River

P 2516 Learn to recognise His love gifts!

/ DVH

“The fruit produced by the Holy Spirit WITHIN YOU is divine love in all its varied expressions:  joy that overflows, peace that subdues, patience that endures, kindness in action, a life full of virtue, faith that prevails, gentleness of heart, and strength of spirit. Never set the law above these qualities, FOR THEY ARE MEANT TO BE LIMITLESS.” Galatians 5:22-23. 

Imagine that! We have been given words, actions, attitudes, that are already within US – they came in when He came in. And those things actively show us all the time what His divine love looks like, toward us. This thought blew my mind. I think these verses are the most excellent description of what HIS LOVE looks like— and how we will know we are experiencing it, first hand. It starts to produce fruit in me, in you – everywhere we go. The Holy Spirit is relentless in His pursuit of good, and even if we get in His way, He will steadfastly continue His fruit production. And it is unbelievably fantastic fruit that does others good — but it also enriches US.

Thanks to Heidi and Rolland Baker of Mozambique – I have a really strong idea about what God’s love looks like through me toward someone else. My picture of what His love looks like IN us, begins with Jesus dying for us. He died to open up the door that was closed between the Father and all of us. I am aware that His love is not just about being blessed with earthly stuff … “…because He sends His rain on the just and the unjust…”  So understanding what He has, and is still giving to me, growing in me, every single day, needs to be recognised.

You see, because of His book, I know He blesses everyone – whether they are following Him or not!! God is so good His blessings overflow, everywhere all the time. That person who almost drowned, didn’t, someone was there to save them. That other person who lost everything has been anonymously given money to help them. That’s Almighty God motivating all kinds of people to help others with HIS LOVE. Personally, I think He can’t help Himself – He’s just THAT good. God is not like we are … keen on publicity! He doesn’t always sign His Name to stuff you know.

Think about this for a minute or nine …  everywhere Jesus went He blessed people. He didn’t just bless the spiritual people either. NO! He blessed people who had a need, when they came to Him to meet that need. His loving gifts were not discriminatory. He wore Himself out giving, teaching, caring and explaining God’s ways. At the same time, He was teaching US these attitudes are a hallmark of God’s people. His love inside us is a hallmark of His ownership of us.“…and the resting place of His love, will become the very source and root of your life.” Ephesians 3:17.

And BTW, FYI … Jesus wasn’t preaching to Christians! At that time He was preaching to Jewish people. He was telling God’s own chosen people that their destiny was to be a blessing. And He was showing them how it works! Jesus saw every need, and He cared about every single individual. Once Jesus preached for hours sitting on a hillside, and when He came down from that place His first response was to heal a leper! He lived His short life, taking in His Father’s love and giving it out. That is to be our experience, too.

On the few occasions I have had a tangible experience of His love … I just plain ran out of words to explain what happened! But when I read these verses this morning, I realised the Holy Spirit has given us clear signs of what the fruit/presence of His love looks like TOWARD US as well as in us, and through us. We need to pay attention to what He says. We should know what that love looks like — or we might miss it, like many of those Jewish people did. God’s love isn’t just His favour – His love contains tangible qualities that He has put inside us to share.

What I heard in the above scripture, is this: when I have joy I can’t contain, or peace that utterly calms my heart, or someone is patient with me with a patience that doesn’t run out, or even kindness that takes my breath away … when my life is full of virtue and my faith just won’t quit, and I don’t even want to think about hurting someone else,  I am also experiencing God’s love for me. He is present in me and with me in those times.

That love will flow through me to others, if I let it OUT. But I have to decide His love is like a river, not a dam! His system works like this – love in, love out. Sounds like breathing eh?The secret to living in and giving out the love of God is recognising it when it comes toward ME – FIRST. I have found it helpful to recognise those times and say to myself:  – “that’s God’s unconditional love coming at me!”  His love looks exactly like those things that are mentioned in Galatians Chapter 5 verses 22-23!  

These are things we simply can’t explain away, because we know, first-hand, that mankind cannot come up with them by themselves, or even endlessly maintain them. These God-given love gifts will never ever run out! And if that doesn’t make you happy, sit and think on those two verses. They will do it! Bye 👋

P 2449 About the gifts of the Spirit …

/ DVH

“Every believer has received grace gifts, so use them to serve one another as faithful stewards of the many-coloured tapestry of God’s grace.”1 Peter 4:10 TPT. I have gifts that were given to me, so do you. The point is — what are we doing with them? Peter is telling us to use our gifts for others, they are not for our own self-serving purposes. When we use those gifts the right way, people don’t see US — they see Jesus! That tapestry we are all weaving reveals the Lord Himself.

I don’t have God-given gifts to help me feel better about myself, or to help make me important to my church. No. Those gifts are for others, they keep me humble and obedient to God’s Word. Because Jesus Christ died for me I have an opportunity to live and die for Him. Jesus means everything to our Father, and that means He gave up everything to purchase my life, by His Own dear Son’s death. He did it for all of us because He loves us that much. What a glorious generous Father we have!

Christ’s death and subsequent resurrection is the place we need to build our life on— that is the heavenly reality and we are to live this life making it part of our earthly reality. We don’t build our lives on gifts, or fame — but on Christ and what He did for us. That way the storms of this life will not be able to knock us down. Building on sand means I am building on the things of this world, and they will pass away. But when I build on what Christ did for us, that will stand forever!

Let’s look at Isaiah 11:2&3 – He’s talking about Jesus Christ: “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on HIM—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—and He will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what He sees with His eyes or decide by what He hears with His ears;…” 

We can see these words in action in the Gospels, in Christ. He was so wise and so dedicated to His Father’s will. When Jesus dealt with a woman who was adulterous, He did not decide by what He saw or heard from others – He listened to the Spirit. The Spirit of God knows what is in the heart of a man and only He has the wisdom to see through the things human beings stumble over. Jesus walked with the Spirit of God, in Wisdom, so He didn’t give permission for this woman to continue in sin, or tell her she couldn’t help it, He gave her forgiveness and a new beginning.

Today I am talking about spiritual gifts… and you could ask, what am I doing in Isaiah? Everyone knows that spiritual gifts are a New Testament concept! They are mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10. And …Romans 12:3-8! Yes, they are;  but Isaiah is pointing us to the One Who was coming, long before He came. He is our example in life and death. Our Leader. He is the illustration of God’s purpose in the Holy Spirit’s Presence in this world. Jesus is the One Who is the Author and Finisher of our faith. As we follow Him, and grow to be like Him, the gifts will follow us.

Before Christ died – the Holy Spirit came and rested on various people at various times for different purposes. However, He was not sent to just anyone … He came for a purpose. Isaiah describes Christ and His ministry, long before Jesus left heaven and came here. This Old Testament prophet is making it clear where the gifts we have today, came from… They came from the One Who was sent back to help us – the Holy Spirit … the Spirit of the Lord … That is the place to start when we think about spiritual gifts. We look at Jesus Who is our example. We don’t covet gifts simply for our needs or to feel important, instead we covet the Presence of the GIVER, like Christ did.

Jesus healed the sick, He raised the dead, He cast out demons. All this and more happened because of the Holy Spirit’s guidance and Presence within Him. Jesus Christ loved the Holy Spirit more than people. Whenever He chose what to do, He chose according to the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Even His brothers and mother could not sway Him from obeying the Spirit. Currying favour with other people can be a stumbling block in our walk with the Holy Spirit, and we need to love His Presence more than anything, or anyone else. Humility is His favourite language. 

We can spend way too much time concentrating on ‘what gift is mine,’ and not enough time focussing on the Giver! And sometimes we can even let those gifts make us seem important. But Jesus Christ cherished the Holy Spirit’s company, and that’s the way we are to walk with Him too. God’s grace manifests itself toward others through those gifts. Because of the Holy Spirit’s Presence, they flow into us … and they  flow out through us. The gifts are not a lake, they are a RIVER. The flow is more important than the results.

To operate in the gifts of God we need to be intimately acquainted with the Holy Spirit in us. He is the same Spirit Who lived in Christ. Now He moves through us, as we actively learn to co-operate with Him. It is His power that empowers us to do what we do for the building up of the saints, and the releasing of God’s Grace into this world. BTW, the Holy Spirit will be friends with ANYONE who is prepared to obey and cherish Him. Don’t seek the gifts, seek the GIVER. – the gifts will find you!  Bye. 👋🏻

P 2439 We are His children of the light!

/ DVH

“Once your life was full of sin’s darkness, but now you have the very light of our Lord shining through you because of your union with Him. Your mission is to live as children flooded with His revelation-light! And the supernatural fruits of His light will be seen in you—goodness, righteousness, and truth. Then you will learn to choose what is beautiful to our Lord.” Ephesians 5:8-10 TPT.

When I read this today, my first thought was this – we are His happy shiny people!  Everywhere we go we take His light with us … forget about long-life batteries … we have a source of light within us, that will last into infinity… and beyond!! Imagine that. This world has no comprehension of the treasure we have inside us. And ps … that’s very likely our own fault!  Moving on … because I don’t want to be a down-a-later… all the time!

What does it mean to be children of the light? Hmmm… I think it means, no matter what the problem is, no matter how hard things seem, we will always have an answer … because we know the Answer personally! He lives inside of us. Now some other people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet may not like His answer, but that ain’t our problem. We don’t even need to get together a bunch of people for us to shine, one of us and Jesus is a majority!  I’m pretty cheery about that thought too.

We have been re-designed to be optimistic people. No matter how big that problem is – our God is bigger. No glass half-empty here, we are totally overwhelmed and overjoyed to have His life-giving water inside us… Let.It.Out!  Because of this our catch cry toward others is: “How can we help you?” Jesus set that precedent in Mark 10:51-52: “What do you want Me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.” There ya go — another way to evangelise!

You know, without Him we can do nothing. How-ev-er!! That means WITH HIM 💥 watch out!! The Body of Christ has left this stuff to the experts for way too long. It’s time to get in the game folks. Here’s a red hot tip … you too, can be an expert on all things godly. Think on this – if I asked you about your fav movie, you could probably give me a pretty good summation of the plot and what you liked about it. Our interest in the bible is our thermometer, we just need to take our temperature – regularly.

Like Peter said in 1 Peter 3:15: “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”Studying the bible IS preparation, then doing what it says aids digestion. Your digestion of His book clears the grit and grime off the outside of your INNER light bulb. And just like moths and mosquitoes like the light – lost people who are sick of walking about in the dark bumping into awful stuff, love His light too!  His light through us is all the light this world needs.

Our God is so wonderful. He doesn’t expect us to memorise great chunks of His book– His word just needs to be a flowing river … because He is GOD … He can save people in seconds. Don’t believe me? Think about Jesus talking to the thief next to Him on the cross. That was not a comfortable conversation! Do you know how you get ready to witness etc? VOLUNTEER. “Lord I will talk to anyone You send my way today, but I am going to need Your help, as always.” Amen.

You and I, we have His marvellous light inside us. It could be as simple as saying to someone who asks you a question like: “How do you manage those difficult circumstances you are in?” I don’t even say I’m a Christian. I just say: “Without Jesus I can’t.” It’s always up to Him. The beginning, the middle and the end, I just grab hold of His thread of Love and then I follow the Leader. He knows where He is going. The Holy Spirit rides on our obedience … and it doesn’t even matter if you are scared to bits either, because the Holy Spirit LOVES this gig. You be you and let Him be Him. 

Finally, think on this – any light-bulb needs a power source. We have the power source that created this world, light bulbs and all! … inside us. It doesn’t matter how we happen to feel, faith doesn’t require feelings, it requires actions. It’s a ‘doing’ word! You and I can never ever be who we used to be, despite those awful pictures the other guy keeps throwing up in our minds… we’ve moved! Permanently. Out of the darkness into the light. 👋🏻

P 2373 Pain is often inevitable.

/ DVH

Pain can happen when His will crosses ours – so we are going to need to learn how to dig through that pain to find a pool of blessing. “Even when their paths wind through the dark valley of tears, they dig deep to find a pleasant pool where others find only pain. He gives to them a brook of blessing filled from the rain of an outpouring.” Psalms 84:6 TPT. I have to tell you I need to take a permanent shower in this word for about a year! It shows what the Holy Spirit does with a precious totally-yielded soul. It also explains that God’s ways are not our ways. A pleasant pool actually puts me in mind of a trouble-free existence – obviously that is not what the Lord means here! He says we must dig to find the blessing in the middle of the hard bits.

I already know the location of one of these pools because I am totally blessed to know people who are like this psalmist. Even though I’m not always there yet, these people always treat me like royalty. That’s the hallmark of the children of the kingdom – they value other people above everything else … apart from the Lord Himself. When I meet people like this, I immediately feel like I can be bigger. They know how to dig one of those pools! Their kindness and love can open doors that have remained shut because of fear and pain.

Pain, BTW, is often inevitable, especially when His will crosses ours. Boy my voyage of inner self-discovery this year has been eye-opening. There was all this hideous stuff hiding around corners inside my heart and it didn’t show up until life squashed me! When everything goes well, I can be as ‘nice’ … as anyone else, but when the ceiling falls in – hmmmm…. that’s a whole other story. That’s when I’ve begun to realise that pain is an opportunity to dig for more – it kind of sounds like Ps 23:5.: “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.“ 

Digging deep produces blessings – when we dig deep we will get a POOL of blessings, like this Psalmist said. Most of us just want to run away from pain and hardship – but this man has learnt a better way. Sadly when I get into digging it seems like the first thing I find is a stinky attitude in me!  Father God is so kind, He has explained to me that this is a symptom and I need to extend forgiveness to myself, others and the world around me. My next response is to tell the Holy Spirit if He doesn’t help me I’m sunk. I am permanently grateful we have a Helper – especially while I am looking for that pool… because HE knows where those pleasant pools are!

Ya gotta wonder if those pools in Psalm 84, actually come from the dark valley of tears this guy just crawled through … but NO! That pool comes from a brook of blessing that came from an outpouring. Wouldn’t it be great if we  could just skip the hard times and go straight to the brook and the outpouring? That’d be ACE! There are times I stumble over that prayer I prayed eons ago – to be like Jesus inside and out – you can’t complain when you asked for it can you? But there is a blessing in there – God is answering that prayer. Maybe that is why you gotta learn to dig beyond your current circumstances.

There are times that I learn great things, retrospectively. It would be so much better to know that piece of info before the bad stuff rushes over me like a rampant river and threatens to drown whatever faith I have. At the same time the bible mentions another pool provider — regular pruning. The Lord loves to prune the bits that aren’t fruitful …! 😱 Wark! I know the Lord loves to do it but pruning can be hard – it mostly happens when you think you are getting somewhere – at last! 

You are going along, a happy little branch on the vine and you discover this nice green little shoot popping out right near the end of your branch. Goodie! New life you think – aha!  And then the Shepherd/Gardener comes along and prunes the whole branch back to a nub!  The indignation is almost palpable. Why would the Gardener prune something that had so much potential? To get more, that’s why. Right there, when it seems your hopes have taken a nose-dive …is some of that blessed pool potential. God is so happy with our progress and He can see even more is possible. That’s an instance where He does not think like we do. 

Here’s a tip on digging a pool – get used to using your faith in His goodness, no matter how things look – because that is the thing that our enemy challenges all the time. Holding on to our faith is part of the excavation to find that pool of blessing in the middle of the hard bits. Sometimes it’s important to simply choose to embrace the mystery of Who He is, to keep your faith in Him strong. Pain is often an inevitable part of this life, we can do it alone, or with Him and learn the art of excavation – our choice. 👋🏻

Ps the Apostle Paul was a fantastic digger – he knew how to find the blessing in the middle of a trial – look out for it when you are reading the Epistles, EG. 2 Timothy 2:9 “…for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained.” 

P 2301 Christianity is not a theoretical construct.

/ DVH

We can all fall madly in love with a whole lot of Christian principles. We can ‘like’ and repeat them over and over again on Facebook, or whatever … but none of that is worth a hill of beans unless we make those principles our lifestyle. There are a whole lot of other faiths that have sound principles and doctrine too. Living our lives giving away His Love from day to day changes everything – it takes the supernatural to do that.

Christianity is failing this world – especially in the West – in one place. It is all talk and no action! There are a whole lot of people who can talk a great game – they can quote the bible chapter and verse, and they have memorised whole books. But they disappear into the ether when the going gets tough and people or life get difficult. The practical outworking of their faith depends on their own personal circumstances and resources and not on flowing with the Holy Spirit.

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit, DEMONSTRATED Their love to us when we were yet sinners. This word means to – give a practical exhibition and explanation of …. AND – clearly show the existence or truth of (something) by giving proof or evidence.

“If anyone sees a fellow believer in need and has the means to help him, yet shows no pity and closes his heart against him, how is it even possible that God’s love lives in him? Beloved children, our love can’t be an abstract theory we only talk about, but a way of life demonstrated through our loving deeds. We know that the truth lives within us because we demonstrate love in action, which will reassure our hearts in His presence.” 1 John 3:17-19 TPT. Check out James 2:15-17.

So here’s a couple of my knotty questions for you today – ‘How many times in this past week have you demonstrated God’s love to someone else?’ Second question – ‘How many times did the Holy Spirit prompt you to do something and you turned Him down because you were too busy or didn’t have enough time?’ Here’s a big thought our God is the Author of time and He knows how to stretch it. Read the book. I’ve personally watched Him do that so many times…

We all long to see miracles, but in order to see a miracle, someone is going to have to take a risk. Taking risks and living in obedience are the most important part of how our faith works. If we knew what we were told to do was going to work, before we did it, then it wouldn’t be faith. We are going to have to become a bold, fearless people, which is why the Lord encourages us, through Joshua, to be strong and courageous. And through Isaiah He tells us, ‘When you walk through the fire, you won’t get burnt, when you walk through the river you won’t get drowned.’ Like I said, Christians are delegated risk takers.

So we give away money in the face of recession, we talk about Jesus even when we are embarrassed and afraid. Just FYI, I never once taught my children about the Lord that I didn’t feel greatly intimidated at the time. My kids looked at the floor, looked the ceiling, looked at their nails, and every single part of their body language said ‘please shut up now, mum.’ It  is not meant to be easy to witness or love or have faith, we are going against the very fibre and fabric of our society when we do it. That’s what makes it powerful. 

In order to demonstrate God’s love to other people, as well as strangers, we have to risk disinterest, rejection, anger and being told to mind our own business. Just because it’s not popular, that does not invalidate it. There are so many times in Christian history where Jesus’ love was demonstrated, His kingdom life was given away freely, and it blew people’s socks off. Not to mention it brought new life into abject darkness! We can operate in stealth mode as the Lord leads us, but we can’t ever be a light and not expose things that are hiding in the darkness. 

Plus we cannot say we love if there is no demonstration, otherwise we are presenting a theory and not a fact. Love looks like something – to the hungry it’s food, to the thirsty it’s water, to the rejected, it’s acceptance, to the outcast, it means finally finding a home. When we give away, and demonstrate God’s love we enter the Spirit’s River of Life. I urge us all, ‘don’t paddle around on the edge … JUMP IN.’ Jumping in shows commitment. 👋🏻 

P 2191 Please don’t be tempted to live in a divided kingdom.

/ DVH

Parable of The Divided Kingdom – Mark 3:23-27. “So Jesus called them over to Him and began to speak to them in parables: “How can satan drive out satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house.”

Lots of people wa-ay smarter than me have preached on this parable but I’m not going to talk about all of it here. Today I want to talk about the fact that we can shoot ourselves, figuratively, in the foot, by having one foot in the kingdom, and the other in this world. That’s called having a divided mind and/or loyalty. Unfortunately we can easily be tied up by satan in this world’s difficulties.

We cannot advance God’s kingdom while we are constantly being overtaken by the things of this world. Sooner or later the world we live in will win – because this world is pushy! That’s what IN this world and not OF this world means. We live here but we are no longer from here – our home is somewhere else. So we have a totally different allegiance from the people who live around us. Our allegiance is with Jesus Christ and His Ways.

The King of all Kings wants to motivate us now, so we can serve Him … now. HE LOVES HUMANITY – He proved it! Now we live in another kingdom, by its rules. The thing is, many times we can easily kind of skate along the thin edge of looking like everyone else around us, so we can fit in. The problem with that is, while we are toying with this world’s games, we will have a clouded view of what the Lord Himself wants from us. The single greatest thing we can ever do – apart from choosing to follow the Lord, is to unequivocally give our lives to Him and refuse to take them back. Total commitment is the only way I know to eliminate the tendency in humanity to compromise.

We are not in this world to do the hokey pokey – one foot in and one foot out. It’s all in. OR … live in the hell of having to choose over and over again which way to go and getting sucked down the plug hole of sin. There is no compromise with the world around us, this world is too far gone. We simply choose to do what Jesus did – He died. We must die, here and now, daily – choosing His way over ours using our faith. His Grace can see us through anything. Sometimes it will hurt – but it simplifies matters.

When we make the bible our reference point we will definitely bump into other people’s excuses.This world doesn’t like that sort of clarity, it presents us with the wrong picture over and over again. EG: ‘if it hurts, then it is wrong, don’t do it!’ Avoiding pain has become a new art form. It will hurt, dying to self does! It killed the Lord… becoming sin broke His dear heart. 

I can remember seeing the line of total commitment off in the distance as a much younger Christian. I avoided going too close lest I fall over it. I did not jump right into the River of God. I sort of paddled about in the shallows – and sometimes I went in up to my waist. I was afraid of what the Lord might take from me, or what I would have to leave behind. But at that time I was absolutely ‘born again!’ I went to church every single time I could, and I joined in with everything. However, the line of what I could and couldn’t do, was blurry. It was blurred by my compromise. 

The Lord never meant for Christianity to be a two-step program. It is all in, forever. He sent back His power to the people who made a commitment to stay in the upper room for as long as it took. 50 days of waiting, praying and wondering if there was going to be a knock on the door, and men would come to kill them. Total commitment means we wait for His input. Staying close to Him has become our very life.

It means you start living forever today. Here and now. LET: “The Holy Spirit put steel in your convictions.” 1 Thessalonians 1:4b. MSG bible. 👋🏻