it with the Lord.

Hubby had to go shopping, and I kept periodically looking. The earrings had disappeared.  Eventually he arrived back at the unit and we both started looking again … and low and behold!! They were right in front of the place I was sitting – on the carpet! They were not there before – trust me! 😳 We’d both searched very thoroughly and they were not there before  –  but now they were. Unbelievable!!  Who knew the Lord cared about lost earrings? Lost people – YES! Lost earrings – NO!  I learn something new about the kindness of the Lord Jesus every single day. He is Lord of the little things. 🙌

“The Lord will work out His plans for my life—for your loving-kindness, Lord, continues forever…” 👋🏻

P 2187 Let God be God.

/ DVH

“Everyone look! Come and see the breathtaking wonders of our God. For He brings both ruin and revival. He’s the one who makes conflicts end throughout the earth, breaking and burning every weapon of war. Surrender your anxiety. Be still and realize that I am God. I am God above all the nations, and I am exalted throughout the whole earth. Here He stands! The Commander! The mighty Lord of Angel armies is on our side! The God of Jacob fights for us! Pause in His Presence.” Psalms 46:8-11 TPT.

With everything that is going on in this world today, we just have to give all that stuff over to Him and let God be God. Mainly because we have no clue how to negotiate such a mess. Human beings can use up an awful lot of energy trying to control things in this life. As I’ve said before, other people do not have your script. And even if you carefully explain your plans – that doesn’t mean others are going to like them! Plus what other people want probably won’t fit in with our seemingly fantastic thoughts and desires. and so they can and will object. Sometimes very loudly! It can be extremely difficult to let go of things when we think we know the way stuff should go.

I just want to say today, that for many years the Lord had to practically arm wrestle me, to get me to let go of things I really had no control over in the first place – but I wanted to control them anyway! In my current physical circumstances I have had to learn to let everything go, because nowadays I can barely control my body, let alone other people! But back then I would pray pretty, nice-sounding prayers to try to convince the Lord to see things my way, because I was quite sure I knew what was the best outcome.

And before you look at me sideways, I’m guessing that we all do that? “I want what YOU want Lord,” is such a hard prayer to pray. It kind of gets stuck somewhere in our throats. I have some theories about why it is that is true. I don’t think we know our Heavenly Father’s Ways well enough and sometimes … we just plain don’t trust Him. Even though the bible is chock full of descriptions of how trustworthy He is! Go figure. Plus, we have Jesus Himself as a living, documented example of His Father’s attitudes toward human beings. And yet, sometimes, depending on how important the matter is – we still don’t trust Him. It seems to me that our finite minds cannot grasp God’s goodness on a grand scale. 

What to do? Admit your fault! That’s what I do, I tell Him I really don’t trust Him enough to take care of my kids, my life, my health, my family, my church, my future. Meanwhile, you can see that problem immediately can’t you? 🙄  It’s that sneaky little word ‘my.’ When I find myself grasping at things, trying to make them work somehow, it means that I’ve taken over again. However, I have learnt to stop, and assess where my confidence in His goodness went.

And most of the time it will be an area where things did not go the way I thought they should. Maybe they even got worse. That unpleasant land of worse …or even some unanswered prayers … these things have taught me something over the years. I got desperate enough to find out why I was reacting like that.  Brother James helped me out. “You ask [God for something] and do not receive it, because you ask with wrong motives [out of selfishness or with an unrighteous agenda], so that [when you get what you want] you may spend it on your [hedonistic] desires.” James 4:3. Oh! How I’ve hated that verse!

Meanwhile, I could easily explain why my motivations were pure and kind … just ask me. 😶 Yet somehow, even at my age!… I still hate the word – “No!” So I’ve come to the conclusion I don’t like hard stuff much. I want my life to be easy and I want it to suit me. And changing that thought process has taken me down some very difficult roads. Like I’ve said before, I came from a time where ‘you are the Lord’s favourite kid’ was preached from the pulpit. I really liked that kind of sermon BTW. But because of that kind of teaching I had a wrong concept about Who was God and who wasn’t. Sigh … and it wasn’t me. Everybody out there should breathe a sigh of relief about that fact, believe me! I’d be appalling at it. I’d probably smite people first and say “whoops” afterwards. Fortunately, I’ve learnt some stuff since back there, but I still catch myself doing it!

I’ve written about this today because it occurred to me that this self-elevation may not only be my problem. If your prayers are going unanswered, check to see if He wants you to persevere … and if He doesn’t … then give up! Quickly! God obviously has much bigger, better plans than we do – and we need to use these kinds of opportunities to repent and be transformed. Perhaps we also need to learn to pray to endure, rather than be fished out of difficult circumstances. And … let God be God. He’s good at it. 👋🏻

P 2165 What does the Lord think about it?

/ DVH

When we position ourselves on the Lord’s side, then whoever comes against us, is coming against God Himself. He will give us wisdom. Difficult situations aren’t about winning or losing – what matters most is Whose side we are on! In these times, that can be a bit tricky, because being self-centred and filled up with self-importance is almost a national pastime in the Western world! We assume that God will always be on our side and see only the things that benefit us. Not that we are obsessed with our own self-importance or anything! Hmmm. Almighty God doesn’t take sides, as I’ve said before – He is on His own side. When you are as wise as He is that makes all-kinds of sense!

Joshua 5:13&14. “Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in His hand. Joshua approached him and asked, “Are You for us or for our enemies?” “Neither,” he replied. “I have now come as Commander of the Lord’s army.” Then Joshua fell facedown in reverence and asked him, “What does my Lord have to say to His servant?” Sometimes we can get so focussed on completing the task we forget to ask Almighty God about it.

It seems to me that Joshua learnt an awful lot when he stayed behind in the tent of meeting after Moses left it! He was quite a young man, but he had a whole lot of supernatural wisdom. He learnt God’s ways are far better than ours. To be honest with you, I ask for that kind of wisdom all the time – I need it. I have no clue what is good for me, and often go for an immediate solution, over a long-term gain. Sadly, sometimes, self-preservation and immediate gratification can be much too high on all our lists of priorities. Almighty God sees everything.

Let’s look at Joshua for a minute – the Israelites were entering the Promised Land. Every man and boy in the Israelite camp was very sore, because they had just been circumcised, so they would have felt vulnerable. The Israelites really could have used a Mighty Warrior on their side! Even the food that had always fallen from the sky … had ceased. They were about to go and tackle Jericho, a walled city. And Joshua had the sense to fall on his face and ask for advice. Boy is that a great trait to have. Meanwhile that young man also had the sense and the courage to carry out what he was told to do, even though it seemed weird, but those men had 7 more days of healing before they got to the action. What God tells us to do doesn’t always make sense at the time … but afterwards …

Sometimes, knowing what we don’t know, is far more important than knowing what we do! Not enough people take the time to find out what the Lord thinks. He has said plainly, in the book, His plans are for our good. We just need to let Him decide what that , looks like! Human beings have these grandiose theories about what can, and should be done – but most of the time we have no idea at all what the Lord actually wants. I can tell you for sure – He doesn’t want us rampaging about killing, or hurting, or taking advantage of other people, in His Name. Loving others is His priority. Our God has everyone’s eternal well-being on His heart, that’s why Jesus came to save all of us. Sadly sometimes all we have on our own hearts is our convenience and safety.

Plus many people want Him to put a big tick on whatever we think. So we roll up with our prayer agendas and just ask Him to “sign on the dotted line, right there, thank you Jesus.” Without even consulting Him first. Or we pray, and ?hear? that of course God agrees with US … and we have right on our side… plus we have umpteen verses to prove it. Waggling scriptures in God’s Face, will not persuade or impress the Lord. HE WROTE THE BOOK – He already knows what it says. It is far better to humble ourselves, get on our faces, like Joshua did, and wait for Him to speak and then do what He says.  

In Genesis 15 Abram did all kinds of unusual stuff in order to enter into a covenant with God that still stands today. You and I are the result of that covenant! Billions of people have benefited from Abram believing God and following His instructions – and those instructions seemed really weird. Elijah took a side road-trip that lasted 40 days and 40 nights before he heard from the Lord. Because of it, the man learnt no matter what the Lord did through him – he was still human! We need to allow God to be God – He’s good at it – and stop trying to organise or persuade Him to see things from our POV. He won’t overrule our choices, but He has promised to look after us. That’s where trust begins. So we either believe He is Who He says He is, and He will do what He said He will do … or not. 

Establish in your heart that God is God, and you are simply you, and take the time to ask Him how to go forward. Then wait and listen. He is not impressed with our wealth, our many many MANY books, or even man’s logic. What impresses God’s heart is a faithful, faith-filled, humble, trustworthy, loving man or woman who delights to do His will, His way.  👋🏻