Repent

P 2663 He is always with us.

/ DVH

1 Chronicles 5: 18,20 -22: “The Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh ,.. …They waged war against the Hagrites, Jetur, Naphish and Nodab. They were helped in fighting them, and God delivered the Hagrites and all their allies into their hands, because they cried out to Him during the battle. He answered their prayers, because they trusted in Him…”

The Israelites figuratively stood behind Almighty God in all these battles. They sought His protection and He gave it to them…’because (the bible says) the battle was God’s…”  So what does that mean to us, here, today? How do we do that? How do we know which battle is about endurance, and which one is about God Himself dealing with the enemy who is dancing around in front of our eyes? We need a word from Him. Like … “stand still …” OR …”you have need of endurance.” That’s two I can think of! No matter which one is appropriate at which time  – He is always with us.

I’ve found the secret to discernment in times like this comes to me as the battle is raging …  in the heat of what is going on! The above scripture from 1 Chronicles says “…during the battle.” The Holy Spirit is not like a boss who says, ‘do this’ and then he goes off, forgets about you, and expects you to do whatever it is … whether you know how to carry out those instructions or not! The Holy Spirit is also ALWAYS WITH US. He wants us to win.

But, we need to remember that He will not intrude or force us to do anything. If we ever feel pushed, it’s not Him! The Holy Spirit is the same Spirit that was in Christ Jesus, and Jesus was gentle and lowly in His heart. He told and showed His disciples what to do, by example, but He did not force them to do anything! 

Trust often operates best right in the middle of the battle, while we are making choices – good or bad ones. Sometimes our choices sound like this: ‘I feel sorry for myself. The things that have been happening to me are awful!’ You know, this life doesn’t operate on fair or unfair…we are living in the devil’s territory – nothing is fair here!!  Another easy choice might be: “I am too tired to fight. It’s all too much for me.” Pretend your troubles are a boiling hot rock and hand it off to the Lord ASAP. Either way, you will get endurance!

Our enemy loves to play with our feelings. Our feelings have been his playground over many years. So our faith is stretched when things get hard. At this time, I am learning to refuse to let satan and his minions drag me down to their level. Just stretch out your hand toward the Lord Jesus, your victory and healing is right in front of you. God is with us in the heat of the battle.

Fighting for our new life in Christ is difficult when we are engaged fighting multiple difficulties, on multiple fronts, and it seems that our peace, our happiness, sometimes even our very life is at stake! Those Israelites we read about today were fighting four different nations at once! The best time to fight is when we don’t feel like it. That’s actually when our faith grows. Because it is being stretched, it is very likely that this process will hurt and seem hard!  We fight for our right to stand still and let Him do what He wants.

However, at the same time, our fight is also easy. We simply give everything over to Him. Israel experienced victory when they let Him have His way. Just hand your situation over and refuse to take that stuff back and worry over it. “His yoke is easy, His burden is light ..” So if whatever is happening is heavy and hard – then WE are still carrying it!!  Yeah, I know handing over things that are important to us can seem irresponsible, but this is part of salvation’s provision. Victory belongs to us. We no longer need to be tormented by whatever is going on around us. He gave us the power to relinquish those things that so easily beset us. Those things that happen and hang round our necks like weights.

As we learn to give these things to Him, we will become even more aware that He is with us. Focus on the Lord not the junk. Start thanking Him because He promised that He will be here, with us. He said:“I will be WITH you in trouble…”  In testing times, feeling around in our feelings to see if we feel like He is with us, is counter-productive! Ask Him to be with you and then believe that He will not lie to you. Because He won’t. 

The thing is, TRUST is one of the ways we learn to be LED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. We obey His directives, in season and out of season, and we turn over the results to Him. If we get it wrong, then we repent. Then we repeat, and repeat and repeat  – until eventually this becomes part of our new nature. There is nothing mystical about being led by the Holy Spirit, it is the most natural thing. He is present when we are born, and He is the best ‘Nanny’ and care-giver this world will ever know!

What I hear in my heart, when I am under pressure can be affected by my circumstances and how I feel, but His Word is rock solid – it never changes. We need to let Him help us listen as we read His book – whether the sky is sunny and it looks like we are winning, or there’s a hurricane raging and nothing is as it should be. I know, from my own experiences, that He will always kiss HIS book.

He’s with us in its pages, no matter what is raging around us. It doesn’t matter what version we have – it’s our faith that He will speak to us through what He has written … not the version! Our God loves us with incredible passion and He will always respond to our hearts seeking His. Let go and let Him fight for you. Bye 👋

P 2659 A listening heart.

/ DVH

Faith is our optimum response to God speaking, whether through the bible, directly into our hearts, or even through our circumstances. The way we indicate to Him that we are listening, is that we stop, then pray over what we heard, (I usually ask for a scripture), and then we do something about it.

I’ve said here many times, I never read in the bible where it talks about repentance, or read something that needs repenting over, without submitting myself to Him and asking Him to show me where I’ve done that. Most of the time I repent anyway – I figure I’m so used to excusing myself, that I need the practice!

We are responsible to act on what we hear. A listening heart is alert, waiting for what comes next. Our response to His promptings, indicates our willingness to co-operate with the Spirit of the Living God. However, our love for Him and others must fuel our faith, not obligation or fear of any consequences. I’ve observed if I set my heart to obey He helps me all over the place! Living this way has taught me that faith is always NOW.

I know you guys are busy people who have busy days. Practically everyone has certain things every day that they need to complete in order to make a living. Simply ask Him into your day. But don’t just do that in the morning, ask and keep on asking! Show Him you are serious. He won’t forget – but you will! And you could come to the conclusion that if nothing happens that day that He did not need you to do anything. If enough days like that line up in a row, we can start to think that this way of life is not for us and go back to doing the same old, same old. 

His Ways are different than ours. For instance, He loves to surprise us. He sent His Only Begotten Son to a cowshed! Paul was off to kill more Christians and he was knocked off his horse when Jesus spoke to him. Peter, James and John were going fishing, and Jesus told them to leave what they were doing and come and follow Him. Matthew was a tax-collector, and he left everything behind him. Our God loves to surprise people. Ananias and Sapphira fell over dead when they lied to Him. SURPRISE!

To have a listening heart we will have to tune out, or turn off other things. The Lord speaks to me some days after I’ve just finished putting this blog online: “Are you going to read the bible?” He says. Now, in my teeny tiny mind, I’ve just written a whole lot of paragraphs dedicated to what He wanted me to say!!… So, I think … time for a rest now. If I am not careful I’ll forget what really refreshes me. HE refreshes me, the bible says so. It also says I am here to serve Him.  

The Holy Spirit reminded me of this parable: Luke 17:7–10 – “But who is there amongst you, having a servant ploughing or keeping sheep, that will say when he comes in from the field, ‘Come immediately and sit down at the table’? Wouldn’t he rather tell him, ‘Prepare my supper, clothe yourself properly, and serve me while I eat and drink. Afterward you shall eat and drink’?  Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded? I think not. Even so you also, when you have done all the things that are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy servants. We have done our duty.’ ” 

Now there’s a reality rush! It kind of stomps all over any theology that says… ‘the sky is the limit … blab it and grab it … God just wants us to have a happy life… just pray trouble away … and if you can’t then there is something wrong with you … that kind of stuff.’ Moo-ving on, v-e-r-y quickly … Meanwhile, I didn’t see that little gem in Luke for years, I don’t know how I missed it. Then one day … I got a reality rush. I was raised in an atmosphere that said God would do anything for me to show me He loved me. Guess what? He already did that 2,000+ years ago, on a cross on a hill. I owe Him everything – He owes me nothing. I owe Him obedience, plus the courtesy of paying attention when He speaks.

To have a listening heart we need to stay always ON. Even at 3.00am. We simply get up and get into the flow of the Holy Spirit. He is the reason we are still here on this earth. Not our kids, nor our spouses. Not even the daily grind. JESUS is the reason we are still here – we have work to do for His kingdom. Even if He has called us to pray – ask someone who intercedes – it’s work!  Otherwise we can end up kind of sandwiching Him in between breakfast and doing other things. That’s when we start to feel: “That’s done, I’ve done my duty.”

There is no off button for God’s kids. A listening heart is always on, waiting for what comes next. He tells His secrets to those who are prepared to live aware of Him. Ask Him to help you to cultivate a listening heart.  Bye. 👋

P 2648 There is no instant reward.

/ DVH

OR… how I have been learning to love somebody His way. Someone who drove me crazy! There’s been an important person in my life that I couldn’t live without, and yet they literally drove me nuts. I have been so angry with them! They had a terrible effect on my wellbeing, first I’d cry, then I’d start ranting and raving, then I’d cry some more – mainly because I felt bad about the raving and ranting bit! Please note, I’ve used the past tense … but I am very aware that I can’t afford to be complacent about this issue!

One of the hardest things to do is to love somebody who is difficult. People who are dangerous and hurtful in our eyes. I secretly hoped the offender would move, and go and live far, far away. Then I was utterly condemned because Christians aren’t supposed to be like that! SoI repented until I was blue in the face, but this person continually kept jumping all over my heart… This situation is like an awful ride — you never want to get on, because you know you will hate it and go round and round, but you can’t easily get off either! In the past I used to get my hopes up that things were changing, and then the other person went and did something worse and I felt even more betrayed.

My bible-based learning curve started like this:  I was complaining to the Lord about how misunderstood and cheated I felt whenever I was around this individual. I tried to love them, I really did! I did nice things to please them and then they said or did something worse, and I sank back into anger and despair, adding to my failure. The list of their faults and infringements just kept getting bigger. There was no way of permanently pleasing them. It took me a while to realise that I needed to leave pleasing them behind, and start living to please God! 

I asked the Lord why He thought I had to have that person in my life. And this is what He said: “You asked me to help you to learn to love the way I love, and this person is your opportunity to learn!” Did you ever pray something when your heart was all soft and mushy at the altar, then afterward wish you hadn’t? Me too! I’d prayed He would change my response to this person – yet in the middle of the daily scrum I failed. I still wanted to punch out their lights! I was desperate, because I truly wanted to obey Him … but it seemed like I just couldn’t. My whole concept of LOVE God’s Way was wrong. I kept trying so hard, but my thoughts and emotions let me down. I needed to let go and follow instructions.

Then the Holy Spirit, my Resident Expert, said this: “You see giving someone else love, is a reward for their good behaviour. I see loving others as simply living in the River of Life. It’s always your choice, whether you live in that River or not. You are angry with this person because they hurt you. They bring out the very worst in your own attitudes. Actually, they are doing you a favour, because this is a fault in you that you can’t see, and their actions have brought that fault into the light.”

He was right. Duh! … I saw God’s love as FEELINGS not as a guideline for life. The thing is you can follow guidelines, it’s simple. You just follow the instructions – no feelings involved. When I consulted my feelings, I didn’t feel anything but anger, disappointment and disdain toward this person, so I didn’t think I had any love left. That’s when I did the smartest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I gave up! And I asked Him to show me how He loved people, whether they were nice or not!  I began re-reading the Gospels. 

As I read about how the Lord was treated I noticed that very few people actually appreciated Him! They wanted stuff from Him all the time, but He didn’t get many ‘grateful hugs,’ that’s for sure! He operated His whole earthly life under a different system. He was not interested in “What’s in it for Me?’’ He was far more interested in – “What can I do for you?” So I switched my focus from getting to giving. I asked Him: “How can I possibly bless this person?” Loving people God’s way is about how we choose to treat people, it is not about how they treat us. People cannot steal our emotional and mental health when what we are doing is OUR deliberate choice!

The Lord gave me some helpful hints:  “Don’t do a revision of how your time with this person went after you leave them. Give it all to Me, and leave it with Me. Continue on asking Me to help you love them. Then stop constantly bringing up why you are annoyed with them. Remain silent in the face of adversity.” Did you know we can talk ourselves into bad stuff? Neither did I! “The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you.” Matthew 12:37. 

Lastly, He said: “Let Me define HOW you love them. You think love is about you, because it makes you feel good. Loving others is about them, not you.” Through this time I discovered that loving difficult people means we give up the right to get any reward for doing right. So I took my ‘feelings’ – good or bad, back, and I stopped trying to feel loved by them. I simply chose to obey HIM and obey His instructions.👋

P 2644 Give up your right to be right.

/ DVH

Definition. ‘Redemption means to secure the release or recovery of persons or things by the payment of a price. It is a covenantal legal term closely associated with ransom, atonement, substitution, and deliverance, thus salvation.’

Here are some great scriptures about redemption:“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”Galatians 3:13.“But when the set time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.”Galatians 4:4-5. “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” Ephesians 1:7.“He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.” Hebrews 9:12.

OK, let’s move on now we have established a premise. Redemption is part of our new birthright. I totally believe that it was done once and for all by Christ at Calvary – BUT – I now choose to apply it into my life, all day every day.  Today, I want to share the way I see that redemption working personally. I will begin with a hypothetical scenario. 😂 I get cranky and mess up, and I yell at my poor beleaguered hubby. I get good and angry. The first thing I need to do is to remove myself from that scene and toddle off and go sit somewhere else so I can …

1/ Repent. Repenting always come first. It is like clearing out a blocked drain – my spiritual ears work so much better when I start with what I did. When I wander off into what the other person did or said, I will get lost! My own feelings tangle up what is in the past with the present. The real secret to repentance is this, even if I don’t think I am wrong. I still go there first. Why? Because the bible says not to ‘lean on my own understanding’ – that’s why! It also says ‘the Lord gives grace to the humble’ and at that particular moment I badly need GRACE. It is extremely important not to rush through this repentance process, because our enemy is lying at the door waiting to trip us up.

2/ Next I pray until I regain my peace. I need to do that before I even think about talking to the other person. Why? Because I don’t know what you’re like, but once I’ve gotten mad it takes a while to calm down! But when I have His peace, then I know can reconcile. I’ve repented, and God has given me His Grace –  whether I feel like it or not! Now His peace is available to me and I can stand on something firm. Not my feelings, or even my own need. I stand on His peace. It’s in the book. If the other person is still unhappy with me, now I will have grace and peace to help me through their accusations and angst.

These things work because the bible says: ‘a soft word turns away anger.’ Just to make this clear, those are faith steps, I often don’t feel anything. But I choose to refuse to go over and over what happened and who said what and how hurtful it was! Instead I pray and hold fast to those words that renew my mind to think like Jesus does. I take those errant disruptive thoughts captive and I tell the Lord I am prepared to suffer wrong. At this juncture the other person cannot lead the way unless they too decide to go the way of grace and peace – otherwise everybody’s feelings get the better of us!

3/ Then I ask the Lord to please redeem the situation. Why? Because something is going on in me — or that other person that is out of order with Jesus’ ever-present, always available, redemption. I don’t try to diagnose whatever that is, because I’ve know I have fallen down that hole way too many times in the past! I can end up in the land of ‘what you did and said’ in a heartbeat. The Lord has already told me I can easily see the speck in your eye, but the log in mine escapes me! Acknowledging our mutual redemption is necessary to repairing relationships.

Next, I walk away from who is right and who is wrong, and start to pursue LOVE. Love is the perfect bond of unity – and at that point we need unity! Asking for redemption releases God’s power into a fixed or stalemated situation. That prayer is right up there with the prayer of relinquishment. Those two things are like the best prayers ever…!  I pray them all the time. If something seems out of order or difficult, I pray for redemption. I relinquish my right to be right and have things work out the way I want them to, and I yield to God’s greater judgment. 

The bible tells me, that we have authority to do it.  We are charged to participate in restoration and releasing His redemption into the world around us. I have interpersonally seen miracles when I operate under the grace of redemption. Things that could not be fixed were … when I gave up my right to be right, and went God’s way instead. Bye. 👋

P 2641 Here’s something chunky to chew on:

/ DVH

“The Lord sent Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite and Ammonite raiders against him – (Jehoiakim ) – to destroy Judah, in accordance with the word of the Lord proclaimed by His servants the prophets. Surely these things happened to Judah according to the Lord’s command, in order to remove them from His presence because of the sins of Manasseh and all he had done, including the shedding of innocent blood. For he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord was not willing to forgive.” 2 Kings 24:2-4.

In this passage we are told that Almighty God punished all of Judah for something a previous king had done. Good place to stop and think! Meanwhile Jehoiakim, the current king, was a bad king as well. However, the Lord’s punishment came 90 years later! Think about it. People who weren’t even born under Manasseh’s reign were still part of the Lord’s punishment! Everyone was carted off to Babylon. But the king who actually did all that bad stuff was already dead!! That puts a whole lot of things in a different light. Father God’s plan was for restoration for that whole nation – their plan was to keep on doing what they wanted to do. Guess Who won?

This scripture also shows us that God may WAIT to do whatever He said is going to do, but … He WILL do it!! He was standing up for His prophets who kept telling everyone – “Wrong way go back!” His long pause was about waiting for the people of Judah to repent. In the book of 2 Kings, as the prophets foretold, the whole of Judah was carried off as captives to Babylon. I’m guessing “I didn’t vote for that guy Manasseh, He wasn’t a good leader” didn’t cut much mustard with the Lord!! They ALL went off to Babylon. They were given time to turn around, and they didn’t. ‘That’s not fair’ isn’t part of His thinking – it’s the way WE think. It seems to me that our idea of good and His idea of good – are two different things.

We weigh up this and that, and forget that God has a plan! There are times that He might tell us about it … but just because whatever He said hasn’t happened yet, that doesn’t mean He’s gone to sleep at the wheel. Acknowledging His sovereignty means we trust Him no matter what is going on. We are told in the New Testament that we can appeal His decisions, but that still doesn’t guarantee we will change things. Interacting with the Lord over things that we would like to see changed, or even people we wish would change – may not always seem fruitful because His plan is for everyone’s good – not just ours.The secret is to ask Him what He is doing, instead of asking Him to rubber-stamp what we think is good for us. 

The bit that often irritates us is we don’t like to think we don’t have any power. We know that Jesus is King, we know the King – what’s the hold up?? Here’s a revelation I’d like to offer: We will always have power to perform whatever He tells us to do! ← ya might want to Selah that for a while.  In other words, we are not given power to show off, make friends, avoid trouble, get big churches or to demonstrate our own personal POV. Beware, sometimes the Lord has a very different purpose and destiny for us in our stupidity. 😳 That thing that seems OK with us can lead to us wondering why we fell off a cliff. (Proverbs 14:12.)

Human beings like to make their own plans. Sometimes they are even founded on something that the Lord told us to do, and so we merrily go off and start to do it. Then something happens, and we can end up wondering: ‘where did He  go?’ It’s time to remember, that Almighty God loves relationship. Relationship is not about one person organising another – it is about two people finding common ground and moving forward. Our God is happy to negotiate but because He is wiser than we are, there will be many many times when He gets the final say! His way has benefits for everyone, not just ME.

However, we can always ask Him what His plan is in this situation, or that, or that person’s circumstances or that. and then pray accordingly. What am I saying is this: WHY NOT LET GOD BE GOD?!Human beings are wonderful at taking something dodgy and dressing it up in fine clothes and phrasing it so it sounds like it will benefit everyone. But the subtext often is it that it will benefit ME. Like Yoda says in Star Wars: “See through you we do.” We are no longer living in a democracy – we have been born again into a Theocracy.

Yes, we can always negotiate, and put in our two cents worth, but at the same time, we need to remember, the Lord has all the information! And He is looking for us to have faith in Him and trust Him. People who have little faith in God make their own plans! But He knows the plans He has for us, plans for our good, plans to give us hope and a future. We need to trust HIS PLANS instead of tweaking this and that so it suits us better. The best part of His plan is that He will come with us when we want to do things His Way. 

Is He a God of mercy and grace? Of course He is! It says so in the book. But He is looking for a people who are happy for Him to be God, and at the same time they are happy to be His people. Read the bible! His disappointment with the Israelites, over and over again, makes me want to weep. The Israelites wanted a token god, one they could put on a shelf and forget about until they needed help or some victory, or deliverance. He’s NEVER been that! But this is a good time to reflect on the fact that God’s overall plan included letting us kill His Son so we can be utterly restored – from sins we never should have committed in the first place!  Selah.

Sadly we can still make that mistake today. Ask yourself, do I talk to the Lord to get to know Him, or do I do it to get my prayers answered? The way to flow with the Lord, is to run things by Him, then take the time to wait to get an answer. Ask Him for His mercy and grace, because He will always give it – and then watch and see what He will do with your trust in Him. I can’t even begin to say how many times I’ve run past doing stuff His way, in my enthusiasm to get things done. However, there was always an unforeseen cost.

We want pain and suffering to go away, but God can use it to transform us and our motivations – as well as touch the people around us.  And that’s something else chunky to chew on! 👋

P 2612 Where are our empowered lives?

/ DVH

In our world, we learnt – some of us from the cradle, to be polite and watch what we say. However, the latest younger generations have stomped all over that idea. I think they see manners as a kind of hypocrisy, and I honestly think I agree with them. I wish they were nicer about how angry they are, and that grace might abound in them more, but I think that older generations try to keep things the same, because ‘the same’ is comforting as we get older. However, the reality is the Body of Christ is not living Holy Spirit inspired, empowered lives. And who we are behind closed doors is daily disproving what we say and act out at church!

There is no more room to continue to hide our old ideas under excuses, traditions, and made up theology. Our stranglehold on what we call reality is not the only one. The thing is, I’m pretty sure that younger people scare the pants off people my age, because they’ve taken all our manmade rules and torn them up. Us oldies are guilty of living concealed lives, mainly because we do not want to be vilified by our peers. Sometimes we’ve simply hidden what we really feel;  because the old way, the polite society way, said it isn’t nice to blurt out your thoughts and feelings all over other people. After all, maybe those other people will judge us! In other words, we’ve been afraid. And fear and love can’t occupy the same space.

It is hard to believe for the best in people today – without pretending at least some of the time. We’ve been a powerless people who refused to talk about reality for way too long. In a world that says whatever it likes, I honestly think I’d have gone down the proverbial plug hole if it wasn’t for Jesus helping me. He has helped me to see the blessing in truth, openness, and facing what is really going on. And traditions, old and new, suck the life out of true faith. Our generational hypocrisy is now showing. It is much too easy to dismiss any messenger because they don’t say something nicely, or respectfully. Or maybe we feel superior because of age. However, if we don’t take what Jesus said seriously, there is a possibility we will continue to lose our God-given ability to change.  

My question is this: ‘how can we repent from stuff we’ve done, if we refuse to acknowledge it is there?‘ Many churches today are living cloistered lifestyles. However by shutting out what we think of as ‘bad things’ – we are turning away the very people the Lord wanted us to love on. Sadly, we can quite quickly draw up our robes and refuse to associate with anyone who doesn’t look like us. Many churches barely tolerate each other, instead they continue to live their own little autonomous lives, as if they were the only church in the world! If that isn’t hypocrisy I dunno what is! We all claim to have the same foundation but we’ve built all kinds of weird houses, with even weirder ideas and theologies on top of that foundation. It’s time to take down, or choose to tear up the stuff that cannot remain.

Maybe sometimes our kids don’t want to come to church because they are living their lives in a very harsh real world and they can see what we believe has no substance, it is hollow. We say we believe this and that, but the power to change is not present. These kids are sensible, they want something REAL from their faith, and our battered, bent and adjusted theology doesn’t do it for them.

I met someone recently who had been a missionary child, stationed overseas with their folks, and their parent had been powerfully used to evangelise the country they were sent into. The adults were successful in the eyes of their home church, because many people came to know Christ. But, their own children suffered all kinds of abuse at the parents’ hands and no-one else knew about it. Christians have been hooked on the devil’s crook that says we will undermine our credibility if we own up to our faults. It must stop.

It is a shame that others outside our walls are blowing the whistle on how far we’ve fallen from our glorious ideal, Jesus Christ. He didn’t preach church ideals and rules. He preached about a whole other kingdom that very few people know exists – thanks to us! We need to start thanking our children and grandchildren for saying out loud the things we’ve tried so hard to keep hidden from ourselves and others. “For the kingdom of God consists of and is based on, not talk but power – moral power and excellence of soul).” 1 Corinthians 4:20, and: “…God’s Way is not a matter of mere talk; it’s an empowered life.”  Bye.👋

P 2609 Here’s the gem-finder.

/ DVH

It occurred to me this morning that in our efforts to be transformed to be like Jesus, we may have forgotten the biggest, and most important tool in our spiritual boxes. The bible – our gem-finder. We can’t ever afford to stop reading the bible, because this incredible book will diagnose all our blessings, mistakes, as well as errors in our thinking. Not to mention the times when some bits will leap out at us from the page and start to flow into a theme. My life is built on Christ, and doing what He says in the bible.

When I was a brand new Christian I couldn’t get enough of His book. I knew that my God, my Lord, my Best Friend, and the Way He thinks, is in that book. And boy did I want to know Him!  Insight is a gem-finder – it throws new light on what you are reading. ASK FOR IT before you read. Many years ago, I attended a church with an enthusiastic bunch of folk who were crazy about Jesus. However, bible studies weren’t part of their make-up, instead they were a bit more experience-based. They loved worship and were content to be fed by someone else’s interpretation of what the bible said. Serious bible study took a back seat, and it was done by those who went to bible school.

I believe that Christianity is a hands-on experience. That’s what separates us from religion. If we don’t do what the bible says, then the ones-who-don’t-know-Him-yet can’t see the reality of what we preach! Our new life in Christ is not about going to heaven – it’s about living this life down here for Jesus Christ’s sake – here and now. We are meant to demonstrate His love for others by the way we live. I have learnt that nothing else will stimulate faith more than taking a big breath, doing what the bible says and trusting God will help you. That’s what faith is all about … ACTION. 

This means we read His book, looking for things to do. It shows us where we need to change. Experiences are great! There are loads of stories in the bible about people who had them …BUT … we need a plumb line. Otherwise we can get caught up in all sorts of weird stuff and lose our way. Let’s watch what happened to this guy in Acts 8:9-19. (bits of it)

“Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. …But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptised, both men and women. Simon himself believed and was baptised. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw. When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” 

Yeah. Simon got caught up in what he saw – not with transformation. He used his previous way of life as a yardstick. We can’t do that! Jesus Christ is God’s Living word, and it is our God-given task to read, and watch what Christ says, and does — and let it transform our hearts. He’s our yardstick now and the Holy Spirit will help us. That’s when we become the Lord’s visual aids for other people. Meanwhile, Simon had no respect for the One Who gives us the gifts. We cannot use the world’s ways to understand God – we need to connect with the One Who knows Him and let Him teach us. He’s a Person, He is a glorious Being, not just a concept on a page.

You know I have heard sermons about Simon, they go over and over the fact that this verse proves we all need the Holy Spirit and we do! But I have never heard one sermon that talked about the seriousness of disrespecting the Holy Spirit. We can be selective about what we think, and that’s dangerous. We cannot understand the Holy Spirit’s Ways using this world’s methods.

The bible is our personal gem-finder, because the Holy Spirit speaks to us through its words. There are times when the gems I have found will not minister to you and I think that’s a good thing! My purpose for writing this blog is not to feed you what I’ve seen, it is to encourage you to go and look for precious gems — for yourself. Those hard-sought gems will help you grow personally. They are God Himself speaking from His heart, to your heart. Living like this takes time, and dedication. However, Christians were not designed to be tumbleweed. We are standing and building upon the Rock Who is Christ Jesus.

We can’t build our own spiritual houses with someone else’s bricks or gems! We need to show God our dedication to His Ways by going into the Word and digging for ourselves. Then all of us need to take the time to act on what we’ve read. Personally, I refuse to read the word ‘repent’ in His book without asking Him to ‘please remind me what I need to repent from? Who am I mad at? Who have I offended Lord?’ The bible is not just a study book, it is a manual for our new life in Christ. It’s a gem-finder. 👋

P 2600 Let’s be realistic.

/ DVH

“Everything we could ever need for life and godliness has already been deposited IN US by His divine power. For all this was lavished upon us through the rich experience of knowing Him who has called us by name and invited us to come to Him through a glorious manifestation of His goodness.”2 Peter 1:3 TPT.

Knowing Jesus intimately, introduces us to a new way to think and live. It is a waste of time to try to fit Jesus into our lives the way they existed before we met Him. Let’s be logical, why wouldn’t we need to change?  After all, we needed to be saved! However, Almighty God is not in the panel-beating business! He doesn’t look at us like we would look at a smashed up car and go: ‘Oh dear, that one has a big ding here in the boot’ OR ‘that one took a heck of a whack in the side door.’  Our proximity to Him changes everything. People got healed when Jesus was around – He didn’t have to touch them.

We all need this brand new life. A life devoted to His service, His ways, and His book! We haven’t just accidentally collected boo-boos as we’ve gone along … the truth is we’ve made bad choices. Choices that led us away from His purpose for our lives. We do not need ‘make-overs’ — we need to be transformed. At the same time we need to CO-operate with the Holy Spirit. And everything we will need for that transformation has been given to us, when we admitted our need for a Saviour. We participate in this new life by using our faith.  It works like this – “The bible tells me I have been given Your patience, so thank you for that Grace Lord, now I am going to exercise that patience by acting on it.” 

I need a Saviour every second of every hour of every day of my life. Today, I’m still wrangling with what James said in Chapter 3 Verses 10-12! “Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.” However, I’m not going to go on about taming the tongue today, because I am extremely busy trying to tame my own!

However, this scripture is a diagnostic tool, it shows us how very deeply ingrained sin is in our lives. None of us are not perfected yet! What comes OUT shows us what is still IN there. My advice is don’t excuse yourself – repent! We can make excuses until the cows come home, but that doesn’t do anything. What matters is turning our hearts back to Him and taking those faith steps. It is too easy to swan about telling ourselves ‘I’m not that bad,’ but the truth is – what we do, or don’t do, actually affects other people, and we are going to be held accountable when we don’t walk in love – because THAT is available to us now too. God is not looking for perfection He wants our interaction and participation. 

Salvation has always been an ongoing process. It is a verb not a noun. Nouns name things, verbs describe actions. Sadly, we’ve settled for the name Christian, instead of becoming living illustrations of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We’ve settled for the appearance of good without actually producing it. Meanwhile if someone is mean to us, watch out! 2 Timothy 3:5 “Having a form of godliness,but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”

The power of God has not just been given to us to set captives – other people free! It has been given to us to set US free!! The sword of the Spirit is powerful. We need to know personally how powerful it is by using it on ourselves first. People sometimes waggle that sword around like they are King Arthur, but they have no idea how much damage it can do. If we continue to live this new life unaware, then it is very easy to use a full sized sword on others, and a butter knife on ourselves!

Lastly, here’s a big thought, don’t aim at having a ministry – instead aim at transformation! Your ministry will find you when you go after your true destiny. Our destiny is this: “In this [union and fellowship with Him], love is completed and perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment [with assurance and boldness to face Him]; because as He is, so are we in this world.” 1 John 4:17. Let’s be realistic, let’s aim at the things that last. 👋

P 2598 No fake smiles please!

/ DVH

My dear hubby loves the Emoji movie, especially that over-the-top female smiley face that blinds people with its toothy grin. He thinks she is hilarious. You know, that face is actually pasted on – it’s stuck. In other words that emoji has been carefully drawn to pretend to be something it isn’t.  So when bad things happen, that smiley emoji isn’t being REAL — which is just like a whole lot of Christians. Bad things happen and they paste on a smile but inside they feel God, and everyone else, has let them down. 

Most people in this world know FAKE attitudes a mile off. It is so much better to be your real self and repent for stinky attitudes, than it is to hide who you are. Now if you happen to be a grump … then the answer is to be transformed. 😂 The bible covers that! Please note: transformation is not instant. It’s repetitive… it’s re-pet-it- ive … it’s actually quite repetitive! So now we spend our days learning to lean. Getting stuff right is no longer our goal, leaning on Him is! 

If we are not careful we can make living for Jesus … into a future goal. We can live this life hoping that if we fake it we will eventually make it. Yielding, surrender, dying to self – these are all key words.  Otherwise transformation becomes something we work hard towards achieving, but we never seem to arrive!  The bible says we need to be living for Him every single day. 

Almighty God wants us to draw on His strength all the time, using our faith. Faith grows when you use it! So we exchange His beauty for our ashes. His joy for our mourning etc. We are human and we run out quite quickly — but Jesus is rich in these things ! He will give us what we need as we live a life of total dependence. The Lord is not fooled by our positive, Sunday morning smiley faces.

We could see miracles every single day if we stop trying to be what God already made us and learn to yield to and trust in Him! Listening to yourself being kind to someone, when you wanted to smite them mightily a minute ago is a miracle! Success is no longer our goal – because we know can’t do anything without Him and we don’t want to be without Him.“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6.

We need to be changed inside, and honesty matters.  We can’t! … But He already did it for us. Some of our nice attitudes are barely skin deep — so when they are provoked they end up coming out. The Lord is not looking for perfection … Jesus already nailed that, and then He generously gave it to us – for free. Ask yourself this: why would Almighty God – Who loves us – want us to live our lives pretending to be something we are not? But oh! How He LOVES a truly transformed heart and life. Then when someone else hurts us, we feel worse for them than we do for ourselves.

I know some transformed people. They know they can’t do anything without Him, but they yield in obedience to what the bible says daily, so they can change the way that they live. They are not perfected. Not at all! But they enjoy being close to Him, and they don’t want to give that up for living a shallow life that has no substance. Things stay shallow when we stop living by our faith.  We must learn that we are not called to exhaust our OWN patience/love/joy/peace,  first — only to find that we have run out! Here’s a hot tip, let go of your pride and GIVE UP RIGHT AWAY and fall into His everlasting arms. He will supply that need.

My point is, learn to pray “Help help” early! We cannot afford to wait until we are overwrought and exhausted because we’ve been wrangling a problem in the natural. I pray a surrender prayer all the time now. I remind the Lord that I won’t be able to  manage anything at all without Him. I do that at the beginning of the day and I repeat it when I find myself pasting on a fake smile. I could care less about looking incompetent, or inefficient. I cannot tell you how much I enjoy seeing Him active in my life. I feel Him help me to go further than I ever could in my own strength. I know I can’t meet Christ’s standard, what He did was perfect. So I start with surrender and I don’t move from there. 

We have all developed coping mechanisms over the course of our lives and when we get saved, we carry those coping mechanisms over into our faith. Then when we read in the bible and see what we are supposed to look like, who we are meant to be, we increase the pressure on ourselves to be like that. Unfortunately, when we fail in our own efforts – we feel we are letting Jesus down. And if we do happen to succeed, then WE GET PROUD.

All that leads to a level of inadvertent deception, and a lack of transparency that prevents intimacy. It stops Christians from becoming all we can be in Christ. It also leads to a form of religion with no power in it. We need to learn to live our lives dependent upon Him, using our God-given faith instead of striving to reach an unattainable goal. We cannot make ourselves perfect. He has already accepted us.  No more fakey fake smiles. Learn to lean on Him. 👋

P 2592 Who is on the Lord’s side?

/ DVH

“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:14-15.

I know that this scripture is often presented as a once and forever decision, and I agree! I believe in choosing God, and His ways, as well as choosing the Lord Jesus Christ to be our Saviour, forever. But I also subscribe to the line in the above scripture that says “…choose THIS DAY Whom you will serve, …” I actually think our spiritual well-being and growth depends on our daily choices. 

Often our biggest opponent for this attitude is postponement, which is rapidly followed up by carefully-excused disobedience. And so, sadly, we give up doing what the Lord has asked us to do today, until tomorrow, because we think that we are too busy today. Have you ever reflected on the fact that God Himself made time? He has also stretched it a couple of times in the Old Testament… I rest my case!!

In my own experience I’ve learnt that I will probably have even less resolve or perceived time tomorrow, than I do today – so postponement is an extremely dumb idea! By the time tomorrow turns up, I will have thought up a number of reasons, or things or circumstances will get in my way … and eventually I’ll wander off, lost and listless – wondering where my peace went!  Being busy in this world is not necessarily a sign of spirituality — unless we are busy with His business we are not following Jesus – daily. 

Remember what the Lord Himself said to a young man He asked to follow Him? This young man told the Lord his father had just died: Luke 9:60 “Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” That sounds so harsh, but it is actually a great diagnostic tool if we look at it carefully. Our response to that kind of directive often reveals our hearts. It not-so-subtly shows us who is actually really in charge in our own lives!  I’m so glad I brought that up!!

We can temporarily forget that we always have choices! When we use our humanity as an escape, it becomes so much easier to allow circumstances or other people to seep away our courage and confidence in God’s ability to support us. That’s when we end up making other people’s needs and wants our priority – instead of what the Lord wants. The Lord knows what ails us, and He wants to help us with everything on our own personal plate. But first we need to acknowledge that many things do not get done because — WE don’t really want to do them! If we live with a false concept, it becomes so much easier to adopt human reasoning to excuse ourselves. The best plan after all that is to repent.

Let’s go back to that first scripture and what we might use to excuse ourselves —‘Well, that verse from Joshua says I should serve Him in sincerity and faithfulness, and I don’t feel faithful or sincere about that subject, so I can’t really do it, truthfully.’ Yeah! Nice try!! There’s a big miss! 🙄 How we feel has nothing whatsoever to do with what the bible says. Meanwhile for the bible to be our plumb line we need to compare everything else to IT! Otherwise we will end up with mankind’s wisdom, which seems to be based on whatever makes me feel good, and that bears no resemblance whatsoever to what’s in God’s book.

We dare not choose God’s side, and then walk away and get lost in man’s ideas. That’s what causes people to be double-minded. We need to know what the Holy Spirit thinks, so we can be obedient. That means read the bible, do what it says, and live like Christ did. Obedience firmly puts us on the Lord’s side. But when we disobey we leave the shelter of His secret place, and start bumbling around in the darkness that surrounds everyone else in this world.

Our daily moment by moment choices, are part of choosing to be on His side. That choice that we made years ago can be watered down and rationalised into a more comfy place so we can still call ourselves Christians. However our prayerful consistent daily choices can keep us sharpened to God’s will and His ways. I think that there are times that we can’t see the answers to our prayers simply because we have wandered off the WAY. That’s like leaving your glasses home when you can’t see without them.

His ways become clearer to us as we choose to live this life the Way it says in the book. The answer to the title of this blog today is, ME!! I am on Your side Lord. Amen. Bye 👋