Principle

P 3002 Win, win.

/ DVH

There is one kind of work that we cannot avoid. It’s the work we need to do with ourselves, our responses to difficulties. We do not have to do this work alone, we have the Holy Spirit’s guidance and help. Unfortunately, the more we postpone surrendering our faults and foibles to the Lord, the more ingrained they will tend to become in our old nature. So we need to recognise those behaviours, and throw off the old way of thinking, and put on His new way of thinking instead. We must learn to put the deeds of our flesh to death – God won’t do that for us. He already provided a permanent solution!

“For if you live according to [the dictates of] the flesh, you will surely die. But if through the power of the [Holy] Spirit you are [habitually] putting to death (making extinct, deadening) the [evil] deeds prompted by the body, you shall [really and genuinely] live forever.” Romans 8:13.

When we realise that there is something, some attitude that does not fit in with the bible, and we need to change,  we need His help — that’s the best moment of true honest response. There are times we hope that the Lord hasn’t noticed those things, or hope they won’t matter, and so we continually choose to live with whatever it is. Hmmm… good luck with that idea!  The reason I know this is because I have tried to excuse some stuff and failed! If God brings it up, and we see it, that means it is the right time to deal with it.

We are often challenged because familiarity has a great appeal … especially if our attitude is just a bit off. But eventually, if we choose to keep after Jesus, even that useless lie wears off … and then those little things we have hidden away, start to leap out and niggle at us. Then someone says something that seems so pointed we feel like everybody else knows about our dumb attitude and that they are staring at it! Hopefully, that is the time we go on a little quest to find out what the Lord has got to say about these things. 

First of all we need to pray and acknowledge our sin — a lack of patience, long suffering, self-control etc. Then we go to His Word, and voluntarily start reading what He says, looking for answers. We are about to use our faith. Many times I have specifically researched about a subject that I’m concerned about in my own life, just to see what Jesus has to say about it. But there are other times I continue to read wherever I’ve been reading day by day, and I have faith that I’m going to find the answer that I need, as I simply keep on reading! These are the times when what I need will just jump off the page and almost bite me. 

But at other times the Lord says to me: “Did you see that?” And I’m like .. “see what?” and He says: “Read it again.” And I’m like…”huh?” (I told you I’m dumb!) And He says:“You missed it, go back and read it again.” And then, most of the time I understand why He stopped me and told me to reread what I was reading! I get so excited I’d probably bail up the postman and tell him what the Lord just revealed to me.  I think people often can’t receive revelation, because they don’t persevere. Actually, sometimes things happen at the very moment you want to give up and ignore the whole thing.

The next step is obviously repentance, then finally, transformation. Transformation comes when I recognise where I am wrong or sinful and I ask Him to help me. I say things like: “You might have to put a big sign on this new thing you have shown me Lord, because I’m bound to forget, or get distracted, or miss it.”  Most of the time I’ve discovered that what I find can be something that’s been there for ages and I think that kind of behaviour is just ME. It’s often something I do to make other people ‘back off” when I feel threatened.

However, when the Lord puts His finger on something, there is enormous wisdom to be had, if you don’t excuse it or just pass it off as a one-time mistake. Instead pray over it and ask Him to show you how you can apply that scripture into your everyday life. The only other thing I can tell you about that, this is the place that often requires humility. And it can also require loads of personal honesty.

I need to be prepared to put aside my idea of my personality quirks, in favour of who the Bible says I am, and that can create a conflict. It is a very difficult thing to confront yourself and realise that you have been indulging something inside you that God would describe as ‘not good.’ Nobody grows through concept and principle, we grow through humility and application.“How does this apply to me?”

The only other thing I want to mention that may be relevant — is this — in order to change the habits of a lifetime I may have to confront whatever behaviour He has indicated, a number of times, and take the same stand each time. I have become increasingly aware that the most wonderful thing about change, is that Holy Spirit is always with us, helping us, and so we end up with a testimony! Suddenly a new world opens up in front of us, many times on the back of that very transformation, because the Lord has very generously given us fresh revelation. 

If any verse of scripture leaves you questioning whether you need to do something about it  or not, my advice is to err on the side of caution and pray over it anyway. When sin is dealt with there is no shame, except the kind of shame that bumps into our pride. Win, win. 👋 Bye.

P 2950 Not every voice is His.

/ DVH

There is an ad on TV at the moment, that has this poor overwhelmed schmuck at work. You can kind of tell he is brow-beaten down by his job. And other people keep adding to what this guy is supposed to do as he walks by them. So he ends up with post-it notes all over him, computers stuck to his back and arms, and files stuck on him everywhere. He is weighed down by it all, as it gets added to, minute by minute. In the end he can barely drag himself about.

Eventually he goes outside for a break, still dragging himself and all the attached guff with him. He breaks the you-beaut-yummy chocolate bar into two and everything attached to him drops off! … end of story. And no! I have no intention of telling you what kind of magic chocolate bar that is!! Imagine what the sales on something like that could do? The mind boggles.

Back to the blog … Christianity can be a bit like that ad. This Godly person says that great thing, that preacher writes a great book, and we can become weighed down by information that becomes stuck on the outside of ourselves. Adding to the pile of stuck-on-junk by insisting we learn this thing and that principle from the bible. 

My point is not about what we stick on ourselves — my point today is about the weight of ‘the stuff’ we carry about. We personally choose to stick stuff on the outside of us and we let others do it too because we are hoping to become ‘more spiritual.’ We say that God loves each one of us just the way we are – and then we act like we’d better watch out because He is just waiting to catch us doing something we shouldn’t! Fear has no place in faith, or LOVE either. The Lord is not sitting about tut-tutting because this person or that one does not understand Him. He loves the multitudes – their sin, our SIN separates us from Him.

That guy in the ad magically improved his life just by eating a chocolate bar! Now wouldn’t that be nice? But the idea is an interesting one. Because the Godly things we choose to digest, and act upon, become a part of us and we don’t have to drag stuff around with us like the tail on a kite anymore! Anything that is stuck onto us on the outside will drop off under pressure. The aim is for our hearts to change, not just our behaviour.

Isn’t that a great thought? To know what is right and want to do it, empowered by Grace, and standing in perfect freedom. I honestly don’t think we need any more information – we need to start applying what we already know, until it becomes part of us. We’ve become so used to stuffing things into our heads, our hearts have become burdened by the weight of them! Christianity is not meant to feel like a weight.

Jesus said this in Matthew:11:28-30: “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

So when I go to church I ‘listen carefully’ to the pastor, but I am learning from Jesus! I’m listening for what my Heavenly Father wants to say to me, personally…What is He saying to me today?  I’m always looking for His rest because that’s what He said He will give me when I learn from Him! Personally I don’t need any more weight to lug about, because I can find plenty by myself… That’s not a life-skill by the way, it’s dumb.

Our God will always want to share Himself and His knowledge with us. However, this life is not about some exclusive prophets and seers club. ”For His divine power has bestowed on us [absolutely] everything necessary for [a dynamic spiritual] life and godliness, through true and personal knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” 2 Peter 1:3.  He gives all of us these graces for free to help us to grow and follow Him.

The bible also states…“‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and tell you [and even show you] great and mighty things, [things which have been confined and hidden], which you do not know and understand and cannot distinguish.”Jeremiah 33:3. Our natural minds don’t always understand the things of the Spirit, but that does not mean He is not sharing great and mighty things with us. Just like we need spiritual eyes to see the people around us, we need spiritual ears to hear what God is saying to us. If we listen for rules we will hear rules, if we listen for His love toward us we will hear it. His love by the way, never sounds like permission to do something we know is not-so-good.

At the same time what the Lord says, isn’t always something terribly deep and meaningful, or profound and mind boggling. Almighty God talks “ordinary human being!”  He did that in the garden. We see Jesus do it in the Gospels, the Lord was not condescending to anyone. Instead He engaged with His listeners and He spoke at their level. 

God’s word is like that chocolate bar in the crazy Ad. His word instantly pushes burdens off your back and leaves you free to enjoy Him and your life, despite its ups and downs. Always remember, He is not speaking to the guy behind you or the lady in front of you – He is speaking to you! He wants to speak words of loving affirmation to you. Just be aware that not every voice you hear is His. We can count on the fact that when He speaks to us, He is leading us forward. Bye, 👋.

P 2451 Submission is like a series of umbrellas.

/ DVH

Matthew 26:39; James 4:7; Hebrews 13:17; Titus 3:1; Titus 2:4-5; Colossians 3:20, Romans 13:1,2. These 7 scriptures make great reading for today’s subject. Please note that all aspects of life have been covered. Sometimes the whole female aspect of submission gets blown right out of proportion. Anyone who goes after POWER to rule, instead of HUMILITY to serve others, has missed the point.

Submission is about primary and secondary missions. When someone wants to take over the government by force they obviously think that power is more important! We submit ourselves to Jesus’ authority through His delegated leaders. ALL areas of life are talked about in the bible – from submitting to God and getting rid of the devil, to submitting to authority, as well as children learning to obey. Good to note that children learn obedience by watching you, as well as you teaching them. I’ve seen many parents who regularly ignore speed limits, telling their teenage kids to drive carefully! Food for thought.

The bible also makes it clear that submission is something that Jesus Christ Himself voluntarily lived – first toward His parents and then to the authorities, finally to the church leaders and finally to Almighty God! This means we are not being asked to do something HE didn’t do!“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!” Philippians 2:3-8

Submission is not a popular concept today. Women want their rights, children want to be heard, and leadership of any sort is subject to criticism and scrutiny! Everybody wants to do their own thing without other people interfering with them. But it is extremely clear this is a biblical principle. There are large portions of the bible that refer to submitting, and it includes people in every walk of life, plus the Lord Himself. If you follow the bible verses I put above, (I found LOADS more BTW!), then our children should be the most protected little beings on this planet.

Ya might want to pause and think on that, when you check out what kind of ads are on TV floating through children’s TV shows daily. I think that knowledge has become far more powerful than protection in our society. Not teaching kids what is wrong leads to unruly kids! And, BTW, “don’t do that please darling” is a waste of breath and time! “If you continue to do that, then I will …” holds the line. Personally I think children need to be protected because their hearts, minds and emotions are vulnerable, and open to wrong influences. The internet has a lot to answer for, because it gives access to bad information as well as good!

I see this kind of protection, available through submission as if it comes from God Himself, through Christ, over governments, then leaders, down through husbands, wives and kids. Things start spiralling downwards when we refuse to submit because we can do it better than they can! Submission is like a series of umbrellas. The big umbrella comes from Almighty God over us – He sent His only Son to save us – that’s one huge umbrella!  

Christ’s death and resurrection provides spiritual shelter, the one under that, is our government. Then our church leaders. In our homes … fathers and mothers (parents) need to be in charge because it is part of their delegated authority to protect their children. By the time we get to the children there should be at least five umbrellas over that kid’s head. Which means when they are young they should not have to be responsible for much more than helping out at home, plus they need to learn to obey their parents. 

For God’s teaching we have a whole book full of what He would like us to choose to do … voluntarily. There is life in this book, when we read it, if we choose to obey what the Holy Spirit teaches us through it. The most important thing we can teach anyone is how to become like Jesus. Submission is simply a key in that process because, rightly discerned, it is a place of protection. It is not meant to be blind or automatic, instead it intelligently operates under the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, and defers to the Lord. It is also not part of a competition to win the right to be in charge! Submission is about serving each other. Jesus Christ voluntarily submitted Himself to serve His Father’s will. 

Submission is an act of FAITH, love and deference —not subservience. Human beings may be smart but we all have blind spots – we sometimes need protection from ourselves! It is not just about someone over me being in charge — it is about having authority in whatever place God has given ME! This means it cannot be enforced or demanded, instead, authority is relinquished as an act of trust in GOD’s supremacy. I just want to add that this key works whether you can trust the guy above you or not, because when we submit to them, we do it as though we are submitting to the Lord Himself. They will have to explain their actions to the Lord one day. 

You could be afraid you will lose yourself. But the real point is, we are not actually submitting to any one human being. We are submitting to God’s written and revealed Word and He stands behind His word. When I stand in the place of authority God Himself has given me, I can tell the enemy to take a hike and not even blink. You and I are not supposedly giving into an idiot or a tyrant, we are using our faith to reach out into the Spirit and command the blessing that comes from living a Godly life, His way. We look to Jesus, not the human being who thinks he’s in charge. 

Remember submission is a series of delegated protective umbrellas, not a LAW to force me to do what someone else wants. It gives me authority in my designated arena. It also means I don’t have to force myself to do things that are clearly bigger than I am! Because of what Jesus did for me, I have a delegated spiritual space, I didn’t have to usurp it, by force or trickery … (like Esau!)… from someone else, that place simply belongs to me. My spiritual umbrella belongs to me and it shelters me. Wandering out from under that kind of protection because I think someone is impinging on my rights is a foreign concept to someone whose whole desire is to serve Jesus. 👋🏻

P 2404 Really loving others is costly.

/ DVH

“It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?” Galatians 5:13-15 MSG.

God’s idea of freedom verses ours is another one of those things that seem to be in opposition. In reality it is available to the tough, those who will persevere, and the utterly committed. I believe the Lord wants us all to live a life free of the oppressions that drive and devastate people, and spoil relationships, and break- up homes. That sort of life is truly our witness, not just our words. There is an incredible freedom in living out the truth, and His Word is the only truth. When we willingly exchange our ideas of truth and freedom for His TRUTH, from the bible, everything looks different. 

And we’ve actually exchanged human glasses for heavenly vision. This is what renewing our minds looks like. It is more than being able to quote the bible. It is allowing ourselves to become a living bible. We are no different to the thousands of men and women of God who lived this way right after Christ died. They gave everything for the gospel. And they had the same Holy Spirit we have!  Reading the bible and simply agreeing that what is in it is a good principle, or a nice thought, or a good way to live —will not set us free. In God’s kingdom there is no compromise. He gave everything and He asks us to do the same. That includes exchanging what we esteem as truth, for real truth, HIS TRUTH. 

This means mental agreement is not enough, practicing what it says is. We might think – but I will not be ME anymore if I follow what the Holy Spirit says. GOOD!! The idea is to die to who we think we are, and all the stuff we’ve grabbed at in this life to achieve that image in our head – and trust in what Christ did for us instead. The Holy Spirit is not an add-on. He is essential to our new life in Christ. He knows what Jesus would do! If we lean toward making excuses for our own behaviour, or attacking other people to defend ourselves, we are immediately walking into satan’s territory. I believe obedient hearts attract the Holy Spirit’s Presence.

satan is the prince of the power of the air. he loves to distort words, meanings, looks, attitudes into negative things. We need to see other people from God’s perspective. He can use our prayers, our kindness, self-control, and love to bring out the best in others. We have a choice … we can live on the fringes of what the Lord says, or we can change the way we view people to His way, and practice obedience. I have people in my life that are not always supportive, but the Holy Spirit has asked me to see those people through His eyes. I owe Him my obedience.

Our God is fantastic at multi-tasking. Boy is He terrific at it!! He can take my desire to be obedient and transform me, as I act on it. And at the same time He will use my obedience to break into other people’s lives and bring about change there too. The thing we need to hold onto is that it will take as long as it takes. There is no magic formula. Ask for help, do what He says, keep your ears open and your heart humble … and be obedient … and remember flattery will not do. We are not buttering other people up – we are in process with God learning to live in the truth. The best words we can ever learn in this process are: “I’m sorry please forgive me.” Whether we did something to warrant those words or not. Read the book!

Sometimes we are like little kids who are planting seeds. We plant the seed, and a day later we are disappointed because we can’t see any growth! Changing adults who are set in their ways, and used to defending themselves, can take time. In our eyes, it is often the other person who is wrong, or maybe wrong-er than us. It is that view we must change.

We are committing ourselves to learn LOVE. It will take time, compassion, and loads of humility as well as repentance. It’s a process … not a magic formula. Truly loving others is always costly – it cost Christ His life. 👋🏻