Reality

P 2272 The Lord will fight for you.

/ DVH

Exodus 14:13&14  “Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

These verses from Exodus 14 talk about the sort of commitment the Lord has toward our own personal situations. The Israelites are our illustration. They have escaped from Pharaoh and now he is in pursuit, so they complained at Moses and told him to reorganise God because they didn’t like their current circumstances. 😳

First of all I think their responses are quite normal for a people who have no real faith – or for anyone whose God is a concept and not a reality. The very essence of the story of the Israelites and the Promised Land is they were constantly wanting God to prove Himself to them. These people had grown up on the stories about how they came to be in Egypt in the first place. They called Abraham their father, yet none of what they had learnt and memorised was a comfort to them. 

They did what many of us do, they thought following the chosen leader was going to be enough and while they were being delivered, God was brilliant, He was wonderful, let’s all sing and have happy dances together. 🥳 Have a party. But at the first sign of trouble because their faith had no root, they were like the stuff you see blowing around in Western movies … tumbleweed. 

In the ninth and tenth plagues, it was obvious that God was making an exception for them, it was pitch black for the Egyptians when it was broad daylight for the Israelites. The Egyptian firstborn died and theirs didn’t. It was made clear to these people, by signs and wonders, that God was on their side. He had a purpose in mind, and He was going to perform it. Sometimes we can think if we can only see a miracle, if only something spectacular changed, then it could increase our faith. That doesn’t seem to have worked out very well for these people! Here in these 2 verses, God is promising to fight for them but the fear in their hearts was greater than anything He said. 

The truth is, seeing the miraculous and the extraordinary can be a wonderful way to boost your faith, but only if you have a mustard seed of faith inside you in the first place! Faith doesn’t fall on us from the outside, it’s our hearts that need to be changed – we need to learn to trust Him, no matter what. These people’s hearts need to be softened toward Almighty God. It is all too easy to be crazy about Jesus when we first meet Him, but then the trials and tribulations of this life erode that faith to a point where we almost become skeptical, hardened against the very God we profess to love. 

Sometimes bad things happen, so we pray, we get other people praying, we find a bunch of scriptures that express our needs and hold them up to heaven, but the real problem is inside us. Our faith is not strong and steady. HE wants us to grow in our own personal knowledge of how much He cares for us. But we just want the pain to go away, or we need a rest, and we need an answer. Every unmet disappointment, every time our hope is deferred, our heart gets sicker and sicker. 

I believe God fights for us all the time and most of the time we don’t see Him at work because the only answer that is acceptable to us is: ‘I need this fixed, I need it right here and right now.’  One of the best ways to pray is also the hardest – ‘Thy kingdom come Thy will be done ‘ etc. ‘and please give me the strength and courage to wait for YOUR answer.’ Yet despite what the Israelites felt and thought, God’s plans for them never changed, they simply needed to learn to TRUST HIM! He was always there, sometimes working out of their view, paving a way into a new life for them. A glorious revelation of Himself. 

Christ in us IS the hope of glory. The way to make our faith deeper isn’t always to be snatched out of problems, the way to make our faith deeper is to exercise it when it looks like there is no hope. Hanging onto the fact that He is good! Our faith should always be in Him. Who He is – not what He does. 

“I know what it means to lack, and I know what it means to experience overwhelming abundance. For I’m trained in the secret of overcoming all things, whether in fullness or in hunger. And I find that the strength of Christ’s explosive power infuses me to conquer every difficulty.” Philippians 4:12-13 TPT

P 2235 Activate your faith with your obedience.

/ DVH

We will never walk on the water of our faith, until we decide to get out of the boat of perceived safety, and walk on the water that might drown us. Activated faith produces substance. Let’s quickly look at Peter. He could only walk on that water, that day, because he was walking on his faith in Christ’s word. Jesus said: “Come” and Peter came!  When he took his eyes off the Lord and faltered, Jesus said: “Where did your faith go?”  When Peter took his eyes off Jesus, and looked down at the sea around him – he lost the substance he was standing on. This is a good place to mention that the Lord did not let him drown. He won’t let US drown either. 

Faith in Jesus exists in a much higher reality than the things we can see around us. Now we have been born again, to ‘walk by faith, not by sight.’ Here’s something to read and think about in Matthew 25:14-30 (edited) “For it will be like a man …who called his servants and entrusted to them his property….He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.”Hiding from trouble won’t produce anything but fear, because that action has its roots in fear.

“Now after a long time the master of those servants … settled accounts with them. And he who had …five talents came forward,… ’Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents …saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’…  … Enter into the joy of your master.’ 

He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant!  …you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has, will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

Our faith is always IN something. Ourselves, others, circumstances, failure, or Christ. For us as Christians, our faith needs to be in Jesus;  what He did for us is all the proof we need. We must to stop looking at ourselves, and the sea of trouble around us or in us, to see whether we feel like we have enough faith. Then ask the Lord to show us how to invest the faith we’ve already been given – because we have all been given a measure of faith.

The amount of faith does not matter, BUT … who or what we put our faith in does! Think on this … this parable is a faith parable. Each one of those servants had various levels of faith – they wanted to obey and please their master. Their obedience activated their faith and the one who had five talents got more. USING our faith will help it grow! Not using it leads to FEAR. How we look at Jesus matters. Personally, I always feel afraid when the Lord asks me to do something – however – when I obey, fear takes a backseat. Suddenly I am investing in my faith’s future.

This parable is not just about managing money, or what we do with our various talents and gifts, it is also about how these men regarded their master. The guy who doubted His master’s goodwill let FEAR stop him from doing anything with what he was given. Our faith is not in what WE think we can do – it is in WHO WE THINK JESUS CHRIST IS. And whether we obey Him … or not. 

Sometimes, hubby and I appear to be doing very little with our seed sowing trips, because we don’t always see huge outstanding results. But our faith is IN Jesus. We know the Lord will follow up the people who responded to Him – the results are still pending – eternity will reveal them. 👋🏻

P 2193 Stand with Him. The view is different where the Lord is.

/ DVH

In today’s politically adverse climates, we dare not think that God is on my side, or, maybe He is on that other person’s side. I just want to state here and now, that the Lord God, Maker of Heaven and Earth is on HIS OWN SIDE (Joshua 5:14) … And the best thing we can do when things get difficult, is to take the time to step away from what’s happening to us, or even what we think we need, and ask Him to help us to stand with Him … ON.HIS.SIDE! Almighty God’s view of this world is different from ours – there is another reality – His. This is a key to coping when things are tough.

Some of you reading this blog today are suffering. It can be extremely hard to maintain your faith when everything around you seems to be so anti-God, or even anti-you and your personal POV! But these turbulent times are precisely the moments that we need to remember that we believe in God because of WHO HE IS – not just for what He might or might not do for us. “But without faith it is impossible to [walk with God and] please Him, for whoever comes [near] to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He rewards those who [earnestly and diligently] seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6. 

Christians have sometimes interpreted this verse from Hebrews from our own needs. We think that the word ‘reward’ means that we will get what we want, and when that doesn’t happen then we get extremely disappointed instead! I don’t believe that this is the only way to interpret this verse.  I think our Father’s idea of a reward is His increased Presence in our lives. He wants us to ask Him, when things are tough, for His POV.

Sadly we have strayed so far away from looking at this life through His eyes … His plans for us – which are “to give us a hope and a future” – that we can’t quite remember what being in His Presence does for us! His Presence clarifies things. More of HIM and His kingdom in our lives, is the reward we need more than anything else. He doesn’t see this life the way we do. Human beings often want pain to go away, but maybe that pain is doing something somewhere that we simply can’t see.

Here is a verse that impacted me in Psalm 46. “Surrender your anxiety. Be still and realize that I am God.” TPT Psalm 46:9. Here is the Message version:“Step out of the traffic! Take a long, loving look at Me, your High God, above politics, above everything.” 

That line ‘step out of the traffic’ is brilliant!  I love it. When we are stuck in traffic we can’t think about anything else except how to escape from the stress and noise!  The Holy Spirit is saying here that we need to step away from those things that are putting pressure on us. In the Passion translation it tells us to “be still.” Stand still, breathe, and wait for whatever He will say or do next. Don’t be tempted to rush on to solve the problem by yourself. God is in charge of our time here on earth, let Him order your life.

At first glance, it can seem that if the Lord would only make the problem go away, then that’s the best answer! However, when this life overwhelms us, finding the Lord in the middle of our problems reassures us that we can make it through. Simply because there can be no worry in His Presence!  We need to see our lives through His eyes, that’s the key to standing on His side. When we let go of our agendas and let the Holy Spirit open our eyes to what is really going on, that’s when we are standing with Him. The right key in the right place can reveal His will. 

In the bible, Elisha prayed for his servant when they were totally surrounded by their enemies in 2 Kings 6. He prayed for this man to see the kingdom reality around them, because the other man’s fear had blinded him. Then Elisha did an amazing thing – he also prayed for their enemies to be BLIND – so the only people who could see that huge angel army were Elisha and His servant! Ya might want to think on that for a month or two – I know I will! 🧐 We have the power to see what is going on from the Lord’s view – He doesn’t hide Himself from us.

There is another reality around us that is often hidden from our sight. But the more we live in His Presence, the more this world has no hold over us and our eyes become attuned to what is actually going on in the Kingdom of God – instead of simply staring helplessly at the works of satan.  When we live like this, we see this life through faith’s eyes. Our job is to pray His Kingdom down here into this earth. Not for revenge, or justification, but for His will to be done. Step out of the noisy traffic of this life and be still. There is another reality. Bless you. 🤗

P 2163 Fear of the unknown.

/ DVH

Hubby passed this small excerpt on to me today, it’s from ‘Encounter God’s heart,’ the Passion Translation. I think it addresses the issue of fear of the unknown, very well: “Act on faith. When fear has chained us within gates of complacency, it’s time to do something radical. To stop cowering behind the questions and put an end to our internal debates. To face the challenges of “What if this or that happens” and find resolve in our courageous answers.

Sometimes we just have to run as hard as we can into the unknown. To stop letting the fear of what may or may not happen hold us back. When we’re frozen in place and faith feels scary, we need to find God. We need to courageously confront fear by taking a risk and moving forward. When we’re not even sure if we’re hearing God, let’s do the opposite of what fear tells us to do. The Lord’s will is revealed when we confront our questions and stop allowing them to hold us back. Faith is courageous!”

Here’s a great suggestion for prayer as well: “Father, You know my heart’s desire is to do Your will. Fear of the unknown has held me back for too long. I’m going to face the what-ifs. And even if things don’t turn out the way I want them to, my praise will still rise. In the fog of uncertainty, I am choosing to act on faith. Amen.”

This past week has been a trying time for some of the people I know and love, and these ‘Encounter Observations’ were a huge blessing personally. Sometimes I’ve found I can get stuck because of fear – the sort of things that come up that we have not experienced before. This week fear has attacked us as a couple, on a number of occasions. We’ve been unable to sleep well, surrounded by a million thoughts. You know about the sort of stuff that seems like you can figure it out. if you just give it some thought… but you never can!  Hubby needs surgery on his right hand and thumb, and the operation is next Thursday. This is a big deal because he is my full-time carer.

Meanwhile, I woke up the middle of the night at 2.00 am one morning last week, totally unable to breathe. I haven’t got Covid, I had an obstructed airway. Yet at the time this happened, I was sound asleep. This was not a fun way to wake up! Hubby leapt out of bed and rendered the Heimlich and eventually, obviously (!), I took some raspy breaths and then I had quite a bit of trouble going back off to sleep again! 

My husband has to go to hospital overnight to have an operation on his thumb, so our lives have been turned topsy-turvy by the hospital preparations, their agendas and timetables, plus wondering if going ahead with the surgery right now, is such a great idea. The surgery is necessary, but nobody is making him have it, it is just the only pain-free door open to us. So we decided to take a risk and move forward, even though it means our lives will become more difficult in the immediate interim, and we are planning a bible trip right after Easter. This kind of stuff is never convenient!

Doing this has shown us things we didn’t know about ourselves. Well yay! Wot fun. The thing I’ve noticed about unforeseen circumstances is that we definitely do not know, what we do not know until these things stop being a theory and become reality. Or the Lord Himself, confronts stuff!  I think that the way to more faith can take making a leap of faith a very hard thing to do. The biggest thing that paralyses me is that we might get it wrong and end up in the land of worse! Like Almighty God can’t see our blindspots and overcome them… sigh … 

Running hard into the unknown sounds great and faith-filled – until you have to do it and you really don’t actually have a clue what will happen! I know many of you reading this have faced this too, and far worse things than I can imagine …  The prayer I included today also helped me to focus in on the real issue – a lack of faith. It isn’t faith if we are certain of the outcome. Sometimes we need someone else to give us the words we can’t find, to express what we are afraid of … I hope this was useful to you too. Fear of the unknown can be paralysing – but the Lord is always here for us – we can’t grow without being stretched! 👋🏻