Secrets

P 3223 Joy cometh …

/ DVH

I spoke briefly about joy, yesterday. I think this blessing can be kind of elusive, because many people chase after pleasure as a substitute for it. We need God’s JOY – it’s our STRENGTH! Pleasure, however, is a bit like sand, it falls through your fingers and disappears into the void! The bible tells us in Psalm 30:5 that JOY “comes in the morning.”  I have experienced that! Joy is an expression of our God’s own nature. However, joy comes into focus as we continue to notice Who He is and what He is doing – no matter what time of day it actually is! 

Loving and knowing Jesus means knowing and loving and living in … JOY! I want to exhort you to grab hold of His Joy when it comes on you. Seize those times when pure joy floods your thoughts, because this is an exquisite part of our Lord’s Grace toward us and He is strengthening you for what lies ahead. We need to let Christ’s Joy re-energise us when we are feeling flat, motivate us forward when we are tired, and just plain make us laugh at ourselves and this crazy old world. That’s the secret of living with joy – it doesn’t care about appearances, it values the nearness of Jesus instead. 

Another of the secrets to finding the Lord in whatever is going on in your life, is to believe and revise what He has already told you. Jesus Himself said: ‘Don’t be afraid, I will be with you always, even unto the end of this world.’ Don’t just nod your little head and smile at that scripture. Yes it is a nice scripture, yes it seems comforting, but it can’t comfort you unless you apply it. I read it, reread it and then I go out and believe He is with me, even if I don’t feel a blooming thing. His word is more solid than the earth beneath my feet. Let’s stick a big flashing sign over our hearts that says: “Welcome here Lord Jesus!”

God’s Word does not flourish in our lives because of our feelings, it flourishes in an atmosphere of faith. And we get faith by hearing what He is saying to US, personally, as we read it. So grab your bible when you feel flat, and read a Psalm. I read until I find something that cheers me up! To be fair, sometimes I might read quite a few Psalms, but that won’t kill me. “The entrance of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.” Psalm 119:130. Hey look at that! I qualify! I figure that I will definitely need His light to be able to see His joy! 

Knowing Jesus loves us, should constantly usher in joy. We can waste the time we have been given trying desperately to find joy in other things – people, places, situations – but this world’s joy is situated in things that are temporary and hollow. Many people are so addicted to feeling happy they never actually find real joy! Real joy lasts. We can seek outward distractions instead of His Presence, but He is inside us, because we belong to Him. “But what does it say? The Word (God’s message in Christ) is near you, on your lips and in your heart; that is, the Word (the message, the basis and object) of faith which we preach,…”  Romans 10:8. Deuteronomy 30:4.

Joy can most certainly make us laugh, but it isn’t just laughter. I think joy can be limited by us. For instance, joy will break out when we talk about Him to people who-don’t-know-Him-yet. Our joy is a living companionship with a Person, not just a feeling. And we can’t lose Jesus quite simply because – glory of glories – He refuses to leave or give up on us! Stop for a moment and ask the Lord to reveal Himself to you through joy. Ask Him to help you to recognise it when He answers you. 

We can miss answers to prayer, when what happens doesn’t look like we think it should. “So keep being alert and ready at all times. For I promise you that the Son of Man will surprise you and appear when you don’t expect Him.” Luke 12:40 TPT. I know this verse is about the second coming, but because it’s in the book it can also be speaking to each one of us, today! 

True Joy has freedom for us in it, even if the person experiencing it is in jail. Paul said—from jail!—“Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.” Philippians 4:4. Joy crosses man-made boundaries and laughs at them as it skips merrily on its way. Joy contains the pleasure of God’s love for us, even when it is face to face with pure evil. Stephen’s face was radiant as they were stoning him to death in Acts. He wasn’t just happy, he was —-JOYFUL.He was looking right at his Heavenly Father, and His Son, Jesus.

My advice is this, don’t try to put a lid on spontaneous joy, because it will break your lid and move away to where it is welcome and free to do what God sent it to do! Sometimes people try to organise the Lord, and create a joyous atmosphere. Let’s let Him take care of stuff like that – I’ve read Genesis 1 … the Holy Spirit is good at atmosphere, trust me! I ask Him for more and more joy, because the bible says His joy is my strength, and who doesn’t need strength every day?

Parts of Isaiah 61 say this about who we are and what we are here to do: “The Spirit of God has sent me …to care for the needs of all who mourn in Zion, give them bouquets of roses instead of ashes, Messages of joy instead of news of doom, a praising heart instead of a languid spirit. Rename them “Oaks of Righteousness” planted by God to display His glory. They’ll rebuild the old ruins, raise a new city out of the wreckage. They’ll start over on the ruined cities, take the rubble left behind and make it new…” Lord let “… Your joy go on forever.” 

Do yourself a favour, and chase after JOY, it is such an important part of our daily lives – it’s a reality, not a feeling, a gift not a chore. Bye.  👋

P 2730 SSSSSSHHHHHH!

/ DVH

Psalm 91:1,2. RSV.“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, who abides in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.”TPT.“When you abide under the shadow of Shaddai, you are hidden in the strength of God Most High. He’s the hope that holds me and the stronghold to shelter me, the only God for me, and my great confidence.”

Here we have two different versions of the same two verses. This psalm is my all-time favourite one – many people love it like I do! These verses tell us where we can live – they point to a place of great safety and security.  Absolutely everything else that is in this fabulous Psalm hangs on those two highlighted words. “Dwell and Abide.” We can learn to be spectators, protected by God’s shadow over us, and nothing can touch us there, unless He gives it permission. 

The bible has some of the best kept eternal secrets known to man. Forget Indiana Jones … that’s a whole lot of made up rot! These verses are about a real treasure, a place that belongs to YOU and me. Nobody else can keep us from this treasure because it hinges on our own choices.  It is our birthright! When we live there we allow the Saviour to rule absolutely every aspect of our lives. He is no longer an after-thought, or even a place we like to go that blesses us and makes US feel good … instead we have fallen so much in love with Him, we want HIM to know how much we love HIM… so we keep nothing from Him.

Christians don’t have to live subject to this world anymore, we can live our lives safe and secure in His secret place. No more struggling with the pettiness, greed, vainglorious ideas, rage, and strife because we have a place to live permanently, and Jesus died to give it to us. No-one else can take this treasured secret place away from us — however we can forfeit our rights to live hidden, if we undervalue His Presence, His will, His way. Jesus Himself lived in that place while He walked this earth, and … He voluntarily gave it up, when He chose to come out of that safety and contentment to fulfil His calling. BUT! He went right back in there FOREVER when He had finished His appointed mission. He’s there now, waiting for us.

These two verses are not metaphorical. This is a real place, and not many people find it, and choose to live there. To live like this we must choose to die to this life and all it seems to hold, and live for Jesus’ sake instead. That means we go wherever He takes us and let Him take away whatever He likes. At the same time He will give us whatever He thinks is best for us. I call that way to live – TRUST.  We allow Almighty God Himself to be our only security and safety, and spurn this world’s idea of comfort etc. And so we choose to live this life, the only one we have! … His Way. The Way the Holy Spirit describes in the bible.  

We leave behind the grabby, spiteful, greediness, and vanities of this world to live in a place where we care more about other people’s needs than our own. Some of us will die fulfilling that calling — it is a very serious choice —  choosing to live this life dead to what we want and alive to what He wants! However, this is a place of absolute safety – nothing happens there unless He allows it – so we know we will walk through the difficulties with the Lord by our side.  We can no longer be tossed about by the winds of doctrine or change. Like the Apostle John, who was put in a pot of boiling OIL — he simply prayed… When they fished John out again, there was not a mark on him!

Why? He was a spectator, not a participant!  He was safe in God’s secret place. However, he WAS put in that oil and if he had taken the time to notice that he would have been burnt to death. THE MAN’S FOCUS WAS ELSEWHERE.  He simply walked with Christ and that was enough. “He loved not his life unto death …” Just like Jesus did. That’s what following Jesus really means – we choose to die and He lives through us. We choose to love our enemies and that drives them crazy … or it changes them.

Sometimes the darndest secrets are hidden in the bible. You read it and think …’well blow me down, who knew that was in there?’ It’s not an ordinary book. If someone tells me that God told them that He was going to make them rich … I smile politely and walk away laughing inside. I am rich already. My money is in His bank! Nobody can pinch it there. I give where He says I should without blinking. If I need something, then I ask my Heavenly Father, He owns the cattle on a thousand hills –  He’ll just sell a cow!  

Living in the secret place means we are hidden in His strength, learning to roll with life’s punches because He is protecting us, and we trust Him implicitly. Ssh! The secret is out. Who wants to be a spectator, who wants to live to do what He wants? 👋 

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. 👋