Praying

P 2718 A testimony and a lesson.

/ DVH

Just recently, in our stay in Cairns, we were mooching about in our accommodation, praying and talking about what we should do next. Then the Lord spoke to us and this is what He said: “There is a window open right now, for you to give bibles through it – GO!”  So we left right away.

My hubby had already listed all the known caravan parks, but the Lord, in His Grace, had organised that our seemingly random list was actually in some sort of order. We discovered that fact as we went from place to place  Long story short, our GPS is obviously behind in its updates … aren’t they always? … and the entry to the first caravan park was via a difficult, very convoluted process that was not on GPS map. We quite literally went back and forth on different roads to get in. Not a great start there!

By now …  because we too occasionally subscribe to the theory that these things are supposed to be easy (!)– we were beginning to doubt we had heard the Lord correctly at all!  However we decided to press on. As we eventually arrived at the first park on our list, someone else was checking in. The paying customers are always a priority, so hubby stood by with his hands full of bibles and waited … and waited  …. and waited … so He could speak to the elderly man behind the counter. Eventually this man took the new customer off down into the park and called out to hubby that he would be back soon.

His definition of soon and ours seemed to be quite different! After a lo-ong wait hubby started to feel that this guy was never ever coming back, so he returned back to our car, and we prepared to leave. Then the elderly man suddenly appeared, hobbling away and he called out to hubby, “I’m free now.” Well … they had a lovely time chatting away, and hubby gave out bibles plus a word to him as well as one of his paintings and a compass. This older man was very encouraging about what we were doing. Up until then we pretty much doubted that we had heard the Lord at all. Or maybe something had happened and that window we thought we heard about had slammed shut!

The next place was miles down the road. It was one of those parks that never take bibles – it’s against their policy. But hubby rolled up his sleeves and went in. It transpired that they had 106 units and they would have taken 106 bibles. All the bibles we had! In the end we had to limit what we gave them to 40, as we had other places to go. Another lovely friendly conversation about Jesus ensued and two more bookmarks found a home. Moving on again, we were en route to another park on the list when we spotted one that was not on the list. This park had barbed wire all around the outside of it. Things didn’t look too hunky dory, but hubby went in anyway. He had a lovely, fun conversation with the owner and that park took bibles too. You can never tell who will and who won’t.

After that, we went back to our list and drove about and found the next park on it. They had already been given bibles recently by someone else – PRAISE THE LORD!  But hubby was able to give the receptionist a bookmark. Then he spoke to a young man sitting outside in the rain and offered to give him lift, but the man was waiting for a cab. So hubby gave him a a Nick Vijucic book to read while he was waiting. We thought we had finished with our window, and we started to head for our accommodation … when we saw yet another caravan park on the other side of the wide main road, so we had to do the whole U turn thing to get to it. It was an NRMA park, and they also do not ever take bibles … but they did this time…!  And hubby gave away a bookmark again.

To sum up, by obeying what the Lord said, we went to 5 caravan parks and gave away over 110 bibles, not to mention paintings, bookmarks, a Nick book, and one compass! I said all that to illustrate that sometimes it can be difficult when we choose to obey what He says. Hubby and I might have easily given up at that first park. But then there would have been no conversations about the Lord, and we could have come back to where we were staying extremely disappointed, because ‘we misheard the Lord.’ 

Yesterday I talked about ADDITION. In order to distribute these bibles we had to ‘add’ virtue, (that is the sort of excellence that means what it says) to our existing knowledge of what we already know about the Lord. And to that we needed to add temperance (self-restraint). Then we added godliness – ‘what would Jesus do?’ – to that, and followed it up with brotherly kindness. (That elderly man was slow because he was OLD!)  At that point we added in charity, which means love. And that’s great because we were aiming at love in the first place!

We’ve learnt that following Jesus can be wonderfully whacky and productive, all at the same time. When we started out we had no idea where that word from the Lord would lead us – but we sure learnt perseverance from it! Bye.👋

P 2639 The hardest thing for a parent to do …

/ DVH

…is to love their grown up child, and hate their kid’s sin. As we all know, little kids are a lot of work, nappies, feeding, tantrums, cuddles, sleeping  – all that stuff is hard physically and mentally. It’s a demanding time. But – the hardest days are ahead — teaching your older kids to obey a God they cannot see is much harder. Unless they are prepared to read His book. 

Every bad habit you ever had or saw in yourself, can start to come out back at you, in their behaviour. As the maturing child grows you might end up judging your own investment in their lives, and feel like you fell short. Years of teaching, talking, redirecting, unselfishness and sacrifice are often forgotten. So when that older kid flops its big toe across the line and stares you right in the eye … while they are living without the Lord, and they refuse to change … that stuff is utterly devastating.

Some kids are so adept at getting what they want, they know exactly what buttons to press. In those moments we need to be careful. We can’t afford to come into agreement with a way of life that is out of agreement with God’s ways. Yet you can be so tempted to agree because you love your kid!

I know a little bit about this subject. Our kids are all now fully-mature functioning adults with grown-up kids of their own. But one of my adult children doesn’t walk with Jesus and they live somewhere else. Let me be very clear – I still miss that kid in my life. The pain from the semi-estrangement can be so hard I choose to refuse to think about it. Because I know that I can get caught up in the details of my own failure, and end up in blame and guilt. I second-guess my much earlier decisions and blame myself for the adult child’s wrong decisions.

Praise Jesus, I’ve learnt to hand this kind of situation over to Him and say: “I failed! Your turn!” The hardest thing for a parent to do is to keep on praying … but walk away. As a parent, you can throw His love over their fence – figuratively – as the Lord leads you, but don’t be tempted to try to change them. Let them come to you. And when and if they repent, do wait to see the fruit of their repentance. Refuse to be blackmailed by sad sack faces, and pleas of ‘it will be different this time, I promise.’  We cannot afford to let torment and guilt drag us around by the heart, we need to be led by HIS LOVE – which never ceases, but has boundaries.

The verse from yesterday really spoke to me: “…they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” Romans 1:32. I have dear friends whose adult kids are living in terrible life-styles, far away from the Lord. Of course they love their kids and hate to disapprove of them, however these grown up kids are light years away from that little child we can still see! Unfortunately, when your kids don’t follow the Lord, blame can follow you around like a rottweiler! It’s ready to grab and bite your ankles and drag you under. The devil is not satisfied with just tormenting you, hurting your kid and hurting you through your kid, he wants to destroy your faith as well.

An adult kid still knows how to get at you – manipulation is often its middle name! It can wind you around its little finger. Sadly, it doesn’t care about right and wrong, it will try every which way to drag your approval out of you. Even when it is clear to everyone else that the way that kid is living is not helping them! Christian parents can get sucked into the vortex of throwing love, lifelines and even money at wayward adult children in the hope that somehow that will convince them that the parent loves them and so does God. The raw truth is – when we do that, we are approving of, and feeding the very behaviour that needs change. 

The thing to do is to make your position, lovingly and clearly, and maybe say stuff like this: “ I am not rejecting you – you are bigger than this sinful lifestyle. I love you, I always will, I will always feed you if you are hungry. But what you are doing, the way you are living, is wrong, and I will not invest my approval, finances, and energy to help you go the WRONG WAY. I will not help you to go to hell!” Parenting is not for the faint-hearted. And sadly our society approves of everything! There is enormous pressure on parents. However, God loves them more than you do. Step out of His way. 

Only you know the maturity of your child. For some kids this relinquishment of responsibility might have to happen earlier rather than later. Don’t EVER stop loving them, but don’t dive in with them and let them run the show when they are clearly living sinful lives. Hold fast to your faith that God hears and He will deliver them. May the Lord give you grace to stand up against the devil’s onslaught. Amen. 🥲

P 2595 Hubby found this ace place …

/ DVH

We are currently in Uralla, NSW, a tiny little town just past Armidale. We’re out in the real bush, yet we couldn’t be more comfortable – no hip-holes in the ground here! Hubby found this cottage on the net and it is really special. The lady who runs it has thought of everything … well, almost everything … some things are out of her control! The net coverage here is a nightmare. It’s kind of ironic how we found this cottage on the net, yet we can’t get on the net for toffee!

Hubby has been walking about inside the cottage trying to find a spot where the net works, so we can put today’s blog onto WordPress. We’re not brilliant at this tech stuff – we kind of get by, but we don’t know any clever little tricks. Meanwhile,Telstra seems to have fallen out of the stratosphere — or is that the information highway? Hah! Maybe they fell in a ditch!  I think somewhere out in the immediate bush around us, there is a cleverly disguised hide that houses a little man who is peddling like mad, trying to get the net to go faster. We sure are spoilt in the city. I know I complain if the net drops out at our house – I am pretty sure that country people are amazed if it drops BY. 

Right now I’m sitting in a very comfortable chair, and outside of the window that is directly in front of me, there has been a parade of birds of all shapes and sizes. Corellas, rosellas, wrens and finches, magpies … whatever!  There are Eastern rosellas and Western rosellas. Boy are the Western ones lost!! They are apparently only found in the south west corner of Western Australia!!  I looked them up – we have proof, he took pictures!! The bird above is an Eastern Rosella BTW, the Western ones are shy. The owner here has cleverly put out food so all the birds around come at sunset and dawn to eat. What a treat that is!

We are mad twitchers. No, I am not talking about us badly lacking magnesium! We simply love birds – especially the little ones. Watching and photographing them is a favourite past time. Hubby has taken over 200 photos here, so far.  Personally, I think photography is an art. My mother liked to take pictures of people, years ago. However, it was a certainty that she would cut everyone’s heads off. That made for fun family photos!  Everybody would take hours trying to figure out who was who? We all look different HEADLESS! She once took a picture of someone very famous playing tennis. She showed me the photo so proudly – hilariously the only thing you could see was an arm and a hand with a tennis racquet in it! 

To keep you up with what we have distributed etc. so far, we’ve given away 169 things in 2 days, and 60 of them were bibles. One third of the great wall of blankets has been delivered, as well as many other things to the women’s refuge in Armidale. It is such a relief to have some of the blankets gone! Hubby packed them all carefully on the roof of the car in our flexible cargo bag, and we’ve prayed away the rain that kept threatening us, on and off since Brisbane. We didn’t want to be a WET BLANKET! Well, I thought it was funny anyway.🤪

When we arrived here, we realised we had a God-appointment with the owner of this cottage. So we gave her the things the Lord told us to give her and she was teary, and happy, and excited and overwhelmed — all at the same time. In the end she quite delightfully asked us: “Are you guys prophet-people or something?” We laughed and pointed at the roof – the Lord is great to hang around with as you do this stuff – He has the skinny on everyone! No! it’s NOT cheating.

Our hostess was extremely excited about everything, but her eyes really lit up at the Darryl Lea chocolates. There are no Darryl Lea Chocolate shops out here! Then Hubby gave her one of his famous paintings and she cracked up. Those paintings ought to come with free tissues… …  I must remember to write that down.

I am still not sleeping well, so, of course, my dear husband isn’t sleeping well either, although the poor man tries!! Hmmm. You really find the fruit of the Spirit at 3.00 am when your wife can’t sleep.😱 Yesterday, hubby spent ages re-packing the car – I was amazed he could fit everything in the first time. Yet he dragged it all out again and reconfigured the boot. I assume he does that to prove the first time wasn’t a fluke! At the same time I was praying for him, inside the house — I think that counts as helping, don’t you??

So far we’ve met all kinds of people, and some of them I was really glad to wave goodbye to, and others I wanted to take home with us. You can always tell when the Lord touches someone, it is like the outside veneer slides off and the inside gooey centre shows. It is such a privilege. These moments are the reason we do this, the deeply spiritual things  that happen are mind-blowing. People share their deepest needs and sorrows.

 Well, gotta go, gotta do, gotta be … somewhere else. Catch you next time. Bye 👋

ps He just discovered the net works perfectly …on the toilet!Sigh.

P 2574 That time factor, again.

/ DVH

I have been reading in 2 Samuel, and while I was reading it, I was reminded again that there was a time factor involved in establishing David as a King over Israel. There were many battles, many hardships and great losses between God’s choice and David being crowned king. That victory didn’t happen overnight. My point today is this: before David actually became king, in God’s eyes He was already His appointed man for the job! Samuel anointed David to be king as a YOUTH … even before he fought Goliath.

BUT, there was a very long period of time between those two events —- between the anointing and the actual appointing. 14 years, some people say. Yet this man was always God’s chosen man for the job. In this illustration we can see that time is not always the biggest factor in God’s Ways! The time between what God says and does, and it happening, can be longer than men are happy to talk about. We must not take things into our own hands, even when we know we heard what He was telling us.

My next question was why? Why was that time factor allowed? A whole lot of good men died during that time. I came to the conclusion that time can often clarify our motives – good or bad. Yet in that large passage of time, David grew more and more loyal to the king, despite Saul’s persecution of him. This illustrates that David’s best qualities were enhanced through that longer amount of time. If we think this life is about enforcing the kingdom, we are in error. David was tested about his beliefs and true motivation, and he had an incredibly honourable attitude – even to his own hurt. As the king in a powerful role, David was going to need some of the things that obedience, pressure and time bring out in a life – in order to fulfil that role, well. 

The other thing I thought about relates to us. Today we like to have an idea and bring it to fruition almost instantly. Yet it is apparent in the book that the Lord likes to take His own time! He has an appointed time for things to happen. Read Ecclesiastes 3! Even when we look at Calvary, there was a time period between the Lord Jesus’ death, and His resurrection. Then there was more time between Him revealing Himself to His disciples and His ascension into heaven. After that there was even more time between the ascension and Pentecost! Forty years to make an 11 day journey – those Israelites could not go in … they were not ready! When I notice stuff like that, I like to ask why.

My thought was that the Lord God seems to regard time in a different way to the way we see it. That made me wonder if we could give up on the things He tells us He is doing, too soon. Simply because it appears that the Lord is not meeting our timetable. Instead of pressing on in to learn perseverance, maybe we lose heart? What could we miss out on, when we push things along for the sake of convenience etc. instead of waiting on Him? Are we drawing the wrong conclusions, based on our needs, ideas and agendas? Time sometimes passes and then – we see a suddenly.

We all know that the Lord is never late, and the bible says, His timing is always perfect. Maybe we would manage things better if we stopped putting our own expiry dates on our ideas and hopes, and start asking Him what HE thinks. Then we need to take the time to wait for His answer. He’s never in a hurry so that  ‘hurry hurry rush rush’ thing that often happens is most likely not HIM! The devil pushes us — but Jesus leads us. He’s the Shepherd and He goes out in front!

It is not good to let our circumstances dictate our responses. Despair destroys faith. Holding things loosely allows Him to be in charge. Even if things seem pressing, it is better to continue to hand them over to the Lord and wait for His response. There is a little story about a persistent woman in Luke 18:1-8 …  “And will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will He keep putting them off?”I think this story beautifully illustrates our Father’s character, it is not just about getting our prayers answered by bothering God until He answers us! By all means ask and keep on asking, but I recommend handing things back over to Him after you do it.

Ephesians 6:18: “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.” James 5:16: “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17: “Never stop praying.”‘Never stop praying’ could also mean don’t give up too soon!

The lack of an immediate answer does not mean that the Lord has not heard us. Our confidence, our faith is in the fact that He ALWAYS hears us and His timing is perfect, so now we are waiting for Him to guide us through things. The time factor is not the criteria, David could have legally seized the kingdom, everyone knew he was the chosen one. Instead, he chose to endure persecution and hardship as well as honouring the Lord’s principles over a very long time. Time can be an important factor, even in difficult situations. We will need eyes to see His answers even more than we need the answers. Bye. 👋

P 2543 Just thinking … out loud.

/ DVH

“But you, my delightfully loved friends, constantly and progressively build yourselves up on the foundation of your most holy faith by praying every moment in the Spirit.Fasten your hearts to the love of God and receive the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gives us eternal life.”Jude 1:20-21 TPT.

The bible always gives us excellent advice. However, it is in kind of flowery, pretty language that seems like a whole lot of today’s advertising – minus the exorbitant pricing! That’s why I think it is good to pause and take note of the meaning of the words, and interact with them enough to find something to do. I believe that the normal human beings who wrote these books, prayed over what they said as they wrote it down. And I know, that the Holy Spirit is so brilliant He can take what they said and translate it into something extremely meaningful for you and me, any, and every day!

So here’s a new thought that challenged me: how do we pray every moment? Sadly, I haven’t mastered that yet … but I’ve translated it to mean pray every time you think of the Lord!  I also wonder if that’s the reason why we don’t pray enough? … More on that later!  I like to treat prayer like a compass because praying helps me find true north. It tugs at my heart like the earth’s magnetic north and re-orients my perspectives. Personally, I need that, all day, every day. 

Panicking or getting angry, or feeling down has also become a cue for me to pray. But! I have been known to ‘spit the dummy’ and ‘get my crank on’ – and that means it can take a while for me to get to prayer! I actually pray a whole lot of “help” prayers. And when things are really quite bad, I pray “help help!” prayers. And when things are absolutely awful –  then I text a friend to pray for me!! I think that Jude’s point is that ongoing prayer is essential for true Christian living. That’s kind of like having prayer rumbling away inside you wherever you are, whatever you are doing. May it be so Lord Jesus! Amen.

Prayer positions us for new possibilities. Praying about stuff means I’ve made the Lord my reference point —and I’m going after the One Who knows all things and sees all things and asking Him for help. Praying gives me a new perspective on my own attitudes, new thoughts about other people, plus the Lord helps me solve problems.

Paul tells us to ‘pray without ceasing’ too. (1 Thessalonians 5:16) To be honest, praying without ceasing or praying every moment is a challenging thought to me. But just because I don’t think I can do it, I utterly refuse to excuse myself and tell myself that it can’t be done. If it’s in the book, then there’s a way!  All that means is that I haven’t found it yet!  Meanwhile, I do love that promise that praying this way will build me up in my most holy faith!! I absolutely want that!!

I read Jude in four different bibles, because it is such a really short book and I decided that I think the key to this passage is found in the part that says: “Fasten your hearts to the love of God…” That sounds like spiritual velcro to me – I know I can use some of that sort of stuff!  “Make me like sticky weed Lord, attached to You so strongly I’m aware of You all day!” Amen! This passage means as we pray all the time, we are fastening ourselves to God … all the time!  

Maybe one of the problems that we have nowadays, is that we have compartmentalised things. Perhaps we think like this… ‘This is God’s bit:  bible study, praying in the morning and evening, reading the bible, prayer groups, going to church, having coffee with a fellow believer, etc …’  AND… ‘this is MY bit… going to work/school, having fun, daily travelling about, cleaning up my house, shopping, caring for my kids, looking after my spouse’ … Many people give everything to God at the beginning of the day … and then go out and do whatever comes next. 

Here’s an even bigger thought. What if we asked the Lord to say … go to work/school/shopping with us? Not as an airy-fairy thought, but as a reality. Which means we are prepared to be part of the answer to that prayer. And then, while we are moving about we ask Him to point out someone we can share His love with? Maybe shout someone a coffee … ?  Perhaps there is someone who needs cheering up. It doesn’t have to be a two hour counselling session … sometimes … “what a great job you did on such and such …”  will do! I actually think the Lord would love to sit with us when we watch TV or video games.

Here’s a revolutionary thought … what would happen if I decided that all MY time is NOT actually my time, but HIS time – and approached that idea practically? Not just in theory, but IRL. Maybe… that’s the way to stay pointed toward our true north? Just thinking … out loud. 🤔

P 2508 People who have authority have great power.

/ DVH

Yesterday, I had an early early appointment to go to an out-clinic at a major hospital. I hate going there. That particular hospital and I are not friends, because I have had some very nasty things happen to me, inside it. Plus I’ve met very grumpy, uninspiring staff! And yes … I have repented and forgiven them. Things are so unhappy in there, to cheer the staff up at Christmas, I give the clinics I attend, chocolates.  

I was kind of grizzle-praying at the Lord about it – I know you would never do that  — but, sigh, sometimes I do. An-y-wa-y … as I was …… praying, the Lord interrupted me, and told me if I gave the whole thing to Him, He would give me a testimony. So I shut up … and gave the appointment to Him.

First of all, we were seen immediately and that never happens. Unfortunately you also never see the same doctor twice, and this one had a Uni student following him around. That fully qualified doctor empowered me by the way he treated me. Instead of the usual brick wall you meet in the hospital… I think I met someone who actually liked people and his job. 

Anyway, at the end of our short time, I told him that in 36 years of attending there I had never ever met one doctor, or nurse, or care-giver who cared enough to ask about my personal comfort: This nice man actually asked me: “How have you been? Do you think, that the medicine you are taking is helping you?” I was gob- smacked … going there often feels like an assembly line: this guy sees my liver, that one oversees my endocrine system, this one my skin, and on and on. No-one asks me how I am. Rather it is like facing a health test, and it seems like I’m failing that all over the place.

Then this very nice doctor utterly surprised me, again. He said, after looking carefully at my chart with all the various clinics, I attend on it: “With all the difficulties you have, you need to be kind to yourself and take it easy on yourself. You have a lot to contend with.” I was totally blown away again. Nobody in 36 years has actually verbally paid any attention to how my health affects my well-being! Colour me astonished!!

They have, in the past, offered me counselling for depression …which would mean more time at that hospital(!) Hah! Like I would say yes to that!! So yesterday, I was so empowered by this nice man’s attitude, I spoke up. I did that mainly because the young student medic was sitting there. I thought it wouldn’t kill this young fellow to learn that people like to be treated like people, not like one sausage in a string of sausages! You know, people with authority can lend you their power, by the way they treat you, and that is an essential part of healing too.  

After the appointment, I spent quite a while thanking Jesus for all that He did. He promised me He would surprise me and He did. When He surprises me, it hardly ever looks like I think it will!  Meanwhile, hubby went to get the car, and left me in my chair by the front door. And then another patient came in. He was incredibly morbidly obese, and it broke my heart. I’m sitting in my chair, NOT looking at him, weeping away behind my mask. (Masks are great for that stuff, they are good for praying in tongues too!) I did both.

I still have tears in my eyes when I think about him. At once I started praying and I will keep on doing it until the Lord takes him out of my memory. This dear man sat down. I immediately noticed that his very very large legs were purple, and his poor tummy was so big it reached the floor from a sitting position. I just sat, and prayed, and discreetly cried for him – I can’t imagine how that man copes in such a judgmental opinionated world.

Outside on his way to get the car, my husband was having his own adventure. He encountered a tormented soul who was screaming at some security guards. They were trying to calm him down, and he was becoming more and more violent and agitated. So hubby started praying for the man as he went quietly by, and slowly this guy started to calm down. It occurred to me, who would pray for all these tormented, and often tortured, very ill patients, if people with faith weren’t around?

As Christians, we are a people with great authority and with that authority comes His great power. This means we can change the atmosphere around us – even when we are learning. You know sometimes we can only actually walk in compassion, through identification. Bye. 👋

P 2415 Applying the Holy Spirit’s lessons …

/ DVH

His lessons in our lives, lead to a stronger faith and spiritual growth. Strong faith means we take the Word of God seriously, DAILY, and act on it. Faith is like a muscle, it grows when we use it. We need to use our faith to lovingly care about others. The best place to start exercising our faith muscle is to use it to change the things in our lives that we totally know should not be there.

Here are some thoughts for you to chew on because you belong to Jesus and we all need to use our faith. Bad tempers are an option … not an inheritance. I don’t care how many people in your family have had a bad temper – we are in the family of God now, He is our history, our present and our future. Let’s leave that junk behind us. It’s the same as doubt. We must actively cultivate doubt, in order to keep it. Who on earth wants doubt?  Doubt is unbelief in the written word of God and in His Character! Look, we will all need help with our faith in our day to day lives, so we need to ask for it and then use it when opportunities come up. Christians are not meant to be storm-tossed all the time. Swinging back and forth like a pendulum in a clock. “Our faith is in His goodness in the land of the living” – that means now, today!

Some people struggle with an issue of control. That often grows from a deep-seated fear of letting someone else be in charge. Deal with the fear. Ask the Lord who you should forgive, because control can be handed down from one generation to the next. Then repent of doubt, anger and fear and from trying to control everything. The bible tells us “to submit to one another” – that means active participation, not just agreeing with the idea in principle. Control will not leave us unless we deliberately oppose it with humility and grace. Yes, other people will, and do let us down – that’s why you are scared in the first place. Put your faith in the Lord. He can take a stone and fell a giant!

We need inner transformation flowing onto outer transformation, that is the very best place to grow faith. To start with, the Holy Spirit is utterly, unquestionably reliable. He will start working on anything we give Him, immediately. BUT! Simply praying, and doing nothing, is fruitless – we still have to ACT. That’s what faith is all about – action. Doing something! If your problem is temper, try shutting your mouth next time you want to let fly. Refuse to participate in satan’s nasty little games. Remember we are no longer weak and helpless – Christ is now in us, He is our hope of glory! The fruit of self-control grows together with using our faith. 

Make the Holy Spirit welcome in your life. Cultivate His Presence and His holiness will also transform you. Eventually His Presence becomes more valuable that any stupid thing we think we have to have, or do, or SAY. The Holy Spirit is kind and gentle … He won’t hang around with an explosive temper, or carefully cultivated control, or doubt – He will leave. Confess your faults to someone else and ask the Lord to help you. Now use your faith to respond differently. My experience is this, if you move an inch toward Him – He will run miles for you.

Faith does not fall on us. To grow faith we need to start stepping out and using it daily. Doing that changes the way we live. The bonus in that decision is that we will stop driving our spouse, parents, teachers, and kids balmy! Plus we make ourselves available for greater things. Very few of us will walk on water without practising the skill of listening to Him and obeying, first! These things have to stop being a theory, or something that somebody else does because they are nicer than you are. The disciples after Pentecost focussed on the Lord and other people – they were single-minded.

The bible says: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”  This is purely my response to that verse, but I think of it like this: What will people get if they take a bite out of me? Would they get an explosion? Or a polite, barely-held-together-through-the-teeth response, OR …would they get what God Himself wants them to have … a Holy Spirit inspired portion of the Grace He has already given me.

There is no right time to change. In my experience change starts to occur right at the time you want to thump somebody. That’s when the Holy Spirit nudges you in the ribs and says: “NOW!” Then we have to clap our hand over our mouth and resist the temptation to do or say whatever it is. Now take a breath, and thank Him for helping you. Ventilating our emotions all over someone else is destructive – releasing the Holy Spirit in those moments will bless both parties. 

We need to devote ourselves to applying His lessons into our lives – the result will be stronger faith. 🕊

P 2203 It sometimes seems a bit weird…

/ DVH

I have never prayed for TV actors in tough fictional situations…because that’s like, weird. BUT! … I do have a fun anecdote. Years ago I had a friend who was really devoted to soap operas, and she assured me that she prayed for the actors that God would help them out of their scripted troubles. 😶 I have nothing further to say about that except it takes all kinds …! However, it brings me to my point, today. I want to talk about praying for strangers. Now that can definitely feel weird if you have never done it before. Hubby in particular, often prays for people in the supermarket, or in caravan parks or on the street.

So here we go – and these are not rules they are suggestions: first of all, I counteract those weird scary feelings by telling myself over and over – “I’m SO never seeing these people again in my lifetime!”  Yeah. It sounds nuts but it works for me. IF I were more spiritual, I’d probably take authority over the feelings of fear and inadequacy, instead of soothing myself with a stupid platitude. Anyhoo, I ain’t there yet – I’m still working on the fear I get when I am talking to strangers about intimate subjects like heaven and the Lord Jesus! 

Mo-ving on … when you pray for the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet, always use the name of Jesus – not “the Lord,” or “God,” or even “Father God.” Jesus is the Name above every other name and no one else can be saved except through His Name. Next … pray simply. It is not necessary to include the 12 spiritual laws on how to get saved, or 79 scripture references, the person will grow a beard! Or – they will tune out, like you do, when the pastor preaches for too long.  

When we pray for the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet, this is how I do it – first of all I make it as ordinary and quiet as possible, I don’t make it into a big deal, I don’t close my eyes, or kneel down – I pray very simply: “Dear Jesus, please help George with His problem (state the problem briefly) and make yourself real to him. Please bless George and His family. Amen. “

I do and say that however the Holy Spirit says to do it. The point is not the actual prayer. It’s not an incantation, you are talking to SomeOne the other person can’t see!  The prayer itself is secondary. The point is that you and I walk around in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. He loves to be with us, and He wants to touch that person in front of us. He’s the point. We are carriers of His Presence, the light of God. The light of Christ lives inside us. I can’t outshine a glow-worm by myself!

The problem with doing some of this stuff is that we have over-spiritualised it. When you do that you make praying for strangers hard. It needs to be natural, normal. Please, DON’T ask them to wiggle their ankle if they had a sore ankle and you prayed for their ankle – that’s about YOU making YOU feel better when there is a result. Suddenly you start thinking maybe I’m an evangelist after all!  Look you and I have always been witnesses, that’s everyone’s job description. You can sort that other stuff out with the Lord for yourself, but right now whatever is happening is not about YOU – it’s about the person in front of you, and HIM .. and that’s plenty to go on with.

In my country one of the things people always say after they greet you is “how are you?” I’ve learnt to make their answer my opening. Here’s how that works for me. They tell me after I’ve asked; ‘how are you today?’ … “my big toe hurts … or some such thing.” I figure the Holy Spirit is already working, because like … who tells a perfect stranger their toe is hurting? Then I say something like: “Oh, I am so sorry your big toe is throbbing. That must be awful because you have to stand behind that cash register for hours.” Then I let them talk about it – and at the same time I’m asking Him what He wants. Then I say: “I believe in prayer and healing. Would you like me to pray for your big toe, right now?” 

If they say no. Then I smile, take my change etc. and say have a nice day and leave. If they say yes, I pray quietly and simply. What am I doing? I’m allowing Jesus in me to reach into their lives. Most of the time after I have prayed, they say “thank you,” sometimes they tear up, but I still say “bye … have a nice day … etc. etc.” There are times that we have stood at the check out for a while talking to someone, because people become very open and vulnerable when the Holy Spirit touches their lives for the first time. However we are always aware of the queue behind us who are waiting to get their items checked out! They matter too.  

Meanwhile, hubby and I have looked up after praying to discover there was a different sort queue behind us – more people who wanted prayer! We are not the answer – He’s always the Answer! So we simply carry out His wishes. He does not push, so I do not push. I am seed sowing. I am taking seed from the harvest inside my life and sowing it into someone else’s life. BTW, it stops being weird when you do it often – however, it does kind of stay a bit scary. 👋🏻