Priceless

P 3175 Piece of cake!

/ DVH

“Christ is our message! We preach to awaken hearts and bring every person into the full understanding of truth. It has become my inspiration and passion in ministry to labor with a tireless intensity, with His power flowing through me, to present to every believer the revelation of being His perfect one in Jesus Christ.” Colossians 1:28-29 TPT. 

“Christ’s resurrection is your resurrection too. This is why we are to yearn for all that is above, for that’s where Christ sits enthroned at the place of all power, honor, and authority! Yes, feast on all the treasures of the heavenly realm and fill your thoughts with heavenly realities, and not with the distractions of the natural realm.” Colossians 3:1-2 TPT.

We can waste a lot of our God-given time reflecting on where we’ve missed it, and end up living in the land of regret. It is good to be aware of where you’ve fallen short of the mark, but not to the point where you can’t even see the mark anymore! That mark is this – Jesus’ sacrifice and His wonderful love for mankind. We have all been given a priceless gift …total reconciliation with God. Yes, He knows what we are like;  yes He knows we fail;  but our wonderful Father, God, is far greater than we can ever imagine. Right here. Right now. He sees us complete in Christ. That’s because of Who He is, His nature – not our spirituality.   

The best news ever, is this… Jesus did not fail. He was tempted in every aspect of this life, just like we are, He got tired, just like we do, He had responsibilities, just like we do. Listen to this particular responsibility!  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:18&19. Howzat for hard? 

Yet Jesus quite naturally walked and lived with SomeOne that we need to learn to walk with, minute by minute, day by day — the precious Holy Spirit.The good news is this – I don’t have to be all that – Jesus already did it for me. Our hearts need to be awakened all the time, to the reality of His truth – by reading and acting on the stuff that is written down in His book.

For instance, the bible says: ‘agree with your adversary quickly.’  Matthew 5:25. We’ve been lied to by our enemy who told us: ‘There is no way you can ever be like Jesus. After all, you did this and that. And something much worse, yesterday!!’ So I agree with the enemy when he accuses me, but then I refer him to the bible, because that is what Jesus did when He was tempted.  I point to the cross because I know I have nothing else but His Grace to commend me.

Sometimes I think we’d rather hide in the wine press, like Gideon did, than be seen! The bible says the people recorded in the Old Testament are there ‘…as an example to us.’ 1 Corinthians 10:11. Let’s not hide like that young man did. Instead let’s remember God has a plan and we are already in it! Our problem is we need to maintain our faith in His goodness, His promises … not just focus on our sins. We have weak wobbly faith in a tiger-pouncing world! It’s time to get up off the mat and get back into doing what we’ve been destined to do …telling and showing everyone around us how much Jesus loves them! 

A lady came here yesterday and in the course of our conversation she mentioned that she didn’t go to church but she did talk to God. She said this like she thought it was a bad thing. Like somehow she was sneaking into a rock concert without a ticket! We assured her she didn’t need a ticket, because God heard every word she said. Then we went on to reassure her that Christianity is not a club you join, it’s a Person you meet, so we don’t have to shout out our number as we go through the door! She laughed, and said: “You should tell people that more often!”  We need to remember …’it is the kindness of God that leads people into repentance.’  Romans 2:4. The-people-who-haven’t-met-Him-yet are often more happy to hear the truth than we are to give it to them!

However, we all know that sometimes witnesses can be quite reluctant. Cop shows on TV taught me that!! There is no such thing as getting it right, there is only obeying Him, or not. He’s a Redeemer! He can take the mess we’ve made of our lives, and turn it into something more wonderful than we can imagine. At the same time the Holy Spirit knows our frame. He also knows our weaknesses …but when we give them to Him, He will give us His strength in exchange. We don’t have to give someone else a 20 course dinner about what the bible says, in our testimony – we just give them the fresh bread He gave us this morning when we read the bible! 

There is the saddest parable told by Jesus Himself, about a rich man and a beggar. Luke 16:19-31. As the beggar talks to the rich man he says: “And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.” Let’s choose to take the time to tell others that–SomeOne, God Himself!–came here and made Himself that bridge between what people think they know about Him and Who He really is. Tell them Jesus is everyone’s bridge back to God.  Our testimonies are powerful, because the Holy Spirit handpicks the people He sends us to.

Revelation 12:11 –“And they overcame him (satan) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”  You and I don’t have to be the whole band – but … you can be the banjo Jesus plays on… OK!… Let’s not be picky … you can be the flute instead! Piece of cake. Bye.👋

P 2771 The kingdom of God.

/ DVH

In Isaiah 55:8-9 the Lord said: “My plans aren’t your plans, nor are your ways My ways, says the LORD. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My plans than your plans.” That kind of clinches it eh? Because it can’t get any plainer than that! We have not got a clue how God operates, and without the Holy Spirit’s help we never will … He is far too complex for us to understand. Aren’t we blessed that He reaches down to us, and shares how He wants us to participate? The Lord has plans for everyone’s good – not just mine. His plan is to save the world … one person at a time … and He wants to use us to do it.

Sadly, at least half of Christianity, at this moment in time, are not even trying to participate in His plans. We pray for His kingdom to come, and then we go out into the world and try to further our own kingdom instead! It is impossible for someone to live in two kingdoms. We are either living for His, or living for ours. And the sad fact is this – we postpone participation in His kingdom, in favour of organising our own. BTW, age does not factor in this reality, Moses was 80 when he started living the life God planned for Him. 

It seems like Almighty God is looking for “Onward Christian soldiers” but most of us want: “The Happy Song.” So, what do we do with the fact that we seem to like “The Happy Song” better? Here’s what I think — I think we can have the Happy Song AND Onward Christian soldiers, when we have learnt to stop allowing this world be the source of our happiness. And we make Jesus, together with obedience, our source of inspiration and action, instead. How do people know I am an Aussie? When I open my mouth! Kingdom people have a different focus in their conversations.

The bible says in Matthew 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Seek His kingdom first. That’s not hard to understand! There are apparently 46 scriptures that point out a facet of what God’s kingdom is like. Obviously I can’t list them here, but looking those verses up is worthwhile. If we are going to aim at something it will help us to know what it looks like! We are told to seek His Kingdom first, after that comes the righteousness that only Christ’s death and resurrection can give us. And after that we use our faith and believe what His book says … and …we step out using our faith. Participation in that process means we will get our needs met. 

Most of the time, I have observed when we pray, we feature our own needs. That’s backward. Start with the Kingdom. Seek the kingdom first. Pray like this: ‘Your kingdom come in me,’ OR… ‘I‘present my body as a living sacrifice.’ OR …’Your will, Your way, Lord.’ When we start with His kingdom, a whole lot of unnecessary stuff falls off instantly. It means we’ve put down our little list of needs and wants, and started to focus on Him and what He wants. We need to remember Christ’s position before His Father is now our position. So we live this life, the only one we have, like His kingdom is more important than ours … because it is. Our needs are temporal, His kingdom is eternal.

Here are a few examples of what His kingdom looks like in action: a/ righteousness, peace and joy. We can have these 3 things in the here and now, because they are part of living our new life IN Christ. b/ Being spiritually helpless and ignorant doesn’t cancel His kingdom – it gives us access to it. c/ His kingdom is activated by faith, not knowledge or wealth. d/ It’s a treasure and it’s often hidden. e/ The kingdom of God starts out small but then it grows. f/ It blossoms in us as we embrace it. g/ In His kingdom HE is the ruler. h/ This kingdom is not just a place per se, like heaven! His kingdom comes in a ‘people’ wrapping. You and I, we are kingdom carriers. i/ Final one for me, the kingdom of God is a treasure – it must be sought, dug for, paid for by surrendering every bit of our lives to the King.

Remember, His kingdom is now within us but it needs to be released through us by our obedience to His word. The Holy Spirit is our Helper, He will teach us which way we should go, and how to serve the King. So if we go to school, or work, or to the shops, etc. He goes there with us.  We carry the kingdom of God – what a privilege! Jesus wants to be wherever we are, because He loves us and…He wants to reach the people all around us.. Seeking His kingdom is like seeking the King – the rewards are out of this world. They are priceless. Bye. 👑

P 2559 WE ARE ALL IN THE WILL.

/ DVH

“I am contending for you that your hearts will be wrapped in the comfort of heaven and woven together into love’s fabric. This will give you access to all the riches of God as you experience the revelation of God’s great mystery—Christ. For our spiritual wealth is in Him, like hidden treasure waiting to be discovered—heaven’s wisdom and endless riches of revelation knowledge.” Colossians 2:2-3 TPT.

It is good when we read scriptures and look carefully at the order that things are written in.. Paul is praying for us .. that AS our hearts are so wrapped up in the comforting thought that heaven is our home, and we decide to allow His Love to bind and weave us together — then we begin to get access to everything Christ died to give us! Did you see that? … I am reading the Lord’s Will! It is utterly fascinating that the word Testament means WILL. The bible has an Old Will and new Will! Ya might want to think on that! 🤔 Our Lord did not just buy us salvation – He LEFT us treasures! As a matter of fact He left us a whole lotta things … things that are so precious and priceless it should leave us breathless just thinking about them.

The main difficulty between us reading about, or collecting all of that incredible inheritance … which BTW already belongs to us  … is that we often become way too attached to what we have here. And we will need to give up one thing in order to access the other. We can waste the allotted time He has given to each of us right here, right now … or live in our inheritance today. This means that His kingdom will come, here and now – in us and then through us! Our Heavenly Father is way-out-of-our-imagination rich in heavenly things – things that are incredibly powerful when they are used and spent for the benefit of mankind.

Meanwhile. let’s briefly use our imaginations … here’s a fantasy scenario.’ A couple of years ago you suddenly found out that some trillionaire decided to leave you all of his wealth, including all his assets. Boy are you incredibly excited and you make sure you turn up to hear the reading of the will. But all you can think about is that your benefactor has the latest Ferrari, and what is more it’s bright red! Red cars always go faster, it’s a proven fact. 🏎️ So you listen, oh so patiently, to the lo-o-ng list of assets that have been left to you. Including the pots of money without number, but the truth is you are actually just listening for the word Ferrari! So you take the bit that you dearly want and then you leave.’ 

Going to church is, quite simply us reading Jesus’ will – week after week!  And so, BTW, is reading the bible!  And the good news is this …you and I, we qualify for ev-ery-thing!! 🤔 However when the mythical will in my fantasy scene is read, it would be a mistake to grab the keys and jump into that new Ferrari and off you go – never to return! That means you never go back and find out what else you’ve been given – because your sole focus is on that red car. So all those incredible riches are still sitting there, waiting for their rightful owner.

This is what salvation looks like to most Christians → Jesus saved us! Hallelujah! Amen! But He saved us from something FOR SOMETHING. If we just sit down and settle for salvation, and forget to take the time to find out what else the Lord Jesus died to give us – what He has left us, we are not reading all of the will. There are glorious God-designed and God-given riches that are available to us right now. We just need to find them and fight for them. Some of those gifts are PEOPLE!!  All of these things are far more incredibly valuable than we can ever understand. It isn’t until we discover them and start to use them, that we discover their true worth.

Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 13 …We all know what that says! Here’s an example of just one of those riches that I want to mention. JOY is God’s own happiness supernaturally spilled over into our hearts. Ya might want to think on that one! All of those spiritual traits mentioned in chapter 13 are supernatural — and we will have to fight with our own old nature, our enemy and life’s circumstances to claim them. But it is definitely worth the fight. Look! … We can go into a fierce battle with a pocket knife and a pop-gun, but we have more chance of winning if we take other people with us and an arsenal! Time for more thinking here …

Over to Colossians 3:12-14: “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”  See? We don’t even wear the same CLOTHES anymore!

These sometimes seemingly impossible Graces are part of the very same inheritance as salvation. So is every bit of revelation He has given to us! Christ Jesus didn’t die simply to save us – He died to transform us. But the Lord Jesus is a gentleman and He will not make us do anything. We have a choice. We can fight for our inheritance, our promised land or settle for the Ferrari! Our God is, beyond-our-wildest-imagination-and-dreams rich in things that are for right here, right now, yet they are priceless and eternal. And HE LOVES to share. 💕 Fight the urge to settle for less and go after the whole of your inheritance. We are ALL in that will! 👋