Self control

P 3516 Abiding.   

/ DVH

Every now and then the pressure of a blank page stares at me and I want to bail out of writing this daily blog. I have been given an opportunity to abide. Two of the fruits of the Spirit are patience, and self-control, if I want to abide, I’m going to need both.

Abiding is one of those old-fashioned words nobody uses much anymore. It means: “To stay in a particular place, or to continue in a fixed state over time. Continuing for a long time or permanent (e.g., “an abiding friendship” or “abiding memory”). John 15:7 says: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” This verse reminds us we are never alone. He comes to us to stay within us. When His words stay, and live in our hearts, they become a part of our thinking, speaking and actions. They comfort and direct us and make us secure in His Love, daily.

Abiding is a place where we can allow the Lord to cultivate patience, self-control and spiritual restraint. Abiding is not really a buzz word today, because it implies the kind of stick-a-bility that is quite foreign in our busy gotta-be-gotta-do-gotta-go lives. We can pray we will have it, without a clue about how you get it. But the thing is, this grace is actually a necessity for spiritual survival. This verse is not just about praying for what we want – it is far more about cultivating a relationship centred on the Lord’s will, out of a desire to fulfil His mission for us, and through us.

I often think of stuff like ‘having patience’ as something I need the Lord’s help to do when things are very difficult — but today I realised that I need far more patience when nothing much is happening. When I am living with the same old, same old. So let’s start there…  because in most of our lives, one day often follows another fairly uneventfully, yet they are still filled with busyness. But sadly, nothing changes either.

Our lives can be like a desert with the occasional tumbleweed rolling over the screen of our minds. Not much spiritually happening! Then occasionally, there are those times when the stuff of life flies at us like the worst kind of blizzard, banking up at the door of our hearts … locking us in… And at yet other times problems just quietly drift in blurring and blocking our path ahead.

The lack of insight to make our way through these contrasting times can drive us crazy, but the never-ending silence can be worse. It quickly becomes the time we need to remind ourselves that we are not alone. We have Our Father, His Son and the precious Holy Spirit Who are always with us, even if we do not feel anything. And if we need someone with skin on … then we have brothers and sisters in Christ who will lovingly take the time out of their day to stop for a moment, listen and pray with us.

We learn to abide on ordinary days as ‘abiding’ faith becomes part of us. As we learn to live in His Love, and keep on sharing it – right in the middle of one day following the next. Let’s practice the kind of skills that will see us through the silence of ordinary days. By reading the bible, and prayerfully listening for what He wants to say to us, today. On those days we may have to seek His kingdom first. And take note of what we are saying. Let’s not give our enemy the opportunity to find out what is momentarily afflicting us.

These seemingly empty times give us an opportunity to cultivate self-control, and that leads to contented abiding. Of course it will take a whole lot of patience to do it. I ask the Lord to “set a watch over my mouth.” He will. All glory to Jesus! At the same time, He, Himself, has an endless supply of patience and He allows us to learn at our own rate! (Psalm 32:8) Let Him guide you through whatever comes at you, one step at a time. ”Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30.

Personally, some days, my own rate can be …kind of …slow. So I totally love this verse: “But  God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, …” Ephesians 2:4-6.

Almighty God Himself: His goodness, His mercy is already personally invested in our growth, and He wants to help us learn to abide in Him. Abiding means we are looking at this life from His perspective not ours. When we are seated in heavenly places, we get a different perspective. Think of it like this, I can stand outside my house and see how it looks from the street, or I can fly a drone over it and take a photograph of it from the air above the house. Same location – different perspective.

We need heavenly perspectives for those ordinary same-old same-old days, as well as the days when the roof falls in. Let’s choose to quit only having emergency faith! Abiding in Him fosters faith. Bye. 👋. Ps. Plus abiding produces that fruit in 1 Corinthians 13!

P 3510 Don’t just read the ‘happy verses.’

/ DVH

“Isn’t it obvious that all runners on the racetrack keep on running to win, but only one receives the victor’s prize? Yet each one of you must run the race to be victorious. A true athlete will be disciplined in every respect, practicing constant self-control in order to win a laurel wreath that quickly withers. But we run our race to win a victor’s crown that will last forever. For that reason, I don’t run just for exercise or box like one throwing aimless punches, but I train like a champion athlete. I subdue my body and get it under my control, so that after preaching the good news to others I myself won’t be disqualified.” 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 TPT.

Paul is talking about the fact that we are in a personal race against ourselves, and against the clock. We are running the race of our lives. Preaching the gospel is part of running this race, and we can’t afford to slack off now. His Truth is the thing that keeps us going. That means our will needs to be continually submitted to His Ways. Now what matters is the way we choose to run.

We will have to discipline ourselves to be fit enough to finish well, as we participate in a different kind of training. It means that we keep turning the other cheek even when we it seems like we have run out of cheeks! I discovered the thing that will help me, personally to win, is self-control. Quite honestly, sometimes I think I need to spend the rest of my life with my hand firmly clapped over my mouth!  I really can’t afford to be careless or thoughtless when I speak, instead I must learn to be ‘renewed in the spirit of my mind.’ And running well one day, and slacking off the next, will not help me to accomplish that aim.

When people read these verses in Corinthians, it is too easy to just see it as kind of specialised suggestions, that apply to really serious, deeply spiritual people, and dismiss what Paul is saying to you and I. But one day everything we’ve done or said, will go through the fire of His love. That point needs to be noted! Our love for others will face a reckoning. Everything we have worked on and for, will go through that fire. Paul says this 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.

“By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.”

I call those verses serious! Personally, I could easily be swamped by them, if it weren’t for the fact that I know that Jesus has promised to help us every step of the way. That’s why He sent back the Holy Spirit — to help us. The Holy Spirit knows the way through anything. Many Christians have given a great deal of time trying to get well enough to do whatever Jesus told us to do, and not enough time has been spent teaching and helping ourselves to simply do it anyway.

Let’s be real for a second, do we actually think that athletes want to train every single day?? Me neither. The Spirit of our living loving God is so kind. He points out the things we need to fix while we still have time to fix them. The fact that He points stuff out means He not only knows, He is more than willing to help us to achieve whatever it takes for us to be fit enough to keep on racing.

He’s our Coach. Runners who don’t listen to their coach don’t do very well. They are expending valuable energy fighting against the very Person Who has sent to help them achieve their aim. Let’s yield to Jesus’ wisdom and do things His way. That means we need to be well acquainted with His way in the first place. I’ve learnt that His way and my way rarely look the same!

It’s great to be positive and optimistic, and rejoice that God loved us all so much that Jesus voluntarily came and died for us. That attitude is the kind of ‘juice’ this race runs on. BUT!! We cannot afford to be blasé about the way we run, or even the reason we are in this race. We aren’t in this race just to get to heaven one day — we are in this race to learn discipline, self-control, and purposeful running. Every runner in a race has a single purpose – they wanna win. You and I  are running toward Kingdom transformation. That means, any other thing that gets in the way of us running toward that prize, has to go.

We must throw it off because it is a weight that will slow us down. Human beings have a limited time span … an expiry date. Nobody wants to think about the expiry date, because most of us have found ways to enjoy this life. But the truth is, we don’t belong to ourselves anymore, we are His – we are now on His timetable not ours. We were bought for a purpose … to glorify God. Anything else is simply succumbing to this world’s advertising and we will be drawn into a side eddy and just go round and round and round – achieving nothing, going nowhere. That is not our God-defined destiny.

So, I urge you — don’t just read the happy, gimme verses, read the ones you wish weren’t there, and ask Him for His help to obey those too. You are all in my prayers – please pray for me! Bye 👋.

P3403  Let’s keep jumping in the river. 

/ DVH

Many people have been hypothesising about the type of fruit on the tree of life. The bible says that fruit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. I read 1 Corinthians 13, and it says “…the fruit of the Spirit is …” Huge hint there!! Right. Now that is clear, let’s choose to follow the Holy Spirit, deny ourselves, and take up the cross of whatever this life throws at us – and joyfully serve Him and His purposes, right in the middle of our strife and trouble. Keep your eyes on Jesus.

We often want to gather the strength to do what is good and right and profitable, before we jump into the stream of the Holy Spirit’s Love. Here’s my advice – JUMP IN FIRST. All that other stuff gets added unto you while you are in there! We can get so busy on the side of that river of life and love – trying to fix ourselves, our attitudes, our actions that sometimes we get stuck trying to figure out how to fix someone else. All that means is we never get around to actually jumping in! If our enemy cannot corrupt us, he will try to distract us with the things we can’t change. We need to utterly trust the Holy Spirit to finish what He started in us. He’s the One with the Plan.

Let’s use the fruit of self-control as an example. Our aim is for any self control in our lives to become a natural response. It’s good to know what you are aiming at! Clenched teeth, and yelling and shouting, kind of defeats our purpose. As we jump into His love, we need to repent and repair, then throw off blame, straining and striving – self control will flow out of us because self control is IN that river.

Like Jesus said, staying attached to the Vine produces fruit. We can’t produce fruit without the Vine, so let’s just grab hold of Him, jump into the river of His love and learn to float. If Jesus says “pruning” then we say “OK!” If He says “time for rest” then we say “OK.” Our task is to stay attached. Obedience to His Will – plus focussing on His Love which never ends – will keep us attached to Him and floating. Keep continually thanking the Lord for loving you, and teaching and helping you with this life.

We will begin to take on the Father’s characteristics toward us, as we deliberately choose to learn to obey Him – whether it is convenient or not. No matter what kind of fruit we are producing, that fruit develops and grows because of our obedient responses to God’s Word for us, today. Don’t excuse yourself from obedience, instead, be honest, tell Him ‘I can’t cope, it’s all too much’ – He’s kind and compassionate, He will help us. He knows we are all just glorified dirt.

Christianity is the way we’ve chosen to live now. Let’s learn to lean into His Ways and yield to Him, no matter how inconvenient it is, or how hard it seems to be. Obedience to His instructions facilitates His life in us. Read the Beatitudes, start there! Now there’s a lifetime adventure. Valuing the Father’s Ways above our own, also gives us glimpses into Who He is. 

Jesus was obedient to the Father’s Way even though it killed Him. He’s our Leader, our personal human illustration! The Lord Jesus had so much faith and trust in God’s goodness, He allowed Himself to fall into the hands of men who could not be trusted, because God told Him that was the way to complete His mission. 

Many other blessings will flow into our lives as we yield to the Lord, and let go of those things that are holding us back. Then those blessings start overflowing onto others. The point of Christianity is not sameness — it is about transformation. All kinds of individuals have been personally challenged, and then changed, by walking day by day with Him, daily jumping in the river of His never-ending love, while still doing the seemingly ordinary everyday things we usually do.

We will see the fruit of the Holy Spirit blossom and bear fruit, first-hand in our own lives, as we participate in doing things His Way. Jump into His eternal, unshakeable love and stay there. Hold tight to your birthright! We were born to live in the river of His love, and be washed, minute by minute in our fresh clean new life. We must learn to use our faith, because this is how we bear God’s fruit. Obedience to Jesus’ instructions, clearly written in the bible – will produce Almighty God’s life in us, as well as total transformation in our lives. 

Living for Jesus means we will release the Holy Spirit with every single step we take. We can’t know what He will do in that other person’s life, but we know it will be good. If eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil produced death —- then eating from the tree of His life in us produces His living eternal fruit. That life is not a feeling … it is the flow-on result of loving, walking and living with Jesus. All of the fruits of the Spirit are born out of His love.

We had trouble with our mango tree last season, the mango buds came in abundance, but the fruit didn’t ‘set’ and it fell off before it reached maturity. This tree that had dozens of mangos in previous years, but last year it had barely more  than a half a dozen fully formed fruit. Under pressure the tree dropped it’s fruit.  That was a big lesson for me. It can happen to all of us – we can let go of how much He loves us when we are swamped by this life all with it’s trials and sorrows.

Our God is so good- even these bad things have a purpose. Pressure and discomfort are potentially developing faith-filled resistance in us. These are the things we are going to need on the next stage of our journey as we walk with Him. They help set His spiritual fruit and keep it attached to the tree. Attachment to the tree is just total dependence on Him – we all know we can do “nothing without Him..” It also says in John 5:19: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”

Jesus chose to limit Himself, by simply obeying His Father. The fruit from the Tree of Life in our lives, will produce God’s life in us, for others. People will come and pick that fruit and take a bite out of it. The real question is — what will our lives taste like?  Heaven? Or unripe, unformed,  unpalatable fruit. Let’s just keep our focus on jumping in that river. Bye. 👋

P 3384 Not done yet.  

/ DVH

Apparently, I am not done with yesterday’s theme. Here are some verses to chew on, and Jesus Himself is speaking – actually, He’s praying, for us!  “I have given them Your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” John 17:14-20.

Did you notice that our Saviour did not pray for us to be taken out of the world, but rather that we would be protected from the evil one while we are in it. A lot of lovely Christians kind of clump together, forming a sub-group in society. I’m not sure that’s a faith step – actually I think it’s more like opting out! It means we hardly ever interact with the people-who-don’t-know-the-Lord-yet. Jesus loves us so much, He prayed this prayer for His family, (us!), long before we ever arrived here. That prayer is still out there, protecting us. Instead of clumping, maybe we could listen to Him and learn to use our faith daily.

When we were born again, we entered a new kingdom – HIS!  We left behind all the temptations and irritations of this world around us and started out on a journey to learn how to live in His kingdom. This is why we are IN this world but not OF this world. We no longer need what the world has to offer, it has no appeal to us, because we have something far better! That’s why we don’t have to hide together all the time – what the world has we don’t want! We quit hiding when the Holy Spirit came! We live here, but we don’t belong here. Our ‘true home’ is with the Lord, wherever He is and whatever He is doing. 

Just like Ruth with Naomi – wherever Jesus IS, that’s now our home. When our Lord came here, He lived the way He did sacrificially, for our sanctification, but He did not live like a monk. He had no fear regarding this world and what it could do to Him – He believed that the “… steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord…” This world could not even kill Him, He prayed about it with our Father and then He went out and laid His life down. The Lord is with you while you are reading this, and He’s with me while I’m typing it!

The Spirit of God is with us, to be IN us. He gives us the power, minute by minute, to live this life, from day to day, differently. We can’t, and should not do a thing without Him. The Holy Spirit speaks faith, fluently. Now we are learning from Him how to speak faith too. We learn His kind of faith from being obedient. Heavenly languages are things like faith, hope, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Why? There is no law against those things in heaven or on earth. Father God speaks them, that’s why we can hear Him – if we can’t hear Him, then we aren’t speaking His languages. Let’s go out and BE what we say we believe.

Our new life is not just about going to heaven when we die, our lives now are about bringing heaven down here, to one person at a time, challenging their perspectives. Just the same way His Presence in our lives is changing ours! Despite our often outward appearances – Christianity is not a secret society – nor is it a bunch of do-gooders who love to ruin other people’s fun. 

I’m just going to leave that remark there, laying around staring at all of us. 👀 … We are a people on a mission. It’s not just the pastor who participates, it’s all of US. So, let’s make a plan to obey what the Lord has already told us to do in His book. We need to follow our Leader and do what He would do. In the bible I cannot find once where Jesus shot, stabbed, maimed, punched or blew up someone else in the Name of God. I don’t care what David did to His enemies, I’m following Jesus. He forgave His.

In the following scripture we have a fabulous example of someone who had no idea where he was going, and no clue how to find what he went to find. It seemed an impossible task — but He obeyed His master (Abraham) and went! “And said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, Who has not left my master bereft and destitute of His loving-kindness and steadfastness. As for me, going on the way [of obedience and faith] the Lord led me to the house of my master’s kinsmen.” Genesis 24:27. 

The God of Abraham is still guiding people to this day. He didn’t quit talking to us after He sent His only Son to spell stuff out — instead, He turned up the volume, exponentially. He gave us the Holy Spirit to guide us, a book full of instructions, plus the things Jesus taught. Take a risk: find someone to help. Give to someone in need. Tell someone Jesus loves them. Do something different. because we aren’t done yet. Bye 🙏.

P 2322 Grace opens our hearts, as well as new doors.

/ DVH

John 1:17 “For the Law was given through Moses, but grace [the unearned, undeserved favour of God] and truth came through Jesus Christ.”  Unless the Holy SPIRIT is in charge of our actions and thoughts I believe we will accidentally  automatically revert to upholding the law and judging others. We won’t end up doing that on purpose, rather it may be a life-long default button.  

Our relationship with the Holy Spirit needs tending to and caring for … He needs our private and specific attention. Otherwise what we already know, or our previous experiences will take preference over what He wants. He’s so quiet and non-intrusive, we actually need to make room for Him. Here’s what I’ve learnt that helps me to make room for Him.

The Holy Spirit likes God’s LOVE to be in charge. Not the gooey stuff we all think of as love but the kind of love clearly defined in 1 Corinthians 13. So if I am selfish, or defensive or angry etc. I will not be able to hear His quiet voice in my heart. I am learning to do my best to fix things immediately with HIM so I can get His perspective – no matter how right I think I am!  😂 I’ve found that when I make His comfort, His wishes, my priority, it opens my inner spiritual ears. And it also helps keep me humble. 

Galatians 5:22-23 says this: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” If we cling to the fact that He is cultivating and protecting His fruit in our lives, then we are positioning ourselves to walk with Him. It is an inner attitude rather than a law. It means we want what He wants – first. Unfortunately when the above qualities are absent, that means He is not around – no matter how much scripture or intention to do right is present, without His breath on things we will simply end up in law again.

Psalms 40:8 TPT. “I delight to fulfil your will, my God, for your living words are written upon the pages of my heart.”The Holy Spirit is not flighty or huffy. But He can be grieved easily, by the hardness of our hearts toward our Heavenly Father, and others — but, at the same time, let us remember that He wants to be with us.

Human beings have limited ideas of what love looks like because we all have a natural predilection to put ourselves first, and then we look after the people we love, or the people who benefit us. But when the Holy Spirit is in charge … a different kind of love prevails – a love that seeks the best for everyone. 

The Lord’s kind of love is not afraid or reticent to prune the one it loves. In this permissive world, any idea of correction or cutting away stuff for benefit, is totally foreign. But the passionate love of God does not hesitate about wanting to do whatever it takes, and whatever will bring out the best in the one He loves. 

Actually, when you look at what He did to save us … it becomes totally clear He will do whatever is necessary to deliver us from any of the crutches we frantically employ to cope with, sin, pain and suffering in this life. His love is passionate and relentless …all at the same time… and we would be wise to remember that. There are times when we may not even know, notice, or understand when we’ve slipped out of Grace into law. However, as we let go of our desire to get things right, or even the desire to please Him, we will begin to understand that we are no longer living under this world’s system.  SOMEBODY ELSE DID THAT PERFECTLY FOR US. 

So if the Holy Spirit leaves us, then we are doing it wrong, and it is time to stop and reassess where our spiritual train jumped the tracks. His Presence in our lives is our guide. New doors will open when we follow Him and start living in, and by His Grace. 👋🏻