Pray

P 2857 Fads, and fancies.

/ DVH

Some clever person has decided, for whatever reason … pick one … WHO knows? … that if the Lord wakes you up at 3.00am, He wants to talk to you. O-k-ay. Maybe the Lord wakes them up at 3.00am to talk to them – I can’t speak to their experience, nor yours for that matter. But trust me … when I wake up at 3.00am I am not thrilled. All I wanna do is go back to sleep! I love to talk to Jesus, but not-quite-so-much at 3.00am. 3.00am means I’ve probably had just enough sleep to stay awake until I have to get out of bed. When I wake up at that hour, I quite often can’t go back to sleep again.

Meanwhile, imagine what an idea like that does to a young working mother, or a mum who has her hands full? Maybe she just got her baby/toddler back to sleep? Many a night I’ve sat in a rocking chair, soothing a cranky child, rocking away, praying for people. That’s why I can see these women at 3.00am, with toothpicks holding their bloodshot, sleep-deprived eyes open, saying … “Who the what now?? This kid is going to wake up again in a few hours… Go away … tell your nice theory to someone who gets plenty of sleep!” Sometimes human beings say the dumbest most thoughtless things. Never let anyone but Jesus write on your relationship with Him. You are you, and those other people who do things differently are not-you.

Meanwhile at 3.00am I have noticed that every single idea that pops into my sleep-addled brain is fantastic! I immediately know how to change my life, or save the world. I think I have a reason for that phenomenon – I am sleep deprived! Sleep deprivation does weird things to the brain. We all think we are a genius at that hour. Actually I woke up at 3.00am this morning and I wrote this blog. Yes, I talked to the Lord, and prayed for everyone I could think of, and I ended up even more awake trying to solve problems that weren’t mine in the first place! 

That’s when I remembered Samuel was once awake in the middle of the night because the Lord wanted to talk to him. He was a kid at the time and he woke up confused too – he didn’t know it was God talking to him. (See 1 Samuel 3.)  Eli had to straighten him out. You know, that nice man didn’t even ask the wide-awake kid to go and fetch him a glass of water … you always need one when you wake up early … he just gave the boy wise advice, and then he rolled over and went back to sleep. Smart guy Eli, grossly underestimated in the realm of wisdom. 

Sometimes, Christians can have FADS. In my lifetime I have seen lots of them, they come, they go, because eventually somebody throws more light on this theory or that revelation. The bible says: ”I will arise right early, I will awaken the dawn…” Psalm 57:8. But I’m left wondering if that is the same thing as making yourself wake up at 3.00am! If the Lord wants you, He will call you. It is my hope that this fad is short-lived. And yes, I know that we all need a quiet time with Him, but that’s for you and Him to work out. Just talk to Him. He’s always there.

It’s like fasting: the bible says that the Lord chooses the fast we are to participate in. (Isaiah 58:6-11.) I can still remember when fasting was a fad, people fasted to make God do things. Fasting is a supernatural event, we are led into it by the Holy Spirit – it is not a dietary or problem solving aid! Our Father loves us so very much, and we don’t have to make Him do anything. Sometimes I think people fast because they don’t like NO!

Just recently a doctor discovered that my bones are showing the effects of age, which doesn’t surprise me because I have had them for a while. He had three wonderful remedies to cure this problem, and they all had ghastly side-effects. The first one caused oesophageal spasms, the second gave flu-like symptoms because it is used in chemo-therapy and the third one causes necrosis of your jaw bone. Strangely …I said no thank-you to His interesting options. He was a bit miffed, BUT … not every suggestion or revelation  you hear about or receive, no matter how insightful, is actually helpful to your life.

Now, if the Lord happens to wake you at 3.00am to pray … DO IT. Please!! Some saints gladly give up their sleep time to intercede for the rest of this planet – they pray for His kingdom to come, and I personally praise the Lord for their diligence. But please do not join in this jamboree just because someone said it and it sounds like a deeply spiritual thing to do. Something that just might get you what or where you want to be.. Use your faith to believe that He loves you and loves to talk to you …at any time, instead. 

I know, there are people who are in desperate situations and they need the Lord and His input — but we must remember that He actually wants to talk to us. He is not a sadist thinking up ways for us to torment ourselves just so we can hear from Him! He does not require us to jump through hoops to impress Him. We need to use our faith, not performance. Let’s not blithely subscribe to every fad and fancy that floats on by. 

BTW the book also says this: “In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for He grants sleep to those He loves.”Psalm 127:2. Amen. Bye. 👋

P 2842 Are people drawn to the light in us?

/ DVH

Mark 4:21-25: “He said to them, Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.”

I think the reason we sometimes hide from the light, skip church, don’t read the bible, and we don’t pray – is simple. We don’t want to be convicted or convinced of our stinky attitudes. Maybe whatever we are doing, we don’t want to be found out, so we pronounce church things as ‘boring’… when the reality is – what is said comes way too close for comfort. Where is His light in your life currently at? Is it tucked away, under the bed? Many people build walls to keep them safe, a coffin has walls – a coffin is made for dead things.

As you can see from the above verse, hiding His light within us is a waste of time and energy. One day, everything we’ve said and done quietly, perhaps even sneakily – concerning Mrs Kerfoops across the road – will be shouted from the housetops.BUT!… “IF we confess our sins, He will forgive our sins. We can trust God. He does what is right. He will make us clean from all the wrongs we have done.”I LOVE 💕💕 THOSE LITTLE WORDS… BUT IF …!! This is a good time to praise God for His ongoing, always active, ever-forgiving love in our lives. 

The awful stuff we hide from others, and – even worse – from ourselves! … needs confession and healing. Why not wipe the slate clean, make reparation wherever necessary and move on …??  The point Jesus is making in these verses is that the light of God’s Word is meant to shine in us, and through us, not be hidden away … so we can save face. We are not undercover brothers – WE ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. That’s why He said don’t put that light in a place where it can’t shine — the light of God is meant to be seen.

At the same time, the light and power of God within us, changes our perspective. It doesn’t just illuminate sin – it makes our surroundings clear and visible. There is way too much darkness all over this earth, because Christians look like everybody else. Being hidden doesn’t mean we are safe – it actually means the people around us can’t see our faith in action. Sadly, who we really are, is who we are when we are squeezed tightly by our circumstances. And no! I don’t much like that sentence either!! 

You and I live wherever we live, because we are to be His light. So the people who live around us can clearly see the dirt and squalor they are choosing to live in. We don’t have to be pompous and look down our noses at others either. The plain truth is this world is currently living in a majority rules situation — they don’t have any light, because we are hiding who we are! God’s Love is His Light! Everyone will know we are Christians by our love, and because LOVE is a verb not a noun, this is something that others can see and experience for themselves. We are Christians – We choose to live and die, loving others. 

You and I are the front-line of what Jesus wants to do on the earth today. Forget people focussing on the pastor, they are looking at us to see if what we say we believe, is real. And if that sentence doesn’t give you and I something to reflect on, we’d all better think again. We aren’t just here to stand up for what we are against – we are here to shine His light and love around, everywhere we go.  His love, needs to be in every dark corner of this world. Loving Jesus means we are for the people He came to save. People were drawn to Him – are they drawn to us? On that happy little note, bye for now! 👋

P 2833 It’s not mine, it’s for sharing.

/ DVH

1 John 3:17-18 (NIV) “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”

The biggest difficulty with this scripture that I can see, is that many of our much poorer brothers and sisters live somewhere else in the world, out of our immediate sight. Or they live under a bridge. OR maybe they go to our church, but they are hiding what is really going on behind their happy Sunday-go-to-meeting  smiles, and we don’t know them well enough to know that what we see, is not real.

There is what I consider to be a huge trap in the Pentecostal church. The secret unspoken rule that says we must always be positive. I love speaking well of others, plus I love looking through the Lord’s eyes at what is good about even difficult situations… I do it all the time, as He leads me…  BUT … we simply must not do this to the point of actively hiding the truth.

Jesus is totally AWESOME. His Ways are incredible, and we need to live our lives, seeking out those ways, daily, some times minute by minute. He told His disciples the truth — all the time — whether it was palatable or not!  And covering up things that need to be in the light is not the same thing as having a positive perspective. How can we comfort one another if no-one knows the depth of our sorrow?

Privacy is definitely important, but please, let’s make the main thing the main thing. I think we need the Body of Christ supporting one another far more than we think we need personal privacy. Jesus spared nothing in His quest to save the world. In the end He hung naked on a cross with soldiers gambling for His tunic. That’s about exposed as anyone can get!

Hubby and I have lived by the thought that ‘if you need it and I have it, then it is yours.’ There is such a danger when we pay lip-service to the things that actually need our intentional devotion. Like I said yesterday, when we do things for His kids we are doing it to, and for, Him. It is up to us to decide to live with more honesty than we are experiencing currently.

Darkness is our enemy – light is our friend. We can easily settle for praying for someone from a distance sometimes, not that this is a bad thing! … But it is if we are doing it instead of actually engaging, helping, and sharing what we have. After all if we pray that the Lord will help them, we are actually asking the Lord to fix something that we can do ourselves.

For example: a brother or sister needs food. We can pray. We should pray! But I have to say apples and oranges rarely fall out of the sky.Although we once found a much needed pumpkin in the middle of a deserted country road!! If I have food and you don’t, then my giving reflects the depth of my spirituality! Back to my point …You or I may not be able to pay someone’s rent, but we can take them a bag of groceries. 

Today I want to suggest that while we are praying, we need to remember to ask Him – “What do YOU want me to do about this Lord?”  We are His hands and feet. BTW, I am not suggesting that He needs us to participate, because our God is the God of the miraculous… However, He will often allow us to be part of what He wants to do, and then we get to see what He does with our obedience, first-hand. It is not about how much we give either, remember, Jesus Himself commended the little lady who only gave two pennies!

In closing I need to be honest, not everyone has been super excited when we decided to help them. Years ago we had Christian friends and we honestly thought that they were struggling. So we did the bunch of groceries in a box drop on their doorstep and watched from a large distance away to make sure they got them: The whole ‘…don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,,,’ thing– from Matthew 6:3.

The people we hoped to care for found the whole thing hysterically funny for some reason or other, and we were finally able to ascertained that things were not as bad as they had been presented. That was an ACE lesson in humility! But this is the only case ever, in the many years we have been sharing what we have. I think we probably needed that jolt to remind ourselves that … ‘…without Him we can do nothing.’  We are learning to follow the Holy Spirit as He leads us. However, the chance of a misfire is not a good reason to ignore someone else’s needs!  

Whatever we have, we have been given, including the ability to make money – so sharing with others is not optional. We’ve found that as He leads us and we give, our Heavenly Father God gives back in ways beyond our comprehension. We have never given to be repaid, we give because we want to be like Jesus, and GOD GAVE US EVERYTHING HE HAD, FIRST. Bye 👋

P 2830 Be a blessing to others.

/ DVH

Matthew 3:1-6. “Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shrivelled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched Him closely to see if He would heal Him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shrivelled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.”

I know I have talked about this scripture quite recently, but the really really cool thing about God’s Word is that it is like a kaleidoscope — it has a tremendous capacity to present so many different truths in new ways, so we can see something remarkable each time! As I was chewing these verses over, I saw something I hadn’t seen before. In the face of overwhelming opposition- including the very real prospect of death – Jesus still chose to do good. He remained true to His nature in the face of great danger. He understood His purpose in this life, and knew that He could not be killed outside of His Father’s timing.

It is one of this life’s little ironies that although living like this is a great place to live, that means we often don’t know what comes next! Meanwhile, we have been instructed to pray for the sick so they can be healed etc., and to love others. We are His care-takers who happily pray for the people around us, and share their joys, sorrows and suffering. We care for the lost, lonely, displaced, ignored, rejected people of this world – things we can only do by drawing on God’s incredible Grace. 

Many people might have whispered to the disabled man: “Could you come back next Tuesday and I will pray for your hand then? We’re in the synagogue and we mustn’t disturb what God wants to do here today.” You know, He’s God, He does not have to fit in with our timetables. His will has perfect timing. That’s because the immediate is not a problem to the Lord, He knows the end from the beginning! That’s a powerful thing to know and it can change everything else about our lives.

There is a problem with paying lip-service to the status quo … it accomplishes nothing, except to increase our cowardice. It magnifies our errant thoughts that God did not stop us from doing this or that, so it must be OK. Jesus didn’t care about what anybody else was going to do with what He did. He knew what His Father was doing in that moment, so He did that, despite the consequences. Sometimes His Father’s will didn’t include the appearance of safety!

Our God’s eye is always on the sparrow … in this case it was the man with the withered arm. So that man became Jesus’ primary goal, and he was healed. Jesus Himself said in John 9:4, “I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work.” Challenging the Pharisees also became part of that process – yet again God was giving them a chance to let their hearts be softened. Dismissing someone else’s pain is a terrible flaw. It hardens our hearts toward God, and the Holy Spirit’s tender kindness.

Father God has a plan for each of us. This is one of the things we pick up from reading the scriptures … it means we can confidently sit back in the boat and let Him steer … but living like that will require our constant humility … and probably a whole lot of interruption! Because we know our purpose in this life, we can stare opposition in the face and tell it to ‘go away.’ Jesus Christ knew His purpose on this earth, He knew He had been sent here.  At the same time, He also knew that offence was going to lead to His murder, but He lived for what God gave Him to do day by day.

Our lives, right here, right now, are to be used for the glory of God, not for our own comfort and personal satisfaction. I exhort everyone reading this to learn to find your joy in whatever He gives you to do, rather than what this world says you should be doing. Life can become very boring doing the same things, day by day by day, but when we follow the Lord … this kind of thing happens: “The seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name!” Luke 10:17. 

Yesterday hubby went a few doors down to check up on an older man in our neighbourhood. This man was so grateful that someone was aware of his presence, as he lives alone. Lots of people may notice stuff, but not many get up out of their comfort zone and go and check for themselves. Hubby and the old man had a great conversation. Meanwhile, we sent out about a dozen Christmas cards to the neighbourhood etc. and we’ve received just one back… but that single card was filled with so much gratitude. Our job is to be like a radar operator, we send out a spiritual “ping” and we wait to see if somebody will respond!

Opportunities to serve the Lord and the people around us, are everywhere. Unfortunately this world requires us to always be in a hurry, plus we have constant day-to-day anxiety about the next thing that must be done … so we sometimes miss, or we don’t follow up the Holy Spirit’s leading. Actively showing others that their lives have meaning to God by investing your time in them, is one clear way to communicate God’s love.

Our aim is to be like Jesus. He did what He was asked to do – despite the personal consequences and threat to His life. Our purpose is to share the Father’s love in whatever way comes naturally to each one of us. I have found it is important to be sure that my communication is personal, because remote control does not communicate the same depth of affection the Lord has for people. Today, I want to bless you to be a blessing to others, Amen.🙏

P 2819 Antagonistic people.

/ DVH

“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;..”Matthew 5:44.“But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you.” Luke 6:27. Here’s how it works – you find out who are your enemies then you deliberately, as in, on purpose, do something nice for them. Start by blessing them. Yeah, you know, if everybody did this then it is likely that our so-called enemies would not know they are our enemies! Think about it.

Living like the bible says takes a quality decision. There is no turning back or quitting. Here’s another favourite, much memorised verse – just kidding!!: 🤣 “…and a man’s enemies will be the members of his [own] household [when one believes and another does not]…” Matthew 10:36. I imagine most of the people who read this blog have experienced that last one. Long ago I had a first hand experience of this one. Praise God those people are now following the Lord themselves. But I know enough to know that a happy result does not always follow hard choices … there was a big space in the middle! People can be like mules.

Now, let’s look at Romans 12:20.“On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Romans 12:14 ““Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them.” I have prayed that last verse many times through clenched teeth. I persevered until I was able to let go of my anger! Being transformed involves choices and self-control.

You know, I can’t help but wonder how many wars might have been stopped if mankind acted on these verses. It seems to me that the entire world has gone from what the Apostle Paul said …into this style of thinking … ‘they did bad things to us, now let’s exterminate them.’ O-Kay! …That could be called extreme…!!  We can fool ourselves that we are justified in our anger, but that’s not what the book says – outside of Christ Himself, there is no justification … so why would anybody choose to live there?

This whole subject about enemies is a very interesting personal study. Because we often don’t think we have any! We will grudgingly acknowledge that we sort of kind of don’t like some people all that much. Now here is something else I’ve learnt that is fascinating. Never go into why you don’t like so and so – even in your mind. ASAP take those thoughts captive. 9 times out of 10 that kind of thinking leads to not liking that person/people even more! Many times in the past I have read verses about the way we need to treat enemies, and I have thought to myself …’I have no enemies …’ Hah! That’s like asking yourself “who am I mad at?’ It doesn’t work. Now I will give you my advice for free … 

Try not to excuse yourself on the grounds that “I-am-a-very-nice-person-just-ask-me !!”…  … Instead ask the Holy Spirit what He thinks. Ask Him who you see as an enemy. Take a pencil and some paper with you, OK? Because I’ve learnt that this kind of stuff excuses itself, hides, and jumps straight into blame … We excuse our feelings and put pretty titles on them. Like: ‘This kind of person and I are not compatible.’ The very worst kind of lies are the ones we tell ourselves … because they are so hard to uncover.

The answer to this dilemma is to ask the Holy Spirit to help us to love people the way He does. Even the ones who would like to see our heads on a pike! After that we must be prepared to go to war within ourselves, because our old self does not want to die, and it has strong roots and a big pile of great excuses!

There are times when giving into what the Lord wants, seems to be losing a battle we badly want to win, but: “He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” John 12.25. The battle belongs to the Lord, just point your heart at Him and hang on. I will warn you, sometimes it takes a while to hear that mythical fat lady sing … 

There are also times when I think that fear motivates us far more than we realise. “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You preserve my life. You stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes; with Your right hand You save me.” Psalm 138:7. When we believe this, and live by it, as well as counting on verses like this one, we are ‘living in the secret place, the shelter of the Most High God…Whose power no foe can withstand.” We don’t have to be afraid, GOD HAS A PLAN. Like Esther we can say: “If I die I die.”  

Except some of the time we have 94 good reasons why we shouldn’t die — yet! Those are the very best times to go ahead and choose to do it anyway. Stop counting how many times you’ve let somebody else off the hook even though they keep right on doing it – and do it one more time. And don’t peer into the future seeing the same result stretching on and on .. that’s not faith, it’s necromancy.

Antagonistic people are a gift. They call our attention to the stuff in our lives that we don’t want to see. They help us grow bigger than the traps the enemy has set before us. Now we get to fight different battles, not the same one over and over again. See you next time, bye. 👋

P 2806 Healing.

/ DVH

“…you will lay your hands on the sick and they will get well…”I’ve checked out these verses in Matthew, personally, in my own life and here’s my point for today —  sometimes when I prayed for people who were sick, and sometimes they got well, and sometimes … they died. To be fair, the ones who died were terribly sick, and they definitely died happier than they were before they were prayed for — but that was not the result ANYONE was hoping for in the first place.

Praying for sick people involves us taking a risk. When we love them dearly, that risk for them, and for those who love them and us, is HUGE. Sometimes we could think that the answer relies on us – or maybe we think that we won’t pray correctly? Loving compassion and obedience are our part, because prayer for the sick relies upon the Word of God. Meanwhile nobody likes ‘no’ for an answer.  

Plus, at the same time, we may have to … “wait.” Sometimes, there is a space between our prayer and His answer. We need to always pray and not give up and that is a painful place to have to live! In the meantime, the bible says: waiting upon the Lord renews our strength. That waiting is ghastly for the sick person, who is trying trying trying to believe and get well – and horrible for their loved ones at the same time – but keep right on praying. Jesus dismissed people telling Him that a child had died and a bigger miracle occurred.

I am comforted by the fact that the Lord’s disciples walked with Jesus, they themselves saw all kinds of miracles when they prayed for others, and they watched Him bless people with astonishing miracles. BUT at other times they prayed for people and nothing happened. His disciples were unable to minister to an epileptic person, or deliver a demonised child. These men were blessed to have Jesus walking with them, in Person, and He stepped in and healed the sick one. The Lord pointed out to the disciples that their faith was too small. We must point our faith at God Himself, His nature, His loving kindness – not just at an illness or even healing. 

I’ve learnt some stuff along the way. I am not God and I’m not perfect! In my passion for others I can easily promise things I can’t deliver. Meanwhile, I don’t know everything either! I am His representative, not the answer. My part in this process is to keep praying and not give up, because somebody’s well-being is at stake, even if my own faith is being shaken. The reality is:  failure can lead very quickly to disappointment for everyone. Particularly if the person concerned is someone special, and you love them. This is the place where our faith can atrophy and grow weary. Even when we don’t feel like fighting we must continue to fight. 

If you have ever prayed for someone for healing and they got sicker or they died, you may have noticed that shortly afterward … disappointment rushes at you like a freight train, coupled with incredible grief. Jesus said this to Peter in Luke 22:32:“… but I have prayed [especially] for you [Peter], that your faith [and confidence in Me] may not fail; and you, once you have turned back again [to Me], strengthen and support your brothers [in the faith].”   Jesus prayed for Peter before his testing time ever happened. He is praying for us, right now, too.

We are so programmed for positive results, that when the answer to our prayers is negative, logic takes over. Well why wouldn’t anyone grieve after a terrible loss? The thing is… the bible exhorts us not to grieve without hope. 1 Thessalonians 4:13b “…so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.”  There’s a reason for that exhortation – our faith can falter when it appears to be unfulfilled.

Even in times of deep despair and sorrow we must ask the Holy Spirit to help us. We need His help to watch over our hope — because HOPE is our anchor. Our hope is IN Christ – His goodness, His mercy, His loving-kindness. It is not in the answers to our prayers – no matter how important they seem, or how fervent they are. Prayer changes US – it does not necessarily always change our circumstances. Talking with God and getting His perspective is essential, otherwise disappointment can crush us. I’ve noticed when this has happened to me, the next time someone needed prayer for healing, it was easier to step back, instead of forward.

We are commanded to pray for the sick etc. in Jesus’ Name. At the same time it is good to remember that the sick person’s life is ultimately in the Lord’s Hands. Like the disciples, we pray as He leads us and the opportunity presents itself. Acts 3:1-8 … bits of it: “Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried … …at the gate of the temple … …to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms.

And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.  And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; BUT SUCH AS I HAVE GIVE I THEE: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.”

Part of our problem concerning healing is that we don’t know what we have. Peter knew what he had. Do we understand that Christ lives in us, and He was, and still IS, always delighted to heal the sick? His compassion for mankind is huge. That thought should be the centre of our thoughts, not: “will it work – or not? We are commanded to pray for the sick to be healed. it is not an optional extra. I believe the biggest sin in the Body of Christ is inactivity. Bye. 👋

P 2803 Choices.

/ DVH

All our lives we have been influenced by our own choices. Even if we choose not to choose – that’s still a choice! Yeah, I know irony central!! We are the people God Himself has chosen to represent Him, so we need to choose to do things the Way He does things. We have come into agreement with what He says and He will not enforce His will upon us. He will not take over, instead, the Holy Spirit has been given to us to lead us.

Jesus made choices while He was here on earth. “I don’t speak on My own authority. The Father who sent Me has commanded Me what to say and how to say it. And I know His commands lead to eternal life; so I say whatever the Father tells Me to say.”John 12:49-50. My point is this, we all know SomeOne, personally, Who knows how Jesus would choose if He was in our situation! He wants to help me, so I need to choose to rely upon the Holy Spirit’s guidance and wisdom. Look, you can make a cake with a fork and a whole lot of effort, but if you know you have a mixmaster you will do it far more efficiently and thoroughly!

We can fall into doubt and unbelief when we don’t know what the Lord says about something. And then our choices can get muddied and muddled. That’s where the bible, as well as prayer need to be our first choice. We cannot leave out the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He is the Person Jesus deliberately chose to send back to His people to help them. After choosing Christ to save us – the Holy Spirit is the BEST CHOICE to help us grow. He can be everywhere, at all times, all at once. We have SomeOne Who now lives within us, and He will help us make the kind of choices Jesus made, and He will give us the strength to carry them out!

In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was ON certain individuals to carry out the Father’s wishes. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is now IN us. He flows through us because of our choices! I have a great sadness in my heart when I think about the doctrine that says that the Holy Spirit is all about speaking in tongues. He is so much bigger than a heavenly language, which, BTW, is for an individual’s benefit. I have no opinion either way about whether anyone else should speak in tongues. I refuse to major on this issue because I believe it is a personal choice. The Body of Christ has inadvertently majored on minor things, and it has separated us. Obedience to His Word needs to be our first priority.

However, in my opinion, speaking in tongues is a Holy Spirit aid. Doing this helps me get my own thoughts out of the way. Let us say I have an argument with Mrs Kerfoops down the road. She’s a bit of a nasty old biddy. When I pray for Mrs Kerfoops using my mind, I could easily pray for her attitude toward other people to change – I might even do that with great passion and fervour! But when I pray in tongues the Holy Spirit prays His truth from within me, through me. So I could end up praying for the lady like this: “Ke-yesus se min Abah  etc.etc.”  

If I were to translate that, and translation is part of speaking in tongues, I could be praying like this: “Jesus please help me to love Mrs Kerfoops like the Father does.”  And YES! I can also just pray that in English! Like I said, it’s a choice!  “Then what am I to do? I will pray with the spirit [by the Holy Spirit that is within me] and I will pray with the mind [using words I understand]; …”1 Corinthians 14:15 AMP. I need to remember that the Holy Spirit knows Mrs Kerfoops better than I do – He knows how to pray for her perfectly. After I’ve prayed as He leads me … that’s when something from His word that I already know, rises up within me, and helps me pray the way He wants me to pray.

So, instead of praying from my mind: ‘change her because she annoys me!’ – I choose to let Him guide me. The Holy Spirit speaks Armenian, Icelandic, Pakistani, and every known language on this earth. He also speaks in the tongues of angels. Sometimes my squirrelled-up thinking gets in the way of what He wants. I have found that speaking in tongues helps me to pray for bigger things than I could possibly think.

It is a common thing for human beings to excuse their own behaviour, and accuse other people about theirs. The fact that it is common, doesn’t make it Godly! I know this from personal experience. When hubby and I argue, it is often because I have lost my Peace somewhere, and I’ve just plain run out of Grace. As peace is like a RIVER and Grace was released by what Christ did at Calvary. What I need is already within me – IN HIM. I just need to access it through my choices. There are times, sadly, I don’t want to let go of my own opinion, I want to make my point instead! Yeah, I know … awful ain’t I?

The Holy Spirit is a Person Who is activated in and through our lives by our choices. Let’s look at using our faith. The bible says: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not yet seen.” (Hebrews 11) I will give my own personal faith substance when I choose to act on what I’ve read in the bible, or whatever I feel the Holy Spirit within me is saying to me. That prayer takes whatever I am praying and turns it into an action. That’s what gives my faith substance – ACTING ON IT.  Christianity is not a faith of theories, it is a faith of choices. It is up to us whether we make those choices or not, but many people will judge what we believe, by the way we live. 

We are not powerless. We are now citizens of His kingdom. Some things in our lives are more stubborn than burnt-on grease on the bottom of a frying pan! So it will take perseverance and choice to shift them. It will also take devotion to the stated end game;  and the end game is transformation. At the same time, as we concentrate on working out our salvation day by day – we need to be helped by the Holy Spirit. His input helps us see, understand, and appreciate truth, and He inspires us to go after it. He helps me to make the kind of choices that lead me after God’s ways. Our choices matter. Bye. 🕊️

P 2775 The best kind of knitting.

/ DVH

“He Himself carried our sins in His body on the cross so that we would be dead to sin and live for righteousness. Our instant healing flowed from His wounding.” 1 Peter 2:24 TPT. This verse shows us that Christians have been totally restored in God’s sight through Christ’s selfless act. When Jesus said: “It is finished …”  — the exchange of His life for ours was complete, signed in His own blood, forever. When He rose from the dead He proved, once and for all, that He had the authority and power over death. He authenticated His claim.

You and I don’t have to be trapped, or sucked into sin anymore – because Christ’s death has taken us out of the kingdom of darkness and put us firmly into the Kingdom of God’s marvellous light. This is a fact, it is already established in heaven. Our job is to believe Him and start spreading this good news around. God is not angry with mankind – SomeBody else PAID for our sins. We are to introduce, and display God’s kingdom, down here, in Christ’s absence. However, we have His Presence, the Holy Spirit –inside us. He is always with us to help us accomplish the things He tells us to do.

God said way back in Genesis, that the sun, and the moon and stars, were put into the sky for a sign. They are there to exhibit His faithfulness. Human beings know that the sun will come up again tomorrow, but before that happens it will disappear temporarily, and night will come. In the same manner, we know that we are as eternally saved, today, as we were yesterday. The sun and the moon are there to remind us that what God has established cannot be changed, until this world passes away.

As Jesus’ followers, we really do need to make sure we understand what Christ did for us. When He died – we died. Even if we don’t feel any differently, we can no longer legally be held captive to death anymore. Our old life is gone. We’ve been given a new life and that means we no longer have to sin. Sinning was part of our old dysfunctional life. Now, we can choose to operate in His power and overcome our old ways. Christ’s death gave us the power of choice.

Before Christ did what He did for mankind, people were trapped by their proclivities, heartaches, family habits, and lacks. But we’ve been taken OUT of that life and given powerful, eternal choices. Our sole thought now, is how do we live this new life the way HE would?  We gave away our old way of life, when we said yes to Him. We serve Him now. Christ died voluntarily, and now we serve Him voluntarily. Simply because we love Him and we are grateful to God that His Son saved us from the previous life we were trapped inside. Now we live in freedom – one decision at a time.

We useour faith in His truthfulness and goodness to believe that we are free from the impulses and attitudes that bound us in the past. That’s why we read His book, so we can see His faithfulness and truthfulness in action, with other people who are just like us. We probably won’t feel any different when we begin to live like this, because it will take a while for our feelings and thoughts to come into line with what the bible says. We don’t have to live in that old kingdom where feelings and circumstances run our lives anymore! Instead, we choose to obey what we read in His book. Jesus Himself taught us that this is the way God has chosen to release His Kingdom into this world.

“When someone curses you, bless that person in return. When others mistreat and harass you, accept it as your mission to pray for them.”Luke 6:28 TPT. This verse from Luke shows us that the way Jesus did things is not at all like the kind of response we would expect in this world. When somebody’s sin, or their attitudes against us come up in our minds, we need to take those thoughts captive … Why? Because what God said is the greater reality! Then we act upon His Word, rather than our feelings. The Kingdom of God has a language, a culture, a way to treat others that is foreign to this world. We are now ambassadors of that Kingdom. That is our mission. To bring heaven down to earth.

The language of heaven is LOVE. Love recognises no boundaries, no faults or sins, no personally inflicted pain and hurt –love loves others, simply because He received us, first. His love is powerful! It has an ongoing effect in the lives of those who receive it. That love motivates and propels us forward into serving others. Even people who hate us. By choosing to live a life laid down for His sake, we gain continual freedom to release the power of God in extraordinary ways. As we walk in this kind of selfless love, the Body of Christ will grow. It is knitted together. Bye. 👋

“From Him the whole body [the church, in all its various parts], joined and knitted firmly together by what every joint supplies, when each part is working properly, causes the body to grow and mature, building itself up in [unselfish] love.” Ephesians 4:16.

P 2774 It’s time we started …

/ DVH

… to hear His Voice in someone else’s voice. Someone prayed for this at church the other day and it impacted me. We need to find and see Jesus in each other. How? Well, to start with – He lives there! We said: “Come into my life Lord Jesus, and take over.” And He did. How we feel from day to day is irrelevant. Emotions are fickle they change with our circumstances.

However, sometimes what we are really saying is: “You can come into the lounge Lord. It’s nice and tidy in there, I cleaned that up the other day. But please don’t go into the bedroom, that’s a mess. And definitely stay away from the kitchen and the bathroom, You won’t like what You find in there!” A “Keep out” sign is a warning bell, clanging away trying to get our attention. It is not good to have keep out signs in our lives. It usually means something is badly amiss. Something we don’t want to fix or even pay attention to, because we like it, and we know full well … HE WON’T. It also contaminates our relationships with others.

I had keep out signs practically everywhere, when I first started to follow Him. Life had greatly shattered my trust in humanity. I was afraid I might lose something I cared about. Like my snarky attitudes that I had previously cultivated before I met Him, so I could protect myself. Did you know that keeping a bad attitude toward someone else is like SUPER GLUE? We have the power to stick them there, right in a place where we don’t like them! Read the book. We have the power to forgive people … or not!  A bad attitude is like wearing coloured glasses.

The Lord is far more patient with any of us than we will ever deserve. Praise God, Jesus came here as a human being, so He gets … PEOPLE. If you don’t believe me then read the way He relates to the disciples when they’d lost their brain. Or they didn’t want to change their minds because they couldn’t see anything wrong with their thinking! Those keep out signs stop US from changing too. Meanwhile it’s a wonder, at the beginning of my relationship with the Lord that He had somewhere, at all, to put a toe on. 

But after it took me awhile to realise my error, here’s what I did instead. I’ve pulled out all the keep out signs, because they limit God and I don’t want to limit the Answer! And instead I put up a “proceed with caution, please Lord” one. That sign is for my benefit, not His. He has more loving kindness than I will ever experience anywhere else, but I need to say it, and He listens to me so patiently. I love Him for that.

I think this is part of the problem with our fellowship within the church. Some of us have been so badly bruised by the very people we thought were perfect when we were growing up spiritually, that we put up keep out signs everywhere. On the chimney, on the lawn, in the window, by the front gate… you name it! Now we are just plain scared of other people’s faces and responses, so we live guarded lives. Lives peppered with plastic fruit. Other people could hurt us … BUT …we won’t tell them about it, because that would give them an advantage over us. No faith there.

Here’s a not-so-wonderful revelation — keeping His kids out, limits our growth. The Lord will not limit His right leg, His elbow or His kidneys by seeing them as separate to Him. We are all part of His body. We do whatever we do on His behalf. Jesus has owned us, and become engaged to us, by choice. And He will do everything He can, without violating anyone’s free will, to keep us safe with Him.

Accepting any difficult or nasty people at church is part of loving Him… it’s in the book. Actually it’s often in the part of the book, we don’t much like reading so we avoid it. But the Lord is so gracious, and spiritually attuned, that He can look after us and our overwhelming feelings of fear and doubt, and still not hurt someone else who scares the life out of us. Boy is that a skill I really want!

So, here’s the answer to the church-is-the-place-where-everybody-pretends-to-love-everybody problem. I look for Jesus in that other person. Sometimes  we may need the Lord to install a huge love filter.  My filter is in Colossians 3:14: “Together with these things, the most important part of your new life is to love each other. Love is what holds everything together in perfect unity.“Let the Holy Spirit do this whole relationship thing between each of us – He’s brilliant at it… At the same time we need to prayerfully insist that now, today, we want to accept and love other people. The real deal can take time to grow .. keep pressing on. 

We may have to throw out a whole heap of our own prejudices and smelly attitudes to get there – but embracing love helps us all grow beyond platitudes. Honesty is great, but please don’t tell the other poor sod that you’ve always hated them – that’s counterproductive. Seeing love through His eyes, means we develop spiritual sight, which goes right along with spiritual hearing. We need to turn off that snarky voice inside our head that comments about other people’s sincerity – and aim at love.

My last clue to solving the problem of loving the brethren is pray. Pray, pray, pray pray pray. Then do something nice, like ask them about themselves. You can get a whole lot of insight into someone else’s attitudes by simply listening, it’s a greatly underestimated skill. It is time we started to hear His voice within other people’s voices. The spirit of isolation leads to error. Bye. 👋

P 2751 Stop and smell the flowers …

/ DVH

unless you happen to get hay fever … then maybe you should just look … from a distance … preferably with a mask on! 😂 Meanwhile there are a plethora of hay fever tablets nowadays, supposedly fixing that problem. 

I sometimes sit and watch other people when I am out. They rush about, doing this, wrangling kids, checking off things on a list, plus catching up with that. I came to the conclusion that we should watch our little children more. They can have fun just swinging their legs, sitting on a seat! Tiny children don’t have timetables. From the minute they wake up until they finally shut their little eyeballs in sleep – all that is on the agenda is fun fun fun fun fun. And if you are lucky you might just get food in as they run about. Forget changing their nappies – it’s catch me if you can!!

Jesus said some fantastic things about the way we need to live to thrive, not just survive! Matthew 6: 25-33 (Luke 12:22-32) “If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to Him than birds.

“Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen colour and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.“If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think He’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do His best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving.”

Rushing about fills our lives with noise and stuff – the things that don’t last. The practicalities of this life can get in the way of our daily “God awareness.”  We can easily elevate these everyday things into places they don’t belong. If I could go back in time, I would rush back to the time when my kids were little and I saw this world through their brand new, highly delighted eyes. I enjoyed watching them – the wonder of their discovery and fascination with everything. Of course I also greatly appreciate that back then … I was their hero! … I was also ready for a stretcher at the end most days.

Sometimes I think we are so intent on escaping from this world, through entertainment etc., we’ve lost our wonder. The dictionary says wonder is a feeling of amazement and admiration, caused by something beautiful, remarkable, or unfamiliar. I can run with that. Ask yourself when was the last time you just stood still and watched the sun rise or set, or you watched a flock of birds wheeling through the sky? If Jesus said we should take note of these things then … we should take note of them. Those words are not just advertising or pretty things He said to fill up the page!!  

Try to stop regularly to smell the flowers, or sit still and watch the grass grow … without rushing to grab the mower!! That stuff is good for human beings. I often recover my peace in those moments. It has flown away because I got too tense over something I cannot possibly solve. And I recover my peace simply by looking at nature.

Even when you have kids, it is good to remember that not everything is a correcting, or teaching moment – allow them to teach you to slow down. Laugh a lot, and look around. Some things in this world are beautiful … just because they are!  Did you know that there are 400,000 species of flowering plants? You will if you get hay fever! My point is that all of that beauty came out of our God’s creativity. One of the ways to get to know Him is to be observant.

If you are struggling to have a quiet time, then give yourself 15 minutes every day, to watch this life continue to thrive all by itself, without you adding a bean to it. Don’t pray, don’t stuff the word into your already busy brain, breathe. Then after that, you can pray and read!  Having a peaceful heart is the best way to live this life. Most of the things we struggle with come from a lack of peace. An internally peaceful person spreads that peace around them wherever they go. That is our birthright. Father God’s got us and He will not let us go. “He that keepeth thee will not slumber…”

The last thing I regularly like to do is to enjoy silence. There is so much noise around us – everywhere we go! In a lift, in the shops, even in the public toilets!!  It’s hard to think. Silence is good for the soul. Give yourself the gift of silence and … stop and smell the flowers… 🌼 We were not designed to constantly rush about seeking the stuff we cannot keep, ignoring the very things that God provides for free. Bye 👋