Rely

P 2347 It’s His work in us and for us.

/ DVH

“God will continually revitalise you, implanting within you the passion to do what pleases Him.” Philippians 2:13 TPT. 

OR “…for it is God Who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil His good purpose.” NIV. 

OR “ For it is [not your strength, but it is] God Who is effectively at work in you, both to will and to work [that is, strengthening, energising, and creating in you the longing and the ability to fulfil your purpose] for His good pleasure.” AMP.

I’ve put three different versions of the same scripture, above. Sometimes doing that helps give dimension to what the Lord has said. I chose this particular scripture because it is so clear what our Father’s heart is like toward us all. He has a destiny for each of us to fulfil and we are going to love it. His Grace is currently loose in our lives in ways we can’t even imagine, He will not take His plans for us back, because His WORD is utterly dependable.

This whole process is something He has invested in – with His own dear Son’s life. So much so that those people already living with Him in heaven, are cheering all of us down here, on! There is no concern about us failing up there, because they are alive in the Presence of the Almighty One Who never has, and never will – fail!  We need to be constantly reminded that our missteps and deliberate dumb choices can’t take us away from the Lord’s Eternal plans. The way through our trials, difficulties, hardships and troubles is to keep choosing what He wants.

Sometimes we can misread God’s favour toward us, and start to run ahead, announcing this and declaring that. But the Lord’s work is not confined to our ideas about Who He is and how He should do things. He is sovereign. However our generous Father makes room for our willing enthusiastic input, with mistakes or not, and we can totally rely upon, and look forward to being guided by Him. Our part is to enter into freely working with HIM and keep His purposes uppermost in our hearts. Even if there are times when we do not or cannot join in, our God will take every single circumstance, every instance of failure, every highlight, and work all of them together for our ultimate good. And … THAT’S WHAT LOVE LOOKS LIKE!

It is also clear that when Jesus comes into our lives, He refreshes, restores and energises us into faith, so that we end up wanting to do whatever it is Father God designed us us to do. He has an overall plan. As we walk in His Grace, embracing what grace does for us, in us, and how it changes us, we are transformed. He does all this work for each one of us. We may not always immediately understand what He is doing, but our first choice after choosing Christ as our Lord and Saviour, is to let go of our own plans! His plan will give us a hope and a future, plus His design is absolutely perfect for every single person… This is how His will becomes as close to us as our heartbeat. 

We don’t even have to drum up enthusiasm or energy, His very Presence in our lives will do that for us. Once we get a glimpse of what He will do with our obedience, disobedience or disregard for what He wants from us fades away. This is how we learn to willingly follow Him anywhere. Our demonstrated, visible new life in Christ, begins as we decide to be obedient to what He says, in every circumstance. I want to focus on the thought that SomeOne so much greater than we can ever be, is so interested in our free-will and joyful participation and co-operation. I think He deserves our eternal loyalty. Being with us, walking with us daily, gives Him so much pleasure! 

Imagine this with me. You have a child and you watch over them lovingly from babyhood. Children grow, and as they become an adult, they make their own choices. The thing is, you love this child so dearly you cannot imagine your life without them in it. So you want them to choose to come and work, and live with you, but you do not want to force them. You want them to want to do these things themselves. Because being with you, and living and working alongside you, has become their only pleasure. You hope your adult offspring will want to enjoy this new life you have provided simply because they are in love with Who you are.

As you can see, in my made-up scenario, control and manipulation are taken right out of the picture. This kind of parenting ushers in freedom for the kid! Our God is this kind of Father. We are free to be wrong, misled, and/or disobedient, yet His love will not be withdrawn … because His Love is no longer reliant on our behaviour. Our Heavenly Father took care of that too — He fulfilled both sides of a heaven-sent agreement/covenant between Himself and man by willingly taking both sides and fulfilling each side perfectly. 

His SON’S death released so much Grace there is no need for any human being to go to hell. We are now, as recipients of this Grace destined to live in that Grace, and give it away — freely — the same way we received it. Sin is not our problem anymore – His Grace surrounds us, and empowers us to choose to live differently. His aim is for us to understand that a God Who is prepared to go to these lengths …  C A N  B E  T R U S T E D.

It is His work IN us, and through us that gives Him glory. 👋🏻

P 2252 Trust is more than a word!

/ DVH

Genesis 15:6 “Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” I think this is one of the most important verses in the Old Testament.  Paul says this about Abraham in Galatians 3:6-9 TPT:“Abraham, our father of faith, believed God, and the substance of his faith released God’s righteousness to him. So the true children of Abraham have the same faith as their father! And the Scripture prophesied that on the basis of faith God would declare Gentiles to be righteous. God announced the good news ahead of time to Abraham: ““Through your example of faith, all the nations will be blessed!” And so the blessing of Abraham’s faith is now our blessing too!”

Abraham’s example of faith and trust is an illustration of our new place of freedom in Christ. We accept that what Christ did for us, was complete. Being subject or powerless to avoid any kind of sin is living in slavery!  Christ set us free to choose to follow Him and the Holy Spirit leads us into a new way to live. Just like Abraham chose to follow God to a new land – we choose to follow Christ into our eternal destination – living in His kingdom right here, right now. We use our faith to live this life differently, as the Holy Spirit leads us.

Abraham’s decision to follow God’s instructions, implicitly, even to the point of sacrificing his only son, Isaac, shows us the focus of this man’s heart. He utterly trusted God. In conversation with Isaac about where they would find a lamb for the sacrifice – Abraham said this: “…“God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”And the two of them went on together.” That was a faith statement and it also pointed toward Christ, 4,000 years later! Jesus is our Lamb of provision – He is our way out of serving sin… His Spirit leads us into serving God.

We need to actively learn, day by day, to trust our God … and that means we will do some dying to self along the way! To live in Christ’s freedom means we leave our old life behind, and we use our faith to live the life that God has prepared for us. Sin is not our main focus – what He wants for our lives is. We know that God Himself has provided the sacrifice for our sin, just like He did, on Mount Moriah, with Abraham and Isaac. So we press on, following in the footsteps of Christ, denying ourselves the things we want, in favour of the things HE wants. We’ve decided, once and for all, that what He said He did, He did. It’s finished. It’s done. 

Now it is our responsibility to live our lives, every single day, for love’s sake. Because of our devotion and allegiance to Jesus we accept that the things that happen to us, around us, and in us, are opportunities for change. That change consists of finding out what Jesus wants us to do in any kind of situation, for His kingdom to come. That’s the way we live now – we choose Him. He chose us, and now we choose Him right back. 

Sometimes that may mean that our days pass uneventfully, but those are the days that we need to stay focussed. Because we’ve learnt, that when we least expect it, we are going to need our faith … in the heat of sudden battle. We’ve learnt that our faith is developed by the everyday choices we make. It is strengthened every time we use it. Our faith will be tested, just like it was for Abraham! And he is called the father of our faith – he did it first. This is why we need to practice letting go of what we want, and learn to trust God instead. True freedom comes when we live in that trust because we are not driven about by our own sinful desires.

However, there is no real working faith if we simply let life happen to us. Instead we need to purpose in our hearts to rely upon God’s Grace to only do those things we need to do – and some of those things will involve sacrifices. That is part of our new life, our commitment to Christ. We cannot serve our God part-time or half-heartedly. We will end up disappointed and we will miss out on the freedom Christ died to give us. As Christians we need to pay attention to developing our trust in His ways. 👋🏻

Titus 2:11-12,14.“God’s marvellous grace has manifested in person, bringing salvation for everyone. This same grace teaches us how to live each day as we turn our backs on ungodliness and indulgent lifestyles, and it equips us to live self-controlled, upright, godly lives in this present age.”…  … “He sacrificed Himself for us that He might purchase our freedom from every lawless deed and to purify for Himself a people who are His very own, passionate to do what is beautiful in His eyes.”

P 2236 What is your foundation like?

/ DVH

“Everyone who hears My teaching and applies it to his life can be compared to a wise man who built his house on an unshakable foundation.” Matthew 7:24 TPT.  Every now and then we need to look closely at the things we believe, and deliberately revise our foundations – the things we stand on. Sometimes we have accidentally added stuff into that foundation that will not bear the weight of what is to come. We need the Word of God itself and what Jesus Christ intentionally did for us – to be our firm foundation. It is way too easy to have added in some exciting new doctrine, or even something we were specifically taught years ago by somebody we admire. God’s word does not change – but fads, spiritually speaking – come and go.

We need what we stand on to be stable. So trouble should not change what we believe, nor should it steal from us, permanently. Our Heavenly Father, graciously gives us further revelations about what He has already said in the book, to enlarge what we already know and believe. But those things are not given to replace our true foundation … Christ and His complete work. However, revelation often extends what we believe into a wider place. (Isaiah 54:2) There is always room for more of Almighty God. 

Unfortunately, we can start building our lives on peripheral doctrines that are presented by teachers within the wider Body of Christ. These things can be very popular, from well-known teachers, or people who have large churches, plus already established ministries. It is a good thing to want to grow and develop spiritually in our own lives, but we need to take care what we devour. We eat from His book not just from someone’s else’s thoughts, no matter how appealing they are – or how many scriptures they have cobbled together to prove their point. 

Take this blog. My aim in writing this is to encourage the reader to learn to rely upon the Word of God – the bible, and the Holy Spirit – input from other believers is secondary. I would never suggest that anyone blindly follow me because, like everyone else I don’t know much – I definitely know I am not “done” yet! I could spend hundreds of lifetimes and still not absorb everything the Holy Spirit wants to teach me. His knowledge is simply that incredibly vast. The only Person Who is worth following slavishly is the Holy Spirit, and what He has said is … in the book. So we need to take the time to revise whatever is currently being taught, under His guidance. Life can be difficult, and some teaching seems to be a short cut to maturity. In my very limited experience there are no short cuts.

Just because the Lord has kissed gifts within any church, that does not mean the speakers or leaders are infallible. Any one of us can be sincerely wrong. This is why it is essential that we don’t just swallow things willy-nilly because we happen to like what is being said, or even if it seems to appeal to our hearts. We need to test out the spirits – (1 John 4:1-6). Many sincere people have been led astray simply because they followed a personality in lieu of Christ Himself. People are easier to follow because we can see them! 

For example during the Charismatic movement we rediscovered that God loves to heal us. That is true. At that time you couldn’t walk into some churches, without being told that it isn’t God’s will for us to be sick. I agree, the bible says so. However, that scripture is balanced out by many others including:  “…there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” … If any teaching about healing condemns us, then it is not firm enough to stand on. Conviction and condemnation are two very different things! And Christianity is not a competition to be won because of what we do or don’t believe. Whatever leads us into despair, that thing is making our foundation faulty. Instead give those thoughts to the Lord, and pray over them. Then study that subject in the bible for yourself until it becomes part of what you have personally absorbed – part of you.

We need to test the spirits, and balance is an important part of sound doctrine. (2 Timothy 2:15) So instead of blithely “liking” this person or “that church” let’s just fall in love, over and over again, with the bible and the Person Who wrote it.  The above scripture in Matthew 7 specifies that we need an unshakeable foundation – not just an appealing one. Christ’s life, death and resurrection are our unshakeable foundation. We need to build on top of that. So every now and then we need to go back and pull out anything that shakes our faith in Who He is and how good He is. If our faith is resting on whether some revelation or not is true or not – then we may need some spiritual renovations. In our humanity, we can desperately need something else, an answer, an idea, more than the Lord Himself. 

Anything that places itself above Jesus has to go. HE IS ALL WE WILL EVER NEED. 👋🏻