Proverbs 4:7

P 3200 Know what you are fighting for.

/ DVH

Today I want to talk about three truths that I think are very important. Things that are worth fighting for. The Body of Christ is a wonderful, growing, messy, precious organism. It isn’t perfect because we – you and I – aren’t perfect, yet! The Lord Jesus simply adores His church, His bride. Unfortunately the body of Christ can sometimes draw lines about who is in and who is out. It is a line that Jesus Himself would never draw! If someone is trusting Him to save them, then they belong to Him, whether they share our overall theology or not. The main problem with division is a distinct lack of humility on everyone’s part! I strongly believe we need to make what Jesus treasured, our treasure. 

The Bible clearly tells us to recognise that: “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” Proverbs 4:7. In my limited experience, I have found that the Lord’s wisdom knows precisely what to do with any knowledge I may have picked up in my journey with Him. Jesus Christ Himself, is perfect wisdom, and He takes His wisdom from the bible and brings it down to a personal, practical level of: “what am I going to do about this?” As I see it, the only thing standing in the way of that happening, is our own theology, or penchant for evasion.

Let’s move on to another truth that fits well with wisdom. Reconciliation. Let’s remember that we have ALL been given a spirit of reconciliation. This is not just about helping others who aren’t Christians to see Jesus for themselves. (Who He is, and what He has done for this world.) Reconciliation is designed to work from day-to-day in our everyday relationships and lives.  “All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave US the ministry of reconciliation:…” 2 Corinthians 5:18.

We can reconcile with anybody as long as we follow the Holy Spirit’s leading. That’s because His mandate is now our mandate. It seems to me that many Christians can be reluctant to operate in the ministry of reconciliation. Yet it is part of what we’ve been given, and what’s more, it has a totally complete all-encompassing, world-changing, general application.

Meanwhile, Christians will happily line up for all the other gifts mentioned in several places in the Epistles, but not the ministry of reconciliation! When we received Christ we received the ministry of reconciliation. We will need His help, and wisdom, but it’s a huge part of what we do now. As you can see for yourself, when you read the bible, it is actually everybody’s ministry of reconciliation. We received it from Him, and now we give it away, to the-people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet. But let us not forget it is for each other as well! And yes, that includes the person who has been rubbing you up the wrong way since you joined that church. 

Our churches are not meant to be divided and carved up all over the place – when we divide churches we are dividing His body. If we refuse to give away what we have been given from the Lord, in the form of loving reconciliation, we are not living like His disciples. Jesus told us over and over to do it, and so did Paul, and yet we still stumble about in the dark, because of perceived differences. Some people keep wandering off out of our churches like clock-work. They think they know more than the people they are leaving behind. What a farce! Breaking up a church shows no wisdom, no reconciliation and no love. We simply must remember what we are fighting for.

And this is my last point. In Roman times, when there was a war, the guy who carried the banner representing his company, carried a great responsibility. If the banner dropped or was lost to the enemy, the whole battle was lost. But when the one carrying the banner went down, another soldier would pick it up. Any soldier who saw that banner was in trouble would battle his way through the existing fighting, to get to the banner and defend it.The banner said who they were and what they represented.

The Bible itself talks about banners. In one instance, it says ‘His banner over me is love.’ LOVE is meant to represent our company of brothers and sisters. We must choose to treat LOVE as our banner, because we cannot afford to lose that banner to our enemy! When we’ve lost love we’ve lost everything. That is not to say that we cannot fight to get it back, but it will be a very large battle, requiring discipline. The best way to live in this world is to do whatever we can to protect our banner of His Love for others.That’s going to mean a whole lot of sacrifice, humility, reconciliation, wisdom and probably even pain. Some people aren’t going to like us. Let’s simply remember what we are fighting for, and in adverse circumstances run to our BANNER.

Please, please … read the Old Testament with New Testament eyes whenever you read it!  The Old shows us what God is like and what we are like when we ignore HIM! We need to seek HIS wisdom like it is gold, and choose to reconcile with everyone we can, and chase after 1 Corinthians 13’s kind of love. Why? Because of Colossians 3:14, otherwise we are wearing the wrong clothes! The clothes this world wants us to wear! 

“So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offence. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.” Amen. Bye. 👋

P 3154 Understanding is important.

/ DVH

We all know that the joy of the Lord is our strength. But man’s worldly idea of happiness is transitory. That stuff disappears like a badly needed pay check. Plus happiness can also be postponed. People do that all the time. They say things like: “I will be happy when I’ve paid off my mortgage. I will be happy when we finally get the kids married off. I will be happy when my baby starts to walk and talk. I will be happy when I find a job/home/spouse!” This is what I mean about when I talk about postponing happiness.

There is such a benefit to be gained by learning to enjoy every moment we’ve been given. Life is short – let’s not postpone enjoying it, by holding our lives hostage for something we may not get! Living for the future is a futile pursuit – nothing ever works out the way we plan it anyway! In the Lord’s kingdom His joy and peace can, and will, fill and sustain us. It will gently lead us into believing in Him no matter what our circumstances are. 

Knowing this can put a smile on your face – even if you do have to blow your nose, and wipe your eyes for bit! Father God wants us to know His Ways, because He has plans for each one of us. And when He talks to us through His book, He talks to us to usher in His joy and peace. Simply because He loves us. Those miserable, terrible things that seem endlessly to hang around in our lives will eventually come to an end. Especially if we stop waiting for the other shoe to drop, and just enjoy any joy-filled moments that He sends us – no matter how briefly they appear to last. This is how we can learn to prevail over adverse circumstances, by accepting joy in those moments.

Psalm 16:11…”You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”John 15:11…”These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” Psalm 30:5…”For His anger is but for a moment, and His favour is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”

Finding joy can take practice but we must learn to grasp hold of it, even in the smallest moments. Those things are honey to our aching souls. Let’s look closely at Psalm 30, verse 5. On the surface this does not seem to be a fun verse. We need to remember Who our Father is when the ceiling falls in! IF and WHEN we take the time to remind ourselves that Almighty God spent all His anger on Jesus, then even in the darkest times that should start up a joy bubble. “Weeping may endure for a night — BUT JOY COMES IN THE MORNING!”Joy needs to be recognised or it will pass us by. 

When we are in the middle of hardship and suffering, let’s remind ourselves that our God is no longer mad at humanity. He has reconciliation toward every single one of us in the centre of His heart. When He says He loves us, it is not just some casual, quickly-passing, uninvolved affection. No! Jesus Christ dived straight into this life, giving His ALL. Our God’s love involves great passion. It took incredible passion and great sustaining grace and purpose for our Father to allow His precious Son to die in our place! Now… joy is our portion. The bible says: ‘He will turn our mourning into dancing …’

The world around us lives with a deep level of despair, because the bad guys seem to be winning. There are people who have the things we think we want or need. But money can’t save anyone from hell ‘cos ya can’t take it with you when you go! This is what God says: “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” Proverbs 14;12. There is a worse kind of death than no longer breathing! It’s waking up in the next life, with all the possibilities gone. Eternal life without God Himself in it. The Lord invested Himself in everything that surrounds us – we need to take the time to soak these things in and let them do us good.

Let’s deliberately choose to stop dipping our toes in this world’s way of thinking, being and acting, and learn to think like Jesus did. John 15:11: “I have told you these things so that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy may be made full and complete and overflowing.”  Do you want to live a joy-filled life? I do! Joy comes when we choose to listen to what He said. Jesus never focused on Himself, and His needs – He focused on His Heavenly Father’s will – as He spread God’s love to everyone around Him. We will find joy when we stop grabbing and scrambling for our own happiness, and accept the biblical premise that our delight is to do His will! 

We can experience some of our greatest moments when Almighty God paints His love in great glorious colourful strokes across the backdrop of our own personal cyclone. Look for Him in the storms. The Holy Spirit loves to do this — He loves to colour our lives with peace, joy, His faithfulness, gentleness and self control, and He is generous with His paintbrush. Ask Him to reveal Himself right in the middle of the next difficulty that plops on you unexpectedly. 

Understanding God’s Ways will help us to discover new ways to praise and worship Him. “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” Proverbs 4:7. Bye. 👋

P 3130 The beginning of Wisdom.

/ DVH

“If you consider yourself to be wise and one who understands the ways of God, advertise it with a beautiful, fruitful life guided by wisdom’s gentleness. Never brag or boast about what you’ve done and you’ll prove that you’re truly wise.” James 3:13 TPT. “To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,…”1 Corinthians 12:8. “Those who are wise will shine radiantly as the sky at midday. And those who turn many to the way of righteousness will shine brightly as stars for all eternity.” Daniel 12:3 TPT.“The beginning of wisdom is: Get [skilful and godly] wisdom [it is preeminent]! And with all your acquiring, get understanding [actively seek spiritual discernment, mature comprehension, and logical interpretation].” Proverbs 4:7.”The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Proverbs 9:10.

Proverbs shows us the importance of having the Lord’s wisdom, and when it says “fear’ it means reverence and awe. A deep respect for Our Holy righteous Father, puts us on the road to understanding His ways. Proverbs also states to get His wisdom you need to make it your first priority and realise you need it. Human resources and information feature a lot in this world we live in, accumulated knowledge is the big deal thing today. And of course, now we have the internet and Google! Not to mention Wikipedia. Ho hum.  

But the bible tells us that even though Godly wisdom is the thing to have, without understanding and mature comprehension we won’t know what to do with it. Boy, I could have saved myself a heap of angst if I had taken that concept seriously! I kept trying to teach my kids wisdom when they didn’t understand a thing I was saying, and most of the time they didn’t care to either. Wisdom has to be sought, and earthly knowledge is not the same as God’s wisdom.

God’s wisdom is prompted by the Holy Spirit. Kids learn to parrot off all kinds of stuff at school, but they have no idea what to do with it. They need spiritual application to make use of their knowledge. That’s why they need parents to help them to put theory into transformative actions. Knowledge without application looks great on a resume, but it won’t help you balance your budget!

Wisdom identifies what to do and a word of knowledge shows us how to do it. They are both God-given GIFTS—Proverbs makes this clear, so that means we can, and should ask for these gifts. “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.” Matthew 13:43. “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear.” Proverbs 25:11-13. Wisdom corrects our course and reveals the Holy Spirit within us to others.

Wisdom will give us ears to hear what Jesus is saying, when others can’t even hear Him. It is like a spiritual hearing aid – it takes the unclear and makes it clear. In Matthew, did you get the subtle reference to choice? If you have spiritual hearing …then make sure you use it! These spiritual gifts diagnose an anticipated outcome and wisdom knows the right way to go about it. Remember, Almighty God knows the beginning right through to the end. Knowledge identifies and wisdom applies.

We ALL need His wisdom. This world is too dark and too tricky to live our lives without it. Wisdom can see the lie hidden between two truths. At the same time, knowledge and insight will often know where God’s truth applies. When I need it, the Holy Spirit gives me part of a verse, but it is up to me to look it up and follow that thread. ‘Knowledge is about knowing facts, whereas wisdom is about having the insight and discernment to apply that knowledge correctly, often revealing what action to take or how to respond.’  Google.

I have found that wisdom means you know something that you cannot possibly know with your intellect. It is not cleverness that figures things out—this God-given gift is something that drops into our heart or mind, often unbidden. Before it happens you may not even be concentrating on the problem. Suddenly the answer is in front of you, and then His wisdom says: ‘Do it like this.” It helps us avoid error. 

Many times we were about to go somewhere and the Lord said to us: “Wait!” When it came to the time when we would have been elsewhere, much too far away to help — a text came through and we were asked to help someone, because an emergency situation had come up. The word of Wisdom was ‘wait.’ I have also found wisdom can help me discern when things are a bit ‘off.’ I’m pretty naive in my personality and so the Holy Spirit often kindly protects me with His Wisdom.

Recently somebody called us and used the conversation to  clone our voice. They asked for this and that, but my spirit rose up and said – quite violently – “Hang up and phone the bank.”  The person on my end of the phone was not thrilled, but they trust the Lord, so they politely hung up. And lo and behold, somebody had tried to access our funds. Because the Holy Spirit helped us, we were recompensed immediately. We changed our passwords on the same day! I found reading the bible asking the Holy Spirit to help me, led me to these three gifts. I began to know His voice. I went out and obeyed what He taught me at that time.

Don’t rush – wait for your Teacher. Learn to listen and you’ll grow patience along the way, and then do your best to obey – because Christians need HIS WISDOM. ‘Ask and keep on asking, go after it, you will find it!’ Bye. 👋

P 2653 Insight gives us clarity.

/ DVH

Hebrews 1:1-3a.“Throughout our history God has spoken to our ancestors by His prophets in many different ways. The revelation He gave them was only a fragment at a time, building on truth upon another. But to us living in these last days, God now speaks to us openly in the language of a Son, the appointed Heir of everything, for through Him God created the panorama of all things and time. The Son is the dazzling radiance of God’s splendour, the exact  expression of God’s true nature—His mirror image.” TPT. Boy, those verses are a WOW moment! Jesus Christ is God talking to us now … today, through His book.

God has not stopped speaking, but I believe that we have stopped really listening! We are too used to being spoon-fed. Every single thing Christ SAID and DID was to speak to us, now – today. Even His actions were WORDS. They contain a huge revelation of His Character, Personhood and power. Let’s just start with the fact that He was born as a baby, and He had to grow up the same way we have. At twelve, we find out that Jesus chose to value the Scriptures, and He took the time to do more than study them, HE LISTENED TO THEM, and He drew a deeper meaning out of them. A twelve year old boy confounded the experts of His day.

Anybody have a twelve year old at their house? It is quite likely that you won’t find their nose in a bible – you may not even find their nose in a book! They can tell you the last thing that happened in the game they’re playing but they probably only know a few scriptures. There was nothing about the Lord Jesus life that would make Him exceptional. But He was!  He was attracted to His Heavenly Father even as a child. Remember, He’s our Father too!  Read lt like your DAD wrote you a precious letter…because He did!

In the scripture above it tells us:“The Son is the dazzling radiance of God’s splendour, the exact expression of God’s true nature—His mirror image.”  Yet Isaiah 53:2 says the precise opposite. “He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.”  I love that! I love the conflict and contradiction of the Word, it provokes me into asking questions. Those two verses are talking about two different things. Isaiah is talking about Jesus’ appearance. Paul is talking about His heart!

This is the conundrum that has haunted mankind. Some people see the Lord Jesus one way, and some see Him another. Why is there a difference? I believe the eyes of faith see what is hidden. To truly see Christ, we need insight. Otherwise the bible is just words on a page of a book written in weird English. We are far more than the skin we live in – we are far bigger than that, the bible shows us how big. Anybody can ask for insight, it belongs to us all!

Isaiah is talking about the way the Jews saw Christ. The Lord Jesus looked like nobody to them. However, we can see Him today, if we open our eyes of faith and take note of the way He treated people … that helps us to really see Him. He is not an ancient figure in a dusty book. Here we have God’s Son, He is the image of His Father!. Let’s say that like this: Almighty God looks just like Jesus Christ! Ya might want to sit and Selah that a while.

There is more to mankind than just our outer shell!  What we say, and how we say it, what and who we admire, and what we give our time to – helps us to truly SEE each other. Don’t live in the superficialities of this life – we are made for bigger things! We have been exhorted not to just know each other after the flesh – but to know each other after the Spirit. What’s INSIDE that person you are speaking to?  At the same time our inside ears need to be attuned to Him speaking to us. I am not talking about a disembodied voice out of the air, I am speaking about an attitude that looks beyond the words, to the heart that spoke them.

INSIGHT is undervalued in our society. It cannot be studied out, it must be prayed over, chased, and pursued. We need to seek it. Otherwise the bible ends up being like a well-written collection of words written by 40 old guys. The bible says in Proverbs 4:7. ESV“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight. “ Why would King Solomon say that?  Because the desire to truly understand is everything. That guy had hundreds of wives and even more kids, boy did he need insight … even to remember all their names!! Insight is the ability to look deeper, to go beyond the words and expose the heart and sight of the writer and whatever he is writing about.

Jesus Christ is God’s LOVE language to us. The bible does not describe the Lord Jesus physically, it simply said He was ordinary. Instead it describes His heart toward mankind. That’s how it is to be read. Not as a series of instructions, or exhortations, but as the Father’s heart written on every page. I have just been slogging away through the book of Chronicles. Man that will test your patience – name after name after name!! So I asked the Lord, “Why all these names?” He said: “Every single person is important to Me. Their names are there to show that they are valuable, whether they lived for Me or not.”

Insight takes the ordinary and looks beyond the superficial words, because it wants to know the One Who wrote it. I exhort everyone reading this blog, don’t just read the bible … look for the Lord’s heart. If you don’t see it right away, then ask the Holy Spirit to help you to go deeper. Insight adds clarity. And don’t forget to do what it says! 🤣