Psalms 59:16

P 2916 Value His Presence.

/ DVH

This is a very special privileged place. It cost our heavenly Father everything to give it to us. His Presence is our treasure. So it is important for us to value and prioritise our relationship with the Holy Spirit. The way we can daily live walking with Him. This comes from an intimate understanding of His Ways – what He likes, what He doesn’t. I think it is a mistake to write out, or adhere to rules etc. regarding this relationship. And the Spirit’s virtually unseen contribution into our lives is about keeping those relationships flourishing with the joy of knowing and serving Them.

Because of the Holy Spirit and His help and influence, we can cultivate the utter freedom to love and serve others no matter how difficult they are. Love conquers all, and it will pay any price to do it. However, sin and rules will quite simply block our spiritual ears and eyes and muddy our understanding of Him. That’s when our focus shifts from Them … to me.

We need the Spirit’s Presence and wisdom permeating our lives, constantly, because His influence will build our faith in our Father’s loving kindness and goodness. He equips us to do His work for God’s kingdom to flourish through us. The Holy Spirit will not take over, but He loves to strengthen us so we can choose the good and be delighted in, and for, Father God Himself.

To get this place of safety, we must continually renew our minds so that we know, that we know, that without Him we can do nothing. By ourselves we can’t ever meet God’s standard of selflessness, purity and holiness, that’s why Jesus came and died in our place. He gave us His right-standing with our Father. When we live like Jesus would, we are living under His cleansing blood. Just look at the Lord’s confidence in His place in His Father’s eyes, as He prays outside Lazarus’ tomb:  “So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that You have heard Me.  I knew that You always hear Me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that You sent Me.”John 11:41&42.

Now let’s be clear, without His Presence we can rocket from one giant mess to another … which is actually the kind of ‘nothing happening here’ stuff that lasts … and, over time it will get worse!! We can however, live our lives repenting from the things that distract us daily, plus the occasional things that are exposed which have held us captive so far. We can live this way because we have already been given His strength, so we can forgive any perpetrators, as well ourselves – and that stops that dumb unfruitful dance from continuing. 

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness.” We can also confess our faults to one another, and dig into His Word until we hear His voice through what is written. This a reliable pathway back into living for His kingdom. Now our task is to believe and act upon what God said to us, personally. Our King is extremely humble. When we follow Him, that means we will also live humble lives, acknowledging we are not there yet.

Moving on … … for too long we have tried to serve God … AND… insert-something-in-here-that-you-are-unwilling-or-afraid-to-give-up! The solution for that is to tell the Lord the truth. Tell Him you don’t want to stop whatever it is that He has put His finger on, but you will – simply because it is important to HIM. That’s God’s love language – our response to His generosity and beauty – especially when we die to self for the sake of His kingdom coming. 

Then we ask for His help and exercise self-control. This fruit of the Spirit grows and flourishes in an environment of transparency, honesty and humility. Almighty God is a jealous God, He doesn’t like sharing US – we are His chosen family. That’s why He sent Jesus to save us. He will share His love, and He will shower us with mercy and grace … but He does not like a divided heart. Matthew 6:24; Psalms 86:11-17.

We need to remember that He wants us for Himself and there is no greater honour. “When you abide under the shadow of Shaddai, you are hidden in the strength of God Most High. He’s the hope that holds me and the stronghold to shelter me, the only God for me, and my great confidence.”Psalms 91:1-2 TPT.

The bible tells us not to forget all of God’s benefits in Psalm 103 – but we need to know that His benefits are bigger than just the stuff that suits me! His benefits are there for you too, through me! When we act under His instructions, like the Sons and Daughters of God, we destroy the works of the evil one.“But as for me, Your strength shall be my song of joy. At each and every sunrise, my lyrics of Your love will fill the air! For You have been my glory-fortress, a stronghold in my day of distress.” Psalms 59:16 TPT.

He wants to be our hiding place, our strong deliverer, our healer, our redeemer, our joy and our song – so we need to learn to not abuse what He has given us. We are the people who value even the Shadow of His Presence. Amen. 🙏

“My true life is the Anointed One, and dying means gaining more of Him.” Philippians 1:21 TPT.

P 2777 Conquering the storm of worry.

/ DVH

“But as for me, Your strength shall be my song of joy. At each and every sunrise, my lyrics of Your love will fill the air! For You have been my glory-fortress, a stronghold in my day of distress.”Psalms 59:16 TPT. Sheep follow their Shepherd, they don’t have a care in the world – they just jumble along eating and sleeping. Our God is so strong! Let His strength be the place you choose to hide in. We need to remind ourselves, as we read His book, that He will never change. What was true yesterday, in the bible, will be true today and tomorrow! Wake yourself up with the knowledge that you are loved so dearly. Despite the fact that a lot of people in this world don’t always understand you – Almighty God does. His Love is all-encompassing and perfect. He’s the perfect Shepherd.

Verses like this one from Psalm 59 are in the bible to be an exclamation, exhortation and proclamation into every single day we are given. Reminding us that:  🎼 “This is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it! 🎶” Some of those wonderful old songs keep me going when trouble tries to crush me. That and the knowledge that even though it feels like I have no strength – He is always my strength. Teehee! Now that old children’s song is going to play over and over in your head. Gotcha! 

The bible is an enormous help to me, it stops me from flailing about when I feel like I am drowning from worry or sorrow or fear. Flailing about makes you sink…! … No matter how many thousands of words we inwardly throw at our difficulties, worry does not accomplish anything. I have had to learn and practise handing things over to Him: ’Our times are in His hands.’ It’s a learnt skill. In my natural mind, giving stuff to the Holy Spirit makes perfect sense … because absolutely nothing can be changed by worrying.

Yet my emotions often jump up and down and insist … “if you can just think of an answer …!!!” Round and round I go getting dizzy. Then fear kicks in. That’s why we need to read the bible every single day, we need an arsenal of bible verses to chuck at difficulties and problems. It has taken me years to admit that: “I can’t actually fix most things, by myself.” Many of my grand problem-solving ideas, involve somebody else’s co-operation or actions! Good luck with that!! People will do what they will do. That particular thought just flows naturally into getting frustrated with them. 

The best course is to step back in behind the Shepherd and give everything to Him … and leave it there. Then I amble on, walking behind Him like a dumb sheep. If those worrying thoughts continue to niggle at me, then I keep right on handing things back to Him. Even if I accidentally start trying to figure stuff out, I repent and … repeat … “There’s that thing I gave You Lord, please forgive me for worrying over it again.” Amen. Worry can’t change anything but your mood!  It can take you from a good place to a bad one in a heartbeat. 

God’s answers to problems are not the same as ours – praise HIM!… They are way better, for everybody involved!! Plus when we are worried, we can become more self-centred. But when we hand things to Him and leave them there, we become God-centred. We must keep our eyes on our Shepherd. Even a nasty thing like worry can be used to remind us that God has us in the palm of His wonderful hands. It isn’t lazy to give things to Jesus, it’s sensible. Some things in this life are totally outside of our control. I got tired of trying to figure out which was which, so now I just hand everything over.   

One day I asked myself: “How much of my life have I wasted worrying about things I had no hope of changing?” Now there’s a survey nobody wants to do! Sadly, worry always feels like you are doing something – when you actually aren’t. It feels that way because it is WORK. It’s the kind of work that exhausts you mentally and emotionally. You can get so tired from trying to figure out an answer, that you become impatient with everyone else around you. That’s not good!

“Let this hope BURST forth within you, releasing a continual joy. Don’t give up in a time of trouble, but commune with God at all times.”Romans 12:12 TPT. Tell the Lord what’s going on, talk to Him! Prayer is simply stepping into His rhythm and walking with Him. At the same time ask Him for His opinion. Then listen for the bible verse that will suddenly appear into your heart. He speaks ‘bible’ to me often. There are times when I cannot remember even reading a particular verse but it pops up anyway. He’s a fantastic Shepherd.

Here’s a last thought —- let’s use the phone for more than texting or social media. Let’s get a bible app that helps you look up words or phrases. I don’t know about you but I can’t always find what I’m looking for, the net helps me all the time! That storm of worrying will pass – we just don’t want to be one of its casualties.  Baa! 🐑