Popularity

P 3472 Don’t leave Him out – He wants in!

/ DVH

Lately it seems to me that we have become so busy creating things ourselves and making money, that we have forgotten the simple pleasure of enjoying everything the Lord has made. Ambition is often applauded in today’s world, but I think contentment is far more valuable than that or money. You have to learn how to be content – Paul tells us that. And at the bottom of a lot of sin today is the sad state of … deliberately leaving God out. Even Christians. We relegate the Lord to Sunday, and a ‘quiet’ time, but true contentment comes from knowing Who is in charge here – every moment, every single day. 

It is important to give the Lord His place, and if we don’t, then repentance is the best way back. Sometimes the pride of life overtakes us, and the idea that our best is not ‘good’ enough, can be difficult to swallow. But the truth is, unless we totally lean our lives, unreservedly, unashamedly and wholly on what Jesus Christ did for us — we are wasting all our energy and passion. It becomes incredibly easy to repent when you realise you haven’t just done wrong – you ARE wrong!  As Christians we do our best to avoid visible sins, and that can fool us into thinking we are getting things right – those thoughts start us on a downward spiral into works and pride. Gratitude is the best attitude. And genuine repentance, keeps us under the blood of Jesus.

In this life, we need the Lord … every single second of every single day. I am not intimidated by that thought, it blesses me. God knows the way I should go, I can trust Him. We are so fortunate to know Him. Blessings are not a sign of His approval, they occur simply because He is a generous Father and He loves to give.

The bible says so “ … so that you may [show yourselves to] be the children of your Father who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on those who are evil and on those who are good, and makes the rain fall on the righteous [those who are morally upright] and the unrighteous [the unrepentant, those who oppose Him].” Matthew 5:45. 

God is good to everyone! We are His ONLY because of what Jesus did. If you are far from Him, and still breathing, then it is never too late to turn around and go home to your Heavenly Father. Jesus is a Saviour – He saved us from ourselves and our idea of what is right and wrong. It is time for every single one of His children to come home. It doesn’t matter how much dirt you’ve accumulated along the way – Jesus’ blood washes all of us clean.

Repent. Fix whatever you can, but come home. Your Father is waiting at the gate, looking down that road you ran off on. He has prepared a celebratory garment for you to wear and He wants to throw a huge party —- simply because you are irreplaceable to Him. Ask Jesus and the Holy Spirit to help you leave behind the pigpens of this world, and go home. The Lord wants to help you, you just need to ask … and then start taking faith steps.

We don’t have the power within us, without His help, to overcome our passions, proclivities and preferences. Like Adam and Eve we can easily be deceived by satan, and self-deceived into thinking that the Lord approves of what we are doing, or have done. Repentance means turning around and going the other way. That’s hard. It takes a huge effort to shake off the dirt of this world, because it thinks self-promotion and self-importance are the pinnacle of this life. People’s idea of right and wrong changes with political climates and popularity.

The church has made a god in her own image when she moved away from what the bible says, into popular opinion. Human beings have fooled themselves, believing that what we know today, and have experienced, goes far beyond what God planned when He wrote the bible. We think we are bigger than God Himself … until something goes wrong and we can’t fix it!  What we are saying is this: Almighty God is old-fashioned, we are now smarter than He is, and we know more than He does. That is blatantly untrue …when we are dead and gone we will be forgotten — but His Word remains forever.

We’ve all been saved by the Grace Jesus Christ extended to each one of us, when we didn’t even know, or care that He did it! All WE could do, was acknowledge what He had already done. My prayer for all of us is that every single day is filled to overflowing with the knowledge that:  you have never been more loved than you are right here right now.. 

Never ever doubt that you will be joyfully received by God. However the past needs to become the past. We are now living in a time of Grace, and Almighty God has postponed judgment in the hope that all of us who need to do it, will turn around and come back home. Those who have known Him and those who have not, yet. Grace does not smile on our faults, it has covered them with the most expensive substance known to mankind… Jesus Christ’s BLOOD! Please don’t leave the Lord out of your life, He wants to be IN everything. Bye.👋.

“Beware that no one distracts you or intimidates you in their attempt to lead you away from Christ’s fullness by pretending to be full of wisdom when they’re filled with endless arguments of human logic. For they operate with humanistic and clouded judgments based on the mindset of this world system, and not the anointed truths of the Anointed One. For He is the complete fullness of deity living in human form. And our own completeness is now found in Him. We are completely filled with God as Christ’s fullness overflows within us. He is the Head of every kingdom and authority in the universe!” Colossians 2:8-10 TPT.

P3459 Popularity with man.

/ DVH

This is a current theme in our society, everyone has to be PC, or you will be told! I am all for being sensitive and careful, because wisdom itself demands the kind of thoughtfulness that allows it to speak clearly to someone without the distraction of offence! However, our priority should always be whatever the Lord says to us. And I think we need to practice tolerance and forbearance toward other people not political correctness. I want to look at a brief few verses from Jeremiah today, bearing in mind that this man was a salmon swimming upstream for most of his life!

“Then the officials said to the king, “This man should be put to death. He is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city, as well as all the people, by the things he is saying to them. This man is not seeking the good of these people but their ruin.”“He is in your hands,” King Zedekiah answered. “The king can do nothing to oppose you.” So they took Jeremiah and put him into the cistern of Malkijah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah by ropes into the cistern; it had no water in it, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.” Jeremiah 38:4-6.

Jeremiah was doing what God asked him to do, yet he was being persecuted for what he said. That’s because other people interpreted his actions for their own agenda. Lately, I have had to become so much better at forgiving people, simply because they have thoughtfully given me so many opportunities to do it! Meanwhile the Lord helps me, every single time, or I would succumb to self-pity. Sigh. But that’s an observation, not my point. My point is things have not changed all that much since Jeremiah’s time. We still think we can judge other people and put pressure on them to be just like us.

Pressure comes from all sorts of directions – but many of them are internal. We fall into political correctness by saying we don’t want to offend others – but actually we are scared of what others will do to us! The point of this passage in Jeremiah is that all kinds of pressure will be unfairly applied on us. It is to be expected. We may not end up in a cistern, but ‘the fear of man (still) brings a snare’ if it affects our ability to be truthful.

Proverbs 29:25. Here’s the Message version – “The fear of human opinion disables;  trusting in God protects you from that.”  Yeah. That’s the rub, moving away from what others might say, into …’what do YOU want from me Lord?’ Then we need to take the time to find that out for ourselves. Christians have hidden behind denominational creeds for too long. We need to hate any sin, but love the sinner just like Jesus did. The point is, the gospel is for everyone and we can’t possibly know who the Lord is going to turn around.

I think that Jeremiah was a victim of the downside of popular opinion. I like this verse from Proverbs 18:13: “Answering before listening is both stupid and rude.” It is so easy to decide that we already know what other people need, and miss the Lord’s wisdom altogether, because we have prejudged our own way to be the right one. We can also fall into the trap of being ‘nice’ and insincere, all at the same time. For times like ours, we need the Holy Spirit’s wisdom, not just a creed, or what we think.

If we are serious about extending love to other people who are not like us, then we cannot be motivated by political correctness. We must be motivated by God Himself. Here’s a verse to chew on: “Make love your aim.” Folks! The elephant is now actually in the room! We cannot avoid it any longer. Our real problem is, we have avoided some subjects for so long, we no longer know how to address them! It is time for the kind of prayer that leads to action. Choosing to loving others is never easy. God’s love can turn all kinds of people around, I think we would be better occupied remaining full of His love ourselves, than finding reasons to exclude people.

I don’t have to love what you do, to love you! The church has an opportunity right now to choose how she will behave toward people, especially those She has decided are already illegitimate because of their choices. The bible says: ‘Love is patient, kind, it is not jealous, it doesn’t brag, it is not selfish or rude, angry or resentful. It hates injustice, it loves the truth, it bears all things, hopes all things – it is long-suffering.’ Love is an ETERNAL quality. We can’t afford to draw up our ‘holy robes’ around us anymore – our holy robes have holes in them that you can drive a truck through. If we are hiding any kind of sin from others, the Lord in His Grace will allow those things hidden in the darkness to come into the light. He is not punishing us – He is cleaning up His house. 

I believe we simply don’t know how to love anybody who lives their life in ways we find unacceptable. We think love is approval. We need to pray for real revelation about His idea of love – He loved us long before we arrived here! Jesus Christ had no qualms about touching the unclean … the religious people did! His power, glory and strength are released by loving others.

Maybe it is time to admit we were wrong and ask forgiveness for the way we have treated others. Humbling ourselves won’t kill us. Sin still remains sin – one is not worse than another. We also need to remember, many times it is the people in our own churches who have hurt others. The Body of Christ has misplaced our discernment and used religious rules to compensate. Then we boarded up, and sealed our hearts of compassion against the very people the Lord wants to speak to … and fear of contamination made us do it. We’ve thrown people into a pit of despair simply because we are not walking with Him – we need the Lord’s input, we need His heart! Gifts are not a sign of holiness – loving others in what we do and say is.

Jeremiah was thrown into a pit because what he said was unpopular, and the King didn’t want to enter that arena. We can’t afford to approve of sin because we are swayed by popularity, anymore than we can afford to label people and walk away from them. We need the Lord Himself “to extend the boundaries of our tents” and “pull up the stakes” we have driven into the ground, to define who we are, and what we believe. Popularity with man is not just political correctness – it’s also religion that can bind us. Look after widows and orphans instead – that’s true religion.

We are His people and we are so blessed, each one of us has been given a chance to change. Walking with the Spirit of the living God means that whoever we meet, will meet with the Lord Himself through us… then we leave the results to Him. Let’s extend His love to everybody, in the hope that we may see some saved, and refuse to judge because that leads to even more judgment. Our part is to extend Grace and Mercy to everyone, and focus on being a carrier of the Presence of God Himself. He has straightened US out, and we know He has the power to do that in other people’s lives.

Lastly, let’s value intimacy with Him above all else. We need to read the bible and do what it says, and love others, because love is our priority. Forget political correctness, and religion — we love people because He loved us first. Loving them does not mean we agree with them. Popularity, or unpopularity with mankind is over-rated. Bye. 👋.

P3409 Watch your head, Fred.

/ DVH

Years ago, there was a saying – “don’t get too big for your boots.” It was wise advice that warned anyone not to become fat headed in a situation that turned out very well. It means – don’t covet the applause. I think many of us can do this more easily than we care to admit, mainly because we need approval more often than we care to admit, and it can go to our heads!

Our Heavenly Father is so kind to us, but sadly we can start to think our church, or our denomination, are the only ones who have God’s favour. Mainly because of His gifts, or prevalent spiritual attitudes, someone’s ability to prophesy. At times we are influenced by the way we regard other people’s sin. EG: my sin is little … yours is … HUGE! “For who regards you as superior or what sets you apart as special? What do you have that you did not receive [from another]? And if in fact you received it [from God or someone else], why do you boast as if you had not received it [but had gained it by yourself]?” 1 Corinthians 4:7. That kind of puts a lid on it, doesn’t it?

There is a very important balance that we need to maintain in our lives, and we will definitely need the Lord’s help to do it. Being someone important in today’s church communities has perks. So if you are known as wise, or you have a visible gift, or you are seen as spiritual — people can treat you differently. They think you have some sort of formula that means you can tackle life better than they can. Christians do this because they only see the man or woman of God in front of them. They miss the marvellous, glorious, multi-faceted loving God behind them! It is error to focus on a person, not on the One Who has given us the gifts. We end up over-emphasising people, and ignoring or diminishing our God Who gave this gift to them, and the church.

So many Christians are following a man or woman! It is great to identify gifts, but if that person makes a mistake or falls down, we are more inclined to vilify them, instead of helping them up again. Human beings can’t live with that kind of intense scrutiny. What we are looking at when someone has these incredible gifts is God Himself in action, through a human being. That human being is fallible! But God is NOT. I’ve met many Christians who follow Brother I-have-the-gift-of-miracles, or Sister I-can-prophesy-at-the-drop-of-a-hat, but they left their church because the person they were following turned out to have feet of clay. We must look beyond the person and see our Generous Father Who loves to give and give and give.  Please, please don’t follow a person —FOLLOW JESUS! 

Love your pastor, support his ministry, and praise God for the man or woman of God and the gifts He has given them. Fantastic. But don’t put them in a place that was never theirs in the first place! This life has plenty of hard knocks in it, and it can turn anyone’s head to find that they are being appreciated for something that was given to them before they were ever born. Unfortunately those actions transform from faith in Almighty God, into a performance from the platform. We need a holy REVERENCE for God Himself…  “The reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is the beginning (the chief and choice part) of Wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight and understanding.” Proverbs 9:10. 

Let’s acknowledge what Father God has graciously given us when He gave us so many gifts — but those gifts will never surpass the generosity of the Giver.  When Ananias and Sapphira decided to be clever and cheat God — they got dead in the process. Those people who saw it fell on the their faces in the reverential fear of the Lord. They saw beyond those two dead people in front of them, to the God Who deserved far better … and they responded. We can wait for God to appear in our churches like He did that day with Ananias and Sapphira, or we can choose to get on our faces and give God the glory He will always deserve, right now! Whether we feel Him or not.

It is a terribly demeaning thing when we tolerate popularity in the church, and we choose to see one church as better than another. Our churches are to depend on Him, we do not control Him. He must always be in His rightful place. As the King of our hearts, our Saviour, our Lord, and our Master. It is always our joy to serve our King – even if we are cleaning out the church bathrooms.

Let’s remember that He is not with us to be at our beck and call. Before we got here He was here, when we’ve gone … He will still be here. That’s what everlasting means. It is not just a matter of respect, we all need more reverence. We can respect an enemy and still hate them. Reverence on the other hand, means we cherish every moment with Him. He’s the reason we get out of bed, each day. We listen carefully for a word, a whisper of our precious Saviour in our hearts. 

Too many greatly needed saints have fallen over because we’ve lost, a deep loving awe, and profound respect for our Heavenly Father. We put those poor people on a pedestal and they fell off! When and if God uses anyone, we need to watch our head, Fred, because human beings can quite easily get puffed up by acclaim. Bye 👋.

P 3189 Love looks like something.

/ DVH

At this time of the year, we are reminded that God’s love looks like a baby in a food trough, surrounded by His parents, animals, smelly unwashed shepherds, (no showers out there!) — and glorious angels lighting the sky, celebrating and singing the new baby off to sleep. That was one heck of a birth announcement! The Lord Jesus’ life was ended far too soon by jealous religious people who esteemed rules over love. If that happened to Him, then why are we surprised if unforeseen unpleasant things happen to us? Pure love will be opposed, because it challenges self-centredness. But, at the same time, it goes right around religion and hits people in the heart!

I think God’s Love looks like RISK. Following Jesus is a risky business. Unlike Forrest Gump’s naive, often quoted wisdom – “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get.” I disagree with that thought – MY box of chocolates comes with a list of yummy contents — and so do the Lord’s blessings. My list of blessings are in His book! Mercy, for instance, turns up fresh and new every morning! We are going to have to stay spiritually alert to find His blessings in the middle of this life’s chaos. And we will have to risk what we think we know, to receive from the One Who knows everything. 

Love also looks like not getting what we want, or even like. I’ve met that one. And afterward I’ve given thanks because what I thought I needed, turned out to be a set-up, wickedly provided by the enemy. If anything distracts us from God’s purposes – it’s a trap! The bible calls such things a snare. Whatever it is called, sometimes not getting what we pray for is a blessing! No matter how good, right and just it seems to us. We can pray for more money ‘cos we need it, or a house, or a spouse, only to find that the picture in our mind looks nothing like the reality. Almighty God saves us from ourselves all the time. Praise Him! That’s what I call LOVE.

Love looks like not giving someone else a piece of our mind …especially when very few people care about what we think! This kind of stuff becomes clearer when other people have misunderstood us. Or, even worse, they have misinterpreted our actions. Love looks a lot more like putting a sock in it, than it looks like starting a war over who said what!  I’ve noticed that our lives today seem to be more about making ME understood – than it is about ME understanding YOU! That’s a swing and a miss… plus it flies in the face of everything Jesus said and did.

I really like this scripture: “You have worn out the LORD with your words. And yet, you ask, “How did we do that?” You did it by saying, “The LORD is pleased with evil and doesn’t care about justice.” Malachi 2:17. Even God Himself – the inexhaustible source of all real love, can get sick and tired of our irrational, petty excuses and miserable attitudes. Love can look like taking the blame, whether it is our fault or not, and then asking the Lord to make the difference – instead of pulling out our trusty broad sword and whacking other people over the head with it. The bible is the very best kind of sword, it will cut people free. But .. it doesn’t injure them on purpose for the sake of winning an argument.

Love does not look like compromise.Tell me one time Jesus compromised what He said to make someone else happy! JESUS the LIVING WORD – is the stone that other people stumble over!  “And another scripture says, “This is the stone that will make people stumble, the rock that will make them fall.” They stumbled because they did not believe in the word; such was God’s will for them.” 1 Peter 2:8. Sometimes we can end up striving so hard to make disgruntled people happy! We can’t upset this group because of this … We can’t afford to upset that other group, because we want something from them…  …but nobody says that bit out loud!  

Adapting the Lord’s’ Word to make others feel comfortable, can cause us to compromise all over the place. That is part of our enemy’s most potent strategies. We can call it love, or inclusion, or sharing, but if we compromise on the little things, without His guidance, then compromising on the big things will get so much easier. Love  always has an opinion – HIS!

Love looks like making hard choices – it is not about what we think we want, or need. How can God bless us when we are so busy grabbing stuff for ourselves? This kind of attitude shows us clearly the actual level of our faith. It means we don’t believe He cares for us enough to provide for our needs. So we finagle our way through things instead of sitting back and saying: “If You want me to have such and such Lord, You will provide it.” And then we let those desires go.

Years ago, when my kids were small, we got rid of the TV. Why? Because every single time I spoke to them, all I saw was the back of their heads! It was the Lord’s idea … so we sold it. We were the only people we knew, who had no TV! My kids found ways to amuse themselves, it was a win, win kind of thing. In our news right now we have an uproar about taking away some things that facilitate wrong attitudes in young children, exposing them to all kinds of danger and misadventure. Many parents are scared of not being popular with their kids, but popularity is not an adult’s priority, safety is!

Love looks like boundaries and it also looks like leadership. It looks like kind and firm responses that care about young lives because maturity can see what will happen down the road. Love could care less about popularity, it wants what He wants. Bye 👋

P 3132 Don’t let money blind you!

/ DVH

“Instead, stockpile heavenly treasures for yourselves that cannot be stolen and will never rust, decay, or lose their value. For your heart will always pursue what you esteem as your treasure. “The eyes of your spirit allow revelation-light to enter into your being. If your heart is unclouded, the light floods in! But if your eyes are focused on money, the light cannot penetrate and darkness takes its place. How profound will be the darkness within you if the light of truth cannot enter!“ Matthew 6:22-23 TPT. 

Well, that all sounds pretty serious to me. Nobody wants to be that blind! Yet money is an issue for all of us – except the billionaires! Just in case someone might think that this scripture’s severe response is just the Passion Translation – here’s another one from NIV …“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”

This is my take on all of that:  we can put our money under our mattress, in a bank, or even in stocks and shares — nothing wrong with that – those things will give you interest. But they can also go belly-up and you could lose your investment. These words from Jesus are so appropriate. Investing in His kingdom produces eternal results. I love that word ‘stockpile.’When we give to the Lord, we are storing up blessings that can’t be pinched or eaten up by inflation.

And if you have ever lost your money because of adverse circumstances, then I think the word ‘thief’ is the first one that comes to mind! But when we put that money into the Lord’s work, we are putting it outside the reach of this world, into His kingdom, and at the same time we are releasing His kingdom to bless others. I like that. God’s bank contains multiple points or avenues for blessing, that this world can’t touch.

Meanwhile, who knew moths and rats and rust like to eat money? Not me! I do know rats and squirrels like to gnaw on wiring, now there’s another strange but true – and totally irrelevant fact! But the important bit is this …what we do with our money can have big ramifications on our spiritual lives. It can lock us in, and prevent us from letting in the very light that will transform us. But holding back is not good, you might even say it is like trying to see with your own hands over your eyes.

Revelation sometimes needs the right circumstances to flourish, and generosity is one of them. It takes faith to let God manage your money, and that faith opens our spiritual eyes to even more revelation about His loving kindness, goodness and mercy toward us, in other areas and arenas of our lives. It helps us focus on His kingdom, not this world.

This thought directly points to something Jesus said:“I have given them Your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.  My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.” John 17:14-17. It is part of Jesus’ directive to be in this world not OF it, so what we do with our money matters.

As you can see Christianity is not meant to win popularity contests – instead it is a totally different lifestyle. A new way of thinking. Things like giving to the Lord’s servants, His pastors, missionaries, teachers, evangelists;  plus helping and caring for the poor – including widows and orphans. God counts all that as giving to Him. He has taken up the cause for the poor, and He wants us to take it up too.

When we do that with our hard-earned money we won’t lose it. The Lord promises to return it to us in many, many other ways. In our household we’ve found that money comes back toward us to help us in a time of need. It also ushers in revelation from His Word when we read it or need it. Giving in faith releases a deeper understanding of what Jesus wants from us and for us. It’s a kingdom activity.

Giving away money that we rely upon, means we are making a choice to focus on His kingdom, His priorities, and His Way of thinking. It is another way to learn how to walk by faith. I have a fun thing to share that we do  about this subject. Before hubby and I go to the shops, even just to walk about, we always pray: “Dear Lord, help us to walk away from anything we do not need, and to find the things we came here for, and not to waste any of YOUR money.” Amen.

Every single time we come home we find that either we have spent no money at all – or we only bought what we went there for! It’s hilarious. At the same time we end up having God-encounters with people. Talk about spending money being a distraction! Whether we have lots or none, money can take up way too much of our thoughts.

I want to urge everyone reading this today to take the Lord seriously when He talks about money. It doesn’t have to be a lot of money. I realise many people have very little available finances, but I cannot recommend sacrificial giving more highly, as a way to learn to walk by faith. Don’t let money blind you! Bye. 👋

P 2713 Learn to BOW low.

/ DVH

“IF you bow low in God’s awesome presence, He will eventually exalt you as you leave the timing in His hands.” 1 Peter 5:6 TPT. Now here’s the rub, we cannot ‘bow low’ and have a secret expectation that at the end of our so-called humility we will be exalted. I think we’ve been reading many, if not ALL scripture promises, with the expectation of ‘what’s in it for ME’ — and we can become disappointed when we think that God has not honoured His promises. Bowing low is not necessarily a physical position – it is the position of an undivided heart.

Those verses we grab for our own benefit are revealing something to us about Him – and we are missing it. Yeah. And aren’t you glad I pointed that out?! For instance, the verse: “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you”tells us something about the Lord and what He is looking for from us – our participation. If we want to be close to the Lord we will have to go after Him first. I call this type of verse the “if” verses. If I do this then He will do that. And just who is in charge of that scenario?

In the past, many well-meaning people wanted to be seen and heard, perhaps because in their mind, it meant that others would hear or see what the Lord wanted to teach others.. They believed that meant that they would have a bigger stage to stand upon to speak His truth. Wrong! “For honour does not come from the east or the west or from the desert. But God is the One Who decides. He puts down one and brings respect to another.” Psalm 75:6,7. Recognition for us is God’s choice, not ours. We dare not manipulate others or even take advantage of situations, no matter how great the cause seems to be. Manipulation is not His Way.

Almighty God is interested in a great deal more than just our promotion and fame! Our new way of life is a spiritual way of life, it is not showy or competitive. Popularity or influence are not worth a hill of beans to the Lord. The Holy Spirit is the only influencer with a pure motivation, and we must learn to follow His Ways. It’s always our hearts that matter .. not popularity or influence. We can have thousands of followers on Instagram, or Facebook, and still have an impure ambitious, or even perhaps a needy heart. Philippians 4:19.

If I put one drop of poison into a glass of fresh, pure, spring water – would you still drink it? A pure heart wants what He wants and they are prepared to die to see that He gets it! That’s called devotion. But general applause, or even the size of any one congregation does not matter to the Lord. Jesus had hundreds of people who volunteered to be His disciples – yet Almighty God told Him to choose twelve. And one of them was not going to make the cut! 

Jesus trusted His Father and the Holy Spirit’s choices, that the men He chose would be the ones who spread the Word about God’s incredible love far and wide. And they did. Judas was the only one of those men with a divided heart. We are not told why he was like that, we are simply told that he handled the money somewhat carelessly. This is what I mean when I talk about having a divided heart – one of our regular prayers should be about not having one!

We cannot afford to let even little sin reign, even if it seems to be in a good cause … because sin will eventually drag us under and flavour everything around it. However, we always have a Way Out of sin. “You are my dear children, and I write these things to you so that you won’t sin. But if anyone does sin, we continually have a forgiving Redeemer who is face-to-face with the Father: Jesus Christ, the Righteous One”. I John 2:1. Silently waiting for our spiritual abilities to be “discovered” is still an agenda! Our only aim needs to be to that others see Him.

‘Bowing low’ is our way of life. It means whether others think we are right or wrong – we bow down to the Lord’s wishes and let Him exonerate us when He thinks the time is right. People with a heart like this don’t care if our only service is putting out the chairs at church! We do what we do with all our hearts as though we were putting out chairs for Jesus Himself!

I have known totally devoted, utterly beautiful chair-putter-outer-ers! 😂 They did not see this task as a tiny task, and it was not menial to them. Instead they prayed over each chair that each person who sat on it would be blessed, healed, delivered and discover more about Christ. They treated that  task like the pastor treated His sermon – as devotion to Almighty God!“Whatsoever you do, do it with all your heart as though you were doing it for the Lord.” This BTW, is now one of my new all time favourite verses!

Let’s remember that pride took lucifer out of a realm of honour, and put him into the unenviable place of being a permanent enemy. And the best thing we can do when we discover any sort of pride is to humble ourselves before God, and others, as well as confess our faults. The true diagnosis of a proud heart is that they have secret agendas.  They have a desperate need to always be right, and other people’s needs are secondary to their own.

Bowing low is not just an outward action, it is an inner stance of our hearts. Bless you as you serve our King! 👑

P 2705 On being tested.

/ DVH

Jesus Christ, God’s precious Son, became a man. He respected and obeyed what His Father wanted above His own personal needs and ideas. He lived, and then He chose to die, in accordance with His Father’s will. He is our example of how to deal with temptations. Right at the very beginning of His ministry, the Lord Jesus was thoroughly tested, under extreme circumstances. FYI, that is recorded in Matthew 4:1-11, and Luke 4:1-13. Jesus came through it all, despite the incredible hardship He faced. But He met with the Holy Spirit and POWER on the other side of that test. This is a great place to stop, and think about what that means to ME. 🤔

The Lord personally demonstrated and proclaimed during this testing time, that the way for human beings to live – is primarily by the Word of God. He did this, under dire circumstances, live and in person, in front of His enemy. That is when He put a stamp on the scriptures as our primary source of spiritual food and defensive weapons..

After that, in the second temptation, His enemy offered Him physical well being, protection and personal safety – for the exorbitant fee of worshippinghim. Jesus refused to have anything to do with getting where He needed to go using His enemy’s help. He responded to this temptation with another scripture. Making it clear that He was not going to trust in anything but God’s Word to care for Him. The truth set Him free. Another good spot to stop and think about what that shows me! 🤔

The last and final temptation was that His enemy would give Him everything He came to do, without making the ultimate sacrifice. Our enemy tried to blind the Lord with success, which included the price tag of saving the world … without Him having to die. It looked like an easy answer, but it involved putting this world into satan’s hands permanently. 

I believe we all face temptations, often we face them daily. We are tempted to lose heart, and put our faith and hope down. Sometimes we are tempted to live by what Brother so and so says, and when we do that means we have put the Word of God second. We are taking another man’s interpretation of the scripture over what God wants to say to US, personally. The most valuable thing we have is our bible… obedience to what is commanded in that book is incredibly personally powerful. When we choose to live by His words — instead of our circumstances, or experiences, or what someone else thinks — we elevate Almighty God in our lives to His rightful place as GOD!

Secondly, there are times when we too are tempted and tested regarding our participation in whatever needs to be done in His kingdom, by methods other than FAITH. Things like clever marketing, slick presentations, and popularity without us having to make sacrifices. The Word of God is powerful all by itself, it does not need to be marketed! In the hands of someone who is obedient to the Holy Spirit, His Word will cut between human thoughts and intentions and go right into the heart of any matter. On that day in Christ’s life – it cut the enemy to pieces! When we rely upon our own skills and energies we are succumbing to the temptation to help God out, and so the accolades may go to a person, instead of the One Who made us and deserves our worship.

I think Father God is very particular about where our worship goes, because: a/ He is a jealous God. And: b/ our frame is not strong enough to be able to manage the kind of praise and worship that belongs to Him – alone. However, His power will flow quite naturally through our lives as we learn to resist temptation and live in obedience. There is always a way through whatever is going on, we just ask Him for His help! Christ was led into the wilderness, by the Holy Spirit — but He came out IN THE POWER of the Holy Spirit. Facing temptation and overcoming it, is part of our growth process – it is meant to test and stretch our faith and resolve to rely upon God and His Word. That means it will hurt!

The bible says this about being tested:“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed.”1 Peter 4:12&13. And in James 1:2&3: “My fellow believers, when it seems as though you are facing nothing but difficulties, see it as a valuable opportunity to experience the greatest joy you can! For you know that when your faith is tested, it stirs in you the power of endurance.”

Let’s reflect for a minute – in Jesus, Father God finally had a man He could talk to and trust. Just imagine the depth and breadth of the Lord Jesus’ faith!! God’s will was His only aim! In this world we will face trials and tests, but we do not face them alone. Praise God, our knowledge of His Word is our personal shield of faith. Jesus Himself overcame our enemy, and because of what He did on the cross, we can too. Now we can walk forward like Sons and Daughters of the Most High God. Bye. 👋

“Let me emphasize this: As you yield to the dynamic life and power of the Holy Spirit, you will abandon the cravings of your self-life.”Galatians 5:16 TPT.

P 2606 Look for hidden gems.

/ DVH

‘With this in mind, we constantly pray that our God will empower you to live worthy of all that He has invited you to experience. And we pray that by His power all the pleasures of goodness and all works inspired by faith would fill you completely.” 2 Thessalonians 1:11 TPT. Now that’s a prayer! Amen.

I don’t know what you do when you read prayers like this, but the first thing I do is pray them for myself! I need all the help I can get – especially when it comes to leading a life worthy of Christ’s sacrifice for me. 🤯 I know that Paul prayed this prayer for his church family in Thessaloniki but the miracle is – we can participate in that prayer today because it’s’ in the book! It’s a hidden gem that will help increase our passion for Christ and His calling on our lives. I personalise prayers from the bible all the time.

Paul prays here for all of us to be empowered to the point that we fulfil our destiny in Christ. BIG prayer. HUGE. He is also praying from an established place. He says “with this in mind” –  that means he’s not ‘hope’ praying, he’s praying using his established faith in God’s goodness and ability, to ask for the answer. He has something in his mind as he prays for us  … a place that he knows well, because he lives there. There is nothing more inspiring than the passion that has personal knowledge of the circumstances.

But let’s look at what he is not praying for – he’s not praying for us to have happy lives, plenty of money, safe places to live, and an easy life!! Instead, Paul’s praying for a worthy life for each one of us. Amen!  He wants us to have increased experiences with God’s goodness so that we are inspired into more faith. Here’s another version of the same verse … (NIV)“With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling, and that by His power He may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.”

I like that one too! To start with it puts Almighty God firmly in charge of my transformation. That does not mean I sit back on my hands and do nothing – it means I tap into His power and begin to do whatever He asks me to do, using my faith. I’ve been assured, by reading verses like this one, that this power has already been made available to me! This power is the power to be transformed and it activates, as I develop a passion to know Him and want to be like Him.

It also means whatever I do, I respond with my own faith.The great thing about this verse is it is not a wish prayer. It is healthy to put our faith in the One Who started this new life for us in the first place! You and I have nothing to contribute here but our obedience and our love for Him, plus our utter gratefulness for all He has done for us. I’ve found that I need to pursue my desire to be like Jesus. He died to give me that total transformation. That is what I call passion. 

Passion should not be reduced to simply singing worship songs loudly etc. Passion is a driving life-force not just a momentary thing. In this world’s thought processes, ‘passion’ comes and goes so quickly — we have lost its meaning. Some people fall in love and then just as quickly, fall out of it. That fact alone tells me that human beings know absolutely nothing about passion or love. I like what one person said about that subject. ‘Anything you can fall into you can fall out of!’ I call that very powerful feeling this world acknowledges … LUST. Passion is not a feeling, it is a directional life-force that pulls us along. 

Today, people can get ‘passionate’ about rebuilding cars, or sport, or movies etc. But passion is more than feelings, it is a strong devotion to something outside ourselves. Actually, I think that passion turned inwards, is called narcissism! We can become so devoted to self-preservation, recognition and popularity, that other people and their needs disappear. However, the best place for passion to be born and maintained is through the Spirit of the Living God Himself – He is the Author of the kind of passion that does not fade – it increases. 

Our passion to know Him and be transformed motivates forward movement in our faith. It is way more than a feeling that pulls us to our knees at an altar — it is the driving force that stands firm in the heat of strong temptation. It is as alive and well when we are all alone at 3.00am, as it is in church. Passion is a hidden gem. It inspires increased intentional devotion, and a life laid down for His sake. 👋

P 2533 Hold fast to what is good and right.

/ DVH

1 Samuel 22:6-8 “Now Saul heard that David and his men had been discovered. And Saul was seated, spear in hand, under the tamarisk tree on the hill at Gibeah, with all his officials standing at his side. He said to them, “Listen, men of Benjamin! Will the son of Jesse give all of you fields and vineyards? Will he make all of you commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds? Is that why you have all conspired against me? No one tells me when my son makes a covenant with the son of Jesse. None of you is concerned about me or tells me that my son has incited my servant to lie in wait for me, as he does today.”

It is a good thing to listen to the way that these guys in the Old Testament, talk. Did you notice that King Saul has gone right around God Himself being in charge, and is acting like this is a competition between him and David? The Lord is left right out of this picture. Saul is exhibiting one of satan’s nastiest prods: ‘Troops, you’ve let me down! Remember, I have all the power to make or break your lives and David doesn’t!.’  Guilt is a terrible evil motivator  — a poor freedom fighter – it isn’t from GOD.

Do you know the saying… there is nothing new under the sun? Right there in 1st Samuel, satan is using his power to persuade Saul that power, results and might are right. In other words it’s OK to manipulate men for a good cause. But the actual good cause is really Saul’s cause!  That’s a great clue to help us figure out just who is talking to us when we are desperate for answers... who will ultimately benefit? What this king is saying is a twisted highly manipulative truth – Saul’s power was limited by God’s WILL.  Almighty God was WITH David, He WAS NOT with Saul!

Manipulation, judgment or the ‘end justifies the means’ – those thoughts should not exist in the Lord’s church. Have you ever heard someone say this – ‘that church has 4,000 people and this one only has 30?’ The implication is the second church is doing something wrong! Like numbers or popularity are a sign of success in the Lord! God’s ways are not our ways. He used 300 men to defeat without number when He chose Gideon as a leader. And the Lord’s fruit does not always show up with numbers! Jesus Christ was everlastingly fruitful with 11 men!

At the same time, any kind of spiritual gift manifesting itself does not mean we have immediately toddle off and start using it. This is why an anointing or a gift need to be submitted to the pastor. Proverbs 4:5-7 teaches us – “Get wisdom, get understanding: Forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: Love her, and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: And with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee:” There is a good way, and a right way of doing things. Let other people you trust supervise you. 

The bible is a WHOLE BOOK – we dare not cherry-pick our motivation or our answers. We should not even think about prophesying all over people’s lives without wisdom. Recognising a gift is not activating it. No matter how well intentioned we are, quite often we do not even know the state of our own hearts and that will affect what we say and do towards others.The body of Christ needs spiritually gifted people, but we need WISDOM just as much. The Holy Spirit is the source of our wisdom.

He likes to lead us through difficult circumstances to the other side, because as we follow Him we gain wisdom along the way! So many people have stumbled over the temptation to rush rush, hurry hurry ahead of God. He lives in eternity – He doesn’t have to hurry! He doesn’t care about popularity either!! Gifted people can go into ministry because it has been recognised that they have a wonderful gift from God, and that gift blesses others and has great results! But only God Himself knows what’s inside us that can shoot us in the foot down the road. Ask yourself regularly in any form of ministry – where is the fruit? What does the fruit of this tree look like?

Also, having a gift does not mean you are ready to use it, or the world around you is ready to receive it! Our God is way more interested in our character than we’ve understood so far. He wants to repair and inhabit our lives. Just because other people have responded to His gift in your life don’t be fooled… always, always remember that gift you have is still His! It is a GIFT— not a REWARD FOR GOOD BEHAVIOUR! He gave it to you to build up His church, not just build your own ministry. 

God’s power can be so awe-inspiring, when others see it operating through a person they start to elevate the person. Plus spiritually gifted people sometimes do the right things for the wrong reasons! They are deceived by satan into believing acting like this is for the greater good… “People are getting saved Lord!” Hallelujah! – but we always want Jesus to shine like the SUN — not just some here again, gone again shooting star! King Saul had no love for God or his men – he was too busy trying to get David out of the picture. Our  Lord is a master-craftsman – He forms His swords … His servants — in the fire of adversity or the heat of His personal gaze. As His servants we need to learn to be resilient and tough.

A really good blacksmith can take three strands of metal and twist, weave, beat and forge those three strands into ONE SWORD. This kind of sword can take knocks, and rebound without shattering. Our precious Heavenly Father doesn’t want any of us to break in the battles of this life, He wants us to defeat our foe. Father God wants us to have and live under, the three-fold, tightly woven cord of Himself, His Son and the Holy Spirit. Otherwise like King Saul, we could easily mistake having POWER, for BEING RIGHT and the Lord’s badge of approval.

The Trinity long to become so woven into our thinking, doing and being, that people like King Saul will taste bad to us. However, in order to resist temptation, we must first be able to identify it. Only by God’s Grace and wisdom, we’ll be able to avoid deception, because what the Trinity wants is everything  we want!  The Lord’s army won’t have any ambition, good or bad. Their only aim will be to please Him, and hold fast to what is good and right. Fame and power can spoil people. It goes to their head. Look what it did to Saul, it made him into a megalomaniac and liar – among other things!  Gaining wisdom is incredibly important – it means we have learnt to walk with the Spirit of God. 🙌

P 2521 The cross needs to be at the centre of everything.

/ DVH

One day, everything in this universe will bend its knees to what Christ did!1 Corinthians 1:17 says:“And I declare this message stripped of all philosophical arguments that empty the cross of its true power. For I trust in the all-sufficient cross of Christ alone.”Our God tells us He is a jealous God, and the Apostle Paul recognised, understood and respected and honoured that fact, in all of his ways. That man lived his life gratefully.

Paul has a huge discourse in 1 Corinthians 1 because some of the members of the Corinthian church were polarising about who baptised them, and they had divided themselves into factions, under a man’s name. These people were trying to make themselves look important by association. However, Paul could not give two hoots about any of that nonsense … he is not spreading the gospel for popularity. He is constrained by the Holy Spirit to make Christ famous. Our single-mindedness is important.

Paul speaks to these factional people very strongly. His point is that we are all baptised into Christ … not Joe Blogs or Tom Smith … In other words some guys who happen to be prophetic or have a healing ministry. These men and others like them, are just His vehicles, Christ Himself is our whole salvation and destination. Christ living in us is our hope of glory!  It is good to realise that we can be distracted, and we can end up following somebody else whose doctrine appeals to us. But salvation comes from Christ alone, and it’s all in THE BOOK. We have been promised so many things in that wonderful book, but think on this; “would you give care of your car keys to a four year old?” Salvation is the beginning, we need to let Him mature us.

Christ is the centre of our faith. But when we treat the Lord and His death like a commodity, and disrespect what Father God has done for us, we are walking on thin ice. When Jesus died for us, He exchanged His life, His favour with God, His obedience, His humility, His purity of heart and focus, and devotion … for our sins. We can easily be dragged away by our own wilful carelessness, ignorance, and blatant disregard for other people, plus our disobedience, and distinct lack of true reverence for Who Almighty God is!  What is important is not just being saved at an altar — but letting the Holy Spirit transform our hearts INTO an altar for God Himself. We live this life we have now for His sake.

If Christ Himself was not willing to grasp at His Heavenly Father’s glory, then it follows that as His followers, we too need to follow His example.“And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine Own Self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.”John 17:5. Jesus Christ’s sacrifice started before He was born here. It started when He chose to give up every right and privilege He had as God’s only begotten Son to leave heaven and be born here! That is the reason I exhort us all to daily linger at the foot of the cross. 

We cannot afford to be seduced away from our destiny by any one person who has a mighty anointing. That’s what the members of the church at Corinth were doing. They started following and giving their allegiance to the MEN who baptised them, and what they said. We need to thank Almighty God that He gave His gifts to men – but remain steadfast to the One Who gave them. It is in our own best interests to pay attention to what Almighty God likes, and what He doesn’t like and it’s all in the book! That’s the real reason that we ‘hide His word in our hearts’ … ‘so we may not sin against Him.’ .

Salvation isn’t just something we do once, and then we have a free ticket to heaven so we are safe. Salvation is a process, one we participate in. It is a life that choses to be laid down deliberately for Christ’s sake. We were saved and now we are daily in the process of being saved. It is a lifetime filled with moment by moment decisions to follow the way of the cross. It means we live for Him now. Every time we choose His will, His way, we die to the old way we lived before, and we are choosing to live our lives glorifying the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. He breathes His life into us, minute by minute, so we can continually walk with Christ. Our job now is to co-operate with what the bible says, and follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit!

The Holy Spirit of the Living God is going to confront areas in our lives that need change. The fight we fight daily to be transformed is about learning to yield plus learning to overcome. It is not easy, nor does it come naturally. This fight means we are taking God at His Word, and we are responding with obedience. It is the fight to prevail that matters. Remember, Jesus Himself did not want to go to the cross. He has personally shown us it can be hard to do the will of God. That is why we have the Helper Who is always available. There is no greater destiny for any one of us than to live and die for God’s glory. That’s what our Lord Jesus did. His cross needs to be at the centre of our lives.  🙌