Qualify

P 3134 The best response.

/ DVH

Our justification before Almighty God is based entirely on what Jesus did for us. He came to earth, totally identified with mankind, and chose to die in our place. That fact continually amazes me …. What amazing love! What an incredible exchange! 🙌 The Father, His Son, and the Holy Spirit have such a passionate love for humanity, wherever we are, no matter what we have done. Always remember, Jesus knows how hard this life can be. Because of what He did for us, now we are DEAD, DEAD, DEAD, DEAD, dead! All dead – so we live like we are DEAD!

The blood of Jesus washes away every single bit of our ugliness, carelessness, spite, anger, rage and wanting what we know we cannot have. Now, because of the freedom from fear of reprisal, and the power of God given to us to live like Jesus did – it’s time to put this AWAY world’s junk and LIVE for Him. God is no longer angry with mankind – all His anger was spent on Jesus. Now let’s ask some questions: what are we doing with what our Saviour DIED to give us? Do we squander it by living this life doing whatever we want to do? Or pay Him lip service on Sundays, while we live for ourselves Monday through to Saturday? What should our response be? Romans 5:1-6,8-11,16b, has the answer: 

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, Who has been given to us. 

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly… … But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation… … The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.”

Have you ever told a lie, thought an unclean thought, or wanted to seriously hurt someone else – even in your head? God calls that, and many many other things, sin. In His kingdom, that which is not LOVE is SIN! Instead of all of us facing punishment, Father God chose to give us the opportunity and power to live this life glorifying the One Who gave us so much. Jesus is with us in Person, day by day. 

Thank God, our ignorance or rebellion, has not cancelled out the magnitude of what was done on our behalf. The Lord Jesus made us right with Almighty God, and it cost Him everything this world had to offer, to do it for us. He paid our outstanding debt! A legal contract that eliminated what we owed forever, washed clean in His blood. Before we knew Him, we had no inkling of need, or even the personal power to gain that kind of incredible favour for ourselves. We’ve been tainted by sin since the moment we were born – even the sin of our forefathers still haunts us. His LOVE toward us, is the reason we are compelled into action.

After Jesus Christ died He went to hell and He defeated death. It had a legal right to claim all of us. He went there for us, as our proxy, the One Who chose to face satan in our place. But hell could not keep Him there because satan could not find one reason to punish the sinless, spotless Lamb of God! He had no legal reason to accuse Jesus. our enemy had to let the Lord go, because Jesus never sinned, in thought, word or deed. Everything He ever did, said, or thought, was done from Love’s motivation..

He took away every legal right satan had to torment mankind forever … and then …Holiness entered the halls of hell! Now satan cannot keep anyone there who has given their life to the Lord because he has no legal ground to stand on. Faith in what was done on our behalf is our only response. We’ve sinned, but SomeOne Else overpaid the bill for us and satan has been legally tied up. he has no recourse – except to deceive us into thinking we don’t qualify …or torture us with past sins … or get us to totally focus on getting what we want in this life. When we call upon the Name of Jesus to save us, we move from this world’s kingdom into God the Father’s kingdom. Our faith in what Christ did justifies us, gives us His peace, and releases God’s grace to live this life the way Jesus Himself would. 

We no longer belong to this world. We have an allegiance, a loyalty to the One Who paid it all to save us from ourselves. So much grace was released by what Christ did, that the power of sin over us has been broken, forever! No matter how we feel, or whatever temptation crosses our path, we don’t have to live that old life anymore. Daily we choose to live, by faith, in His kingdom where LOVE has all the power. We live  voluntarily, giving away that love, for His sake. When we choose to step away from sin, or accepting its premises, we find that now we have the power to defeat it. That’s the very best response! Bye. 👋.

“We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” Romans 6:2b.

P 3099 Make room – clear away the debris!

/ DVH

Today I want to look at a few verses in Isaiah. “Thunder in the desert! “Prepare for God’s arrival! Make the road straight and smooth, a highway fit for our God. Fill in the valleys, level off the hills, Smooth out the ruts, clear out the rocks. Then God’s bright glory will shine and everyone will see it. Yes. Just as God has said.” Isaiah 40:3-5. Does this sound like action to you? It does to me! I truly don’t think that prayer is the only activity required when you are working with Him to build a highway in your heart for Him to walk on. Part of our job description is to clear away any debris, as well as let the Holy Spirit guide us into making the roads in our lives clear for Him – we must personally choose to engage and …participate.

Hubby and I have had the opportunity to learn a little bit about highway repairs etc. It is a careful, clearing away of what has been left that does not belong there, then the old road itself can be removed, or repaired. Like the scripture says highways work better when they are obstacle free and smooth! My hubby loves these unexpected stops — he happily talks to the workers. We’ve even given away lemonade on hot days. It seems that road building is hot, boring, and repetitive but necessary work – like the work we need to do in our own lives so the King can use OUR LIVES as His highway! We are not demolition crews, we are restorers of the breach. We build streets for others to live in!

I think this world is standing, on tippy-toes at the very edge of something that is so important, so necessary to what comes next, we cannot imagine it. Almighty God is about to do something extraordinary … but I believe He is waiting for US to voluntarily engage with Him. He’s a good good Father, He won’t make us participate but He needs us to be battle-ready. Sadly, it seems to me that many of us look more like couch-potatoes, while others are so engaged with their own business, they haven’t got any time for His. The Lord has His own timing, and it is an error to think OUR timing takes priority over His. However, if we happen to be spiritually sleeping it is so much easier for the enemy to take us out. We need to be ever-ready, standing with our armour on, ready to ‘GO’ when He says ‘GO!’ 

How can we personally participate in what comes next, if we rely on other people to hear Him and wait for them to tell us what to do? All our enemy has to do then, is to take the leaders out. We must engage in the road building process — individually and corporately. It is time for the Body of Christ to realise we are not on some jolly little outing Sunday by Sunday — we live in a spiritual war zone. War zones need road repairs, so help can get to those who need it. At this point in time other people are being killed off all over the place, while we merrily just go about our own personal daily business. My bible says — HIS business IS my business.

Bear with me please, I am not actually changing the subject  – I simply want to further illustrate my point. Our dog is a labradoodle. She’s a totally loveable, good-natured, over-excitable, 13 year old air-head who wouldn’t bite a soul. She still thinks she’s a puppy! She doesn’t walk, she bounces. If you wave her favourite toy about she will jump up and down to play. Her tail constantly goes like a helicopter blade.

Our pooch just burst into the room where I am typing and she was doing her usual morning routine … with the brain … without the brain. Galloping about trying to jump up and down to get hubby’s attention. Hubby quietly put his hand on her head and then he said one word: “Heel!” She jumped up in the air nearly did a somersault, switched sides and sat down looking up at him. What happened? HER MASTER SPOKE. 

Right now, I am not sure the Body of Christ could hear the Lord if He thundered at us – we are so distracted by the cares and worries of this life. If we wait for all those things to disappear first, then the next sound we will hear will be a trumpet from heaven! I know what it is like to be incapacitated, and weak – however, I’d rather focus on what Jesus wants from me, today. It’s about our focus, not the tasks. We can still get ordinary things done and get to know and trust Him … all at the same time. We simply need to make everything Jesus’ business! He wants to build highways through the desert and wildernesses in us, and around us.

Don’t worry about qualifying, the Lord doesn’t need expertise, He has heavenly armies that stand ready at any given moment. Instead He needs our willingness to engage. We all need to choose to be activated. If Jesus needed human expertise I could name heaps of people who qualify for that kind of work because they are smarter than me. Nowadays practically everyone I know is smarter than me! We must turn to the Lord automatically, like my pooch. Let.Him.Lead.You.

Father God will always have our back. And even if we have to do a somersault in mid-air to come down on the Lord’s side – we both know that is the right place! With our eyes lifted UP waiting for His next command. Let us choose to obey Him, and let the Holy Spirit build a highway for the King in our hearts. He will clear away any debris. Once before, long ago, there was no room for Jesus – He ended up in an outdoor building. Let’s not do that again! Bye.👋

P 2780 Sin has no power over us.

/ DVH

We need to change the way we look at sin. Sin is not just what we do, or don’t do – it is giving into how we feel. Our feelings will lie to us. The reality is in the bible! Jesus Christ conquered sin – He killed it and its consequences, stone dead. Did you get that? Our inheritance here and now, is life, life and more life!  Of course none of us deserves that. We never will, obedience and gratitude are the only response. Meanwhile we can’t possibly live this life, here and now, without His guidance and help, and Father God thought of that too – we have the same Holy Spirit Jesus had to help us. The good news is – Jesus became a man and He knows the way through the mire around us.

Instead of looking at our difficulties as mountains to climb, lift your view higher – look at the One Who did everything for us. Can you trust Jesus? Is He a Man of His Word? He has climbed all the mountains we will ever face, before we were born. We simply need to walk with Him day by day, and keep our eyes on Him. Then we follow Him up the mountain of our own fear, doubt and unbelief conquering it …step by step. As we walk with Him, we learn to rely upon Him. Sadly, our unrealistic fear of failure can keep us from doing anything lasting in this life.

Ask yourself, if everything depends on our performance, in order qualify to for such a love, then WHY would Jesus have to die? Why would our Loving Heavenly Father put His ONLY Son through all that! The work for our total restoration has already been done. We must simply learn to fight, day by day, all the things that our flesh has learnt to value above Him! Then we can hear and see Him at work, in our lives, and in the lives of others.

We need to stop wasting our energy, thinking that being a Christian means we have to get everything right, all the time … and put on a good show. Now, today, we have a wonderful Helper Who has come to help us and prepare us for our wedding. Jesus Christ came to each one of us to woo and court us — now we are engaged, promised to Him. We are a part of His Bride. Christ loves His Bride – she’s everything He ever wanted, and more. He loves her so much He wants to be with her, every single minute of every single day.

Has the Holy Spirit ever nudged you and said: “Don’t watch that TV program or play that video game?” And then maybe, you rationalised what He said away and watched it anyway. Afterward you felt terrible! However, the answer is dead simple. Don’t do it! Obedience in these little things is like training your body in the natural – that spiritual exercise helps our spiritual fitness. Look, if you obey and it wasn’t the Lord, what have you lost? A dumb TV show or video game? H-e-l-l-o!!  Isn’t His life within you worth more than entertainment?

Like I said yesterday, we don’t need to have faith in our faith, our faith is IN HIM. Who Jesus is! Is He Who He says He is, or not? Is He kind, loving, generous, faithful, gracious, forgiving? … Does Christ love us so much He died to be with us forever ….or not? Tell me something He can’t do!  Even being dead didn’t stop Jesus. How can we go on, day after day, turning a blind eye to personal sin, when sin is like a blindfold. The result is we can’t see or hear Him clearly anymore. In the bible what pleases God is obedience. Read the book! The Israelites failed to obey Him. So- let’s learn something from that … sh-all we?

The Lord has promised to be with us. We can eliminate ourselves from the flow of the Holy Spirit’s river in our lives, when we dance around, pouting like a child refusing to surrender its favourite toy. Love watches over us and His love is our prize.  It’s His choice to be with us. Jesus longs to see His Father, and our Father, glorified in all our lives! So, let’s stop getting on with our lives day after day, dumb as rocks – with our hands over our eyes. Distraction wastes a precious thing we have to give Him – our time! So does living this life believing we can’t help it. That’s why we have the book, to diagnose sin, and we have the Helper to guide us around it.

Christ’s death took all the power sin had and killed it. DEAD. We do not have to sin anymore. We can look that rubbish in the face and choose to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow Him. When people are in love …the relationship comes first.  Don’t let this temporary life with its temporary pleasures blind you to what He has for you. Sin has no power over us anymore. Bye. 💕

Romans 6: 6-11.“We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with Him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and He will never die again. Death no longer has any power over Him. When He died, He died once to break the power of sin. But now that He lives, He lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.”Amen.

P 2607 A vastly underrated Gem.

/ DVH

In the middle of a very ordinary rock of circumstances  – I found a rare gem, biblically speaking. There are books and books on the subject of faith, so what I am writing here today is just a tiny speck on the windshield of our lives …  It’s my own personal experience…. so far. My faith has often been badly dented by the fact that I have been chronically sick in one way or another for most of my Christian life … over 50 years. An overall observation of my experience of healing faith is this … my faith in healing seems to work much better when I point it at YOU – rather than at me!

Over the years, I’ve stood in more queues for healing prayer than I can count. I’ve been prayed over by mighty men and women of God, and went home, full of hope — only to find nothing had changed. Of course, after that prayer, I felt more joyful, more in love with the Lord. Only to have those feelings fade because I still had the physical problems. Meanwhile, over the years I also learnt that my body doesn’t react well to any sort of self-bullying. It ‘explains’ to me  – via pain and physical illness – that pushing hard on those supposed ‘faith’ edges is a bad idea.

In Luke 18:1. 8b Jesus said: “Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up …” “…However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”  I take what the bible says seriously and this means that I have not stopped asking for healing, or letting people pray for me whenever the Lord asks them to do it. I have, however, stopped making healing my main focus because otherwise discouragement grips me by the throat, and I don’t want to get out of bed!  Good health is definitely a desired part of my life — but I have learnt it is not all of it.

The Lord has shown me that running about … or even waiting as patiently as I could to be healed … can become a snare. I became so focussed on seeing that kind of prayer answered I couldn’t see anything else. My thought process was this – I can serve Him better if I am healed. Unfortunately what happened was, I stopped serving Him at all, I became so intent on being healed, or going after it. During that time that I lived in a kind of limbo of chronic illness, and overall, it added to my daily frustration. In the end I made a quality decision that if I am to serve Him, then serving HIM needs to be my focus, not my comfort or discomfort.

Just to be clear, I have experienced healing along the way. My dear hubby prayed for a gaping wound on my side and the wound disappeared within hours. I’ve also seen pain disappear. I want to say that I am not writing this to discourage anyone from fighting for their own healing. But I do want to encourage others that they should not let a lack of healing stop them, or even be a deterrent to their personal responsive obedience to God’s leading in their lives! Going after healing can be a distraction to our primary purpose – which is to love and glorify Him in what we say, do and think. And, sadly, a lack of healing can end up being a logical excuse, plus a means of elimination from every day simple obedience to what He asks us to do.  

The bible talks about having faith. I want to look at a couple of verses that have helped me with my focus.“It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that He exists and that He cares enough to respond to those who seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6. As you can see … this life is not about healing, or being healed, it is all about FAITH. My problem was that I wanted to be in charge of His response! 

The result of endlessly praying for healing, without maintaining my spiritual focus on loving Him and other people, was eventually quite detrimental to my day by day walk with Him. I started to believe that the Lord didn’t love me the way He loves other people ….who have been healed!  It seems I saw healing as a badge of honour and approval, rather than the goodness of God doing what it does best – blessing people! I often felt less of a ‘Christian’ because I wasn’t able to meet my own imposed standard – which was … only well people can serve God! 

The Lord fixed all this fuss and bother with one verse from the bible, which lit up like a Christmas tree. He took me off the side track I was stuck on and put me firmly back in the fight. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul quotes Jesus who said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.”And that’s when I began to see the blessing I had been missing in my preoccupation with injury and illness, and my overly-focussed desire to be healed! I realised I am weak – and that means I definitely qualify to ask for His power to help me. That thought changed my life. 

Now I had a golden God-given opportunity to experience His power in a way I never had before. The next thing, I learnt was to let my weakness teach me about humility and dependence on Him. And then I found a rare gem in an unexpected place. His strength totally beats mine at every opportunity! I have seen some of the greatest miracles of my life, so far, after I chose to serve the Lord anyway – healed or not. 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! 👋