Priority

P 2403 Step away from religious ritual.

/ DVH

“I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is somethingfar more interior: faith expressed in love.” Galatians 5:4-6 MSG

I like this version of those verses, because most people don’t intentionally set out to become religious. We are initially attracted to the welcoming, living, breathing,  redeeming Saviour — and then time, and a lack of inspiration wears us down. Pretty soon, unless we address the idea that church is meant to be there for me, to help me, and teach me… religious duty will take over. We can’t blame the pastor! Our own expectations when we go to church matter. I exhort you, go to church to be with Him and the Body of Christ.

Perhaps at times we are speaking for the Lord, but not listening to Him. The Holy Spirit knows how to have church, the early church waited for Him because Jesus’ instructed them to wait, but the good news is this — we don’t have to wait for Him, He’s already here!! He never left. We simply need to constrain Him to come and stay with us, collectively. Our desire to be with Him will attract Him. Instead of blaming the leaders, let’s you and I go to church hungry for Him, more of Him.

I don’t think this means we need to put on a better show than Radio City Music Hall, or a some sort of Rock concert – that’s just window dressing. I think we resort to window dressing because a lot of the church is addicted to feelings. The real truth is, we want Him to come and be with us all… Like the men on the road to Emmaus we need to urge the Lord to come further with us, eat with us, and be with us. We need to change our expectations of why we go to church.

What we need to know, more than anything, is how to make Him our priority.  If wooing the bridegroom is not paramount in our thoughts and actions … then there is a chance we are being religious. When He comes to our gatherings people are convicted, healed, transformed, built up and encouraged into action – because He is present. The bible totally proves that our God loves to be around mankind – He created opportunities to interact with us. However, we have become so addicted to having our own needs met, we’ve left behind the thought that church is about Him.

I am also not talking about prophetic utterances or words from the Lord. Prophetic utterances are often for US. We spend so much time trying to build us up that we’ve forgotten to make the One person Who can do it in a heartbeat – welcome! The Holy Spirit needs to be our new Best Friend. You and I meet with Him daily, in our own homes, and circumstances, but when we get together that is our opportunity to become part of a collective longing.That longing is not about knowing about Him – we want to be with Him because He loves to be with us.

A good sailor will tell you that they watch to see what the wind is doing because they know they need the wind to fill the sail so they can progress. We need to watch and see what the Holy Spirit (the Wind) is doing and then do that. Following Jesus is not some sort of chore. It only seems to be a chore when we get stuck on ritual. Religion is not what we are aiming at, unless it is pure religion. James talked about that … looking after widows and orphans, plus keeping a watch over our tongues.

Church is about meeting with Him and not simply about making us feel good. We go there to learn how to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul and strength – and our neighbour as ourselves. But God comes first, because … “without HIM we can do nothing!” So, I go to church … not just for my needs, but for HIS and yours. Church should never just be a weekly activity. But please don’t quit going there–just change the reason you go!

I don’t think Christians are being religious on purpose. But His Grace is not prevalent or present, when we leave Him and His wishes out. The key to this passage is at the end of it – faith expressed in love. I love Him and that means I love you. No matter what you wear or how you sound, I am more concerned about you than me. If love is not present, the Lord is not present – because LOVE is a hallmark of His Presence. Bye. 🤗 

P 2358 Priorities

/ DVH

Following the Holy Spirit and His leading, is the greatest choice of all. I dare to say that it is essential. However, we must get the thought out of our heads that walking with the Holy Spirit means we will always feel something, or get some benefit or other. HOW ABOUT THE BENEFIT OF BEING SAVED while we were yet sinners!! I exhort all of us to leave the idea of constant wonderful overwhelming spiritual feelings behind us, and do what we do because we love Him. That’s what Jesus did for His Father and us.

Here is something for free that I’ve learned the hard way when I walk with Him. When the Lord’s POV crosses my own, often all I feel is grumpy and hard done by. At that particular moment I can give you about 900 reasons why what I think is more right than that other person is. However there is no actual faith exercised when we think we can prove our point by walloping some poor unsuspecting schmuck over the head with God’s book. 

That’s not what His book is for – we have it to get to know our God and His ways, not just to search it for the things I might want make my life better, or to prove a point. The bible is a beautiful story of salvation and redemption, so that now we can live our our lives acknowledging: ‘that without HIM we can do nothing.’ 

You know the Holy Spirit will point out our sins and flaws, but only with the thought in mind of smoothing out the pathway in front of us. You and I are a highway for the King to travel on – we just need to be willing for the Holy Spirit  to smooth out those pathways, by filling in the potholes and removing bumps. There is nothing on this earth better than watching King Jesus reach out to one of His lost little ones ….and He just used our unconditional loving words to do it!

Sadly, instead, many of us have used our time thus far memorising all the “ME” verses… ‘I am this and that and I’ve been given this and that.’ Here’s something worth thinking on —Father God has given us Himself – HE is our treasure and gain. Not some promise or other that we demand He fulfil. He is our priority.

I hardly ever feel happy happy joy joy all the time. – I figure that’s in the book too! Nor is this life of mine all sunbeams and rainbows …sometimes its creaky painful joints and  a complete lack of can-do motivation! HOWEVER … I’ve learnt to obey the Holy Spirit, because I want to follow Jesus. This process is not meant to be tried, it is meant to be learnt. All that means is this:  I’m probably going to bump my nose into my own particular cross regularly… and I won’t like it much. I’m not convinced that this life is actually meant to suit us. 

We can easily fool each other with our ‘nice’ smiles and faces that look like we are listening to others. But we don’t fool Him. Living this life as a laid-down, totally surrendered lover of Christ is not easy. Learning obedience through suffering isn’t easy either, but it does become more natural when we practise it. Dying to self means we are making room for Him. I urge you to weigh up those attitudes in this life that act against His unconditional love for us and others. And then go on to think about what we are losing every time we give in to the temptation to look after me, myself and I. I know I lose the opportunity to see God at work IN MY OWN LIFE. 

I was saved to serve Him wherever I am. At my school, job, house, and in my ordinary little unspectacular day-to-day life. That is what is actually really powerful. When ordinary people who serve an extraordinary God – but they have no grand destiny to speak of — when those people choose to give up living for themselves, and they choose to live for Him instead. To them, nothing else matters.That’s called single-mindedness and the Holy Spirit loves it! Jesus had it and it needs to be our great, never-ending quest. Let’s keep watch over our priorities.

We can go through this life praying desperate emergency prayers as needed, or we can choose to walk constantly and ever-increasingly with the One Who knows the way. He not only knows the way, He knows US inside and out! There is nobody better equipped to help us to deal with our day to day problems and heartaches than the Holy Spirit. Make Him and His will your priority and watch your whole life change. 👋🏻

P 2346 Be a conduit of comfort for someone else.

/ DVH

“All praises belong to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For He is the Father of tender mercy and the God of endless comfort. He always comes alongside us to comfort us in every suffering so that we can come alongside those who are in any painful trial. We can bring them this same comfort that God has poured out upon us.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 TPT

What comforts you? Seriously. 😶 Do yourself a favour, don’t pretend – be truthful. In your little list of comforting things you could find family, potato chips, hugging your pet/kids, having a proper job, or enough to eat, perhaps somewhere warm to sleep, yummy chocolate, or maybe just a hot drink on a cold. 🤗 First of all I want to say that none of those things I’ve mentioned are inappropriate or wrong but … if you want to be truly comforted inside, where you feel so broken, or even give away true comfort to others – you will need a whole other source. God Himself.

Yeah … I know, Almighty God is kind of hard to get on the phone in a crisis. 😳 Yet it is astonishing how quickly human beings call out for Him when life presses in on us hard. People who say they don’t believe in Him start crying out: ‘God help me!’  We’ve been designed with a need to have God Himself as our primary source of comfort. And, as the scripture says, we will have nothing lasting to give others, that will still their spirits and bring them fresh hope -except God Himself. Whether we believe it, or even feel it, or not – the reality is – we are God’s chosen method to reach out to other people.  Please note the Lord does not push His way into anything – He loves volunteers. 

True comfort is very lacking in our modern world. Instead, the people around us stuff all sorts of things, like excesses of gambling, drugs and alcohol, other religions, even strange relationships, into the deep parts of their hearts hoping to alleviate their pain and ongoing suffering. I’m not going to comment about whether that actually works or not – because today I am talking about US passing on something we have already received from God Himself on to someone else in need. 

It almost goes without saying that the reality is, we have nothing lasting to give if we do not trust our Jehovah Jireh our Provider, as our Source to be there and help us. So how do we do this? We begin by renewing our minds as a priority, so any rumour or innuendo or inaccuracy will start to kind of slide off us, because our first response to something that is a bit ‘off’ is this: ‘I don’t remember reading that stuff in my bible!” And then we go away and check out whatever it is, in the book. And THEN we believe what the book says, above what we think or feel. 

I have seen God comfort someone else with the dumbest, weirdest scriptures. Things that appear to have absolutely no relevance to this person’s situation AT ALL and yet, comfort entered into them immediately. I literally watched it happen. I didn’t even give them the scriptures that the Holy Spirit had used to comfort me in the past. I just did and said what He said and watched Him move.  At that moment, I became a conduit for the Father’s loving comfort to flow through me. 

This is our destiny – yours and mine – to give away what God gives us. Not just good advice or even scriptures we know off by heart – unless the Holy Spirit highlights something in particular to us. Our response comes directly from the One Who used His word to comfort us. These times are also opportunities for us to experience ‘God’s love for me,’ personally. People can get caught up in seeking after experiences, but at times like this a scripture can jump out at us – almost with flashing lights. Just as clearly as a sign flashing in our heads, it dawns on us that God Himself just spoke to us. And that’s comforting. Not only does Almighty God know … He cares and we have proof.  These things become our own personal memorial stones.

Maybe a phone call comes unexpectedly, and a loved one, or a brother or sister in the Lord, has been moved by Him enough to call to see how we are doing. To comfort someone else with that kind of supernatural comfort, all we need to do is pray, listen, and OBEY.  That’s all it takes to make us a Godly conduit of comfort for someone else. 👋🏻

P 2322 Grace opens our hearts, as well as new doors.

/ DVH

John 1:17 “For the Law was given through Moses, but grace [the unearned, undeserved favour of God] and truth came through Jesus Christ.”  Unless the Holy SPIRIT is in charge of our actions and thoughts I believe we will accidentally  automatically revert to upholding the law and judging others. We won’t end up doing that on purpose, rather it may be a life-long default button.  

Our relationship with the Holy Spirit needs tending to and caring for … He needs our private and specific attention. Otherwise what we already know, or our previous experiences will take preference over what He wants. He’s so quiet and non-intrusive, we actually need to make room for Him. Here’s what I’ve learnt that helps me to make room for Him.

The Holy Spirit likes God’s LOVE to be in charge. Not the gooey stuff we all think of as love but the kind of love clearly defined in 1 Corinthians 13. So if I am selfish, or defensive or angry etc. I will not be able to hear His quiet voice in my heart. I am learning to do my best to fix things immediately with HIM so I can get His perspective – no matter how right I think I am!  😂 I’ve found that when I make His comfort, His wishes, my priority, it opens my inner spiritual ears. And it also helps keep me humble. 

Galatians 5:22-23 says this: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” If we cling to the fact that He is cultivating and protecting His fruit in our lives, then we are positioning ourselves to walk with Him. It is an inner attitude rather than a law. It means we want what He wants – first. Unfortunately when the above qualities are absent, that means He is not around – no matter how much scripture or intention to do right is present, without His breath on things we will simply end up in law again.

Psalms 40:8 TPT. “I delight to fulfil your will, my God, for your living words are written upon the pages of my heart.”The Holy Spirit is not flighty or huffy. But He can be grieved easily, by the hardness of our hearts toward our Heavenly Father, and others — but, at the same time, let us remember that He wants to be with us.

Human beings have limited ideas of what love looks like because we all have a natural predilection to put ourselves first, and then we look after the people we love, or the people who benefit us. But when the Holy Spirit is in charge … a different kind of love prevails – a love that seeks the best for everyone. 

The Lord’s kind of love is not afraid or reticent to prune the one it loves. In this permissive world, any idea of correction or cutting away stuff for benefit, is totally foreign. But the passionate love of God does not hesitate about wanting to do whatever it takes, and whatever will bring out the best in the one He loves. 

Actually, when you look at what He did to save us … it becomes totally clear He will do whatever is necessary to deliver us from any of the crutches we frantically employ to cope with, sin, pain and suffering in this life. His love is passionate and relentless …all at the same time… and we would be wise to remember that. There are times when we may not even know, notice, or understand when we’ve slipped out of Grace into law. However, as we let go of our desire to get things right, or even the desire to please Him, we will begin to understand that we are no longer living under this world’s system.  SOMEBODY ELSE DID THAT PERFECTLY FOR US. 

So if the Holy Spirit leaves us, then we are doing it wrong, and it is time to stop and reassess where our spiritual train jumped the tracks. His Presence in our lives is our guide. New doors will open when we follow Him and start living in, and by His Grace. 👋🏻 

P 2176 David teaches us about connection.

/ DVH

Written by David, the servant of the Lord. “…but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; He rescued me because He delighted in me.” Psalm 18:18b &19. Knowing how much the Lord delights in every single one of us, helps to keep us focussed when things don’t go the way we hoped. He is our support system. He’s there when other people are too busy, or when they think our problems are trivial. We can talk to Him about our disappointments and sadnesses, when some things don’t change, depending on what the difficulty is … or even when those things get worse. In my experience sometimes things appear to get worse before they get better!

Our God is a long-term God. He’s in this relationship with us … forever.  We need to go to the Lord with all our difficult things, big and small, at any moment, and ask Him to help and comfort us. He’s not just an emergency God – He is our reason to live! The hardest bit is to teach ourselves the kind of focus we need to make Him the centre of everything we do. But when we do that, we are often highly amazed that He cares enough to participate in the sort of stuff we might think of as little things.Jesus died to give us a permanent connection – we can talk to God any time we need to … no telecommunications experts required!

When we read the Psalms we can see that David constantly reminded himself about his past. He remembered those times when God delivered him, and he memorialised those things by writing them down. Personally, I think that things overtake us when we are simply living out our Christian life day by day. This life is full of mundanities – the whole, same-old, same-old everyday events. You get up in the morning, send your kids off to school, go off to work, etc. etc. When life is that humdrum that’s when our faith is really tested. It is also one of the greatest times for faith to grow – when nothing whatsoever is happening except the kind of stuff you know you can do, all by yourself!

In a really big crisis our first thought is often “Help, Lord!” But everyday mundanities reduces our faith to lip-service, very quickly. We can all cheer and shout and set off fireworks when He delivers us from some terrible event or another … but our day-to-day obligations lull us off to sleep and we can end up going just through the motions. This happens in ordinary human relationships too. We can get easily lost in who does what chore, and forget that the other person is someone we love and care about.

And those seemingly ordinary places are where the relationship we have with Him can stabilise us. God rarely announces His purposes over a loud-hailer! There are times where we suddenly notice someone standing off to the side of busy activities looking lost or sad or afraid. But we need His eyes to see them. We can walk past someone He wants to talk to because of our own busy lives. Remember we daily meet with a PERSON – the life that is in Christ is in us! 

I urge you to read the bible until it speaks to you. Jacob prayed this prayer in Genesis 32:26b. “… But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” Today, I want to encourage everyone, to wait for the blessing whenever you engage with the Lord. Whether praying, reading or just daily living. Our God knows how much time you need to get to the ‘next thing’ on your agenda – pause, show Him that you want to hear what He has to say to you personally.

The blessing is the connection. David valued his connection. Ask the Holy Spirit to sit with you. Reading the bible isn’t about information or feelings, it is about acknowledging your need for His input. That takes faith. It is our intention to eat that counts, so ask Him for today’s daily BREAD. If reading the bible is difficult, and it does get that way sometimes, then say what Jacob said. It doesn’t have to take hours – it just means that you purpose in your heart to connect with Him. Meanwhile you can do this at anytime, as often as you want to do it during the day. 

Faith has substance because we give it substance, by giving it priority. Sometimes I have to remind myself that just because this day seems like the ‘same-old same-old’ that does not mean He isn’t there with me, listening. I have His WORD and the Holy Spirit wants to help me to overcome things like impatience, irritation, momentary selfishness, disinterest in someone else’s problems … the  everyday nitty-gritty stuff that can seem endless. Jesus is always here. He promised to be with us, and He keeps His promises. Be like David, go about your day mindful of Him. Remind yourself of all He has done and enjoy His company.   👋🏻