Sacrificed

P 3170 Gratitude opens new doors.

/ DVH

Paul spent a whole Chapter on thanking and acknowledging people in Romans 16 – it seems it was extremely important to him. These people, whose names I struggle to pronounce! … are warmly acknowledged and greeted. You don’t find too many kids called Apelles, Epenetus or Ampliatus in birthday books today! Back then those names were normal. 

This godly man was an apostle and a missionary, and he travelled from one country to the next, founding churches. But he was not alone. Many people helped him fulfil this God-appointed mission. and he did not forget them. It seems to me, that we need to think about our new life with Jesus, and remember the people who have helped us to get this far. They have given up their valuable time on our behalf, to study and be available, to teach and guide us, and to pray for us,  to rejoice or weep with us. Let’s just take a moment to thank God for them, and heap blessings on their heads, simply  because they chose to give up their time to walk with us while we have been learning. Grateful people remember those who have sacrificed for them. Paul did!

I think time should be recorded as a most valuable commodity, along with gold, silver, various minerals and oil! Time is not a commodity in heaven, the way it is down here. Eternity, is by nature, timeless, and heaven is a place that we barely understand. That’s why it is so important to regularly listen to Jesus, because He kept on talking about God’s kingdom and what it looks like so we can recognise it.

The kingdom of God is not just ‘up there,’ its destination is also ‘down here’ where we are. As we lovingly share and care for others we need to know what it looks like. This man was so enthralled by Jesus, he was personally taught by Him. The Holy Spirit took all the carefully stored up, but under-developed fruit from his Old Testament knowledge, and blew Paul’s mind! The Spirit of God developed what this man already knew into mature, juicy, ripe, edible fruit. Who knows what He will do IN us if we gratefully allow Him to do it?

Paul’s gratitude for Christ’s own intervention in his life was paramount in everything he said and did. Gratitude is always a wonderful attitude to have – wherever it is cultivated. Paul was in jail on and off for five to six years, and the Lord used that time to download and develop great deep Kingdom truths into this man’s heart. The Holy Spirit gave Him incredible revelations, and the words to explain them! We cannot know what God will do with the things that seem terrible to us at the time. My advice is to always pray for deliverance and healing, but at the same time, pray for understanding IN your circumstances. God Himself will show us the many things we’ve overlooked in our pain, so we can continually be grateful to Him. 

When I look at someone like the Apostle Paul, I begin to understand that what I know is incredibly limited. Knowing about stuff in heaven, is not like knowing ordinary everyday stuff down here. Our whole beings are expanded and transformed by even just one encounter with the Lord Jesus …whether we feel something or not. I think we have barely begun to understand our own potential in Christ. It never ceases to amaze me that the Holy Spirit can just drop a word, or a phrase into my spirit, and suddenly I’ve gone from reading with a tiny little torch, into a room flooded with all kinds of light! I’m so thankful we have such a glorious Helper, Teacher, Guide, Comforter, Advocate. 

In the past many Christian men and women have thoughtfully and carefully studied God’s words over and over again with a motivation to extract deeper, clearer meanings for all of us. God bless those translators for their tireless efforts on behalf of the Body of Christ! But! One moment of personal inspiration and revelation, can save us years of living puzzled and disappointed lives. WHY DESCRIBE THE WIND WHEN YOU CAN CATCH HIM?

We dearly need translators and expounders of His word, but we also desperately need His personal insight in our own lives, day by day — so we can walk with Him unashamed, peaceful and content. Even in the middle of all kinds of trouble. We cannot afford to allow someone else go up the mountain of God, like Moses once did, and miss out on the kind of inner expansion that only comes from being with God Himself! 70 elders once sat, and broke bread and ate with Almighty God present at the table. Even that thought is mind-blowing! 

I believe the deepest revelations can come from the hardest situations. Let’s pray even more during difficult times, not just for healing and deliverance, but to thank Him for walking us through each and every one of them. Every test or trial contains His wisdom, plus the opportunity to build our own faith. It would be a shame to live our lives simply trying to escape from trouble, when there is so much to be learnt about Him in the middle of it!

To sum up, one way to bless and encourage others in their walk is to be thankful for the way they have helped you and say so! Gratitude in any and all circumstances, blesses God Himself and it opens new doors. Read Luke 17:11-19, you will see how important gratitude is to Jesus. Bye 👋

P 2505 We will live a glorious life – when we live for His glory.

/ DVH

“Pray like this: ‘Our Beloved Father, dwelling in the heavenly realms, may the glory of Your Name be the centre on which our lives turn. Manifest Your kingdom realm, and cause Your every purpose to be fulfilled on earth, just as it is in heaven. We acknowledge You as our Provider of all we need each day. Forgive us the wrongs we have done, as we ourselves release forgiveness to those who have wronged us. Rescue us every time we face tribulation and set us free from evil. For You are the King Who rules with power and glory forever, Amen.”Matthew 6:9-13 TPT.

‘May the glory of Your Name be the centre on which our life turns…” Now that’s a big prayer! It is also a really really really big thought. Sometimes I wonder if we are not seeing the kind of revival this world needs, because we’ve forgotten WHO we are here for! Please don’t misunderstand me… I love praying for the salvation of souls, and the cessation of hostilities in this world etc. – but if we are not living this life, the only one we have – for His glory – then I believe we are living our lives too small.

If we look at the Lord’s prayer carefully we will see that inadvertently, over the years, we have made that prayer about us. About us living right, doing right, having enough food to eat etc. Even yesterday I wrote about the importance of forgiveness… which is still about us. Sometimes we get so focussed on getting our daily bread, we forget what that bread has cost Almighty God. Plus the lives that have been sacrificed so we can read His words in person.

When I read the above phrase … about His Name being the centre of our lives … and I really looked at it, it hit me that most of our prayers are stuck in the give me, help me, save me mode. I wonder how many times we pray “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven …” as kind of a nice hand-off. A tiny acknowledgement, a tipping of our hypothetical hats, or even a passing recognition, that the only reason Jesus came to earth was to save and bless us!

Reality rush. Christ came to earth to fulfil HIS FATHER’S WILL. It may seem like a moot point but God initiated this whole thing in our behalf. We would not be in this world without His Divine choice and intervention – and that’s the actual real reality – it is definitely not an add-on!  So today, my first question is: are you and I actively living for His glory? Or are we putting one foot in front of the other, making the wheels go around, to actually build our own hopefully Godly, kingdoms?? Because there is a difference. Just Who are we living for? What would change in my life if I decided to live purely for His glory until I leave here? What about yours?

I think living for His glory is the key to His kingdom coming here on earth as it is in heaven! I do not believe the Lord will ever begrudge us our daily bread, and all kinds of joy in this life – the scriptures make that clear. But I do think that we could see so much more change, in us and around us, if we lived this life so that He will be glorified in us and through us! I want to point out that Jesus is our example and that is exactly how HE lived. Everything He did was for His Father’s glory. And He saved us so we can now go on to fulfil the Father’s purposes.

I remember listening to someone singing an old song, a while ago, and they misrepresented it on purpose, for an illustration. They proposed that the song “it’s all about You Jesus” would be more accurately portrayed if we actually sang “it’s all about ME Jesus.” See, we don’t actually say any of this stuff out loud, but ask yourself – is this the way I live from day to day?

How many times do I ask myself:  “what is it that YOU want Lord?” And then sadly we go off from our time with Him and drift away from the real answer, because life is too hard  … and after all Jesus knows what this life is really like, and … we are only human! Every single time we make a decision like that one, we are reducing the Kingdom of God into a one-stop supply shop!

He deserves better. Our service for His kingdom needs to be a joy. Laying down our lives is our privilege not a tough task we can barely manage. Think about this, Almighty God has waited over two thousand years for a people who will love Him enough to follow His ways no matter what the cost is personally. A people who will see His incredible love for them, and go on to live inspired lives, and return that kind of love back to Him. I think the Apostles … Paul, Peter, James and John etc. deeply understood that. They stopped living their lives for themselves and they went on to live and die to bring Him glory... and they considered that a privilege.

And this seems like a good place to leave this blog today … Bye … 👋🏻