Power of God

P 3205 A Clear Focus.

/ DVH

“We look away from the natural realm and we focus our attention and expectation onto Jesus Who birthed faith within us and Who leads us forward into faith’s perfection. His example is this: Because His heart was focused on the joy of knowing that you would be His, He endured the agony of the cross and conquered its humiliation, and now sits exalted at the right hand of the throne of God!” Hebrews 12:2 TPT.

If that scripture doesn’t move our hearts toward total surrender then I don’t know what will! The idea and actuality of  “…knowing you would be His …” is something none of us have earned or deserved. Even our desire to follow Jesus, wholeheartedly, or not … comes from the One Who birthed our faith on a cross, as He hung there dying. The thing is, I’ve noticed many Christians act like dying to self is an optional extra. It isn’t. 

Because we have been born again. and made the choice to participate in the obedient act of baptism — all that is a declaration of our intent to die to self. Now, day by day we live out that intention by monitoring and adapting our own choices, with His help. It may be a choice, but if we choose not to die, we won’t produce fruit. “Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies …”  Many Christians live in this nether world. They feel like failures because they can’t produce the stuff, and yet they long to please their Lord with all their hearts. Because they don’t know what comes AFTER baptism.

It is only when we choose to focus on dying to self daily, that we will find the new life Jesus talked about all the time. Every time we say ‘no’ to self and ‘yes’ to Him, we are choosing to die, and His spiritual fruit of self-control begins to build and grow inside us. It takes a while for a nub on an apple tree to grow a fully mature apple. But the thing is – that apple doesn’t leap on and off the tree during the process! It clings to the tree because the apple tree provides the nutrients for it to grow. Jesus said in John 15:4: “Remain in Me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me.”  Let’s choose to know what Jesus said, thought, and did — because that is now the source of His life in us. We live as He lived, through our own freely-made choices, because we trust Him.

Clinging to Jesus is the only way we can grow. What He did at Calvary and in His death, has out-of-this-world  power to overcome, in it. “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.” Matthew 28:16. In this particular scripture, the Lord had already conquered death, defeated the devil and his minions, and now He is returning to hand over the reins to His disciples. We don’t participate in the power of God by simply claiming it, we operate in the power of God by believing what He said and acting on it. Our decisive death to self opens the door to living differently. We will not misuse Christ’s power when we learn about the cost, personally! 

His power has been given to us, and is available to us, to appropriate. So now we can leave being selfish, self-centred, and our uncaring self, behind – and grow into lovers of Jesus, who would gladly die for Him and others! Now we choose to daily walk as He walked, in humility, with His love for His Father guiding His every step. Jesus treasured His fellowship with His Heavenly Father. So He made hard decisions, against Himself, and His preferences, in order to walk with His Father, and bring heaven down here to earth.

Every step of faith we take, under the Holy Spirit’s guidance frees us from the chains, distractions and tyrannies of this world. Don’t let the words, death, dying, unselfish etc. put you off. We don’t do any of this in our own  strength, our obedience flows as we choose His ways. We grow there, one choice at a time. I read the bible, and I can see what God wants for me, so I just do what He says! This process may be progressive, but it was never designed to be static. Progressive, forward movement is part of the deal. We participate in growing fruit by clinging to the vine, that is Christ, and through that we learn how to live a life of Love.

“For we reach the goal of fulfilling all the commandments when we love others deeply with a pure heart, a clean conscience, and sincere faith.” 1 Timothy 1:5. It’s the way we love, that affects our hearts. The pure heart, clean conscience and sincere faith comes AS we learn to walk with the Holy Spirit. In the beginning, it seems like trial and error, but as we keep choosing Him and keep walking with Him, we discover that loving others starts to flow. Whenever we say or do something dumb, now we will want to immediately repent. WHY? Because we are walking with LOVE Himself and He is a joy to walk with.

The more you walk with Him, the more you want to walk with Him. Our focus changes from ‘me and what I want’to seeking ‘His kingdom and what He wants.’  I no longer have to make myself witness it begins to leak out of me. The other day I grabbed a lady’s hand and just started praying for her – and I didn’t even ask her permission! I was half-way through praying when I realised, I may have committed some sort of human faux pas! In those moments He’s just as real to other people as He is to you. Let us steadfastly, devotedly, and clearly focus our attention on the things that last.  Bye. 👋

P 3145 Who Am I now?

/ DVH

Our identity is IN CHRIST. So if I want to find the real me, I can’t look in the mirror, or even at what our society says about who we are, or what we think we are. We will need to look into the mirror of His Word. Unfortunately, that’s also the place where we will discover the places where we are unlike Him as well! And our destiny lies in what we choose to do about those things. When we brush His Word aside, we can end up going round and round chasing the things of this world.. 

Romans 6:6-14 (bits of it) “For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, [that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin… …In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to Him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.”

What Paul is saying here, is that the way we regard ourselves now we are alive in Christ, matters. We have not been set free to please ourselves, we have been set free specifically so we can choose to obey Him. At the same time we no longer have to sin – those desires and their accompanying actions went to the cross with Jesus so we don’t have to live with them anymore. When we choose to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow Him, every day, we are choosing God’s way over our own. 

Then we have put away the immediate gratification of indulging our feelings, or what we think we want, in favour of giving God what He wants.That’s when we act like His kids and begin to become more than conquerors. The biggest enemy in our lives for us to conquer, is the enemy of SELF, not somebody else. We must put away our old attitudes, hurts, actions, and the past, and begin to renew our minds by reading and obeying the Word.

The Lord Jesus was motivated and activated by what His Father wanted. Did He feel like it? We certainly know of one occasion when He didn’t!  But we are clearly told that Jesus was mirroring our Father’s attitude toward us and sin, and that helps us to see Father God more clearly. When our desire to please our Heavenly Father overcomes what we imagine that we want, we will begin to walk like Christ did. His Grace, and the power of God is there with us to undergird us, as we step forward into a brand new way of thinking about this life. This process is not a happy walk in the park! Each one of us still has some sort of wilfulness and a desire to get our own way, inside us. 

The Lord wants us to choose to do what He has said in His book, simply because we love Him and want to be with Him. Personally I am learning that I want the Holy Spirit’s guidance in my life – more than I want my own way. But it still can end up in a real wrestling match, especially in these dark times when everything we see around us is about self-gratification! Also we can each have a poor perception of what we can really accomplish –  mainly because we’ve been acting a certain way all our lives, and it seems insurmountable to us to act differently.

The point is what Joshua said: “Choose this day Who you will serve … as for me and my household we will serve the Lord!” Our obedience comes down to our choices. And when we choose His way, we will die a little. Personally, I have found that being dead looks much better than having my own way! Yes really!! Father God can do a great deal with even one ordinary person who is happy to stop living for themselves and start living for Jesus’ sake.

We simply don’t have to be slaves to sin anymore. Jesus Himself personally showed us the way through that trap – obedience to God’s Word works! Romans 6:17-18 “But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” When we see something in the book that the Lord told us to do, that’s when we pray, ask for His help and go out and co-operate with Him.

It is good to ask the Holy Spirit if we are a slave to anything other than Jesus’ righteousness. There is no shame in discovering places inside your life where we’ve been trapped by our own dumb choices. But because we can see it, that means we need to pray over whatever it is, repent, and ask Him to show us the way through it. Then we go out and live differently. So, instead of saying something inflammatory, now we deliberately choose to go with love, kindness and patience etc …

Here’s a tiny clue that helps me: Pray first. Secondly, don’t expect happy feelings to overcome you, this is about stretching your faith. It hurts – just like stretching out a calf muscle will hurt! Find out what the Lord thinks in the bible, and do that. Things can seem to be very entrenched into our personalities – so repetition also helps! That’s how I learn who I am. I am His child, learning His Ways, because He chose to love me first. Bye. 👋

P 3138 Be real.

/ DVH

Let’s actively work at being real. We have all become so tied up in our own thoughts and superficial communications with each other, that we are barely skimming the surface of what God intended to exist within the Body of Christ. One of our greatest strengths is being over-looked — it’s becoming one with each other. Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 12:12-27.

“There is one body, but it has many parts. But all its many parts make up one body. It is the same with Christ. We were all baptised by one Holy Spirit. And so we are formed into one body. It didn’t matter whether we were Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free people. We were all given the same Spirit to drink. So the body is not made up of just one part. It has many parts.

Suppose the foot says, “I am not a hand. So I don’t belong to the body.” By saying this, it cannot stop being part of the body. And suppose the ear says, “I am not an eye. So I don’t belong to the body.” By saying this, it cannot stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, how could it hear? If the whole body were an ear, how could it smell?  God has placed each part in the body just as hHe wanted it to be.  If all the parts were the same, how could there be a body?  As it is, there are many parts. But there is only one body.

The eye can’t say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” In fact, it is just the opposite. The parts of the body that seem to be weaker are the ones we can’t do without. The parts that we think are less important we treat with special honour. The private parts aren’t shown. But they are treated with special care. The parts that can be shown don’t need special care. But God has put together all the parts of the body. And He has given more honour to the parts that didn’t have any. In that way, the parts of the body will not take sides. All of them will take care of one another. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honoured, every part shares in its joy. You are the body of Christ. Each one of you is a part of it.”

This is a huge portion of scripture, but I believe it is often overlooked – except when we squabble with each other about which gift is important! Somehow we have convinced ourselves that having coffee and cake in the break at church means we are having real fellowship. I don’t think that for minute. Many churches seem to rely upon the individual to care for themselves, so what about the verses that talk about ‘one another?’ I believe that praying for something that someone mentioned in the coffee and cake time … can be incredibly important.  People need to know they are loved, and cherished by the Lord, and us, at all times!  And the Holy Spirit wants to use each one of us to communicate those things to each other. 

I go to a church that has members all around the city I live in. Most of those church members work, so they don’t have “spare time” during the week. So when can we minister to one another? My answer is simple – do it at church, do it on the phone, do it by TEXT!  Ask the person who is suffering: ‘Would you like me to pray with you about that?’ If they say ‘yes’ then do it. If their pain is enough to make them uncomfortable or cry in front of you, then my advice is pray for them! We are not the ANSWER to each other’s prayers — but we can hold up someone’s arms when the heaviness of their pain means they feel they can’t go on. We need to join our prayers with anyone who is suffering, instead of saying: “I’ll pray for you” – do it NOW, on the spot!” 

That person who is not coping, is an elbow, or a toe in the Body of Christ and I should no more ignore their pain, than I would ignore physical pain in my own body. I once broke a teeny tiny bone in my foot. On the grand scale of things it was nothing, but it hurt anyway! And it meant I couldn’t walk properly or do any of the normal things that happened in my day. Pain is a terrible thing when you feel all alone. But if you know someone else cares about you enough to hold you up before His throne of Grace – then you begin to feel a little better. Make it a habit, when you meet with other Christians to make sure you ask: “Does anyone need prayer?”

Many churches have people in them who are shy or inexperienced with extemporaneous prayer. Because they are not in leadership roles, they can feel their prayers are minor. The power of God operates when we take faith steps – He healed Naaman, the Syrian commander, because a little girl was brave and spoke up. Let’s actively encourage the Body to minister healing, help, kindness, wherever they can. We make time for the sermon, and the worship and the announcements – how about we make time to minister to each other? 

Church members need an opportunity to help, to take a risk, and pray for someone else. A bonus benefit is that they will gain more trust and faith, when they realise they too can hear God well enough to help somebody. That is irreplaceable gain. It means the stress to be everybody, to everyone, comes off the leaders. The barriers that hold us back from gaining further knowledge of each other, must come down. You may not think you pray all that well, but when God Himself answers your prayers for your brother or sister – you knock that lie into the bin where it belongs.

I once prayed out loud in a prayer meeting, and I hadn’t met Jesus yet! I sure fooled the other participants, they didn’t talk to me about the gospel for months, they thought I already knew the Lord. Just because I prayed aloud in a group!  I think it is time we were REAL with each other. BTW, there’s nothing realer than “confessing your faults to one another.” Bye. 👋 

P 3116 Let’s quit labelling people.

/ DVH

“Now, even though I am free from obligations to others, I joyfully make myself a servant to all in order to win as many converts as possible. I became Jewish to the Jewish people in order to win them to the Messiah. I became like one under the law to gain the people who were stuck under the law, even though I myself am not under the law. And to those who are without the Jewish laws, I became like them, as one without the Jewish laws, in order to win them, although I’m not outside the law of God but under the law of Christ. I became “weak” to the weak to win the weak. I have adapted to the culture of every place I’ve gone so that I could more easily win people to Christ. I’ve done all this so that I would become God’s partner for the sake of the gospel.” 1 Corinthians 9:19-23TPT.

Hubby and I have discovered that ‘sorting’ people in our minds into groups, is detrimental to sharing our faith, so we’ve stopped doing it. We decided what Paul says is extremely valuable in everyday life. What I mean by this is, we can inwardly categorise other people as ‘Christian’ or ‘non-Christian.’ And that the result of that is we speak differently to those-who don’t-know-Him-yet. Here’s some free advice — treat everybody the same!

We were convicted by the Holy Spirit that living like that, is His Way. Believers, non-believers, people of another faith … these are all people Jesus died for and His chosen sacrifice for them makes them worthy of our love, attention and respect. The church seems to have delegated the power of God to just few brothers and sisters, who we thought were more holy than us because when they prayed for people we saw results. Now everybody else is just supposed to muddle along – making sure the flowers are done for Sunday, and leaving spiritual things to the more spiritual people! Rhubarb. I can’t think of a single part of my body I don’t need. What army sends only its generals off to war and leaves the troops behind?

Most people are content to go to church and be nice to everyone around them, in the hope that the-people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet would want to come to church with us and be like us. And … … how-zat-workin’-out-for-ya?? We seem to be unaware that the reality of God Himself is present among us at church, because He promised to be there. And I don’t care if you sit in a pew or on a deck chair in the park!“Wherever two or more are gathered in My Name!!…” Let’s put our Saviour back where He belongs – in the centre – not doctrines or sermons. And let’s do it simply because He belongs there. We cannot afford to major on rules instead of love. We are clearly instructed “…to owe no man anything but love..”and God is not just talking about MONEY. 

The thing is, Love doesn’t play favourites. It treats everyone it meets with Grace, and kindness, simply because everybody is made in His image. One of the most important things that can fall off when we skip over our devotion to Him, is that we quickly revert to religious form, without any power!

Jesus is not partisan. He treated everyone around Him as His Father’s children. That included Roman soldiers, His disciples, Jarius, Pontius Pilate, Samaritans, etc., the Lord responded to everyone and anyone who spoke to Him and He didn’t bother to check their credentials. Jesus answered people’s questions and prayed for them for healing and deliverance with no prejudice or restriction at all. They were not required to get baptised or to follow Him – in order to be healed.

Instead LOVE motivated everything He did.“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.” Revelation 22:17. Jesus says: ‘come” and … so does HIS BRIDE! The only prerequisite for preaching to people seems to me to be that they want to hear, and they are thirsty!

If we feel like we need to force what we say out, the other person will notice. Instead we need to reverence His Presence in every part of our daily lives, so we when talk about Jesus that’s what will show. Let’s bring Him into our everyday conversation and say things like: “When I talked to the Lord this morning He said this!”“God’s been teaching me about Himself.”  Let’s outwardly make Him a part of our everyday lives and not be sour, like a pickle, toward  other people if they swear. 

Let’s talk about Him to everybody, not just brothers and sisters in the Lord. When hubby and I do this we have only experienced astonishment from others. Wherever they are and whatever they believe. And then they cry! Because they never thought God cared about them enough to want to speak to them! They all know they don’t belong to our club! Our exclusiveness is excluding ordinary people who might want to know.

What I’ve learnt from Jesus’ example is GOD LOVES ALL HIS KIDS. Whatever colour, race, creed, religion they have – He regards each one  as His own.They don’t have to join a church, to be told HE LOVES THEM. Hubby and I refuse to own any denomination when we are talking to others. The Lord wants to touch their hearts not their heads!

The only difference between the-people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet, and you or me – is His GRACE. I never talk about doctrine, because that stuff can divide people, I just say whatever He tells me to say. Mentally sorting people into categories is odious, so let’s repent, and quit doing it, and treat everyone we meet as our Father’s kid instead. Inclusion is powerful. Bye. 👋

P 3115 Obedience is action.

/ DVH

We sometimes kid ourselves about stuff in our lives that we cannot seem to overcome and say: ’God will understand.’ Yes He does, praise Him! The Lord knows we are all just glorified dust. But that is not our cue to merrily go on our way, and do nothing about whatever our problem is. His understanding, comfort and compassion are not His permission to continue down that road.

Jesus bore those weaknesses of ours upon Himself on the cross —He totally identified with us in our weaknesses … and then He overpaid. He took those things on Himself so we can live free of them! When something is already paid for, you don’t have to pay for it, again. But ignoring our flaws, weaknesses and ongoing battles with sinful attitudes, means we are postponing the power of God in and through our lives for everyone else’s good. A part of our inheritance is to be able to overcome sin with His power.

Hypothetically, if Abraham had just said “Yes,” to God and he didn’t start walking and following the Lord to the Promised land – he would not have had an heir from his own body! Those steps he took were obedience in action, and each one increased the patriarch’s faith. We must choose to step into our God-given inheritance, and live like Jesus did, by faith. Obedience reveals our inheritance. It is fatal to faith to cling to our weaknesses like they are some sort of excusable behaviour. Some of that junk we’ve been cultivating and giving into for years is destructive to US and others.

When things get hard in our lives, it means our Father knows we can get through them with His help — He strengthens us against the things that try to paralyse us. He stretches our faith so we can face what comes next. Have you ever wondered why somethings that used to flatten you are no longer that powerful in your life? Almighty God had mercy upon you and helped you. We can never do any of this by ourselves. The Holy Spirit wants to help us… He longs to help us! Let’s learn to ask for His help to do things His Way, because His Ways are higher, and far more fruitful than ours.

Instead of asking for what we think we need, we can practice asking Him for what we actually know we all desperately need – transformation. Let’s not pray to get out of trouble, and instead we need to pray He will help us go through! Then when we need help, we will be tuned into Him. We have His promise that He will be right there, with us, coaching us through our wrong ideas and thoughts into a new way to think. 

He will never cross our will, because our Heavenly Father God has respect for the man He made. He made us in His image – sin has spoilt that image! His kind of love allows us the freedom to choose to act like His kids and be a part of His kingdom …or not. However, His love is not based on indulgence, it is based on what Jesus did for us. “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the Name which is above every Name” Philippians 2:5-9.

We need to choose to learn from the Holy Spirit, our Personal Trainer, our Father’s Ways of thinking and being and doing. At the bottom of most sin is the way we think. And sadly, we sometimes think that we already know things! Try agreeing with conviction when it falls on you, and then follow Him into a better place! We can easily think we know ourselves better than He knows us! So we cry and beg the Lord for more time or more strength — when the bible clearly says He is happy to give His strength to weak people, and there is a time for everything – including change.  

Isaiah 45:9 has something to say about all that: “Woe to the man who fights with his Creator. Does the pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with him who forms it, saying, “Stop, you’re doing it wrong!” or the pot exclaim, “How clumsy can you be!?” Good luck with wrestling with God about stuff that needs changing. Jacob tried that and walked away limping! Think of Samson, or Jonah, or the Israelite nation! Let’s remember that although our wonderful Father sent His Son to die for our sins, Christ’s death was not permission for us to remain the same! 

Our part in all of this, is to be grateful for His help, and stay obedient to our Heavenly calling. Because of what Jesus did for us, now we have His unlimited FAVOUR. We need to cherish that favour. The stories in the Old Testament are there to teach us what rebellion looks like, and how it doesn’t work out well for the people who are rebellious! The Father’s heart is revealed to us, through those OT stories. They make it clear what He likes and wants from mankind – our loving interactive companionship. 

He sent His Son to teach us it would be a battle: “… surely this time they will respect My Son…”!!! (Matthew 21:37) So let’s not play in the devil’s dirt, just because we can’t be bothered fighting him off! We need to take the Lord seriously, because He first took us seriously. My catch-cry is this: obedience needs action. Bye. 👋

P 3113 How it works.

/ DVH

I woke up with this thought jiggling about in my brain, so I had to get up to write it down. “When you have confidence in the power source, you do not have to pray for the tool to work.” Let’s look at that sentence through a less than perfect illustration:  Every time you get into your car to go out, maybe you pray about safety etc. but you don’t have to pray that the car will work. You expect your car to work. You put in the key into the ignition, turn it and away you go. (Let’s just pretend that everyone’s car works OK – it’s an illustration, right?)

I cannot put any faith in myself to transform me. I must lock my faith onto the One Whose passionate desire is to see me changed. The same faith that saved ME, will change ME!  Our feelings or experiences sometimes will lead us astray, they say: “God won’t help me, He can’t change me.” Why do we feel this way? Because we are looking at the car, (myself), not the power source – the Holy Spirit! (Romans 12:2) We can lose our hope and faith, simply because this world is anti the things of God, and bad things happen to us and we think we can’t change our responses. 

Suddenly we are sad/mad/grumpy/tired and the people around us are not co-operating with our desire to walk with the Holy Spirit. They don’’t want to provide us with a serene peaceful atmosphere. They are not supposed to, we are the ones who yield to Him and give Him room. (Ephesians 5:18-20) This is why we spend time with the Lord Himself, and read His Word. The bible is fuel for the power of God to flow through us. It will clean out the spark plugs, and keep our whole engine CLEAN. (Acts 10:15) Focus on the connection, not the outcome.

Maybe at your house some mornings, one kid can’t find his shoe, and another is still being prodded into getting out of bed. Serenity comes from within us, because HE IS our peace!  And then that peace flows out from us into the world around us. It won’t come from circumstances, it comes from within us. So if the kid won’t get out of bed, etc. we can still be at peace, because our surroundings have nothing to do with our day. We know the Peaceful One, He lives INSIDE us.(John 16:7) We talk to Him and ask Him how to deal with this kid. You and I are in a process of learning to trust the Holy Spirit – HE is the source of the power to overcome.  

Back to my car illustration: You don’t have to feel like your car will start, you know it will. Even a little fuel will start your car! Despite our outward circumstances—His power is ignited when we obey because we love Him and value His Presence. And we will gain confidence that His ways are higher than ours. That’s when we can develop confidence in His work in us because we have done it over and over again. Practice helps confidence. 

The Holy Spirit wants to be our constant companion, He does not want to leave us, even though we can be wilful and become deaf to His promptings. (Romans 8:9) All we need to do then is to repent and ask for His help. The bible clearly tells us He will be with us and He will help us – we simply use our faith to grab hold of what His book says. Then take a breath, and act like He would, using our faith. We co-operate with Him. 

We don’t have to flog ourselves to death trying to be something God has given us for free. That’s just dumb!  The question is not: ‘can I do this?; The real question is: ‘Do I believe He will help me?‘ (Psalm 46:1) He’s the power source. YES He will… because we have His promises in writing! Don’t focus on the lack inside you, focus on the abundance in Him. Christ died to give us His power to overcome this world. That power is so strong it brought Him victory over death, He came out of the grave and His word tells us He will help us.

Jesus tried several times to warn His disciples about the stuff that was going to happen to Him – they didn’t believe Him, or even try to store those thoughts up in their hearts – maybe because they didn’t like the thoughts! That led to their faith failing them. (Mark 14:50) Let’s stop looking at our immediate circumstances, and pray for eyes to see what He is actually doing. We will find more faith than we ever thought possible, when we stop trying to fix ourselves, and simply engage with the Holy Spirit at the moment of impact. Choose to change your response and act like the power to change is there, because it is – His book says so! (Acts 1:8)

We do not have beg or plead with God to help us, His Word tells us that we can have confidence in Him.(1 John 5:14) We choose to believe what He says, over what we think or feel, and then we act differently. Testing situations are never about: “can God help us? ”OR: “Will God help us” HIS power to help us is already here! The Holy Spirit came to earth over 2,000 years ago. HE’S now HERE, and active on our behalf. My faith is in the One Who made those promises. That same faith that saved us, has the power to change us. Turn the key, the power is already there.

Overcoming is the result of our deliberate choice to obey His Word under any and all circumstances. Now we read the bible to learn how the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit act, and what They value. The bible is not a list of instructions, it is a list of prompts! Obedience will open the floodgates that disobedience erects.That is how it works. Bye. 👋

P 3087 Mercy.

/ DVH

“How blessed you are when you demonstrate tender mercy! For tender mercy will be demonstrated to you.” Matthew 5:7 TPT.  Oh, let us thank the Lord for that!! This is the kind of verse that can slide by our understanding, yet most of us have needed mercy from someone else at some stage or another in our lives. The Holy Spirit has mercy on us simply because He is merciful by nature. He is not winking at sin – He will convict us the minute we give Him a chance! But His loving kindness immediately welcomes us back into true fellowship when we turn around, face our faults, confess and repair things. 

At times, anyone can quite easily excuse their behaviour like this: ’They did this evil thing and that awful one and it was unforgivable.’ There are times when we seek and search for a short-cut to get us through the things we think we cannot bear, and we forget God has given us the power to overcome sin and the devil. That’s why it is essential to remember that Godly attitudes and actions have nothing whatsoever to do with our feelings – they run on our choices.

However, when we demonstrate mercy to someone else who does not deserve it — we are deliberately stepping out of darkness into His light. In His light we can see what is really going on. We will remain blinded by darkness when we choose to not forgive or hold a grudge. If I stay in unforgiveness, or I refuse to extend mercy to someone else, my emotional reactions or responses have blocked my ears and eyes to that other person’s need, because my own judgment got in the way. 

The dictionary explains that mercy is: “compassion or forgiveness shown towards someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.“  It says this about grace: “this word is commonly translated as “favour,” which means acceptance and goodwill regardless of whether we’ve earned it.” Those two things are not the same! Mercy goes beyond grace. It loves the unlovely. To do that we must recognise who WE really are, without Jesus.

And that particular point is the reason why a lot of Christians have been shot in the foot and they keep going round and round. Because we forget who we are without Him, and we leave Him behind when we step into unforgiveness and refuse to extend mercy. We start to think: ‘God saved us, but I wasn’t all that bad in the first place, after I don’t deliberately hurt anybody.’  Come again??

We have been saved from sin, and it’s power, because we needed it .God does not have gradients for sin. Ever since the garden of Eden human beings were born in sin, and we dare not trust our own un-renewed hearts.. Eventually, what’s really in our heart will find its way out! We cannot afford to make our own assessments about who anyone is … until we’ve lived this life squashed so tightly into a corner and we feel we cannot escape from it, we will have no idea how we will react. I dunno about you, but I’ve wished people DEAD! I know I’m a sinner, but mercy came to me and drew me back to God, when I had no excuse! And if He ever His took grace to change me and His undeserved mercy back… well … bye bye me!! 

However, when you have a hole shot through your middle by someone else’s sin, those kinds of God-honouring thoughts rarely come up. Some people just won’t quit being mean!  So we are going to need the Holy Spirit’s supernatural power, grace, mercy, plus His strength to continue to give them what He has given us for free. Outright undeserved mercy opens doors that appear to be nailed shut. 

In reality what we think is happening, is probably not what was actually happening. That other person who hurt me was not acting against me – they were simply acting FOR themselves. In other words, there was no intention to do harm. It did not come into their decision making, instead they were self-absorbed. If you do not know you have a Guardian Who is on your side — you will probably mount your own guard and fire away!!

Maybe we think someone like a wife basher or paedophile, a rapist, or a murderer, or a thief is beyond our help. So we choose to withhold grace and shut up our heart of mercy. We think they deserve to get whatever they get, for the way they have acted and the choices they made. I am not making excuses for anybody’s actions — all I want to say is that the person with the greater sin needs the greater mercy. In that moment, I can choose to give it to them. Good place to remember we didn’t deserve what Jesus gave us either.

I like this verse: “But whoever has the world’s goods (adequate resources), and sees his brother in need, but has no compassion for him, how does the love of God live in him?”  I John 3:17. People can be needy because they are spiritually poor! We must continue to sow grace and mercy everywhere and remind ourselves that judgment belongs to the Lord, He is the One Who knows all things and sees all things – not us. He will have mercy and compassion on whoever He chooses. We all deserve hell! Mercy is grace that goes beyond forgiveness, instead of punishment, it ushers in the power of God. Bye. 👋

P 3045 This includes YOU.

/ DVH

Acts 5:32 “And we are witnesses of these things, and the Holy Spirit is also, Whom God has bestowed on those who obey Him.”Ask yourself this question — if you are passionate and you want to walk with the Holy Spirit … then, when was the last time you obeyed Him? We need to press through our feelings, and be guided by His Spirit and obey – Jesus did it and so now, we can too!

Yes, of course the Lord forgives us when we act like Peter, and betray Him by denying our knowledge of Who He is! Even when we are putting our own safety, or our public persona ahead of our desire to own our Saviour. But just because it is common, that does not make it the norm. Total honesty is the best way through difficult  situations. Honesty with yourself and the Lord. Don’t settle for pretending, that just muddies the water. Be real. Tell Him you don’t want to do whatever it is, take a deep breath and ask for His help … then do it anyway – using your faith that He will catch you if you fall.

Sometimes, it seems much easier to crawl along … instead of making the effort it takes to get back up again! However, in spite of the ungodly attitudes that I know I sometimes tolerate, all that falling down and getting up again, IS doing something. Even physically speaking, when I get up and down, I am strengthening my muscles. Meanwhile, that thought is a laugh-riot! I have trouble getting out of my chair, let alone getting up off the floor! Moving on … do squats for a bit. Your muscles will quite quickly explain to you that they don’t like being stretched like that. Our emotions and our own way of thinking won’t like being stretched either.

So let’s look at the bible, where the answers are. In the story below the apostles are under scrutiny by the usual suspects … the spiritual leaders! The council are talking amongst themselves, discussing what they can do about these men talking about Jesus all over the place. Shock, horror … now people are starting to follow the disciples!!  One of the leaders speaks up, his name is Gamaliel – he is very wise. 

Acts 5: 40-41: “So, convinced by him, (Gamaliel) they took his advice; and summoning the apostles, they flogged them and sternly forbade them to speak in or about the name of Jesus, and allowed them to go…V41…”So they went out from the presence of the council (Sanhedrin), rejoicing that they were being counted worthy [dignified by the indignity] to suffer shame and be exposed to disgrace for [the sake of] His Name.”

Did you get that? These men rejoiced that someone beat the daylights out of them because that meant they were worthy to bear the Name of Jesus. You might need a few minutes on that one! That flogging showed the world around them, that they belonged to Him, and what they were doing was working, so well people tried to beat that obedience out of them..I’m pretty sure flogging and maintaining a great attitude don’t always go together! (Hebrews 12:4) But the Holy Spirit gave them Grace for that situation. 

Our God is FOR US. He’s not upstairs somewhere sharpening His pencil writing down our misdeeds – He is so-oo-oo not like that! He loves us and He has made sure that every impediment that prevents our faith from growing –  is now gone. Now we repent and repair things, for our own sake, and because that other person needs His GRACE too! I do loads of stuff for Jesus that I probably wouldn’t do for anybody else. 

This scripture from Acts revealed to me the way I thought about trouble. In the past I saw trouble as punishment. However, at the bottom of it all, when I really prayerfully looked really hard – I discovered that I actually didn’t trust God enough to get me through hard things. The reason I took difficult things into my own hands and fiddled with them, trying to make them go away, was that I didn’t believe He always has my best interests in His heart! His love for us is described in Ephesians 3:18-19: “..that you may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

It takes His power to help me understand that He loves me! That was a brand new thought for me, and it started me down the road I’ve been travelling on for years. We’ve applied the bible as a rule book slavishly, but most of us were too scared to get to know Him and understand how, and why He does what He does. We cannot try to understand Him with our brains or emotions  – we need to use our hearts! The Holy Spirit was given to us to lead us into the promised land of fellowship with the Father, Son and Himself. He knows the Way – He brought the Way into this world through Mary! 

The power of God is not just about someone walking on water, or food being multiplied, or when someone receives a miracle. We need His power every single day to obey and understand HIM. How do you get it? Ask for it. I don’t just read the word – I ask Him to use His word to read me – my actions, attitudes, thoughts and feelings. That’s when the Holy Spirit showed me something amazing. Because Jesus chose to be human, God Himself understands how human beings operate, in a Way He didn’t before! He has chosen to experience humanity. He learnt about His creation, firsthand, by being here among us. NOW HIS SON IS HIS PERFECT EXPRESSION OF FORGIVENESS.

Our God He can never be less than Who He is, Almighty, invincible, omnipresent and omnipotent God … But because He IS Who He is – He chose to go the extra mile and experience humanity in all it’s ugliness and stinky attitudes. Jesus Christ is our perfect illustration that men and women don’t have to sink down into the lowest common denominator. That thought comes from the other guy. Look at what Jesus did, as a mere human being! He had perfect obedience to His Father’s will. 

The Lord Jesus totally relied upon the power of the Holy Spirit, and He made that power available, through His death and resurrection, to each one of us today. We don’t have to flounder along feeling guilty and hoping God won’t notice we aren’t perfect yet. SomeBody else took the exam for us AND HE PASSED … With flying colours. Now the Holy Spirit can come to live in us, because God established a precedent with Jesus. He made a Way to make the impossible, possible, and He gave that way to all of us. That includes YOU. Bye. ❤️🥰 

P 3031 The Holy Spirit loves to remain.

/ DVH

Acts 3:11-12: “And as the lame man who had been healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch, which is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering. And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, “Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man walk?”

Peter himself says: ‘don’t look at me! I don’t have that power, and I’m not special.’ Listen to what he says to the beggar in verse 6: “Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” I think this illustrates clearly something that might lead us astray when it comes to healing and the power of God. Remember, these guys were fresh from the day of Pentecost, full of the Holy Spirit and His purposes. This is just a throw-away line toward the bystanders to sort out their wrong theology. However, Peter’s point is very clear – WE don’t heal people, GOD does.

My secondary point is that this healing is about the Holy Spirit’s character, not our ability to be holy! We will live our lives holy when we choose to remain in Him, and we let Him remain in us. It is about our heart attitude. Don’t go after holiness, you can end up in legalism that way. Seek His Presence whenever you spend time with Him, and then just follow His instructions from the book. EG: If you are angry – fix it. Attention to repentance is a necessary attribute.

At this time, Peter was absolutely overflowing with the Holy Spirit’s Presence, and ministered to the beggar’s need out of the overflow. THAT IS A GREAT PLACE TO TO AIM AT. Living in the overflow of His love. Peter doesn’t just give God glory — He SEES His glory everywhere! That’s what we need to see, God with us, everywhere. We can end up doing all sorts of things, claiming this, and praying that, because human beings need healing etc. — but the truth is that we only have what He gives us … and He gave us Himself!

What did Peter have if he didn’t have power or holiness? He had the ongoing greatly cherished Presence of the Holy Spirit within him. That’s why he could give away what He had! He imparted God’s presence to this beggar and the Presence of God made the man well. This is the reason, BTW, that I don’t much like the terminology “anointing” — the word “anointing” implies that the power of God is a thing, something incredible that some people have or do. Unfortunately we can use that as an excuse so we don’t have to be obedient. EG: “I don’t have the anointing, but that guy does.” Anybody can walk with the Holy Spirit if their aim is to make Him welcome in their lives.

The Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost and He has never left. Peter had a Person living within Him, teaching Him, guiding Him, the Holy Spirit not a thing or tool we can use! This man deeply loved and cared for the Holy Spirit so the Holy Spirit remained with Him. Peter probably gave up many things, simply because he loved the Holy Spirit’s Presence more. Walking with the Holy Spirit is a matter of Who we cherish, not some special thing that we can’t do that someone else can. 

Here’s a small illustration: When we go to a restaurant, someone comes to our table to ask us what we would like from the menu … we tell the waiter and he tells the cook. The cook makes the dish, but the waiter is just the delivery person. In God’s marvellous ways, we are the vehicle, the waiter God uses to bring whatever He wants to those who are needy. 

Why is that so important? Because if we feel we must somehow have the power, or be holy …  or supposedly have the anointing before we pray for others— we can easily feel too intimidated to even try! Instead we end up  wandering about looking for feelings and signs and wonders to prove to us that we can do the very thing Jesus Himself told us to do! The bible says we can do this. Sadly, sometimes if we still don’t see anything we can also think –‘I can’t pray for the sick.’ Yes you can, because the RESULTS aren’t up to you. Jesus said “YOU lay hands on them and THEY will recover.” 

Like most Christians, you talked to Jesus this morning, about your life and the universe etc. You know His voice – through the bible, or in the depths of your heart when He speaks to you. We simply take that attitude with us wherever we go. We choose to be protective regarding our Beloved Friend the Holy Spirit, this means that we don’t do this or that, because He doesn’t like it.

You and I don’t have to have some kind of wonderful power to pray for others … (yes I know Jesus said ‘you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you’) but that POWER is a PERSON. We intentionally live this life – the only one we have – walking with His Spirit, and we follow His instructions. If the person gets well, He did it and if they don’t, all that happened was we tried to obey. 

We minister out of our own ongoing personal relationship with Him and that is an ever-increasing  developing thing. It grows like all relationships grow, by nurturing it, protecting and cherishing it.. The Holy Spirit’s language is LOVE.  We will see He is with us when we speak LOVE … and love is patient, kind, full of faith and hope etc. plus it is sacrificial. Love doesn’t resent sacrifice, because we don’t do this stuff for people or performance – we do it purely because we love Him.

We may need to sacrifice many things, actions, speech, attitudes – in order to maintain our relationship with the Holy Spirit – because this world we live in promotes the things He hates. But He wants to remain with us, that’s why we cherish and chase LOVE. At the same time, we cannot afford to define love, HE DOES. He’s the only One Who can be trusted to do it accurately. Don’t live chasing the symbol of His Presence – chase HIM.  Bye for today, 🥰.

P 3027 Run your race on purpose!

/ DVH

“For in the Son all our sins are canceled and we have the release of redemption through His very blood. He is the divine portrait, the true likeness of the invisible God, and the firstborn heir of all creation. For in Him was created the universe of things, both in the heavenly realm and on the earth, all that is seen and all that is unseen. Every seat of power, realm of government, principality, and authority—it all exists through Him and for HIS purpose!” Colossians 1:14-16 TPT.

The verse above is about establishing Who the Lord is! If we want to live this life in an extraordinary fashion, then forget about becoming a successful famous person … Hang around with Jesus instead! That’s what the disciples did. Did you ever notice that when the Lord called those fishermen – they went after Him straight away? … They left everything behind them, instantly. They even walked away, from their employment! The Lord loves to be with people who are seeking Him. These people don’t want to manipulate Him, most of them are just happy to find out He knows their name and where they live!

You will always find the Holy Spirit in some obscure, secret, tiny room with someone on their face, praying for their leaders and their fellow citizens. You will also always find Him with people who are spiritually hungry. The people who aren’t looking for a book of rules — mainly because they already understand they’ve broken a whole lot of them, and they don’t know how to get out from under the weight of what they’ve already done! You will find Him with the people who think “God can’t possibly care about me.”  Our Heavenly Father wants to comfort these people, change their lives, give them a reason to live AND take away the sin that is holding them back.

We have done this world a great injustice as Christians, when we have used prosperity of body, mind, and soul to portray Christianity. We’ve misled so many people into thinking: “If God is pleased with me, then there will always be definite signs of financial, physical, and spiritual blessings in my life.” I think we need to repent. We have misrepresented God Himself. He’s God and we are not.and the idea that He MUST bless us is not scriptural. He simply WANTS to bless us – it’s Who He is!  His blessings are free, they are not coerced or finagled by us. We don’t have to jump through hoops. Tell Him what you need and leave it with Him. Remember, the biggest blessing we will ever have in this world is His Presence in our lives. 

The road we have chosen follows Jesus. It goes down, not up! Disciples do not care about material benefits. His Presence is all they need! The Lord could care less about our success and appearances. Right now, He’s looking for obedience – even in our ordinary everyday lives.  He wants us to go into the dark places, where nobody ever wants to go, knowing He will go with us!! “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.”  Psalm 23:4.

Jesus’ death and resurrection, dealt with our sin. He took it away, forever. He asks just one thing of us – follow Me! The biggest clue to the scripture from Colossians 1 at the top of the page, is in the final three words…for His purpose … Not for my purpose, or my comfort. Not for my convenience. Not so I will feel like I belong…but …For.HIS.Purpose! Jesus did everything He did because His Father had a purpose in mind. Here’s a thought – when God’s purpose and my purpose don’t match  … guess who might have to change?

I’ve experienced many disappointments, and unanswered prayers, in my Christian life. Sometimes It took me a while to go back to God and ask Him what happened. I didn’t always get an immediate answer, so I turned myself inside out trying to figure out just what I had done that had separated me from Him. Especially at some crucial point when I felt I desperately needed His help. Eventually, after persevering in prayer, as well as prayerfully reading His word, I realised that My problem was not separation because “nothing can separate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus.“ It had to be something else…

… I looked at my life carefully and I realised that I wanted all my problems to be taken away … and HE wanted to use them to prune out stuff in my life that was not going to produce fruit. We were not on the same page! I stopped whining and feeling sorry for myself and asked Him to go with me, and help me walk through everything that was happening. I changed MY purpose. I gave up getting what I thought I needed, instead it became … following Him.

The power of God has been given to us to set us free from the things that will stop us from running the race God has put in front of us. All of our sin went to the cross. There is no reason to believe the other guy’s lies that we can’t help sinning, so we cannot afford to let satan tie us up with the past. We have our God-ordained future to run toward. Throw off any sin, and start running the race…on purpose.  . Bye 🏃‍♂️‍➡️.