Self-control

P 3481 Our greatest treasure.

/ DVH

Today I want to talk about love – Our Father’s love, and ours. First of all, we are not qualified to decide what love looks like. Almighty God already did that … with the Ten commandments and the subsequent birth of Christ Himself, His example, plus some truly awesome scriptures in 1 Corinthians 13 and Colossians 3!

However, living in, and for His Love, does not always mean we will end up feeling fantastic. Living a life of love sometimes means we will have to back down when we don’t want to, and shut up when we want to defend ourselves. Aren’t you glad I said that?… Me neither! … God’s Love is not like that feeling of floating-around well-being that we get when we think about someone special to us. It is a decision made and carried out using our faith. In other words, even if the other person drives us nuts, the bible tells us in Romans 13:8, that we owe them love. That’s the response, there is no other.

God’s Way of love requires us to live aware of the fruit of self-control, despite our circumstances. Plus we are told to give away grace, mercy and kindness. Let’s remember that self-control won’t just fall on us! It has to be worked in us as we learn to co-operate with the Holy Spirit. Living in God’s kind of love is costly, and I strongly suspect that is why some of us do not want to do it! Let’s look at someone who loved Jesus beautifully and well – this is described in Luke 7: 37&38. Just pause please and notice who is loving Him commendably.

“A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.” 

It would be a huge mistake to simply read the above scriptures as a lovely story about one woman’s attitude to Christ. Because it is in the book, then it is in there to show US something about ourselves. The first thing I can ‘see’ is that this woman took the lowest place in the room. Nobody needed to explain to her that she had been living her life badly …she already knew that … but she did something extraordinary about it. Instead of hiding from the Lord’s pure gaze, she overcame her fear of exposure and sought to minister to Him, out of her love for Him. She had no other motivation in her dear little head other than blessing Jesus!

We need to look closely at any people we know who have a heart like hers, because we can learn so much from them. People like this woman do not think much about themselves, their aim is to bless and minister love and honour to others. They are just grateful to be included! Unfortunately, like the other guests at this party, we can easily be distracted by this woman’s sin, and forget about our own. If you or I were in that room where would WE be? Sitting at the table talking to Jesus? Asking questions? Discussing this scripture or that? Or crawling along the floor trying not to be seen at all, because you want to wash Jesus’ dirt-laden feet and honour Him?

Let’s move down to verse 37, where Jesus says: “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” Um! That’s one heck of a sentence! Jesus is using this woman as an illustration of what great love looks like. It is so easy to quote: “Love is patient and kind etc.” or “Clothe yourselves in love.” The theory is easy – however, practicing this kind of humility and Grace, shows up all the dents and dings in our character. Those things we hope nobody else knows. This woman had nothing to lose, nobody respected her anyway – but she did stand to lose big time if Jesus reviled or rejected her.  And that thought would probably keep many of us from crawling along the floor to wash and kiss His feet.

Instead we prefer to say: “I’m this and that – the bible says so. I don’t have to crawl along the floor, Jesus died for me and I’m a new person” …Sigh.  Sadly, for a new person, we can still have a very old, unpleasant attitude! Great love is expressed at great cost. For people with a fear of rejection, it is almost a death threat. Loving others when they hurt you, could leave you battered and beaten down by their treatment of you. But Jesus sees this kind of love and He kindly and gently elevated this woman’s heart attitude by what He said. He recognised her actions, because her actions spoke louder than any words. It brought her forgiveness and a brand new start.

I’ve heard many sermons on how much the perfume she used cost, how precious it was to her, etc. etc. But I prefer to see how much the Lord Himself valued what she did as she humbled herself before Him, and the surrounding company. It’s time we began to realistically contemplate our own hearts – instead of excusing stuff. This woman clearly gives us hope that sinful or not – we will be received! When we humble ourselves, we will not get rejection, but Love Himself will see us in our clumsy efforts to bless Him.

His love for us and through us is now our greatest treasure. Jesus is the prize, all we will ever need. In the Presence of His glory, none of us qualify to stand with Him. Whatever we have, has been given to us, gratitude is our only response. Bye. 👋

P 3442 Keeping our love ON.

/ DVH

One way or another, I have spent a great deal of my time in hospitals. I am not saying that to gain sympathy, it is simply true. Meanwhile I don’t like them. I feel like someone is going to pop out of the ether, and decide I need this ghastly test, or that. Or maybe some super keen doctor will sentence me to four hours of waiting in a chair. While I try not to mind my life being whittled away by people in white coats. Yeah, I have a bad attitude. The Lord reminded me this morning that sick people go to hospitals, “the fields are white!” He said. “I need more energy Lord,” I said!

Remembering to keep our love ON can be difficult at times, especially when we’ve spent a lot of our lives living the other way. Here’s what Jesus said:  “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.’ Matthew 7:13-14. Yeah, I wish He hadn’t said that too … but He did. The narrow gate needs to be sought and found – it isn’t like the yellow brick road, wide and obvious!

The people who travel this narrow road study LOVE. How it works, what it looks like when we do it. The Lord has said some tough stuff in the scriptures, but when I look at the way I’ve chosen to live in the past, I am so grateful for His wisdom – I need to hear it! It wasn’t that I didn’t try to obey Him, but I know I gave complaining equal footing in my life. A grateful heart is a fantastic blessing, in the list of blessings God has given us. Let’s stop searching for the fake gold of this world, and start digging for the real treasure … Jesus Himself.

However, we will have to fight any Goliaths that have taken up residence in our lives. Those things that bellow and hurl threats of doom and despair at us, and others, through us. He yells that he will kill us, our friends, our families, plus everyone we love, to create fear. Love can’t flourish in an atmosphere of fear. We must trust the Lord to take care of us. David ran at Goliath, but he left his big brothers up on a hill hiding behind rocks! His brothers had a problem … but David didn’t! His faith in Almighty God saved an entire nation that day.

The thing I love about this young man is that he believed in the God Who was with him, when he faced Goliath. We are so much better off than David was, we have the same God IN us. That thing that we think we can’t possibly fight, we don’t ever have to fight it alone. He will be with us. He promised, so let’s choose to believe Him! David was no more alone on that battle field than WE are. Jesus told us that He has given us His power, and we need to believe Him and act on it. Then we can go to our enemy’s camp and take back what he has stolen from us. 

People spend time praying to become everything the Lord God means for them to be. I want to add that it is also good to pray that we would identify and throw off all those weights the enemy has been laying on us since birth … “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” Hebrews 12:1. WE do that, God doesn’t do it for us – He does it with us!

We may not feel like we can outrun the Goliaths of this world, but we can definitely learn to outwait them. BTW, “outwait” is a verb meaning to stay longer than someone else, or to wait until a bad event or time finishes.” Perseverance is a vastly underestimated Grace. It comes directly from the fruit of “patience, faithfulness, and self-control.” We have eternity on our side – satan does not, and he knows  it! If we do not faint in our journeys with Jesus — we will win. Don’t look at problems as forever things, once we give them into His hands who knows what He will do with them?

Doing the things we hate is another form of worship, as we do them “as unto the Lord.” Let’s face it, without the Holy Spirit’s help, none of these things are actually appealing. They are easy to read, but it is much harder to motivate yourself to do it. We want to raise the dead and heal the sick, and have a ministry, etc. But Jesus wants us to be bullet proof — He cares about our hearts first. And Paul gave us a list of things that we need to remember to wear. So as we put on the full armour of God, we put on those things are illustrations of the new way we’ve chosen to live now. This is how it works:

‘Always speaking HIS truth;  remembering we have Christ’s righteousness as a gift to clear our path;  at the same time we are always ready to share the gospel;  and our faith guides us and prompts us to act. Together with the knowledge that Jesus died to save us and now we have the Holy Spirit with us.’ Let’s embrace active cultivation, through our own personal choices, and make room for the growth of the fruit of the Spirit. As we “…put on love, which binds …(all the other graces) … together in perfect unity.” Colossians 3:14. We can’t be patient, kind, self-controlled etc. without LOVE leading us. 

Doing things we dislike is a challenge, but there are so many riches that are already in place, waiting for us to draw upon them. So let’s focus on the Lord and His blessings, not our feelings.. Our faith when it is active, will give all these things, substance. They become evidence in our lives of His Presence.  The answer is simple — don’t take your love off … Jesus’ love is always on! Bye. 👋

P 3433 Entitlement.  

/ DVH

Entitlement. Now there’s a buzz word in today’s world. A  lot has been said about the younger generations who are responding to this life differently than we did. Many older people think these young people live entitled lives. Here is my idea of balance:  they are facing a different world to the one we grew up in. I can’t afford to assess their responses by my own experiences or standards, they don’t apply. 

I didn’t have an Xbox, or TV the size of a wall, or Co-Vid, bird flu, or trolls on social media facing me. It was quite safe for me to leave my house after dark, and I could leave my front door open and people would still knock. Life whizzes by, and many many things are changing at an incredible rate — the impact of those changes cannot be judged by yesterday’s standards — and yet they can affect the way we view this world and the people in it, today.

Actually, they shouldn’t be judged at all, that’s not our role – it’s HIS. But let’s move past that obvious fact, onto today’s  point. Entitlement isn’t just a problem for our youth. People my age have unrealistic expectations too. The thing is we simply cannot afford to look at this life through our own eyes. We need a filter – the bible is that ever-present active filter. I cannot stress strongly enough how important it is for Christians to know the bible. This book needs to be written inside us. We are simply fooling ourselves if we are not coming from the Lord’s perspective.

It is much too easy to become selective about what parts of His book, we choose to read, or even believe. In 2 Timothy 3:1-5&7 there is a prophetic prediction, that seems to be becoming more and more accurate in our world today:  “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people … … always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.” 

It is important to realise when we read verses like these, we must not excuse ourselves, by explaining away our own behaviour. Instead we need to ask ourselves: ‘Am I always learning but I haven’t arrived at practising my knowledge of the truth? Am I satisfied with theories, not spiritual life-skills?’ Unfortunately that one attitude can be quite easy to hold onto. So can an entitled attitude: “Jesus wants to make my life happy.” He will, but not necessarily in the way we imagined!

“But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.” 2 Corinthians 10:12b. Jesus is always the only standard, not us. He will judge this world, not us. We aren’t qualified to do it. Only the One Who paid the ultimate price on our behalf can judge mankind. The sad truth is we are often way too busy excusing ourselves, to be in a fit state to judge anything. The way to read verses like these, is line by line, asking the Holy Spirit to show us where we have missed His mark. Dismissing or overlooking stuff arbitrarily, is a huge mistake.  

So let’s take a really quick look at Timothy.: “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.”  Sadly, it is not too hard to put a tick on that one, I just need to look around me at the way people treat each other. “Lovers of themselves” … every time I choose me, my ideas, my feelings above His or yours, I am not choosing to do things His way. “Lovers of money …” There is this crazy theory that if you don’t have money this doesn’t affect you. Rhubarb. It’s when you don’t have it that you desperately chase after it. The people who love money don’t have to be rich! On we go: “…boastful, proud, abusive …”  

… Let’s look at Matthew 5:22: “You’re familiar with the command to the ancients, ‘Do not murder.’ I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill.” FYI, Jesus said that. The bible will assist us to read itself, let’s just be open to its correction. He makes these things impossible without the Holy Spirit’s help… that’s the point!

I haven’t got room to talk about all 6 verses, but I would like to end on this note and highlight one more verse. Verse 5: “…having a form of godliness but denying its power…” That’s self-explanatory and it dismisses the whole: “I can’t live like that. I’m too hurt, sad, mad, bad, indifferent to do it.” We can’t afford to excuse ourselves from obedience. Like I said, these may not be not our favourite verses… but they are necessary, for godliness, life and healing. The power of God has been given to us, at great cost — it is here to help us with our inner thoughts and attitudes.

What Paul says to Timothy brings us quickly back down to earth again. We stop judging and feeling entitled – pity wells up inside us, and suddenly we find that we have compassion for other people who aren’t perfect either. Our sense of entitlement, that me first, last, and always attitude—bites the dust and what comes out is: “Please forgive me Lord.” Bye.🙏.

P 3410 God is Limitless.

/ DVH

“But 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 TPT.

This kind of limitless love is not only ours to receive, but it is also ours to give away. We already have His overflowing love to give to everyone we meet … within us. When we have Jesus Christ in our lives, we have limitless love available to us. It’s our purpose. Just like birds sing, because it is what they do … we give away love. It’s natural. And it means we choose to stretch our faith by using it, instead of just talking about it. The thing to remember is that when we give away all of those things mentioned in Galatians 5, it is HIS love in different forms.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t seem have endless patience! However, I don’t have to have endless patience, I’ve learnt to ask Him for it, and then step out in faith and exercise it. This is a demonstration of His love through me, for someone else – and I give it away by not letting what I’m really thinking fly out of my mouth to punch someone else in the face! While I am doing this, two things are happening, I am learning self-control, and I am also learning what God’s kind of patience looks like. Meanwhile, I’ve also learnt that not everyone we meet needs our opinion.

LOVE, God’s kind of love – hopes all things, bears all things and it never gives up. Even though WE aren’t automatically like that, we can learn His kind of love by responding to His word using the faith, He has given us. The bible teaches us, in2 Peter 1:3: ”His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him Who called us by His own glory and goodness.” WE ALREADY HAVE IT!

So whenever we meet true joy, we are meeting His love. When we meet endless patience, we’ve met His love in action. even when we experience never faltering faith, this means we’ve encountered and been operating from the presence of His Love. We need to stop expecting other people to bring these things to us on a platter and start living a sacrificial life, because that’s what Jesus told us to do.

Love has so many expressions. That is what Galatians tells us. In our society, love has been downgraded into feelings, but God’s Love is a powerful limitless force – it constantly displays itself through actions. The Love that God Himself has for mankind displayed itself in Jesus Christ, and that is clearly explained for us in Galatians 5, and 1 Corinthians 13. Through these words, Almighty God’s passion for mankind’s destiny is revealed. It was fulfilled by Christ, and then released – and now it is a part of our history! 

Everything around us is a part of His story! Jesus Christ is Father God’s Way of endlessly saying “I love you and I forgive you.”  He says this to each of us personally, and those words are also an everlasting promise to all of mankind. Jesus is God’s Love perfectly personified. So what does that mean to me? I left my old self behind when I said ’yes’ to Jesus, now – day-by-day I choose to live that out. Read the book and see the Lord Jesus’ responses to other human beings. Do the same. He didn’t lecture people, He taught them when He had the opportunity and it was necessary, but most of the time He simply demonstrated what God’s love looks like in action.

Whenever we read about what Jesus did, do we nod our heads in agreement, smile, and go about our day without any thought of participation? This revelation of GOD’S LOVE CAN BE SEEN AND EXPERIENCED, daily. We are His demonstrators. As we read His Word, worship Him, talk and pray with others, or walk around enjoying everything He made, we are experiencing His love for us. Let’s pray for eyes to see Him at work in our lives and hearts. 

His kind of love was created to be given away, not kept in a box hidden from other people. God’s love is like the bread and fish that Jesus gave to the disciples, to give to the people who were hungry. Because we’ve been fed by His love, now we give it away. The disciples saw the miracle of multiplication He performed. That’s all WE do. We give away what He has given us, and He multiplies it.

And we give it away in the same form we receive it – by using our faith. Most days I don’t ‘feel’ anything when I sit down and start to write this blog. I start typing as He opens up His thoughts to me in ways that I can understand them. If you like titles, then let’s say that the Lord gives me insight. He takes the scriptures in the bible and turns it upside down and explains to me: ‘This works like that.’ That is how I write this blog. I am not wise, sometimes the phrases in the bible sound to me like someone tipped over a scrabble bag. But, as I pray, the Holy Spirit enlightens me. The second before that insight I’m as dumb as dirt. But there’s one thing I do know, He tells me stuff for ME first, then I am allowed to share it with you. And the Lord chides me if I am not doing what I write here. 

At the same time, I’ve learnt to press in, and ask questions. I marvel that SomeOne so wonderful, bothers to share with someone like me. That’s why I like to encourage others to press in and then act upon what the Lord says. I’m not special, but I know that He wants to relate to each one of us in personal, practical ways. His ways are limitless and they are there for the taking for everyone who wants more. Bye for today, 👋.

P 3394 Do you react or respond?

/ DVH

This subject has been a difficulty for many of us. If you have lived with a reactionary parent, you may find yourself reacting to antagonistic stimuli almost automatically. The people who illustrated this trait toward us, could also be our biggest source of distress, irritation and pain. Often the person who is led by this trait is impulsive, and they regularly need some sort of diversion. They live almost on the edge of their nerves and they have no peace in them permanently.

I think doing things on impulse can be great fun, I have done it myself … but doing it continually makes for an unstable, unsettled lifestyle. What I have written here is not aiming at criticism, it is simply my best illustration of what over-reaction can do. It can quickly destabilise situations and usher in instability for others. Someone with a temper might say: “That’s just me. I flare up, but I cool down again.” I’ve found when this situation happens to me, I’m often reacting to a perceived slight, or word out of place, rather than responding to whatever is really going on. Human beings need stability, that’s why the Lord Jesus is so incredible – “He’s the same, yesterday, today and forever.”  Hebrews 13:8. He’s stable.

The insecurity created by a reactionary response can foster a deep sense of fear of things being out of control. (PS It is much better if we leave Jesus in control – fighting for control leads us to a much darker path!) Because of my own upbringing, I had a huge need to study everyone, including those close to me, carefully. Purely because I was afraid of what might come next! So I learnt to read faces, and body language to help me deflect aggression before it started. That BTW, is still a reaction!

Reacting to a situation actually means something else, or someone else is controlling us. Something unforeseen has happened and we act defensively so we can cope but then we can easily be provoked further. I don’t want to get into a debate about whether this or that is right or wrong. Instead I think we give away our ability to rationally work our way through things when we react. It took me years to realise my reaction to someone else’s instability meant I was also reacting! But I did that stuff inside my head. I was simply managing and manipulating any potential ugly circumstances beforehand, so I could pacify or placate the difficult person or circumstances.

Father God has gently peeled back the layers of anger, despair and heartache, and He showed me that I wasn’t actually escaping, instead I was becoming just like the person who was treating ME like that! He began to teach me to respond instead of reacting. Reacting means we let someone else’s actions define or create a deficit in us. However, responding is about making a quality decision about our own situation or someone’s actions toward us. Reacting is much easier than responding – our feelings jump in and they are trying to control things we feel we can’t control any other way. We need to turn to Jesus, not a default system. Control in any form, and Christianity do not mix. 

Responding means you take a second to think about what is in front of you, and ask the Lord to give you His plan. Sometimes He says to me: “Just wait…”  One thing I’ve learnt is that some reactionary people don’t like waiting, they want the difficulty escalated or resolved, NOW! But responders assess, pause, and then they act. If we are having problems with a reactionary person, waiting can prompt the other person to get even madder. This type of person doesn’t like that potential silent space, it doesn’t fit their “accelerate into war,” or “fix it now” agenda. However, somebody else’s anger is not our problem. Instead we need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us say something soft to turn away that wrath that’s coming for us. 

I’m learning to say: “You really matter to me. Let’s not damage our relationship, instead let’s turn down the heat and talk about it quietly.” Responding means you have taken control of yourself, and your own feelings. This is one of the ways we can cultivate the fruit of self-control. Our feelings aren’t useless, they just don’t have good leadership skills, because they don’t make good decisions under pressure. I have learnt when I wait, that the Lord will give me a scripture to hold onto. It helps me to bolster my faith, and it gives me something concrete to stand on. It helps me with my own response. Confronting a reactionary person is not necessarily the best time to use that word as a sword. That might only escalate things. 

However responding treats the other person like they have rights too. Controlling others so we can feel OK about ourselves, and get what we want, is not a good Godly plan. The bible says we get our worth in Christ. Our value comes from what He has done for us. When we choose to pause, then we have some time to choose to how to respond under the Holy Spirit’s guidance. If we read the entire story about Christ’s torture, punishment and death, we can see that He chose to be silent in the face of blatant untruths. His response was to say nothing. Responders understand they have the power to make things better. 

Like the scripture says in my blog heading: “I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I PRESS ON …” Philippians 3:13,14a. Bye. 👋

P 3365 You don’t have to think that way anymore. 

/ DVH

Yesterday I spoke about living aware of God’s care. The Lord challenged me later that day about this blog, and He used my own words to do it. Here we go: “Instead let’s proactively remind ourselves that Jesus died to give us His holiness, His right-standing with our Father, and His Grace to finish whatever Father God has asked us to do. So we must lay aside ours.” First of all, it feels kind of weird quoting me to me, but let’s just move on and pretend it’s normal, OK?

In this life I’ve learnt to recognise the signs of someone else’s anger very quickly, because I was once governed by anger, and I didn’t like it much. So, all by myself, I figured out placating people was the easiest way to escape, and I did that! Unfortunately, placating people doesn’t work all that well within God’s idea of His Sovereignty, but I couldn’t seem to stop doing it. Fear of man drove me around like a bus!

If the person who was angry antagonised me enough, then eventually, I would blow up. The disagreement then went on to get very loud and all thoughts of placation flew out of the window. I had not cultivated the fruit of self-control, because I was used to shutting myself up or mouthing off, depending on the day. I didn’t get self-control by using my faith in what Jesus did for me – I got it because I was afraid of punishment!

When we come to Jesus we bring our sins with us, and lay that junk down at the foot of the cross. But, today I realised that we need to bring our own hard-learnt way of doing stuff and put that there too. In the end we can end up with what Jesus said, PLUS what our parents, teachers, friends, bosses, rabbits and relations etc. have said to us, and about us. Or those kind of things will compete for our attention. We can get caught between two worlds – the world of the Spirit, and the old me that used to be. We need to renew our minds and deal with the junk – on purpose. Otherwise we will do the right things for the wrong reasons.

Sin is easy for all of us to identify, because Jesus Himself told us that His primary commandments are to Love God and each other. Anything that isn’t that, is sin! Which, BTW, He has already paid for it. Thank you Lord! Stay with me, and don’t rush to the healing rooms just yet OK? I didn’t need healing, my mind must be renewed and transformed. I was still being influenced by other people’s sins and their actions against me – from when I was too little to defend myself. Those things also need to go to the cross – and I was still being partially governed by my own self-effort in some areas. Everything has to go to the cross, because the bible says: We‘ve moved out of darkness into His marvellous light. 

Before you and I came to know Him, there were things that we did that were sin, and maybe like myself, there were also things that life itself taught us were bad so we exercised our own will, and stopped doing them. I don’t think you could easily persuade me to steal. Years ago, as a child I used to pinch small change out of my stepfather’s money-box, and when he caught me, he taught me quite emphatically that this was a bad plan. Especially when He introduced me to his belt – I never did that again!

I was also clearly taught not to lie, so now I fall over myself trying to make sure I don’t lie. My point is this: both of my parents taught me those things by berating me and using physical force – I did not learn them from the Lord! I learnt THEIR WAY, not HIS. So when I came to know Jesus, ‘don’t steal and don’t lie’ were already firmly established within my list of things I should not do. I forgave my parents long ago but I did not take what I actually learnt FROM THEM, to the cross. I still had a harsh master in my head, and the Lord Jesus is not like that!

I know in my heart that Father God would have wanted me to learn those things in a different way – not involving violence. But learning from the Lord meant I wouldn’t pinch stuff or lie — and the roots of my responses would have come from love and respect for our Heavenly Father, instead of FEAR. And I had to take what I had already been taught to be true before I met Jesus, to the cross as well.

Like the scripture says:“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30. Ergo, if it’s heavy and hard, then it isn’t the Lord! It might be time to revise where those thinking patterns came from.

We don’t have to see those wrong belief systems as sin, unless we still harbour resentment toward the perpetrators. Instead we need to take them to the cross, put down the old way, and pick up His yoke. The Lord wants you and I to end up with a blank slate, not a whole lot of man-made left-over reactions. Obviously it is not good to blame the other person/people/culture … but don’t blame yourself either! So forgive everybody, including yourself, and move on using your faith. Leave behind your old ways of thinking and step into a renewed mind using the grace and righteousness that Christ Himself has already given you. Bye 👋 PS Remember, when you give something to the Lord, you don’t have it anymore! 

P 3348 Show me the Father…

/ DVH

“Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus answered: “Don’t you know Me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father.” Now, there’s poor old Phil with his socks blown off! 🧦💥🧦! Hang on to yours … OK? Jesus is explaining what seeing and knowing the Father looks like. So now, let’s take a look at John 14:21,23.

“The person who has My commands and keeps them is the one who [really] loves Me; and whoever [really] loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I [too] will love him and will show (reveal, manifest) Myself to him. [I will let Myself be clearly seen by him and make Myself real to him.]” AMP version.

The above verses are a tool. Jesus is showing us HOW to see the Father. Let’s remember, we have been told in the bible, God’s Ways are not our ways. That’s Isaiah 55:8-9. Indeed our Heavenly Father’s thoughts are so far above ours, we are doing Him a grave disservice if we try to bring Him down to our level! That’s because basically, we can’t understand the way He thinks because it is simply beyond us!

However! The Holy Spirit has been sent to us to help us to understand what He is doing and He reveals the Father’s character to us, as we pursue Him and cherish obedience. It is not just that God is wa-a-a-a-y smarter than we can ever be … but He is … it is that His thoughts are based on, and rooted in LOVE, and we don’t speak “love” very well — yet. 

His love is pure, holy, accurate, discerning, faithful, patient, joyful, peaceful, kind, good, gentle and it is full of self-control!! Our kind of love is whimsical at best, and it floats about like a cork on the ocean, we can be guided by many things outside of our conscious control. But nothing is outside God’s control! He is a sovereign God with humanity’s good in His mind and heart. That’s something that is so far beyond our comprehension, we are going to need the Holy Spirit’s help – all the time. Otherwise we end up speaking our enemy’s language – hatred and blame.

If we wanted to show someone what our spouse or child or parent looks like, we might show them a photo. Jesus Christ is God’s photo! At the same time, He is incredibly 3 dimensional and far more real than we can ever comprehend. He is God Himself, and a living breathing obedient Human being, Who loves mankind and came here to save and help us understand that Our Father is not like other gods.

When we choose to obey what the Lord says — we will get glimpses into the WAY He does things. Remember, He doesn’t do stuff the way we do it, so some things won’t always make sense to us. The difference between God’s ways, and ours is huge. I think we fail to understand Him sometimes, because satan encourages us to use human logic to understand a Holy God. That’s like using wet spaghetti to tie your shoelaces. You can, but why on earth would you? Our God is a mystery wrapped up in glory and splendour — not SomeOne who can be parcelled up nicely and put in a box.

Jesus came to earth as God personified. He came to save us — as one of us. He was the perfect Person to come here, and the perfect representation of our Holy God. Reducing the Lord to rules and regs is like trying to repackage hot melted butter in the same paper it came in. The Lord Jesus is God Himself with our kind of skin on, and He is a totally, everlasting, smitten lover of mankind. Jesus blew away all of our rules and regs toward His Father, but He carefully kept the Father’s heart in all things perfectly. He did not come to earth to please us – He came to rescue and save us from satan’s wiles.

When we look at Christ sitting beside a well, talking to a women who had been married 4 times, and was now living with the fifth guy — we are looking at God sitting beside her … kindly guiding her, piquing her interest and transforming her life. Almighty God says so many things at once we cannot take them in! God once sat down beside Jonah. The man was complaining about a dead plant that was supposed to be there to give him shelter. Almighty God took the time to explain to Jonah that plants are not more important than people. Nineveh needed saving, and He had chosen Jonah to preach to them. Trying to avoid our destiny is a waste of time and it can have very strange consequences. 

Our God has deeper, more eternal motivations than we can ever dream of — to even begin to know Him we need to obey what He tells us, in His Word, and keep looking, and re-looking at Jesus. We must practise paying attention to the way He did things, toward His Father, and men and women. When we do that we will begin to learn God’s ways. “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful Word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” Hebrews 1:3. 

To us, words are simply a method of communication – to God Himself, they are a way to speak LIFE. Jesus Himself said it: ‘show me the Father,’ means we take the time to deliberately observe His dear Son in action. He expected the disciples to recognise Him by His actions. Jesus clearly says: God looks like ME. Bye 🙏 .

P 3314 Galatians 5:16-26.

/ DVH

“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.      The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.        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. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”

Let’s reflect on this scripture for a little bit — the Holy Spirit is always moving. This means we will need to keep in step with Him. He is always doing something, going somewhere, reaching out, calling out and blessing someone. He can’t help it, it’s His nature. He is so saturated and filled to overflowing with the Love of God for each and every human being on the planet – that He simply oozes love, compassion, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness etc.… everywhere He goes. 

The Holy Spirit is a beautiful Companion. He is compassionate, impartial, non-biased, and non-discriminatory toward each one of us – individually. He knows how to teach us to avoid sin, by staying close to Jesus. The Lord Jesus beautifully illustrated incredible qualities in the Gospels. His teaching was very clear, the people who choose to follow Him, walk, sit, stand, laugh, eat, pray with the same heart He had. A lover’s heart. SomeOne Who can tell us how to walk through the mire of this life without getting soiled.

Like the scripture above says: bad things aren’t hard to see, most of the time they stand out like a sore thumb! And before you and I start excusing ourselves by saying ‘I wouldn’t do that,’ My advice is to ask His opinion and then take a closer look in the mirror of the Word. Some of that icky stuff presents with other symptoms. Like sneaking looks at some chick or guy in the train …and wondering stuff we shouldn’t be wondering. Of course nobody who says they are a ‘Christian’ ever does that stuff – do they? These thoughts fly through everyone’s heads, you just don’t have to throw them a party! 

Hubby told me that he had to look at the ground for years, because so many women today were so poorly dressed. His problem with skimpy outer wear, that was more like underwear, got easier after he began to see everyone through the Lord’s eyes instead of his own. That’s the secret to staying in the river. Walking with the Holy Spirit changes the way we see other people, things, and situations. Allow Him to correct your path with His eye upon you. Simply give Him permission to interrupt you. He never, ever, takes His eyes off us – that’s because YOU and I are ‘the apple of His eye.’

We treat the Lord’s book like a precious Friend Who sits with us, showing us daily who He is, and how to walk with Him. We need this ongoing course correction and the Holy Spirit provides it. God’s book is a book of wonder — things you thought you knew one day, suddenly open up like a beautiful flower and we find ourselves glimpsing Who He is in a new way, through the same words we read yesterday! His book is like a kaleidoscope, the slightest movement changes the view. 

‘Walking with the Holy Spirit’ means we are choosing to walk with Him aware of His Presence, all the time. Whether things are busy or not. If He calls, then we stop and listen, because we know His voice in our lives is a great privilege. If we can’t find Him, then we go and look for Him in the book. Because, just like the Shulammite in Song of Songs — lovers of God feel His absence very keenly. Walking with the Holy Spirit means walking through this life seeing everything that happens through His eyes, doing things the way He wants them done. And we have purposed in our hearts to learn to love other people like He does. 

Being with Him is the pleasure of pleasing SomeOne so dear to our hearts …we live for His joy-filled responses! They are even greater than we can imagine. Falling in love with SomeOne does that to you.  It has nothing to do with us being perfect people — instead we know and love SomeOne Whose POV is so precious, we don’t want to go anywhere, or do anything without HIM. We like listening to His voice.  

The result of the Lord’s sacrificial death is that we now own His legacy. All the Godly qualities He gave to His vast family. Now our inheritance is the ability to live in this world like He did, walking in fellowship with the Holy Spirit.  And Galatians 5:16-26 sums it up!  Bye 👋.

P 3290 Choose your weapons.

/ DVH

2 Corinthians 10:3-5  “For though we live in the world, WE DO NOT WAGE WAR AS THE WORLD DOES. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  This scripture always evokes the same thought in me, ‘so why on earth are WE acting like everyone else does?’ Like brother James says: “this ought not to be so…”

We quite simply can’t use this world’s weapons in our daily ongoing battles that we fight. Let’s always remember we aren’t fighting people – we are fighting those things, spiritual forces, that people have embraced to protect themselves and often they are deceived. BTW, this immediately makes me wonder why we think talking aboutstuff will fix it!  2 Corinthians tells us His Word is meant to demolish arguments and pretensions. We definitely need to know what that looks like. To me: it looks like knowing God is always good. Plus we live this life knowing our side WON … but sometimes, we have momentary afflictions. However, our Saviour and our Comforter will never leave us. 

We need DIVINE weapons. The armour of God, the fruit of the Spirit, plus His Wisdom and spiritual gifts to combat whatever comes at us. Let’s look at that statement for a minute  …  because our weapons are divine, then they are weapons from the Lord. So our next question is – what do they look like? Do some research in Ephesians 4&6, or 1 Corinthians 12&13, or Romans 12. But let’s start with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control those are Jesus’ kind of weapons. I recommend using them liberally under the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Start by showing the Lord you love Him … by LOVING AND OBEYING HIS WORD.

Here’s something that could raise your hair and your eyebrows! Almighty God used the weapon of His own Son’s obedient death, to defeat sin and death. We don’t use normal weapons, we don’t have to … HE WON! Hmmm. Those particular weapons don’t look like the stuff you buy in your local gun-shop. You will probably hardly ever see a bible lying side by side with a gun. Why not? Be-ca-use … Jesus said: “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].” John 10:10. We simply can’t get to abundant life using carnal weapons! Those things diminish and destroy it. Carnal weapons are motivated by “look after me and mine.” Abundant life is motivated by “what did Jesus say?” 

Prayer is another one of God’s most potent weapons. It takes you and I out of the equation, and puts the Holy Spirit in charge. Ain’t nobody out there that wants to mess with Him! He made the world and everything in it!  Do that stuff at your own peril. The Spirit of God will love us and help us, until we feel so-oo-oo full, we will wonder why any of us went the wrong way in the first place! This is why Jesus said: “Love your enemies!”  He inhabits that kind of outwardly looking passion. Jesus has passionate eyes of fire in the book of Revelation.

Love will set captives free, and do even more things that we haven’t personally discovered, yet.  When it is carefully uncovered and digested, loving people is a revelation of Universal proportions and a weapon of mass destruction! It destroys the work of the evil one. If we try to use our own love, we will probably run out fairly quickly and come up short. But God’s love is endless. It is shameless in its passion. It smashes any stronghold of unbelief, fear, mortification, spite, anger etc. and restores and heals everything it touches. This is why love is the best weapon ever – it simply can’t be defeated. You can stuff love into a tomb, and 3 days later it will come bursting out, destroying every one of your theories and theologies!                                                                     

We need to cultivate love in even the smallest things, because it doesn’t come naturally to us. We are far more used to self-preservation. We often end up using our tongues like swords and knives and cut people up into little bits because they have somehow threatened us “…These things, my brothers, should not be this way [for we have a moral obligation to speak in a manner that reflects our fear of God and profound respect for His precepts]. James 3:10 sure has a handle on humanity and the way it thinks and acts!

Let’s choose our weapons carefully – we can’t possibly live this new life well, unless the Holy Spirit helps us. He is pure love in action. And He can love both sides!  We need His weapons that cut people free, not maim them.  I think we should always start by applying love first. When love is uppermost, there is no room for hatred.   Learning to love others transforms our minds. Bye 👋

P 3284 We have His deposit in us.

/ 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. As a result of this, He has given you magnificent promises that are beyond all price, so that through the power of these tremendous promises we can experience partnership with the divine nature, by which you have escaped the corrupt desires that are of the world. 

So devote yourselves to lavishly supplementing your faith with goodness, and to goodness add understanding, and to understanding add the strength of self-control, and to self-control add patient endurance, and to patient endurance add godliness, and to godliness add mercy toward your brothers and sisters, and to mercy toward others add unending love. Since these virtues are already planted deep within, and you possess them in abundant supply, they will keep you from being inactive or fruitless in your pursuit of knowing Jesus Christ more intimately.” 2 Peter 1:3-8 TPT.

When it comes to spiritual matters, like transformation through obeying the things Jesus said, or praying for the sick etc., we can no longer say we can’t do these things. Why not? Because the moment we gave our lives and hearts to Jesus, the Holy Spirit has already deposited the potential for a new life and totally different responses in us. They just need to be exercised. In other words we simply have to cultivate them by saying ‘no’ to the stuff we used to do before. The seed for a Godly life is already in us, we water it with the Word of God and prayer, and throw in the fertiliser of self-sacrifice. Mature people know we can’t always have everything we want and they face their responsibilities realistically, and with God-given determination. (See 2 Corinthians 1:8.)

The same power that enabled Christ Jesus to do what He did, is already in us. Let’s choose to obey Him and let it flow out of us, using our faith. Despite the lies we sometimes tell ourselves, we are no longer under a yoke of slavery. If you think about that sentence it will suddenly hit you how true it is – the more we think about what we do, the more we will realise we choo-oo-oose to do stuff! One of the best things the Lord gave us, apart from the Holy Spirit, and His OWN righteousness, salvation and redemption in our lives, is the power of choice. We can now choose. However, we will face the cost as we lay aside those things that are trying to drag us down. 

What the Lord did at Calvary was tremendous, He did more than die for our sins, He imparted His character, His love for His Father, into us. The potential for transformation is already inside us! Obedience now becomes a matter of using our faith and putting our feelings aside. Who are we going to believe? The Lord Jesus, or that other guy, who loves to throw doubt around. Listen to this: “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “DID GOD REALLY SAY (??) ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Genesis 3:1. There you go! Doubt!! Here’s Matthew 4:3: “The tempter came to Him and said, “IF you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”  He uses “if” like this, 3 times.

We simply cannot afford to let satan steal our God-given faith. It is just as real as our eternal salvation. When we let him do that we are not reaching our full potential in Christ – yet! In Christ means standing in a God-given position. We’ve been united with Christ – He chose to do it. This represents a new God-given identity. Jesus took my old ‘self’ to the cross with Him and gave me a new identity, like His. When Father God looks at us now, He sees the blood of Jesus covering all our lives. Just like a foetus is in the mother, we are now in the Son under the blood. The safest place for us to stand is in Him, using our faith to believe that sin is no longer our Master. 

Before we met Jesus sin dragged us around like the tail on a kite. But now, we have the power to ignore its diversions, deception and lies, and live this life, here and now, like Jesus Himself would. We don’t have to give in to the urges and feelings we cultivated before we were saved. The power of God now resides within us. The Holy Spirit came here and He never left! He also gave us gifts to bless other people. Now we don’t have to give in to the temptation to live like we did before. We don’t even have to manipulate others to get what we want, Jesus will supplies those needs now.

We can be loving, patient, kind, long-suffering with others. He promised He would not leave us alone and He didn’t! Let’s believe what the bible says, above our experiences or feelings or the PAST. We have the Holy Spirit, God’s deposit within us. We are attached to the Vine, now we let the sap (the power of God) do its work! It can be hard initially, because we have a lifetime of experiences to the contrary, but keep on keeping on and you will breakthrough into a new place. You are His own child. You share His DNA. Bless you. 👋