Quest

P 3183 It’s the relationship He wants!

/ DVH

Almighty God is not like us, we are like Him. However, we all know that He went to extraordinary lengths to become like us, with an act that impacted every single life that has ever been, or ever will be on this planet! Jesus Christ is God’s answer to a real relationship. Our heavenly Father did not have to send His Son …but He did! Let’s remind ourselves about how it all started. “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:8,9. .Part of love is loss, and God feels that loss too! I don’t care what you’ve done, Almighty God loves and misses you – He longs to have you back close to Him.

Think about it —He already knew what Adam and Eve had done, His cry back then was a rhetorical question – He wanted to know why they HID from Him. The very minute Adam and Eve hid, our God felt the loss of their fellowship. This is what Jesus Himself said just before He died: “About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”which means “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” ESV. Jesus instantly felt the loss of His Father’s Presence, even while He was weighed down by all our sin. The ties between the Father and the Son were so strong, when they broke, both of Them suffered. Can you see how important relationship is to both the Father and the Son?

God wanted Adam and Eve to come forward and be restored to fellowship, but they chose blame instead. Blame is a poor substitute for repentance. Repentance can open doors that appear to be welded shut. However, it is far better to talk about what I did, than feature someone else’s sins against me. Blaming others gives us a reason to stay separated from each other and God. Because satan intervened in human life … ever since then, Father God has missed the fellowship with the beloved men and women He created. He even carefully made us in a sheltered place, inside our mothers. In the bible, we are told that we’ve been made like Him. Genesis 1:26: Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, …” Just pause and think about that. We were originally made to BE like Him. He doesn’t want to change us, He wants to free us. He has done everything necessary to restore us to our original destiny!

Here’s something else to think on today —I don’t care who told you your life was worthless. A parent, or a sibling, or a professor with more degrees than a thermometer …they are lying to you. Other people cannot be the authority on how much  you are worth!  Let’s remember how much value God Himself has put on each one of us as individuals..Because He sent His Son to die for us, our worth is not in who we are, or what we do, it lies in what God Himself was prepared to pay to get us back. At the same time, even though we might need a microscope—we are all made to resemble Him—however, some of us may hide that fact better than others!

Our life’s great quest is to know Him, like Jesus knew Him! And for Him to know us. Our God is not a bully, He will not push His way into our lives, He wants to be invited. Let’s remind ourselves that He longs to reveal Himself to His very own children. The bible is filled with stories of His interactions between human beings and Himself. But many people seem to want to sideline the Way the Lord thinks and acts. Instead, we’ve made religious boxes to hold Him, because those boxes suit our beliefs. But boxes do not promote intimacy. 

Here’s an example of the difference between intimacy and knowledge — I don’t go to my husband when I need something simply because he knows how to do things – even though he does. That’s called service. I love being with my hubby because I enjoy who he is. He makes me laugh and he’s the smartest person I know. He encourages me and he enjoys my company. Father God loves our company, He enjoys us, every single one of us. No exceptions!  

We can’t possibly begin to understand Who the Lord is by simple, sheer, rigid, religious obedience. Obedience to His will His way, is only a door. That door opens up into a much wider place where … as the David exclaims in Psalm 40 … “I delight to do thy will O Lord…”  Let’s aim at being delighted to be with Him. Let’s not do this stuff just because we ‘have to! If we have to,  we are still walking in fear of discovery. Relationship is founded and flourishes on an exchange of love, not rules. 

Marriages fail because human beings don’t understand this. Marriage is not about taking, it is about giving. Please don’t get married if you aim is to get! You will be very disappointed!! Remember, the chances are you will be marrying someone just like YOU! The Lord Jesus Himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Acts 20:35. God Himself gave us His precious Son, so now we, as Jesus’ disciples, the undeserving recipients of that love, we choose to give others all around us love, whether they deserve it or not. Father God wants a relationship – DO YOU? Bye. 👋.

P 3140 The Way through is to live IN HIM.

/ DVH

“I have told you these things, so that IN ME you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”John 16:33. Jesus Himself warned us in this world there WILL be trouble. But when trouble rises up against us, we can easily feel victimised and picked on by the circumstances. We all hate difficulties – yet here Jesus is telling us that trouble will come, it’s unavoidable. Trouble doesn’t mean you got it wrong, it’s a part of this life. Our great quest is to live our lives remaining inside His Will, His Way. When we ‘remain in Him – He remains in us.’ John 15:4.

The Lord makes it extremely clear that the peace He is talking about is IN HIM. Our circumstances may not change, but we will live in a safe place inside His will. Jesus wants us to live the same way He did, He lived for His Father’s will to be done!  We are witnesses to His glory as we live our lives His way. Think of a baby kangaroo. A joey is hidden away in its mother’s pouch. It goes wherever the mother wants to go, it is protected from the outside world by being in a safe unseen place. It can see anything that goes on around it, yet it remains in that place of protection. The baby kangaroo can go in and out of that pouch, but it totally relies upon the mother’s instincts to protect it from danger.

We rely upon the Lord to lead us through the battlefields of this life. Now we are living in another kingdom where we have a choice about our responses. We’ve decided to let Him choose what He knows we can face. Human beings have a tendency to think that if our circumstances change, then we will be at peace and we will … feel better. But Jesus clearly tells us that there is a difference between being affected by this world, and living our lives the way He has designed for us to live them. It all depends on where we choose to live. If we can’t find peace …maybe we are looking in the wrong place for it! 

Peace is not a cessation of trouble, instead it is the most incredibly powerful Person Who personally protects us! At the same time, trouble means different things to different people. So our lives, although they may be very different, are lived daily using our faith that He is in charge, despite any adverse circumstances. He knows the way through everything. Think of this kind of peace as living our lives inside everything Jesus died to give us. The same way we might think of staying INSIDE the eye of a hurricane.

Everything destructive ceases in the centre of those terrible storms, it’s actually quite peaceful in there! The destruction is all around – but there are blue skies and fluffy clouds in the centre. This is a bit like staying in the centre of His will. We simply need to follow His instructions, move with Him, and stay within that hypothetical eye. Our focus needs to remain on Him. He is our shelter, we are to live in the safety of His Presence, by following His instructions regarding this life.

Whatever He says we need to say and do, then we do and say it, and then we hand everything back over to Him.Then we ask the Holy Spirit to guide our steps through the chaos, and help us to keep our eyes on Jesus, because He is the Author and Finisher of our faith. As we go, we relinquish everything extraneous that comes up and we hold nothing back. It’s all about trusting Him no matter how things look.

Jesus taught us these things so that the situations that cause us to have doubts and despair may not influence our lives. We don’t have to respond like the world does when good or bad stuff happens, because we’ve given our lives to Jesus! Now we’ve  moved kingdoms – out from the kingdom of darkness and its influences — into the kingdom of His marvellous light. Our new home is IN HIM. In Psalm 91:1-4 the Psalmist says: “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will REST in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”  Surely He will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.”

Christianity is about a Person, Jesus Christ. We no longer have to live buried under the troubles of this world, because we are the beneficiaries and recipients of the things Jesus told us He would give us. This means we can love others, we can have peace and joy etc. even in the middle of times of hardship and sadness. This world no longer influences us – HE DOES. We are daily learning how to live IN HIM, under His government – by reading the bible. Jesus is our model, He always did everything the Father asked Him to do, despite the ever-present risks and dangers around Him.

We must learn for ourselves — God good, devil bad – and take a stand against the bad every day. The only war we continually participate in now, is the one in our minds –  which tells us to doubt that whatever God is doing is for our good. At the same time, we are being carried by Jesus’ faith in us – yet we will still have to fight for our own faith. We are a peculiar army – we fight on our knees, for others, ourselves, and the Lord’s will to prosper in this world. 

Jesus won’t EVER leave us! He is deeply committed to each one of us. So we read His book because He shows us the Way through to overcoming and victory. It is not about winning and bashing up the other side, instead, now we are here to proclaim His goodness to the other side! We can have peace, joy and love in the middle of chaos – it is our right as citizens of heaven. Bless you, bye.👋

P 3009 Escorting God’s will to Earth.

/ DVH

“Great God, I want to partner with You in bringing the will of heaven to earth, I stand with You, God, and I want what You want. As I discover Your heart through drawing near to You, I can’t help but be changed by the power of Your love.  As I catch glimpses of Your desires, I get to join in with You, calling down Your desires in my life and beyond.

Have Your way, Lord, in me.  Transform me from the inside out so that I can reflect the glory of Your mercy in my daily life.  As my faith grows with the boldness of my prayers, I know that I will see You answer in the provision of Your power. There is nothing that You cannot do! 

May I have kingdom perspective and never settle for the world’s accounts of reality. You are the Creator, and You can do all things. I want to see Your miracle power doing the impossible in the earth in response to the cry of Your children. Thank You for partnership.  What a privilege it is! … AMEN! From Prayers from the Throne Room, by Brian Simmons.

I wanted to include this excerpt from Brian Simmons in my blog today, because what he has said is so challenging …this is our aim. Our great quest. But we don’t have to wait for it to overtake us, or fall on us — instead we quite simply surrender into it, every single day, and let our everyday lives teach us how to live the way Jesus did. 

Personally, I have found plenty to go on with! There are heaps of applications in Matthew 5! I especially like living this life “poor in spirit” (v3) – Jesus calls being poor in spirit a blessing! Boy that’s upside down to the way the world around us thinks. But when we are poor in spirit and we cannot manufacture or push ourselves to do whatever He asks, we are rich. Why is that so? Because we have a Helper and He knows all the answers! He helped Jesus live the life God chose for His Son, and He knows exactly how to cultivate God’s Grace in our lives so we can live for Him too! 

That rude person in the shops who snarls at you is not there to annoy you – they are most probably in pain. Even a dog will snap at you if it is in pain. We need to leave behind the idea that everything in this life is about us, or meant to go our way, and GET REAL INSTEAD. Human beings can be so self-centred these days, it is terrifying to watch. The thought that everything and everyone is here to make my little life happy, is not Godly … or practical!! I have to remind myself often, that I gave my life away!

If we want to be the people who escort God’s will into this world, then something or someone will have to change and it won’t be HIM! Gird up your girdle Gertie, it’s gunna be a bumpy ride!! The bible says:“I am God I change NOT!” Malachi 3:6. Hmm. Not much room for an argument there eh?  Here’s another scripture to broaden our outlook — “Shall two walk together, except they have agreed?” Amos 3:3. Um, the point is, we need to agree with HIM, HE is not obligated to agree with US. To find out what we all agree about we will need to know the book! How do you think His law gets written on our hearts? When it costs us to obey it – that will carve it on the inside..

He loves to answer our prayers. That’s called Grace, and Mercy, and compassion. He loves each one of us so much, He longs to draw us closer to Himself … Matthew 23:37. But we are making the same mistake the Israelite people made, when we see Father God as merely a benefit to my life. Instead of understanding that the One Who made the stars and everything else, loves me so personally He wants to walk with me.

All the time, every single day. Most of us spend our lives looking for one other person who just might want to be that close to us… And our Magnificent God stands silently and patiently by, waiting, longing to comfort, teach and transform us all into a fit Bride for His Son… HIS precious one-of-a-kind SON! What an honour we have. 

If we want to escort His Presence into every single situation and place we go, we will need to learn to live our lives in agreement with the things He loves. I have to be honest, we do not have the capacity to make ourselves into that kind of person – most of us start out way too narcissistic for that! But He freely gives Grace to those who know they need it. He extends mercy toward us when we fall short of the example that Jesus set for us. And He is compassionate, because He already knows we are glorified dust.

Our God has to be true to His nature. The more I see Him at work in my life, the more I fall in love with Him, and the more I love Him, the clearer my heart mirror reveals His goodness to other people. I am a reflection to other people of the love of God, whether I know it or not. Whether I act like it or not. Looking deeply into His eyes of love – as well as looking through them – will capture anyone’s heart. I have seen total goodness, the purest love of all … in the way He loves people. 

Our aim is to reflect His goodness into this life —so others can see Him too. No biggie eh?!!  Because of what Jesus did, sin is conquered, and permanently out of the way. Now we focus on the real work, living this life so close to Him we can hear and identify His heartbeat.  Bye for today! 👋

Heavenly Father, “Manifest Your kingdom realm, and cause Your every purpose to be fulfilled on earth, just as it is in heaven.” Amen. Matthew 6:10 TPT.

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 2723 The one word that changes everything!

/ DVH

This morning when I prayerfully thought about what I wanted to write about today, I realised that a great deal of what I have previously said over all these years, that can be accomplished by simply walking in love.

1 Corinthians 14:1a says:“Make love your aim …” I’ve often found myself wishing that there was a full stop right after those four powerful words. In fact, I don’t think we can read the bible without remembering LOVE WAS GOD’S AIM WHEN HE WROTE IT! In another version, the same verse says:“Earnestly pursue love …”  In another it says: “make it your great quest …” 1 Corinthians 13 is titled … the WAY of love. Sometimes I think we can get so enthusiastic about using methods and acquiring knowledge, as well as implementing this and that, we can quickly forget Jesus exhorted us to be a people with a child-like attitude. Matthew 18:2-4 says:

“He (Jesus) called a little child to Him, and placed the child among them. And He said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

So did you get that? Grown ups don’t qualify. Knowledge and power actually mess with our obedience levels and simplicity. As a child I can remember wishing I could hurry up and grow up because grown-ups had power, and I had none. Hmmm. Many many years later I can see the error of that thought, but it took me a while.

So what do I mean by walking in love? Here’s what that means for me, I often ask myself the question …is it love? You know sometimes things are expedient, but there’s no love in them. In our hurry hurry rush rush world, which always seems like it must run full speed ahead at all times, we can do things that are not love, because they are easier. We might even justify them by saying: it is not natural to respond with love!  Ya might like to think about that thought… because we are supernatural people now. Yet it seems far easier to shout, grumble, and find fault with someone else, than to question yourself… but ….

… what would LOVE do? 

Did you notice how I just left that line there all by itself?? That’s because it is important. We really can’t fit love in around the edges of our busy lives. Loving God and others IS our life now. So how do you love others easily? Here’s my answer – you choose, over and over and over again, to die to yourself. The self is a major factor in most of the wars, evil doings, illegal operations, and appalling treatment that we have all perpetrated toward other human beings. A whole lot of sin starts with Me thinking about ME and mine and what I want.

Now if you are wondering what kind of love I am talking about? Then 1 Corinthians 13 supplies us with the answer and a perfect description. If you like to memorise verses, that’s a great one to memorise. Sometimes I ask myself these questions: Was I impatient, not allowing someone else to have a learning curve and forgetting that I often need one? Was I unkind, hurting someone else to make my point? Was I envious, because someone else has managed something better than I could? Was I boastful, full of myself, or just plain rude. 

Did I insist on my own way above the needs of others? Was I irritable, did I bring up the past, because of my own harboured resentment? Was I finding my jollies by pointing out someone else’s sin? Did I put the truth aside to make sure my POV was more important than anything else? Have I celebrated someone else’s downfall because I don’t like them?

Do I personally love the Lord’s revealed truth? Is it more important to me to feel good about myself than to help someone else see the best in themselves? Have I forgotten to hide myself under the overwhelming love of God? He knows how to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and how to endure all things. Jesus is my perfect illustration of what love in action looks like. And the Holy Spirit is my Helper, Guide, Companion, Teacher …

The thing I have learnt is that WHEN LOVE COMES TO TOWN, EVERYTHING CHANGES…even me! All I need to do is to pause, ask for His help and do what love would do. Love is never wasted. It can be tested and tried to enhance its purity but it cannot be wasted. That’s because this kind of love is eternal. Instructions come and go, systems fail, but love will last forever, so I need to learn this truth before I run out of time. Love, is the one word that changes everything. Bye. 👋

P 2284 The undiscovered Person.

/ DVH

Our greatest quest in this new life of learning love is to know the Author of Love intimately. Sometimes, we can focus too much on what we can gain from Him and not enough on Who He is. He is the elusive, but always present, playful Father that some of us always wish we had had IRL. 

We can read the bible with a serious tone of mind or we can read it looking for the God Who has a twinkle in His eye and loves to walk and talk with the man and the woman He made, in the cool of the evening. I think that if we think God is no fun, we are seriously mistaken. 

Right now I’m thinking about Jesus and all the times that His pure theology bumped into the disciples’ squirrelled up theology. He sends them out two by two tells, them to take nothing with them – imagine doing that that with a missionary (!) – tells them to heal the sick and raise the dead, and on the strength of His word, they did it. And oh happy day, it worked!

They came back with a great report  only to fall in the hole of exclusivity, comparison and revenge shortly thereafter. I believe these events were fuelled by His power, because these men were obedient to what Jesus told them to do. And I think obedience carries a lot of weight with God. BUT …the time was coming when these men were to be filled with the very power and life of the precious Holy Spirit, the One Who raises us all from the dead. And they had a heart transplant … on the spot! Hard heart out – soft heart in!

That doesn’t mean they still didn’t make mistakes, they were still human, but the Holy Spirit’s presence became so vital, so important to these men that they knew that without Him they were nothing, but with Him, anything was possible. 

I love the playfulness of God, in His encounters with mankind. In Acts, Eutychus is so bored by Paul’s sermon … pause and think on that … that he fell out of the window, bored into sleep, stone dead, and Paul had to go downstairs to raise him up again! Hopefully, the brief trip to heaven changed him so he wasn’t bored anymore! There would be a whole lot of dead bored people in our churches if we applied that particular scripture today. 😂

What about Peter, who was so passionately outspoken, he was beaten and thrown in jail. And this mighty man of God, full of paste and flour, could not believe that the angel standing in front of him was setting him free! He thought he was dreaming. And back where everyone was fervently praying for his release, when he banged on the door – those guys were so filled with faith they thought he was a ghost!

These people who followed the Lord and His instructions all of the days of their lives were so changed by their walk with the Person of the Holy Spirit, that they didn’t only meet the Him, they chose every opportunity to know His ways. I believe the Holy Spirit is hidden from us for a reason. His insight, wisdom and love offer us a doorway into a different way to see this life.

When Paul met Him, He knocked him to the ground, blind. Suddenly this man’s outward condition mirrored his inward one. Paul was full of religious zeal and fervour. Ripe and ready to kill more Christians, when an encounter with the Ever-Living One bashed the wind out of his sails. Suddenly, this man who knew the law so brilliantly, is following a Voice. That happy encounter instantly showed him the difference between theory and REALITY. He saw everything he had been zealously following, in a totally different light. 

That’s my prayer for anyone who reads this blog, that God would blow away all our neatly constructed boxes and introduce us to His wider, ever-expanding, always delightful kingdom, and blow our puny minds, so that we are forever changed. I think my voice on this blog is one of so many all over the world. There are thousands of men, women and children that the Lord has working for Him. They push on the edges of our boxes, and He stands playfully right there – at the very edge of where that box used to be, and says, “Come and follow Me, I will make you fishers of men.”

Abram followed God’s leading to a Promised Land. That journey totally changed his life, his family, his name, and his future – I pray that the Holy Spirit will so impact every single person who reads here that they will also begin a journey to discover Who He is and what He has in store for each one of us. This undiscovered Person IS OUR PROMISED LAND! 🤗 Amen.

P 2273 Look for fruit.

/ DVH

“But the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within you is divine love in all its varied expressions: joy that overflows, peace that subdues, patience that endures, kindness in action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails, gentleness of heart, and strength of spirit. Never set the law above these qualities, for they are meant to be limitless.” Galatians 5:22-23 TPT. 

One of the biggest problems with knowing about something, or someone, is familiarity. We often gloss or rush through familiar words without true comprehension. We simply don’t take it in. It is just too easy to mentally say ‘yeah yeah – I get that bit’  and miss the point! What is in Galatians above is HOW we identify the Holy Spirit. In other words, in order to know the Holy Spirit as a Person, we need to be able to identify what He does, and what His Presence produces, so that we are living aware of Him. 

The Holy Spirit is not just goosebumps, laughter or tears or any other feeling. Sometimes He is present with us but we feel nothing. His presence can produce feelings, but those feelings are not Who He is – because He is so much more than feelings! He made everything we see around us.  He needs to be our very very best friend. Having the Holy Spirit for ‘the Friend Who sticks closer than a brother’ is a fantastic aim. 

Jesus would not have sent Him back to all of us, if we did not desperately need Him. I believe Christ would never have gone away and left His disciples if He didn’t have absolute confidence in the Holy Spirit’s ability to grow them up and to lead them in the ways of righteousness. The Holy Spirit’s Presence immediately eclipsed their fears. It would be a tragedy to sing ‘Blessed Assurance’ and not have any assurance that He loves us and wants to be with us!

I think this is why His qualities are listed in the passage above. That description shows us the fruit of His presence in our lives. The reason I am writing about this today, is, we often do not recognise Him when He is present. Instead of looking for feelings, we need to start recognising His fruit. There are some people that I know and love, and whenever I’m around them I immediately see His fruit in their lives.

If we are to walk with Him day by day, minute by minute, it seems to me we totally need to know what He looks like, plus what He sounds like, when He is around. The Holy Spirit is the very epitome of modesty and gentleness, He is literally invisible. So finding Him can be difficult. His continual presence is our constant quest. We need to do whatever is necessary to protect our relationship with Him. If we need to repent, then we repent and stop doing whatever it is by making Godly choices.  

Whenever He’s around this world looks very different. The things we think we can’t do at all, suddenly seem utterly possible because His presence evokes confidence in God in us. If we reduce the Holy Spirit to feelings then we will miss Him, because He chooses to be about the Father’s business the same way Jesus was. Like the scripture in Galatians says, He is constantly producing fruit – in our lives and in the lives of others around us. Jesus told us we would know what kind of tree it is by its fruit.

It isn’t enough to sing worship songs Sunday by Sunday, and feel peaceful inside. That’s just the beginning, not the whole thing, what we need to be looking for is a change in ourselves and the people around us. We need to be able to identify in ourselves, those times when we feel upheld by His grace. Without His fruit, we will have limited evidence of His presence. His fruit is not about being nice or polite. HE changes and renews our hearts as we obey and embrace His words. Instead of losing our temper etc., we suddenly find, because we cherish having Him active in our lives, that we have extra grace to endure. This is how spiritual fruit grows, it grows through the process of obedience to His word and His particular instructions for us individually.

The Holy Spirit’s fruit cannot be imitated, it has to be carefully tended and nurtured within our own lives. We need to value Him above everything and everyone else. We must respect what God is doing in us, and take every opportunity to feed and protect His fruit by choosing to remaining obedient, and willingly. Fruit matures as we obey, then rest and wait. Our part is to stay attached to the (vine) tree. Staying attached to Him will mature His fruit. Bye. 👋🏻 

“And I will ask the Father and He will give you another Savior, the Holy Spirit of Truth, Who will be to you a friend just like me—and We will never leave you. The world won’t receive Him because they can’t see Him or know Him. But you know Him intimately because He remains with you and will live inside you. Jesus replied, “Loving Me empowers you to obey My word. And My Father will love you so deeply that We will come to you and make you our dwelling place.” John 14:16-17, 23 TPT