Prayer

P 3246 Watch the Holy Spirit at work.

/ DVH

For years now, three of my precious granddaughters have taken it in turns to go with their Dad to work for one whole day, every year. It was kind of a “bring your kid to work’ day – supported by his boss. The result was they knew why their Dad was late sometimes, and they understood what traffic did, and what working hard all day really means! Observation is a great way to learn.

I wanted to talk about the Holy Spirit working in us, because I think we are missing the things that He does for us, unseen, every single day. He is so good at working in secret – you have to want to see Him! But our current circumstances can distract or overwhelm us and we shut down, and stop being spiritually aware. That response will rob us of something so valuable. Look for the good! … that’s my catch cry. Find the good and focus on that. He’s IN THAT! We will always see Him at work when we look for the good. 

Unfortunately we can give credit to man, or circumstances, instead of seeing His hands in everything good that happens to us. Let’s stop crediting good things to ‘luck’ (a pagan god) and start looking in our own lives, for the Holy Spirit’s loving touch. This is part of the way we train ourselves in holy things. Sadly, most of the time, any one of us can get through a whole day without even acknowledging His Presence, except for daily bible reading and prayer. He is our heavenly air – we need to take Him with us. It’s good for us to know what He does, and see and appreciate it, so we can participate in it.

The Holy Spirit never takes credit for Himself. He is the silent One—the One Who is most easily overlooked. Maybe that is because a/ we are selfish and self involved and b/ we don’t know what He looks like when He is doing stuff! He looks just like Jesus would if He were here. Can you imagine being among the people who saw the Lord Jesus heal the lepers, feed thousands, and teach – yet they walked away thinking, or even saying: “Well, yeah, I dunno. I liked what that Man said but I can’t live like that. I think I believe what the synagogue teacher does. My Dad did, so did his Dad and they are nice people…“ Logic kills seeing Him stone dead.

Look, I don’t really know how to say this ‘nicely’ so I am just going to spit it out. The devil gets more air-play than the Holy Spirit does! That ought not to be so!! It’s an abomination. The Holy Spirit is the most Creative, Loving Being we will ever know this side of heaven. He is not secondary to our Heavenly Father or the Lord Jesus – He is part of the Trinity. Jesus sent Him back to us to help us, and told us that it was BEST for us that He went away. He’s God-with-us today and every single day we are here. Listening to Him is our new normal!

The problem seems to be that the enemy has snuck into our camp and made praying in tongues, or this or that spiritual gift, more important than HE is!  Big mistake! Huge!! He is a Person, not an activity! (I told you I didn’t know how to say it!) Pray for eyes to continually see Him at work. Here’s a good rule of thumb: if it is Godly, and good, it’s HIM!… Always look for His fruit in any kind of situation… If what happens helps you believe God, or it lovingly challenges your existing belief system… It’s HIM! 

But if it indulges your sense of self-importance, and implies you don’t need to pray, or read the word or repent and repair things … guess what? IT’S NOT HIM! Easy peasy. And if the bible doesn’t say it … it’s not Him. The bible is His reference book, and we have His personally signed copy of that book when we decide to choose to do what it says. The Spirit of God wants to get our attention! This is how we fall in love with our Heavenly Father – we watch and see Him work! Just like my granddaughters watched their earthly Dad. He wants to spend our lifetime with us, opening up new horizons, and new ways to praise God – plus a whole new ME. Bonus buy = transformation from within.

Take a few minutes to reflect, not on the bad things, but on the good ones.  Ask for His help to focus on the things that will last. Otherwise distraction will take away whatever time we have and waste it. Our God first sent the Holy Spirit to each one of us, in the form of a Saviour – His Name is Jesus. Then Jesus Himself sent us the Holy Spirit to be with us, every moment of every day, in any situation, to be our helper, comforter, guide, counsellor, advocate … live and in Person! He can be at your house inspiring you, while He is at my house comforting me. What’s not to love about that? Teach yourself to look at even bad things and find something good in them.

Here are some verses for all of us to chew on: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”  Romans 15:13. He’s the HOPE bringer. “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, Who is IN you, Whom you have received from God? You are not your own;…” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. We are His house! Take the time to put out the welcome mat! “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”Acts. 1:8. Most of us have no power because we are not co-operating with Him. “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” John 4:26. 

We have an on-the-spot, resident Teacher. Let’s open our spiritual eyes and watch for Him quietly working in our lives – working all things together for our good. If it’s good – it’s Him! Bye. 🕊️

P 3218 I may fail – but God WILL not.

/ DVH

Those of you who read this blog regularly will already know that Cyclone Alfred (Feb2025) caused a flood in one of our lower rooms. It quite literally washed away some of the floor. Our house is like ‘The House that Jack built,”and I’m sad to say that in my opinion – Jack was a lousy builder! God bless Jack if he is still among us, but very little in our downstairs area has been built up to spec. Parts of it are not legal, including the height of the roof, but the council doesn’t care, because it was like that when we bought it. Which means it was not our fault. Thank the Lord for that!

While the many builders we hired were analysing what needed to be done — they kind of smiled — then they looked at us with dollar signs in their eyes! I assume that’s because we are their idea of a windfall, and their magical dream of an all expenses paid trip to the Bahamas seemed much closer than it did before they met us! And then they announced that all our building problems are insurmountable and we should pull the entire downstairs area down and start again. I guess we will have to live in our mango tree while that happens.

Around about the same time, the insurers agreed with the builders, and announced that we were not covered by insurance, despite our copious, regular expensive payments, because of paragraph 390 subset 4,251. Yay!  We don’t have a money tree or bush in our yard, so we both got on our faces, and asked the Lord, what’s next? Ya have to seize the adventure before you, that’s what I say… I have also been known to say ‘well that sucks,’ but talking about ‘seizing the adventure’ sounds wa-ay more spiritual. 

So, after much prayer, with God leading us — we met Ali, a person of another faith, and a brand new unemployed immigrant who had just arrived from another state. His English was limited, but he assured us in sign language and broken English, that he knew all about tiling floors and fixing the concrete underneath. He originally came from Iraq so we figured he wasn’t exaggerating about that! 

Ali, it transpired, truly was God’s choice! BTW, we found him through a reputable agent. He worked like a beaver, kept us up to date with what was going on, and we had many opportunities to encourage him, and talk about our faith, as well as put it into action in his life. When we said goodbye to him, we hugged all round. Our floor in the meantime looks like a palace! 

Moving on to December, 2025. This time the roof in our downstairs bedroom turned into a waterfall, and we had numerous tennis ball sized hail-strikes all over that part of the roof. It was leaking because the rain was so heavy and the hail broke the tin roof sheeting. So back we went to our insurers — however, we weren’t very surprised this time when we discovered that somehow paragraph 390 subset 4,251 also applied to leaking roofs! The insurers were polite … but because the downstairs does not conform to council standards they were not obligated to … blah blah blah blah. 

I tuned out. I had heard it all before. Naturally I responded with great Grace to the insurers. After HOURS of prayer and a whole lot of “gee I hope some tennis ball hail gets YOUR roof next time!” I eventually moved on. Yes, I repented! And right now I am laughing, but smiles were a bit thin on the ground back then! 

We had to move out of our bedroom, which was working on becoming an indoor lake, and jam ourselves back into a much smaller space upstairs. Not the best option given the daily disabilities we both face. Our family came to our rescue again, to help us move. In just a few months they had helped us move out of, and back into. our bedroom twice! That, BTW, includes the bed, wardrobes, etc. etc. More blah blah blah.

So we returned to our trusty agent again because Ali had been so brilliant last time, and this time we found a family of roofers. They too, were honest men who gave us a fair price, and they not only fixed the roof, they made it so it would not leak again. And then they gave us a written guarantee for 15 years!  As the Lord led us we were able to minister into their lives too. We paid for that privilege! Ministry will always cost you – it’s free to them.

I’ve written this today to assure others that they are not the only people whose lives sometimes are shaken by trouble and strife. Let’s look at Paul’s life. In the past Christians have tried to minimise trouble in our lives as if trouble is somehow a sign that we are not spiritual enough. However, Paul was somewhat of an expert about trouble. He shared some of it in: 2 Corinthians 6:4a-5:

“…in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; …” 2 Corinthians 11:25-26: “Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers …”

Our experiences at our house obviously do not compare with the Apostle Paul’s hardships! However, I’m not giving up on my own transformation – He’s doing something. Sometimes I may fail, but God will not! Hallelujah. Have a good one. Bye. 👋

P 3195 Respond.

/ DVH

“Faith, then, is birthed in a heart that responds to God’s anointed utterance of the Anointed One.” Romans 10:17 TPT. 

The important word in the above scripture is respond. This is how we grow our faith, by actively responding to what Jesus says. The meaning of respond is — “do something as a reaction to someone or something.” Hebrews 11:1 says:“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  The thing is we want evidence to help us believe, but the lack of evidence is the very thing that stimulates and grows faith. So if our faith lacks substance it means we are not doing anything about what we believe!

Our response is always optional because Jesus won’t make us do anything! However, it is imperative and essential that our faith produces something more substantial than words. Let’s look at this a bit more deeply. In Isaiah 29:13 the Lord has been angry with Israel and He talks about His anger, because His people say one thing, but do another. He calls that lip service, and that is not a good look for His people. “And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honour Me with their lips, while their hearts are far from Me, and their fear of Me is a commandment taught by men,…”  

In the New Testament in 2 Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness…” These  scriptures are not just for our information. They are written to teach us how to live. Training in righteousness is about acceptance, repetition and practice, it is not just about learning the language so we can fit in or have an opinion. Training implies effort, and that effort is to help us take what we hear, and act on it. We are to do more than just agree with the sentiment or the language. Our task is to make the faith He has given us real in our everyday lives. 

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your Name, and cast out demons in Your Name, and do many mighty works in Your Name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.’ Matthew 7:21-23. 

Chunky stuff eh? Not to be trifled with, and yet it seems so harsh. It is amazing that Jesus would say something so direct and severe. It seems to me that there are two kinds of Lordship, the one that it is in name only, and someone who chooses to live like Jesus would – if He were here with us today, in Person. Whether we are at home, alone, at school, or in the middle of our work environment. Lordship is not something to be trifled with. It is clear Jesus takes it extremely seriously! So we need to take it seriously too. 

The next issue is how? How do we live in His Lordship, day after day and night after night? The only way I know  is to choose to make quality decisions, minute by minute, and stick by them. Well meaning, sincere declarations at an altar made in a moment of time, don’t always work! They must be followed up by training.  Eventually we will begin to exchange the habits of a lifetime through prayer and practice. I’ve found some habits, some ways of thinking, are harder to shift than others. I think the secret is in what David did. He took his reference point for using his faith, from his experiences of God’s Grace in the past. 

Living in and giving away Grace is essential to the Lord’s kind of inward transformation. We cannot maintain grudges etc. and keep moving. Think of your internal heartache as mountains that will not stand a chance, because Jesus is on the scene. Remind yourself and the enemy, that the Lord Jesus once cursed a tree and it was dead as a dodo the next day! Everything in the bible has a practical application. We will just have to look for, and seek those applications out for ourselves and then live them out.

Second-hand information can seem to profit our emotions temporarily, and even stir us – but it is our commitment to find out for ourselves that causes transformation. Daily the Lord says: ‘Will you walk with Me today?’ That’s when we will have to file all our past failures and disappointments away into His hands — under: “things I will understand one day in the future.’ Or …’maybe I won’t understand but I won’t give a darn by then.’

Job’s response to all kinds of pressure was this: “Even though He kills me, I’ll continue to hope in Him. At least I’ll be able to argue my case to His face!” Job 13:15. Letting go is the only way forward that will lead us into living in His peace. Remember, it’s His peace, so we must do it His way! The bible is crystal clear that our God’s ways are not our ways, so our lack of mental or emotional understanding is irrelevant. Unfortunately, the person who needs to make this kind of decision is always ME – you can’t do it for me, I can’t do it for you. 

Our responses matter. We have entered into a time where our training often happens under duress. That stretching and buffeting could cause us to doubt He will help us, but the way to learn that the Lord is utterly good and reliable, is to live like He is utterly reliable! Talking about it doesn’t make it real – acting on what He has said makes it real and gives it substance.. Our responses count. Bye 👋

P 3194 Fear is our enemy.

/ DVH

Good morning. I wanted to say a little about what happened at Bondi beach here in Australia on Sunday the 14th of December.. I had to wait on and ask the Lord what to say because … I simply had no words. I would like to add my prayers to yours and ask for our Heavenly Father’s comfort for anyone and everyone who has been affected by it. “Oh God our Father, please comfort and care for those who have suffered such incredible losses. Help their hearts, their spirits and their minds. I pray for the injured, their carers, their families, and especially our precious Jewish brothers and sisters. Lord please continue to guide and help the first responders, the police, the doctors, nurses and paramedics. Please help us all and comfort the broken hearted. Oh Lord, I pray the you will give those men and women who lead us Your clarity and wisdom. in Jesus Name,” Amen.

“For God will never give you the spirit of fear, but the Holy Spirit Who gives you mighty power, love, and self-control.”
2 Timothy 1:7 TPT. 

By the Grace of God we all can quote the above scripture and others. Things like this one from Philippians 4:8:: ‘Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things …’  Of course we should only think on those things. But tell me this … are we?? Or are we lying awake at night trying to figure out the things that only God Himself can do? I exhort everyone reading this today to turn your fears into Godly prayers. Use them to diagnose what ails you. 

Let’s actively learn and prayerfully understand these things from the Lord’s point of view, because our own ideas fall apart under pressure. In today’s current climate, I suspect you aren’t doing a great deal better than I am! Cheery thoughts are wonderful, but there are times when our hearts fall down into our socks with all kinds of bad news. That is when we need to do some essential revision with our Personal Trainer, the Holy Spirit. I ask for His love, and wisdom, and a new clean heart all the time.

The bible says: “…His ways are higher than ours.” Isaiah 55:9b. It also says: “His ways are past finding out…” Romans 11:33. Right now, our self-made ladders are daily looking less and less like they are going to be useful. WE.WILL.ALWAYS.NEED.GOD’S HELP. Day or night. We are living through times when we don’t know what will happen next. So instead of waiting to ask for help when things get worse, let’s start out every single day asking Him to help us. And then …’ask and keep on asking’ all day! He’s always there with us, and for us.

The above scriptures are wonderful diagnostic tools. We all know them. They were probably some of the first bible verses you and I memorised after we were born again. However, knowing the words is not the same as deliberately applying the meaning. If whatever we are facing produces fear, hatred, anger, despair then it is absolutely and totally not from God. We need to deal with it and yield to Him. After that we start out by doing anything we know we can do, in consultation with Him. Then we need to let those things go. Hatred nurtured, produces wickedness.

When you or I do not feel empowered, or loved, in our hearts, then whatever is coming at us, is an attack. It is not Almighty God. It’s the other guy!  Meanwhile it’s not our mother’s fault, or our father’s fault, or my spouse’s fault or even so and so’s fault! The scriptures are a sword. A sword is for fighting. Especially at the times when the enemy of our souls bombards our minds with horrendous thoughts. 

Let’s replace these evil thoughts … those rotten, ugly, desperate, despairing thoughts that are continually coming toward all of us … let’s replace them with what He says. There are thoughts that satan tosses into our heads like hand grenades, Let’s replace them with what the Lord Himself says. Our prayer needs to be – ‘Dear God please help me.’ And our ability to cope always comes from reading His word enough to know that we know —that He is FOR us — so if what we hear or think is not FOR US, it is not GOD! 

I have been learning to refuse to debate the ugly stuff that slithers into my brain. When it comes to satan, even debating stuff is a dumb idea. Those things are sent to steal our peace, time and eventually ruin our lives. Let’s channel our grief and anger into prayer, and replace those evil thoughts with what I know about His goodness. I walk about waggling this sword in my hand: “I know You are good Lord, despite what I can see, You are always good.” And I keep on whacking until I pass out, or the other guy goes away. Seriously. 

The Holy Spirit knows how to deal with all kinds of stuff. Let’s ask what He wants us to do, rather than stewing on what somebody else did. There is no need for us to be afraid, because FEAR is not from God. He has accepted us, irrevocably … eternally, Bye. 👋

BTW, we turn the news off. The more we listened the angrier we got. The news does not facilitate love.

P 3177 God loves to play ‘peek-a-boo!”

/ DVH

In our daily lives we get glimpses of the Lord acting for us, and doing things around us. A glimpse by definition is a fleeting view, a passing glance, or a quick look into something briefly. This means that there are days that we pray for someone, like I did for my neighbour the other day, and she successfully dodged huge hailstones and part of someone else’s roof while she was driving. Whenever we hear a good report we know it is the Lord answering our prayers. Let’s acknowledge those moments, not just take them for granted.

We are, day by day, blessed and humbled by His loving care. So the idea of using Him for our own ends, is abhorrent. And it is definitely not the same as knowing Him! Using Him is about getting what I want, far more than it is about gaining knowledge of Who He is. We don’t need some snappy “twist God’s arm to get what I want” system – He loves us! These ‘peek-a-boo’ moments are meant to move us on into a lifestyle of gratitude. 

There are times when we’ve prayed for ourselves after a particularly difficult day and we find the rest of that day sort of, smooths itself out. And we know it is the Holy Spirit, doing what He does best, making our pathways straight and unhindered – He is helping us. Praise Him! On other not-so-fantastic days we pray and the same sort of junk plops on us, but it is a different day – and we are suddenly plunged into the land of worse. 

What changed? Why did He answer one prayer of escape and not the next one? I’m going to give you my little theory, but I want to stress that you should ask Him that question for yourself. When we pray for this and that, and the Lord graciously answers our prayers we are relegating Him into what I call the specialist category. When human beings have a need, and we can’t solve it, we go to a specialist. Whether it is about health, our car, or our house! 

It might seem very flattering to see the Lord as the kind of specialist we can consult with whenever we need help – but doing that will not form the kind of permanent on-going relationship that the bible talks about. Jesus wants to be our everything! If we are not grateful for we have been given, then I think we can end up relegating our Heavenly Father into a consultant category. SomeOne we call on because something or other isn’t working!

We need a much wider view – that is less about me and far more about seeing Him as Almighty God, Who rules heaven and earth! He loves us so much He has His eye on us! The bible tells us we are His people, so we do not ever have to suffer from an identity crisis. Jesus Himself knew He would always be heard. He died to give us the same privilege He had. However, the inner workings of our heart matters. Using God to make my life better is not “… the same mind that was in Christ Jesus.”(!!!) In spite of the terrible things He faced, Jesus knew His Father’s Way was the best way. So He actively chose to honour Father God’s will despite the pain it caused Him. 

When Christ became our sin, He was separated for the first time from His Father. I think that’s what killed Him – that relationship was so glorious the break in it was fatal to Him. It broke His heart. Oh, I pray that the people of God would be heartbroken over sin the way Jesus was! I believe He is our God-given illustration of how to be human, and walk with God Himself, in the Person of the Holy Spirit! 

The Lord Jesus’ teachings and parables are illustrations of what this life can look like when we follow Him wholeheartedly. We can see in the bible, for ourselves, that Jesus always chose His Father’s Way. So this is what we need to do … we need to understand that Father God is not merely our consultant – He is our GOD, first and foremost! He is in charge and we are not. We cannot afford to postpone obedience or ignore Him — because of the consequences. Ignoring Him means we miss out on knowing Him, as well as living our lives His way! The Way of the Cross.

Jesus said in Matthew 16:25,26 – “For whoever wishes to save his life [in this world] will [eventually] lose it [through death], but whoever loses his life [in this world] for My sake will find it [that is, life with Me for all eternity]. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world [wealth, fame, success], but forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” 

Our Heavenly Father is not a despot. In the Old Testament we can hear Him pleading with Israel — the way a parent would plead with a beloved child who is on the wrong path. He wants us to come to Him purely because we have a deep faith in His goodness. HE will not ever do us harm! Jesus Christ chose to come willingly under His Father’s Leadership and supervision at all times, and He taught us that we need to do the same. There is no such thing as part-time Christianity in God’s eyes. He bought and paid for us with the most precious thing this world has seen – His own Son’s blood.

Now He wants us to choose to live our lives, HIS WAY, and we will see Him everywhere. When we deliberately  make that choice and stick to it.  In other words He won’t just play peek-a-boo, He will manifest Himself among us and we will become His people, not just in name but in deeds! Bye. 👋 

P 3174 Let’s get rid of abstract concepts …

/ DVH

… and go for REALITY instead! For years we’ve gone about repeating bible verses over and over, in the hope that saying them all the time, meant we would become them. Has anybody out there noticed that that idea doesn’t work? Even sincerity can be dodgy, we need to activate our faith by living it! There’s nothing wrong with knowing, and prayerfully linking bible verses to our circumstances, but we need to remind ourselves that we are not ordering something from a catalogue – we are conversing with Almighty God, the God of all the Ages, the High and Holy One! Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us. HE knows how to pray!!

In every kind of trouble, it’s not all about what I need, it’s about what He wants. Under pressure, we are more than capable of praying those catalogue-type repetitive prayers, given the right circumstances. However, the best kind of prayer is this: “what do You want right here, right now, Father God?” Then we need to stop and listen for His whisper. Love Himself is knocking on our door, just let Him in, because He will not desert us. 

The day before yesterday, hail stones the size of tennis balls were hitting the side of our house and a medium sized waterfall began to merrily cascade down from our bedroom ceiling onto our bed and the floor. It was scary, a-n-d … I forgot my own advice! Eventually, because the Lord is always gracious, when I stopped praying prayers AT Him, and talked TO Him, He whispered to me: “It’s all OK, just wait, you’ll see, it will be OK.”  I’ve learnt that He does not always answer us immediately. That’s because He’s the King and we are not. Every time I went back into anxiety, I handed the situation over to Him again… and went off to sleep. 

Then at 1.00am this morning we had to physically move out of our bedroom, because the waterfall started up again with a vengeance, so I focussed on what He had said to me, and I started to do a lot better… This is how faith grows, it gets stretched by something bigger than we are!

In the middle of the first storm, our neighbour was on her way to pick up her child from school, and she too encountered very large hailstones and a bit of someone else’s roof- while she was driving her car!  She’s OK praise God. But, even though I didn’t know it, I was praying for her at the time.

Actually, I didn’t have a scripture settle in my heart until after the hailstones stopped crashing into our house! Then I suddenly remembered: “…before you call I will answer you…” Isaiah 65:24. I kept on asking Him to help us, and the Holy Spirit totally helped me find my peace in the middle of this physical and emotional storm. Until I get another scripture, I will simply hold onto what He said, as we wait to find out what happens to our roof today.  

Right now I want to talk about conversational prayer – the kind that isn’t formal, but it is based on relationship. It often seems so natural that you aren’t sure if you are doing it right! It means we don’t talk AT Him, we talk TO Him. Remember, He’s the best Dad ever!  Our Heavenly Father is always watching, always listening to every single cry and prayer. That means He isn’t like earthly Dads, preoccupied by other things. 

He lovingly pays attention to each and every single one of us. Right now the Holy Spirit is roaming all over the earth … 2 Chronicles 16:9a – “For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth so that He may support those whose heart is completely His…”  It is good to remember that the Holy Spirit is our support team and He hovers over each and every one of our hearts. He has such a deep love for human beings – whether they know-Jesus-yet-or-not.The very essence of leaning on Him means, without His stability we will probably fall over!

Matthew 21:22 says: “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” Here’s another slant on that —  I believe He is good. This means I can receive His totally focussed personal attention at any time. I can always talk to Him. Remember, He doesn’t hold grudges – Jesus already paid for our access! Just talk to your Father about what is happening, and ask Him to help you deal with it.  Ask for His wisdom, and comfort. Whether you have been formally introduced to the Lord or not. He knows you. 

When we look at Jesus’ life on earth we can see that He did not demand this or that from the people He prayed for, He simply prayed for them. He saw their need and met it. We have complicated the Way our Heavenly Father works to the point that people think they must meet certain conditions to hear from Him. Back then, not one person who asked for help was turned away, they all received acceptance and love. At calvary, His compassion overflowed toward mankind. IT STILL DOES – it’s bigger than the waterfall in our bedroom!

Psalm 145:8: “The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.” Psalm 103:8 – “The LORD is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.”  Matthew 14:14-21- “And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.” Matthew 9:36 says- “But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.” 

It isn’t about whatever is happening to us, it is about our faith in His goodness holding us up in spite of the situation. Our abstract concepts need to go into the bin. Now we are deliberately choosing to learn to live using our faith in His Kingdom reality. Bless you! 👋

P 3157 Now here’s a challenge.

/ DVH

Funny the things we pick up along the way that have truth in them. This saying is from Jack London, author. 😂 “The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my time on this earth just existing.”  Boy is that challenging food for thought!

The following scripture talks about how to use our time – and it’s something to chew on, alrighty! It’s a real challenge. Today I found this verse in first Thessalonians.“Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 MSG. OK, We know that Christianity is more than having some sort of faith – it’s a lifestyle. When I think about Jesus and what He did for all of us and we didn’t deserve it, that makes me pretty cheerful.

I imagine that many people could get stuck on the phrase: “pray all the time,” because it can seem a bit daunting. That’s when I realised that the kind of prayer I normally pray is quite simplistic. I dunno if it is theologically sound, but I try to live my everyday life aware of Jesus, and include Him in everything I do. Praying all the time, is a challenge worth accepting. Why? FOCUS. We all need that kind of focus and any kind of prayer helps.

I’ve also learnt to thank God no matter what happens – I know He’s got a plan, the bible says so. The thing is I just don’t know what it is – YET — but my job is to hold onto His goodness until I do.That can mean I have a pretty fat ‘pending’ file! The funny thing about pending files is that sometimes what seemed urgent and immediate, turns out to be a big bag of hot air as time passes. Time makes all the difference, and His timing doesn’t even remotely look like mine. Sometimes the best thing I can do is just hold on to Him because it’s going to be a bumpy ride! Here’s some cheerful challenging advice from the past:

‘Time is filled with swift transition, mm, mm

None, none on earth unmoved can stand

Build your hopes on things eternal

And then hold, hold onto God’s unchanging hand

Trust in Him, Who will not leave you

What, whatsoever the years may bring

When your earthly friends forsake you

Still, still more closely to Him cling

Everybody oughta hold (on to his hand)

Hold to God (God’s unchanging hand)

Everybody outghta hold (on to his hand)

Hold on to God (God’s unchanging hand)

Build your hope on things eternal

And just hold, hold on to to God’s unchanging hand!’ Amen.

There are a number of songs that seem-to-be like prayers. I think they are simply a prayer set to music, that’s all. Meanwhile music accesses a whole other part of our brains, which means we can actually hear the Lord and what He wants to say in stereo! Here’s a laugh, I have no idea how I know that song, but I was sitting here writing this and the title popped into my head … and lo and behold … I knew all the words! Hilarious. I kept on searching for things that help me with my own life’s challenges.

Up until quite recently I have struggled to find some meaning in the kind of life I had in my childhood. But then I became aware that God’s redemptive power shines so brightly, when it is seen against the darkness of pain, loss and misunderstanding. So now, I look at that! The challenging Godly thing that turned the corner for me, was learning to exercise forgiveness. The thing I discovered is that most of the time, we don’t just need to forgive once, because the people involved aren’t necessarily convicted about whatever it was they did. We must keep on forgiving them over and over again. So every time my mind wanders off to ruminate on someone else’s sins – I’ve learnt to forgive them, again.

The second challenge that helped was not talking about what happened, anymore. Somehow, talking about hurts and injuries just magnifies them on the screen of our minds and hearts. And whatever has happened to us it probably doesn’t need any magnification! When we focus on what they did, the whole thing gets worse. Eventually avoidance becomes a “go to” course of action. Mainly because we can’t stop them from hurting us. 

The Holy Spirit ministered this thought to me through the Gospels — forgiveness is not an optional extra — it’s a bonus buy!!  We literally buy it by obediently responding to His Ways of thinking, being and doing. And that is costly. Then we throw human logic in the bin, because logic says punish that rat! However, GRACE says – that rat can be ME!  Here’s the last challenging verse:  “I counsel you to buy from Me gold that has been heated red hot and refined by fire so that you may become truly rich; and white clothes [representing righteousness] to clothe yourself so that the shame of your nakedness will not be seen; and healing salve to put on your eyes so that you may see.” Revelation 3:18. Remembering that we are ALL naked before God, reminds me I need the blood of Jesus, often. 

Perhaps we also need to be more like Gehazi, Elijah’s servant, and remember that the things we can’t see are much bigger than the things we can, you just can’t beat living your life on the Lord’s side! Growth may be challenging and optional, but it is rapidly becoming essential. Bye. 👋

P 3139 We make life way too complicated.

/ DVH

Hubby and I love to pray for the-people-who-don’t-appear-to-know-Him-yet. We ask them if they need prayer, and if they say yes, then we pray simple, clear, un-preachy prayers about whatever is going on in their lives. People cry all over the place.This means we need to totally focus on the Lord coming with us wherever we go.”We can’t do anything without Him,’ it says so in the book! 

So let’s get that big fat lumpy bit of our personal pride out of the way, so we can be a channel of His love into the lives of the needy people around us. We need to live under His watchful care. We don’t have to be obsessive, but it is also important to make sure we haven’t bungled something or other, or offended anyone. In this current climate that is easy to do. People get offended, and hurt each other all over the place. Nobody wants to give anybody the benefit of the doubt. Here’s an interesting thought:  people aren’t necessarily doing things against you – instead they are doing those things for themselves! Sadly suspicion is rampant, and blaming someone else is the name of the game.

The truth is, we won’t even know if the Holy Spirit is with us, if we insist on pretending to be something we are not. We can’t hear Him properly when we live like that. We are not meant to be experts, we are FOLLOWERS of Jesus! Please remember the disciples bungled things too! In my opinion we should all be still learning, even when we are nearly dead! Jesus IS truth – He doesn’t like deception – too much yukky stuff hides in deception. He is and always was, totally and absolutely real, and that means we don’t have to lie about our life with Him at all, because we are not trying to sell anything! Get used to being humble and not knowing the answer to everything.

Instead, our desire is to do our best to announce Him – not pretend to BE Him.  Acting ‘holier than thou’ puts people off. Meanwhile, I’ve noticed that Christians can be so scared of making a mistake they don’t do anything at all!. You know it is not a good thing to give ourselves permission to be two people, depending upon where we are. The person who lives at our house, needs to be the one who interacts with everyone else! All that deceitful, hiding stuff will shoot anyone down in flames. We are all saved by GRACE – so what’s the big deal if you are an argumentative fathead and I am a nasty big mouth? Pray for me, and I’ll pray for you! 

I hate being politically correct OK? I call that sort of stuff lying. I’ve found that political correctness means I am being so careful not to press any buttons in you – I end up not wanting to love you and I will avoid you. But if we want the Holy Spirit to come everywhere with us, then we need to be the same born again, still-being-transformed-person we always were. Leave the fancy-schmancy acting performances on the stage …  be yourself. 

Ask Him to help you see and overcome those things that pull you into mindless silly games. And then… ‘ask and keep on asking…!!’ Especially if you know you have weaknesses, then pray for His strength to be strong in those weaknesses. There are no incurable diseases in Christ – He always has the last word – physically and spiritually!  “There’s a time to die…” remember? We’ve learnt that talking to anyone, and staying filled with His Grace, draws people to Him. You stay filled with Grace by acknowledging you need it. The bible tells us HE will separate the sheep from the goats, I have no idea why we would ever think that should be our responsibility.

Those people all around us are just human beings like us, and often we have no idea how that person arrived at all those nasty, ugly attitudes. Nor do we know what the Presence of Jesus will do, if we take the time to take HIM with us, wherever we go. The Body of Christ has lost its focus — we are like Esau, going for the immediate thing that suits us, but to get that, we have to give up our inheritance for no good reason except that living and walking with the Holy Spirit seems too hard. Actually, it’s easy. We just need to point our hearts toward that aim and get ready to be wrong and acknowledge it – OFTEN.

We already have a perfect example of how to live like our Father’s children. Here’s the VERY best advice on being yourself in the whole New Testament. “Then He (Jesus)said: I promise you this. If you don’t change and become like a child, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:3. ‘Become like a child’ … remember that little children happily went to Him. And babies felt safe in His arms. We need to be childlike, not childish.The Lord is not like other people – we can trust Him.

Life is much simpler when you live with a childlike attitude. This means you hand your broken toy/life to SomeOne bigger than you are, and then hang around Him watching and waiting to see what He will do with it.  Then you obey Him. I love living like that. Complications give me a headache! Jesus has invited us to enter into a relationship with Him that is pure, trusting and real. Nothing covered up or denied. Be yourself and uncomplicate your life. Human beings aren’t actors in a role – we are just ordinary people saved by His Grace. Bye. 👋

P 3136 Let’s soar like eagles …

/ DVH

…not just waddle about like ducks. Yeah, I know! You are probably sleek and fit … but I am not!  Waddling, BTW, gets harder to eliminate as you slide into old age. However, this life is a gift, so let’s not waste a minute of it. Even our daily experiences count — good or bad – after all some people didn’t wake up this morning. Back to soaring with Jesus ….!!!

This translation of the Lord’s prayer was so beautiful I wanted to include it on today’s page. I often find a new translation is like discovering an old, much treasured friend, from an entirely new perspective. Please bless the people who take the time who give us those new perspectives, Lord! Amen.

“Pray like this: ‘Our Beloved Father, dwelling in the heavenly realms, may the glory of Your Name be the centre on which our lives turn. Manifest Your kingdom realm, and cause Your every purpose to be fulfilled on earth, just as it is in heaven. We acknowledge You as our Provider of all we need each day. Forgive us the wrongs we have done as we ourselves release forgiveness to those who have wronged us. Rescue us every time we face tribulation and set us free from evil. For You are the King who rules with power and glory forever. Amen.” Matthew 6:9-13 TPT.

I love the fact that the disciples owned up to not knowing how to pray, and so they asked Jesus to show them how to do it. His deep abiding love for our Heavenly Father comes through this prayer above all else. Please note – as we learn to live in His kingdom – He manifests it in us, and around us. We really do need to take the pressure off and enjoy what we’ve been given, because daily we want to see the Lord at work in our lives, just like the disciples did. The bible says: “We can do nothing without Him,” and why on earth would we want to try to do this stuff by ourselves? After all “His ways are perfect…” mine are often self-centred and based around comfort!

The Lord is meant to be the absolute centre of our lives. But the idea of giving my whole life to Jesus was so scary that I would not even entertain the thought. Actually I was kind of glad that this particular way of life seemed to belong to a few, far more important and gifted people than me. They all knew how to do this stuff wa-ay better than I did. And when I did reflect on it I thought, what would Jesus want me to do? What would He take away from me? What would I have to stop doing? Yeah! I had trusting God issues – big time! I suspect I may not be the only one to be like that either.

So, let’s look at this part of that prayer…’may the glory of Your name be the centre on which our lives turn.’ Amen. Otherwise this life shoves its way into our thinking processes very forcefully. This world insists, it demands, and elbows its way into our every thought – pushing aside our good intentions, our desires and even our voluntary participation in His way of living. Daily we face all kinds of interruptions and intrusions. When we go to an ordinary place like the supermarket, we are unpleasantly surprised and whacked in the hip-pocket with prices that are not constant. How do you glorify God in that? Repent a lot, without becoming obsessive about it.

Here’s my further insight into that particular issue …trust Him with everything, even the mundane things, like the shopping. Something that ordinary can be an opportunity to see the Lord work and build our faith. The very best thing we can do is to see our money as His money. Our view of our own daily life will change when He’s in charge. Seeing the Lord as‘our Provider’ is so appropriate, as one day rolls along and follows another. These seemingly little things are the moments we live for Him — by thanking Him, and prayerfully looking for His input everywhere in our lives.  

A sentence in this prayer, talks about releasing forgiveness. It is so easy say the words ‘I forgive you’ but do we complete those words by actually releasing forgiveness through us toward the other person? Forgiveness contains within it enough Grace for everyone to change! Saying it is one thing, releasing is entirely another. Doing that captures the spirit of what Jesus illustrated in front of us, in His book, day by day. It is like breathing in and out. That air we breathed IN is now gone, because we’ve let it go and moved on to the next breath. I think holding onto even the memories of injuries and sins against others is a little like holding our breath and hoping the other guy turns blue first!.  

I constantly need rescuing from what I’ve said or done, or even my reactions to unexpected things that interrupt my thinking. This week we have had an insistent mina bird sitting right outside the house, right where I am typing and editing the blog inside! A few feet away. I confess I have thought murderous thoughts toward that bird! What a racket it keeps making. The Lord’s help in such a tiny thing is essential. BTW, I don’t wait for an emergency or interruption – I’ve learnt to ask for His help, all the time.

We have this incredible access, this life-style of love, only because Jesus is our King, and God is our Heavenly Father. And we know that the Holy Spirit will guide us through everything. We want to transform the way we interact with difficulties and blessings, pleasure and pain. Hopefully that means we can all soar like an eagle, not waddle like a duck – or be at the mercy of an endlessly squawking mina bird! Bye. 👋

P 3103 Historical faith!

/ DVH

Our faith is meant to be living, it carries us from day to day. We look at trouble and say to Him: “How are You going to get me out of this mess please Lord?” Prayer, is walking around aware of Him, it is not meant as a last resort. It is as natural as breathing. We refuse to toss what we believe out of the window, just because things get rough or we get disappointed. This new life we’ve been given is not lip service, it is the thing that nurtures the biggest part of us. Our spirits! Every single day we too, are writing His story into our world around us. Let’s look at Luke 24:13-35:

“Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened.  As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus Himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognising Him. He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked Him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”“What things?” He asked.“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He WAS(!?!?!) a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 

The chief priests and our rulers handed Him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified Him; but we had HOPED that He was the One Who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find His body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said He was alive.Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?” 

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself. As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if He were going farther. But they urged Him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So He went in to stay with them. When He was at the table with them, He took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him, and He disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

This is a big chunk of scripture today, but I put is here because I want to talk about how easy it is to let our faith become historical. Faith from yesterday is not the same as the faith we use today. We are growing fruit, and we really need personal intimate times with Jesus Himself, otherwise – like these two men – our day to day sadness can overcome the fact that, HE LIVES!! Jesus explained to these men that all the prophets had pointed toward Him, and these old saints foretold that the Messiah would die. These two men had already relegated the Lord Jesus into their history. BUT … He was present – right there, with them!!

The bible says they had been prevented from seeing Him. However, I do think they recognised His hands as He broke the bread, because they had seen those hands do that before! Here’s my little opinion. They were in the same position that this world is today – Jesus had become part of history. They thought of the Lord in the past tense. The Lord wants us to live by faith today – present tense! Faith IS… the substance of this new life we have with Him, and head knowledge is no substitute for the reality of His Presence with us.

Jesus indicated to the disciples that He was going to continue to walk on … and the men had to ask Him to stay. Daily, we need to recognise He is always with us, so let’s ASK Him to stay with us, and watch out for the things He will do. The Lord is actively looking for the hungry, those who want to be with HIM. He needs our YES! Let’s refuse to be distracted by the stuff that flies around in our daily lives, and remember that the Lord is our everything. Nothing will make sense without Him.

Jesus knows humanity, personally and experientially, as well as our penchant for mediocrity. We need to choose to move on into the next phase of our faith lives with Him. We must go beyond our daily commitment to pray, or read His Word, into daily depending upon Him and His deliverance from sin and evil. These two disciples had walked, talked, eaten and watched and listened to Jesus constantly. But, they did not recognise Him because they were not expecting Him! There must be expectancy in our faith. These men thought He was dead and gone.

We can fall down the same hole that swallows our faith because the Lord doesn’t appear to be with us. Especially when we pray and the answer we want does not happen. In our own daily lives we can become preoccupied with day-to-day mediocrity and we forget our main purpose – His will is our main purpose. He is always alive within us. If we have no answer to our prayers, then we need to hand whatever it is over to Him, and ask the Lord to reveal to us what He wants us to do next. We can get so tied up in making our lives comfortable, that we forget that we are a people with a mission. 

Christians love to pray for revival, but revival starts with ME … being obedient to what He tells me to do. Let’s not settle for historical faith! Every minute I postpone doing what He says to do, is a minute of my life I am wasting. Our obedience to Him, will usher in personal revival. Bye. 👋 “Here’s what I’ve learned through it all: Don’t give up; don’t be impatient; be entwined as one with the Lord. Be brave and courageous, and never lose hope. Yes, keep on waiting—for He will never disappoint you!” Psalms 27:14 TPT