Relationship

P 2868 One choice at a time.

/ DVH

You know, if we are not careful we can say yes at an altar, when our passion for Jesus is high, and choose no the very next week, because somebody else is driving us crazy. What do I mean by that? It is much easier to make the choice to serve Him when His peace, love, hope and joy are upon us, and much harder when we are out there in the ups and downs of every day life! The Lord is still there, but our awareness of Him can dim. The Israelites sinned in the absence of Moses’ presence, and Moses was the duly appointed “God” spokesperson!

Let’s remember that choices like these need to be made over and over again. It is a hard choice to say yes to His Ways and no to how I feel at that moment of impact … when someone else is driving me bananas! When we choose to die at that crucial moment, our journey toward transformation flourishes. Actually the meaner the other person is;  and the more wrong they are about your motivation and attitudes;  the bigger the opportunity to die to self!

Being misjudged is probably one of the hardest spiritual tests to face. When you live inside your own skin and you know that another person in that particular moment has no idea who you are and where you are coming from – that’s when the temptation to escalate the angst and confusion grows. Nobody likes to be misunderstood.

Let’s just think about that idea for a minute. Have we ever seen anyone more misunderstood than the Lord Himself? The contrast between what He actually came here to do, and what other people thought and said about Him, as well what they did to Him is utterly terrifying. Pilate said it best in Matthew 27:22,23 “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked. They all answered, “Crucify Him!” “Why? What crime has He committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify Him!” And Jesus said nothing.

Tunnel vision took over. Crowd think. They went so far down the wrong road, they had no thought about going back. Their bad decisions had blinded them to their own faults and prejudices. Anyone can see that in those moments a wicked spiritual force was put in charge. The Jews were so in the passion of judgment, that they ended up cursing themselves. But even though Pilate knew everything about this situation was wrong, he wriggled out of his responsibility to set an innocent man free … by handing Jesus back over to them. 

Choosing God’s way isn’t a once off. In Pilate’s case his wife had already warned him about Jesus, and told the man to leave Him alone – but fear of man, or uprising, or whatever – meant he abrogated his responsibility and snuck out the back way. And before we waggle our fingers in disdain at that man, do try to remember the time when you snuck out the back door and left the boss, or teacher with the blame, or your spouse, or your sibling … The bible tells us sin is mankind’s common defect. 

“No temptation [regardless of its source] has overtaken or enticed you that is not common to human experience [nor is any temptation unusual or beyond human resistance]; but God is faithful [to His word—He is compassionate and trustworthy], and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability [to resist], but along with the temptation He [has in the past and is now and] will [always] provide the way out as well, so that you will be able to endure it [without yielding, and will overcome temptation with joy].” 1 Corinthians 10:13.

So there went all those excuses! The thing is, I know personally what that is like. I’ve done it, I stopped looking for the way out and I’ve given in to temptation instead. I missed God’s opportunity for change. There’s no point in blaming Him for not fishing us out of something we got ourselves into. However!! …I know, personally, that there are times that He rescues us anyway, just because He’s so good and He loves us – He chooses US. The application of the above verse is one of the ways we get endurance – by enduring, by suffering long, by believing for the best in others, when their worst is on display.  Which is not a popular thought really.  

It means we need to pay attention to what we choose all the time. Even in unguarded moments.  Blanket statements about choosing God’s Ways aren’t worth a hill of beans, in the day-to-day muddle of life. What matters is what we choose when we are being misunderstood or provoked. Those choices mean we are valuing our relationship with Him and He is our priority. Things keep getting added unto us when we make Him our priority – stuff like real love, and long-suffering. Bye 👋

P 2862 Are we an explosion, or a pop?!

/ DVH

You can put that title on the back-burner for a bit, and let’s look at Colossians 2:11b-14 …“Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through your faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, GOD MADE YOU ALIVE IN CHRIST. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.”

Our faith is in what Christ did, not in who or what we are! I think we need to stop seeing ourselves as ordinary people, who happen to have faith. The bible clearly tells us not to live ordinary lives anymore, instead we need to remind ourselves that we are dead to this world, and constantly alive to Him. When we live that way — every single day – every encounter with someone else becomes an opportunity to share His love. His love is not meant to live on that ‘back burner.’ It is the fire that sends us out every single morning!

The only thing dead people can successfully do, is to become worm food! Yeah. Right now I am hoping you aren’t  eating your breakfast and reading this … but I ain’t taking it back!! Our Heavenly Father God, did it all, He provided Jesus as the sacrifice for us – and then Jesus chose to die in our place. Now we continually make a choice to die to this life and live for Him. Our resurrection comes moment by moment as we live by faith in the brand new life He has already given us. That’s our bit ← and it’s past tense! Jesus Christ gave us a life do-over. We can still live our lives as worm food if we choose to, but the truth is — the sky is the limit!! It always was around Jesus! 

That’s why people followed Him around. It didn’t matter if He spoke for hours and hours, because His very words were filled with Holy Spirit life. Have you ever thought of asking yourself what are your words filled with? 😳People were enthralled by whatever Jesus said. So much so, they forgot about ordinary stuff like eating! Imagine that! God’s Words are filled to the top with His life, and it is satisfying. Plus what the Lord Jesus said was often explosive!

His preaching was like a geyser, it flowed out and up and over everyone who heard Him – every single time He did it! Thats why people got mad – they were convicted! Others kept talking about what He had said all the way home! God’s word, when it is preached in the flow of the Holy Spirit, fills us and satisfies us like ordinary food never will. Jesus said it much better than I can: “Man cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”  Matthew 4:4.

I know many many Christians are incredibly sincere, they love the Lord and they want to serve Him … but maybe they are shy, and they don’t want to intrude on other people. So if someone else wants to know something – they will have to ask them. These people have forgotten they’ve been made brand new, we don’t live like other people anymore – the old has passed away – the new has come. They are living like they are the can of fizzy drink in the picture above, it bounces and fizzes when shaken, then… … it settles down again. All the fizz will eventually go out of it when it is opened. The “POP” becomes a trickle. Many of us live our lives in that place.

Others live their lives going from conference to conference to conference, hoping to regain their ‘fizz.’ I’ve personally been to a lot of conferences, but let me tell you a secret … the very best way to become a geyser, is to develop a relationship with Him. Then you become far more than you can personally contain! Instead of fizzing up and calming down, you become a part of the Giver of Life – you and He flow together. If He turns, you turn, and His happiness inside you explodes like a geyser! 

God’s Words have eternal life in them, but sadly most of the people in this world have never ever heard the real Gospel. They may have heard about this religion or that one – they may have even tasted a bit of the fizzy drink, but they haven’t heard the Good News that they can be reconciled instantly back to God FOREVER! That’s where the geyser comes from! Are you a can of pop or a force of His nature? Bye for today. 👋.

“They were amazed at His teaching, because His words had authority.” Luke 4:32.

P 2861 Live humbly and obey.

/ DVH

“We cross the threshold of true knowledge when we live in obedient devotion to God. Stubborn know-it-alls will never stop to do this, for they scorn true wisdom and knowledge.”Proverbs 1:7 TPT. 

True wisdom begins as we recognise Who HE is and who we are, now. Plus we need to stop thinking we can boss the Lord around, and instead start thinking Jesus thoughts, like:  ‘How can I serve you Lord?’ You and I don’t belong to ourselves anymore.Entitlement is the name of the spirit of this age!! I am no longer entitled. What’s in His book is my guide through this maze this world calls life. I am not entitled to anything, comfort, ease, job, security, money in the bank, good relationships with my kids. I have transferred my power of attorney over to Christ, now He speaks for me. I live this life for Him.

James 4:10 tells us to: “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.”  1 Peter 5:6 says this: “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God [set aside self-righteous pride], so that He may exalt you [to a place of honour in His service] at the appropriate time ,..” So here’s one of those questions I like to ask, that nobody wants to answer — why do we work so hard to give the appearance of being altogether, knowing everything? Think about it. We say: “Fine thank you,” when someone asks how we are. But often we are not. Humility is also about admitting what’s really going on, not just about pretending for appearance’s sake. That’s called hiding. Sadly, the church has gotten rather good at hiding! 

There are times I think we accidentally tie a bundle of stuff onto someone’s back even before they know the Lord properly. We start introducing church rules, customs, attitudes, in place of real relationship! Relationship is the result of getting to know each other thoroughly, good and bad, and we have a book we can read that is already rich in it’s knowledge of Almighty God. We read His book and His book reads us. We don’t have to hide anymore, because we are longing to get rid of the junk that separates us from intimacy with Him!

Christianity is not about daily passing or failing – it is about getting know the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, with nothing between Them and us stopping us! Honesty is essential. You know, there was a test, long long ago, and SomeBody Else voluntarily took it for you and I … and He passed it with flying colours. Now we have been given a free pass. Here’s a great news flash  …WE are already IN. There is no contest, there is no competition. We can fail, repent and get up again and move on. You and I now have our names written in His book of life.🙌

Father God is not like Lucy in Charlie Brown – see the pic above – He will not pull that football away just to watch us land on our butts and look foolish! He isn’t into trickery. We may not understand everything He does and says, but He’s a good, good Father – Who dearly loves every single one of His kids. And yes, I have no idea what kind of dastardly stuff you may have been into, in the past or whatever … I’ve got stuff of my own. And I know that my sin is gone, because it’s says so in the book! Jesus took it from me – He finished the job, and now you and I have inherited more than we could ever ask or imagine. Forget money, popularity or fame – God accepts us with open arms – there’s no greater riches than His acceptance!

My bad choices and sinfulness are like that rock I spoke about yesterday, they can be a stumbling block to my faith. If I focus on those things they will fill my vision — instead I need to fill my vision by focussing on Jesus, Who is God’s ROCK of Safety – Jesus Christ the Perfectly Righteous Beautiful One. Sooner or later we need to decide that what Jesus did was far greater than anything we will ever need. 

That one act not only restored me to God, it restored me TO YOU! You might want to pause and think about that and what it will look like in your life …!!  Faith is simple obedience, not a feeling-fest. You need to know that there are soooo many times that I have made such an enormous mess that I couldn’t possibly fix it on my own. So the Lord Jesus deliberately came here and did it for me. He daily helps me to be the ‘me’ He made me to be. He can easily disentangle the knotted messes we make of our lives.

In Galatians we are exhorted not to start out in the Spirit and end up in the flesh. Works are out, BUT, having a grateful humble heart is IN. Using our faith to believe we don’t have to stay in a stinky mess of our own doing, is humbling ourselves. Confessing our faults to one another is humbling ourselves. Realising that without Him we are sunk – is humbling ourselves! Father God has provided a way through the things we are too scared to confront and change – we simply live in obedience and humility by following Jesus. He knows the Way, because He IS the Way.

2 Peter 1:3.“For His divine power has bestowed on us [absolutely] EVERYTHING NECESSARY for [a dynamic spiritual] life and godliness, through true and personal knowledge of Him Who called us by His own glory and excellence.” Hallelujah! 👋

P 2857 Fads, and fancies.

/ DVH

Some clever person has decided, for whatever reason … pick one … WHO knows? … that if the Lord wakes you up at 3.00am, He wants to talk to you. O-k-ay. Maybe the Lord wakes them up at 3.00am to talk to them – I can’t speak to their experience, nor yours for that matter. But trust me … when I wake up at 3.00am I am not thrilled. All I wanna do is go back to sleep! I love to talk to Jesus, but not-quite-so-much at 3.00am. 3.00am means I’ve probably had just enough sleep to stay awake until I have to get out of bed. When I wake up at that hour, I quite often can’t go back to sleep again.

Meanwhile, imagine what an idea like that does to a young working mother, or a mum who has her hands full? Maybe she just got her baby/toddler back to sleep? Many a night I’ve sat in a rocking chair, soothing a cranky child, rocking away, praying for people. That’s why I can see these women at 3.00am, with toothpicks holding their bloodshot, sleep-deprived eyes open, saying … “Who the what now?? This kid is going to wake up again in a few hours… Go away … tell your nice theory to someone who gets plenty of sleep!” Sometimes human beings say the dumbest most thoughtless things. Never let anyone but Jesus write on your relationship with Him. You are you, and those other people who do things differently are not-you.

Meanwhile at 3.00am I have noticed that every single idea that pops into my sleep-addled brain is fantastic! I immediately know how to change my life, or save the world. I think I have a reason for that phenomenon – I am sleep deprived! Sleep deprivation does weird things to the brain. We all think we are a genius at that hour. Actually I woke up at 3.00am this morning and I wrote this blog. Yes, I talked to the Lord, and prayed for everyone I could think of, and I ended up even more awake trying to solve problems that weren’t mine in the first place! 

That’s when I remembered Samuel was once awake in the middle of the night because the Lord wanted to talk to him. He was a kid at the time and he woke up confused too – he didn’t know it was God talking to him. (See 1 Samuel 3.)  Eli had to straighten him out. You know, that nice man didn’t even ask the wide-awake kid to go and fetch him a glass of water … you always need one when you wake up early … he just gave the boy wise advice, and then he rolled over and went back to sleep. Smart guy Eli, grossly underestimated in the realm of wisdom. 

Sometimes, Christians can have FADS. In my lifetime I have seen lots of them, they come, they go, because eventually somebody throws more light on this theory or that revelation. The bible says: ”I will arise right early, I will awaken the dawn…” Psalm 57:8. But I’m left wondering if that is the same thing as making yourself wake up at 3.00am! If the Lord wants you, He will call you. It is my hope that this fad is short-lived. And yes, I know that we all need a quiet time with Him, but that’s for you and Him to work out. Just talk to Him. He’s always there.

It’s like fasting: the bible says that the Lord chooses the fast we are to participate in. (Isaiah 58:6-11.) I can still remember when fasting was a fad, people fasted to make God do things. Fasting is a supernatural event, we are led into it by the Holy Spirit – it is not a dietary or problem solving aid! Our Father loves us so very much, and we don’t have to make Him do anything. Sometimes I think people fast because they don’t like NO!

Just recently a doctor discovered that my bones are showing the effects of age, which doesn’t surprise me because I have had them for a while. He had three wonderful remedies to cure this problem, and they all had ghastly side-effects. The first one caused oesophageal spasms, the second gave flu-like symptoms because it is used in chemo-therapy and the third one causes necrosis of your jaw bone. Strangely …I said no thank-you to His interesting options. He was a bit miffed, BUT … not every suggestion or revelation  you hear about or receive, no matter how insightful, is actually helpful to your life.

Now, if the Lord happens to wake you at 3.00am to pray … DO IT. Please!! Some saints gladly give up their sleep time to intercede for the rest of this planet – they pray for His kingdom to come, and I personally praise the Lord for their diligence. But please do not join in this jamboree just because someone said it and it sounds like a deeply spiritual thing to do. Something that just might get you what or where you want to be.. Use your faith to believe that He loves you and loves to talk to you …at any time, instead. 

I know, there are people who are in desperate situations and they need the Lord and His input — but we must remember that He actually wants to talk to us. He is not a sadist thinking up ways for us to torment ourselves just so we can hear from Him! He does not require us to jump through hoops to impress Him. We need to use our faith, not performance. Let’s not blithely subscribe to every fad and fancy that floats on by. 

BTW the book also says this: “In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for He grants sleep to those He loves.”Psalm 127:2. Amen. Bye. 👋

P 2856 Ruth.

/ DVH

Yesterday, I realised something about the book of Ruth that I had not seen before…. Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi is worth looking into. “But Ruth answered, “Don’t ask me to leave you! Let Me go with you. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be My people, and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, and that is where I will be buried. May the Lord’s worst punishment come upon me if I let anything but death separate me from you!” Ruth 1:16-17. 

Ruth is talking to her husband’s mother, and just look at her loyalty …it prevails to the death! …She is handing over her own life for… wait for it … her mother-in-law!  Ruth and Orpah’s loyalty was a highlight of their relationship with their husbands’ mother. After all the younger two women  were from another ethnic group – the Moabites. God loves loyalty, because He is loyal! I just want to add something interesting I discovered when I went looking for pictures of loyalty – practically all the pictures I found were of people with their dogs! What does that say about humanity eh?

Back to these two young women, who had travelled with their husbands, their father-in-law and mother-in-law to another place, then … after all the men died, they followed their mother-in-law back toward her homeland. Ruth refused to leave Naomi. We need to take note of the depth of her loyalty. Almighty God is loyal to US in an even deeper way than Ruth was to Naomi!

He has always been that way, every single thing He has ever done was for mankind’s benefit. He did these things at a horrendous personal cost. Let’s face it, after all the years of disobedience and heartache from the people the Lord called His own – He could have started all over again, with a new group of people! But He didn’t. He didn’t because He promised He wouldn’t!  And we have a rainbow to remind us.

The Lord gave His Word that the Israelites would be His people and He would be their God. Then, in the fullness of time, that Word from God which had been handed down from one generation to another, gave these people access to God Himself, through Christ. God’s Living Word. Jesus Christ manifested Himself in the flesh and came and lived among them. Meanwhile, Jesus’ great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grandmother was Ruth! 

God promises in His word to visit His favour upon His people to a thousand generations. For all you and I know – we could be the great great great great great etc.etc. grandchildren of His promise too! Some of us may be from Ruth and Boaz’s line. What do they say nowadays? 6 degrees of separation between each of us and there’s a rumour that that has shrunk to 5 degrees, because of social media. Excuse me while I roll my eyes!!

So listen to what He says to YOU personally today, displaying His loyalty: 

“Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]” Now that doesn’t sound like the Lord plans on deserting ANY of us does it?

And BTW, for those of you who have legal minds and would like to check that out in the book … that verse is in Hebrews 13:5 in the Amplified Version and it appears in another form in Deuteronomy 31:8;  and in Jeremiah 31:3. The Lord’s loyalty to us is not just solid, it is eternal. Now that’s true loyalty. Let’s be loyal to Him the way He is loyal to us!! Bye 👋.

P 2846 How are we living from day to day?

/ DVH

“So you must remain in life-union with Me, for I remain in life-union with you. For as a branch severed from the vine will not bear fruit, so your life will be fruitless unless you live your life intimately joined to Mine. “I am the sprouting vine and you’re My branches. As you live in union with Me as your source, fruitfulness will stream from within you—but when you live separated from Me you are powerless.”John 15:4-5 TPT.

There is no true faith without the reality of Christ – our life and decisions are no longer based on how we feel, or our circumstances, they are based on Who He is. When Jesus says: “We can do nothing without Him …” He means … we can do nothing spiritually lasting without Him. Can we live a normal life, 9-5 work, get dressed, go to school, eat 3 times a day, have a bed to sleep on? Yup. Sure can. We can all live superficially – it’s sadly – easy!However, living without an awareness of the reality of Christ every single day, means we are denying His life in us.

Today I want to talk about the incredible depth of spiritual security that is our birthright. Whether we have known the Lord for 5 minutes, or 50 years – our security lies in Him – His Character. 30.9% of people alive in the world today live by what Jesus said. Which means 69.1% don’t. Those dear people are spiritually unacquainted with His freedom, love, peace, and the wisdom He constantly supplies. That only comes from deliberately following Christ. Most people are not attached to the vine, so the life-changing, life-giving sap of His life in us, and for us, is not available to them. 

My question to all of us at the beginning of 2025 is this. How well are we attached to the vine, His new life in us?  Are we firmly attached? In order to be attached to something completely we will have to let go of everything else. When we gave our lives to Christ, He took them. He gladly accepted each one of us, despite our predilection for this sin or that attitude. We said yes, and He said “You’re mine.” Any lack of strong attachment results in a restriction of the nourishment a branch will receive. It is in our own best interests to remember we belong to Him now. We can’t afford to drink of this world’s wells and still try to drink from His well of Living water. That causes self-deception.

Christianity is not a part-time, bed time, happy story faith. It is a way of life. Which is why I believe …“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6. The Lord was not a vacillating kind of Person. He spoke in absolutes. And here we go with what the dictionary says absolute means: “not qualified or diminished in any way; total… viewed or existing independently and not in relation to other things; not relative or comparative.”  This world does not affect His plan for us – we do, when we ignore His plan.

Jesus was saying that there is no other Way to Almighty God except through Him. He is God’s freely provided Way for anybody to be in a relationship our Heavenly Father. This means we need to pay attention to our hearts, watching out for them wandering off after this dream, and that relationship – the things of this world will pass away. LIFE IS IN THE VINE.  It is essential that we prioritise staying attached. It needs to be the centre of our thoughts not on the periphery. I did some research on broken branches and it seems that they can still produce fruit, but the branch itself eventually dies from lack of nourishment.

Sometimes, it seems to me that the church at large … I am not talking about one denomination or another – lives by this mandate instead. “Seek ye first your own needs and wants and ask Me for them, and I will supply them. If I don’t supply what you ask for then you are doing something wrong. I won’t tell you what that is, I will make you run about here and there trying to find it.” Can you see that in the Lord’s allegory about the vine this worldly train of thought can affect our security? God is not changeable. Look it up! That’s why He is still loyal to Israel. 

The whole idea that our earthly happiness is His priority has nothing whatsoever to do with what Jesus taught us. He taught us that our attachment to Him is to be a priority over our attachment to anything and everything else. Even our families. That attachment is a heart attachment not a mind attachment. Our hearts belong to Him now, so we wouldn’t even dream of withdrawing from Him, despite our faults and bad behaviour, because He is the reason we get out of bed every single day. Plus He will never ever withdraw from US! Now there’s a bonus buy to die for.

Our Saviour is STRONG. Strong enough to carry and pay for all our sins! All we need to do as branches, is to let Him flow through us, and His sap will do the rest. It is up to us to stay aware of how we are thinking and living from day to day. Is there anything in our lives that is stealing from us, or distracting us away from our awareness of the reality of His love for us? Just free-fall back into the arms of your loving Saviour. He will always catch you.  Bye 👋

P 2840 We must remember, we sin against GOD, first.

/ DVH

“Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.” 2 Samuel 12:13. 

“And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’”Luke 15:21.

“Against You, and You alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in Your sight. You will be proved right in what You say, and Your judgment against me is just.”Psalm 51:4.

We often talk a great deal about sinning against each other, but today I want to talk about the fact that first of all, any sin is against Him. When we dismiss or disobey His word, our sin is dismissive of God’s holiness. Yes, we need to fix things with others, but we need to start at the top … with Father God Himself. Everyone of our sins had a consequence. And Jesus bore the penalty of those consequences on His body – so we need to treat these things with humility, honestly, reverence and respect. 

Let me be as clear as I can be … Our sins are absolutely, positively, completely G.O.N.E. – gone forever! Thrown into the sea of forgetfulness, with a NO FISHING sign clearly displayed. That sign needs to be read over and over again because guilt and shame no longer belong to us. “Jesus said, “I tell you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped in a dead-end life and is, in fact, a slave. A slave can’t come and go at will. The Son, though, has an established position, the run of the house. So if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through.”John 8:34-36.

This means that before we repent and repair things with others, first of all, we need to thank God and His precious Son again, for all Jesus suffered and chose to do for us. Thankfulness, not guilt is now our response – however presumption is not a right response either. We need to treasure our relationship with our Loving generous Father above all else. There is no longer any fear in sin and God’s love has now taken over our way of thinking, doing and being. We live a life of love now, standing by our choices- we are now free to choose His Will, His Way.

We’ve been set free from the demands and focus of sin, to focus upon HIM.  Freedom means we can still sin – however, now, we’ve been empowered not to!! Instead of blame and shame motivating us, we can be confident that we can restore things – simply because Christ’s death on our behalf has empowered us. Now we praise Him for all He has willingly done for us and we go back into happily submit to His will, His way. The point of the ‘get out of jail free card‘ is not carelessness – it is redemption. So we must acknowledge our sin against His freely-given goodness.

Here is another scripture for all of us to think on today:“My little children (believers, dear ones), I am writing you these things so that you will not sin and violate God’s law. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate [who will intercede for us] with the Father: Jesus Christ the righteous [the upright, the just One, Who conforms to the Father’s will in every way—purpose, thought, and action].”  1 John 2:1. The best news ever is this, JESUS is in the throne room praying for us, every single second of the day. IMAGINE THAT! Because of what He willingly did, sin is not the “norm” for us. Our new normal life is in Him. THAT’S WHERE THE POWER TO OVERCOME COMES FROM!

Almighty God does not wink at our sin … it says so in the book!  An exchange took place 2,000 years ago and Jesus Christ became the Lamb Who was slain, forever. It’s part of His title, just like Prince of peace, wonderful wise Counsellor, and Saviour of the World. So when we sin and disobey God, we take ourselves out of fellowship with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, Who is the One Who helps us – and the Son. The One Person Who perfectly understands how hard it is to be human! Dumb move … He knows the way through temptation!

Let’s be clear. God made sure all this stuff was written down, we have a book! Now we do not have to be dragged about by our weaknesses, and weird ideas. Because of what Jesus did, we have a live-in Helper. The Holy Spirit was our midwife! He birthed us and now He is raising us, day by day as we learn to live a life of obedience. God did not just trust our discipleship to ordinary men … Jesus Christ, Who followed the Holy Spirit’s instructions to the letter – is still making disciples! 

We have the bible to show us where we are out of order with His ways and we need to respond to conviction with real repentance. Because when sin happens we stop walking with Him and start hiding from Him. And people don’t just hide by leaving the church, they hide in busyness, and by elevating things that are distractions, or supposed  recreational activities. Dead people don’t need that stuff – they don’t have an opinion or a need. That’s why we rely upon God to meet them!

If we sin, we need to go to our Heavenly Father, first, and confess our faults, errors, lapses, nasty attitudes and selfish ways and He will empower us to overcome. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. Bye. 🕊️

P 2828 Be proactive – learn to speak life.

/ DVH

Hi! I’m following up from what I said yesterday with more road building tips. Forgive me for repeating myself, but to see how to help anyone else, first we need to get rid of the planks/ rocks/pebbles/ boulders in our own eyes. How can we possibly fix anything – at all – if we can’t see properly? 

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Matthew 7:3-5.

I love the way Jesus goes straight to the point. The point isn’t to avoid helping others! Instead we live this life in such a way that we keep our hearts open and clear toward Him. This means we value our relationship with Him more than we value our own perception of ourselves, our convenience, or the way we are regarded by others. 🤔 So if I say something and someone else thinks it’s dumb or critical, I repent on the spot. If I hurt someone and I know it, I ask them to forgive me asap. Why? Because I want to see clearly! I can’t pray blessings for you if I am tolerating a bad attitude in me. The words will fall on the ground or choke me. I sincerely want you to know you are loved, and be blessed by the knowledge of His love for you. 

Love is HIS chosen highway and we are all labouring on it. You’re doing your bit on your stretch of the road, and I’m doing it on mine. We don’t want love to just be words on a page, we want people to experience His love through us. Real love, the love that embraces humanity – love that never ever gives up! God gives practical advice not just pretty words to remember. When we begin to know the will of God, through our own experiences, we will end up praying more confidently. We need HIM. All day every day, every second of our time here. He is our wisdom, our strength, our ever-present help in time of need. 

What do we do with offence when it smacks us upside of our head? This is what I do … I ask for Grace, and I keep right on asking for it. That’s because I am absolutely positive I will respond badly unless the Lord helps me, plus I have plenty of negative experiences with my old nature. My aim is to kill that off asap. I need to stop imagining, and perhaps even saying terrible stuff about the other person who is hurt, or has hurt me, and I ask for His mercy, and compassion instead. At times I pray that a situation will be redeemed. I simply pray the way He tells me to pray and then I step out in faith and do the opposite of what I might want to do!

Compassion is invaluable. Sadly, loving compassion evaporates quickly in the heat of dark situations, so, along the way, we will have to do a whole lot of repenting and dying-to-self. However, we will gain even more compassion in this life when we experience a need for it ourselves, and we recognise our own sinful attitudes, because we too hurt others. Just because we think what we said, or did was OK, that does not mean our opinion prevails over someone else’s experience!  We are not meant to be legalists excusing this behaviour and giving permission for that. Reconciliation doesn’t grow in an atmosphere of justification. I never ask if I have sinned, I ask Him to show me where and when. Then I take care of business. 

Jesus died to make us pure and innocent, and it cost Him everything. He deserves our obedience to His Word, including the humility to say we were wrong. When we say we are wrong, we’re humbling ourselves. Sadly, our old nature is always going to be at war with the new one. So we will have to choose, over and over again, to walk His highway of love, especially when we don’t want to do it. People are not always NICE. And hurt people can be UGLY. Read the book. My thought bubble about someone else might be: “Boy that guy needs avoiding big time. What a grouch!”  But when I pray I stop being blind to my own faults, and I can see my own attitude, then I can see the other guy more clearly.

Many people expect this life to be easy…  we are not in a fairy tale. Life is hard. We need a daily scrubbing with the blood of Jesus to help us develop eyes of love. We are designed to be part of the Answer – not the problem. You know, our enemy wins if we are so busy concentrating on our own problems, and heartaches that we don’t see other people’s pain. Undeserved love is by nature … not deserved! 

Here’s some advice worth noting …  people may not fall at your feet and start cheering even when you’ve repented etc. Nobody is perfect. People make mistakes, and they hurt themselves and others – it’s what humanity has in common. Almighty God will empower us to obey Him, but we need to take faith steps and keep at it. Refuse to believe the worst in others, instead, speak to the good. The power of life and death is in the tongue, and we’ve been given a huge responsibility – we can proactively speak life and build Love’s road.👋

P 2800 Cultivate walking with the Holy Spirit.

/ DVH

Matthew 17:1-3: “After six days Jesus took with Him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.”

I was reading these verses this morning and it occurred to me that these verses about the Lord’s transfiguration show, without a doubt — that absolute purity, honour, truthfulness and glory CAN LIVE in this world and NOT SIN.  I think Christ always looked like that, but His glory was hidden from everyone around Him. Those 3 men saw Him that day, as He really was! Meanwhile all that purity, honour, truthfulness and glory etc. was nailed unjustly to a cross! If Christ hadn’t yielded to them, those Roman soldiers could not have touched Him!  “…He gave His back to the smiters …” Absolute purity became sin on that cross. Ya might like to think on that lot for a while. I did! 

For me this scene reinforces, the importance of us walking with the Holy Spirit!  It also made me think, we could easily be walking around with angels, unaware of who they are … because they’ve left their hat, glowing clothes and halos at home, and now they look just like us! We don’t know what we can’t see! These three disciples were exposed to a huge revelation in those moments, and they didn’t quite know what to do with it!  There is a fascinating reaction to the visual revelation in front of them. One of them, who shall remain nameless, but his name begins with P … starts making dumb remarks. Then they all fall on their faces when Almighty God literally says from heaven: “Just listen to My Son, please!”

I mean, after that event nobody even dares to talk about it  or ask questions – yet they had had holy huddles before speculating on what stuff meant! However, Jesus instructed them not to talk about what they’ve just seen with other people, and they didn’t. Imagine not saying anything about something like that! These men were in ushered into the Presence of God in all His glory! They saw Christ’s purity on this earth, unveiled. WOW!! 

My first question when I read this is, why were the disciples even present? What was the Lord Jesus looking to teach them? What did it mean? Isaiah the prophet once ended up in the throne room and his first response was that he had a revelation of his own sin. Why didn’t these three men react like Isaiah? They only fell on their faces when God Himself spoke from heaven! Ya might want to think on that!! Meanwhile, it is practically a hallmark of their relationship with the Lord, that His disciples asked questions all the time. But instead of talking about how their Master looked, they start talking about Elijah.

At the bottom of that mountain these three men are back doing what they’ve done before, casting out demons etc. — or trying to! And … they failed. Even after what they had just seen — they failed. It seems that Jesus was a bit ticked off with their faith failure. I think that this incredible, spectacular revelation of Who Christ really IS, didn’t actually help their faith. The Living breathing Word of God was standing there right in front of them, but they didn’t understand what they saw!

Does that ring any bells with anyone? Do you ever read His book and not get it?  Moo-ving on … those same disciples thought after the Jesus’ crucifixion, that that was it, game over! Whatever they had seen and experienced, thus far, did not give them enough faith, or power, to continue. Jesus eventually scared the daylights out of these grown men by walking through a wall, but they still didn’t get the magnitude of the story they were in. They had heard what He had said previously, but it was not digested. I think, they did all the things they did, in those 3 years together, in the power of HIS Name. There’s power in HIS Name! But their faith was extremely challenged by those events that happened when He died. 

Jesus knew this would happen and I think that’s why He told them … when He finally left them to go back to His Father … to WAIT for the Comforter, the Helper, the Advocate, the One Who comes alongside. Every single person present in that room needed the Holy Spirit  — and SO DO WE!  Seeing miracles is not enough to grow the kind of faith that changes the world. We all need to learn to walk with the Holy Spirit. We need to encounter Him. Not presumptuously marching ahead of Him, telling Him what to do, but in step and in tune with His Ways – we need to let Him guide us, teach us, correct us, comfort us and lead us into new places in God.

BTW, if any of you out there in blog land have ever wondered why those 3 disciples ended up on that mountain with Jesus, Moses and Elijah …I believe this is why … Jesus told them they would. Matthew.16:28: “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.”They were privileged to see Jesus the way we will all see Him one day. And on that day …we will be changed by His glory, forever.

These men walked for 3 1/2 years with Jesus and participated in all sorts of miracles, yet they still needed to be filled with the Holy Spirit and POWER after He died, and was resurrected. God knows we can’t do this life on our own, so cultivating our walk with the Holy Spirit needs to be our first priority. This is not about feelings, dreams or visions, or weeping at the altar  … meanwhile we all need to cry our eyes out for our hard-hearts, sins and disobedience.

What will help us grow, and step into our inheritance, is our daily obedience to His Word, enlivened and kissed by His Grace – going IN and OUT like the tide. As we live like this, Holy Spirit will show us the way we should go! Amen. Bye👋

P 2789 Our willingness to obey helps us with digestion …

/ DVH

… and that leads to spiritual health. I think it also means that whatever we do repeatedly – we will become. 

Have you ever been looking for something and found it years later, hidden away at the bottom of your junk drawer?  Life is sometimes like that. Sometimes we don’t even know those things they are there. You end up saying to yourself: ”Oh, I’ve been looking for that for ages.”  Hold onto your hat. Today, I found some stuff hidden inside me that I had conveniently forgotten about. I took those things as past hurts and I didn’t consider the consequences to my faith.

Things get hidden in everyone’s lives. And some of the time it’s not deliberate sin, it’s carelessness. And this condition can be true for many kinds of attitudes. Some attitudes in our hearts are sneaky – they hide away under pious talk, and seemingly righteous indignation. But those things are not from the Lord, instead they are devices of our own choosing to hide ourselves from who we really are. I found a bunch of that stuff in my own life recently. 😱 Like this morning.

One way, over the years that I have learnt what is going on in my heart, is to carefully listen to what comes out of my mouth. Boy, that will scare the stuffing out of you! When I began to pray over the things I found in my thinking, I learnt that— lo and behold — my thinking in some areas was definitely not good. It nearly gave me indigestion! Hey, it’s great to watch your mouth, do it — but renewing our minds takes work and application, so we are going to need the Holy Spirit’s help with our thought lives too.  And that nicely leads into my thought for today.

I won’t digest whatever the Holy Spirit wants to teach me about myself, and the way I relate to Him and others, if I continually excuse myself. Even a flippant attitude can be a hiding place. The Lord is very thorough and kind with me. He often quotes me, to me. I hate it and love it … all at the same time. Sigh. Sometimes I wish the things I write every day will just kind of seep into my pores, rather than me having to work at it!  But obedience helps me with digestion, and I want His Word to be a part of me. … so-oo-….!!! On we go…

The thing is, none of us can afford to simply agree with what the Holy Spirit says without doing something about it. Now there’s the rub! I debated about whether to write about this subject today, and then hubby sent me an excellent, completely spot-on and appropriate scripture. I didn’t know whether to brain him, or thank him!! Of course I thanked him, and then I gave him one of those beautifully pious smiles, I’ve been talking about. 🙄 Meanwhile, eventually it turned out that I was measuring God and His actions, by the way I was raised> Now there’s a really dumb thing to do.

I know I cannot be gracefully transformed if I will not change my mind. And reading the bible is meant to be a heart searching event – not just a daily chore. So I started off with repentance, and in this whole process, I discovered something wonderful! The Lord is not legalistic. He is incredibly kind and generous!  I realised that I had yet another idea squirrelled away inside my heart, and it was a bad one. It needed to be changed because I don’t need to hold onto wrong concepts any longer. Father God is not like the ordinary sometimes sinful people that raised me, He’s perfect. Therefore I cannot put Him in the same category as my parental figures, because that will spoil our relationship.  

Praise God for a Saviour, because I find I need saving from myself all the time! I asked Him to forgive me for totally misjudging Him, and using my own human experiences as a reference for His actions. This sin had been hidden away deep inside, under pain, misunderstanding, despair, hopelessness, and just plain misery … that awful pile of stuff we all have that we hope no-one knows about … because we tell ourselves we ‘gotta be strong and courageous.’  Well I’m not. I’m weak and sometimes terrified and I definitely need His help all the time! 

This means that my active and interactive obedience has to come from owning my own questionable and inaccurate feelings. So I asked Him to replace them with how HE feels about me. And then I asked for a personal revelation of the kind of parent He is. I need one. I forgave all the people from the past who wrote all over my soul, “this is what love looks like.” Whether they did that on purpose or accidentally! And now I will take the time to meditate on every verse I read that tells me what He is like – and soak in it. 

“Why would you ever complain, O Jacob, or, whine, Israel, saying, “God has lost track of me. He doesn’t care what happens to me”? Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening? God doesn’t come and go. God lasts. He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine. He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch His breath. And He knows everything, inside and out. He energises those who get tired, gives fresh strength to dropouts. For even young people tire and drop out, young folk in their prime stumble and fall. But those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar like eagles, They run and don’t get tired, they walk and don’t lag behind.” Isaiah 40:27-3.

Our willingness to obey and be taught by Him – as well being open to discover what’s really going on inside us – will help us digest the Word. The Holy Spirit doesn’t want to hurt us, He has been sent to help us. Bye. 👋