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P 2443 Stand on His love for you.

/ DVH

“And I pray that He (the Holy Spirit) would unveil within you the unlimited riches of His glory and favour until supernatural strength floods your innermost being with His divine might and explosive power. Then, by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of His love will become the very source and root of your life. Then you will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences—the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far-reaching is His love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding—this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!” Ephesians 3:16-19 TPT

This scripture has so much in it, it just blows my mind whenever I read it. Today I want to think about the word continually, as in on purpose (!) … reminding ourselves of the ever-present presence of God’s loving favour in and on our lives. Oh how He loves us! And His love is an utterly committed love. The price He paid to buy us back from hell and damnation is beyond our understanding, far more than we could ever ask or think.  You know, my opinion of my performance and who I think I am, does not matter to Him. Neither does yours. His opinion is the one that matters.

You may like me, you might not. The main thing I have to wrap my heart around is that Father God utterly loves me. In order to walk with the Holy Spirit, Who is the revealer of these great truths, I will need a firm foundation to stand on. Jesus died for my sins, once and forever, to make all this possible, is that foundation. Now we have to let that love sink down into our hearts so we become so completely saturated by it and there is no room for insecurity. Otherwise if my life does not go well, I might end up blaming Him, or other people … like you, or my family, my circumstances etc. And then the ground I am standing on becomes shaky. Our houses (lives) are only as good as their foundations!

We cannot start out with anyone else’s performance but HIS. What Jesus did was perfect. Anything else is this world’s measuring stick. Christ is now the perfect illustration of what mankind can look like. We can’t afford skip, or dismiss lightly this truth about how much God loves us. As soon as we dismiss it, or water it down with provisos, we miss the  magnitude of how wide, how deep, how all encompassing and powerful God’s love is! We dare not build on the wrong foundation, because His demonstrated Love is the only foundation that is eternally stable.

Many human beings don’t value love, except as a feeling —because this world’s idea of love is fickle, selfish and unpredictable. Humanity can be so unfaithful that our Father’s eternal faithfulness hardly registers in our hearts and lives. But it must. Otherwise we are moved around by circumstances and the winds of change too easily. We cannot use OUR measuring sticks to put a value on God’s love. It is far too easy, in these times we live in, to think that real love means permissiveness. 

Self-sacrificing, altruistic love wants only the very best for the one it loves. Father God’s incredible vibrant love has provided all of us with the means to be transformed. And all we need to do is to live for Him the way Christ lived for us. We have all the needed illustration and demonstration of that, in the book! Comprehending that sort of ongoing loving grace gives us a firm footing, as we walk through a weak wobbly world with no stable footholds.

I have learnt, from experience, that WE WILL GIVE OUT TO OTHERS WHAT WE STORE UP! If we store up our own mistakes, our wrong attitudes, our own idea of what love looks like … OR … spend our lives concentrating on someone else’s sins, their mistakes, and their wrong attitudes, we are no longer standing firmly on LOVE. The Holy Spirit was sent here to teach us to how to walk, talk, sit, and stand totally saturated with God’s love. He’s an expert. Re-read today’s scripture it entertains no doubts. 

We must mature enough to understand that real LOVE corrects, it shapes, it guides, it teaches, and … it helps us. Love always fosters connection. Father God’s love is with us in the Person of the Holy Spirit. Jesus did not leave us alone to muddle along without Him – He sent back the Holy Spirit to help, teach, guide, correct, counsel, and comfort us into His Way of Love. We must let the love of God live in us, and make us so rich in love we can easily give it away!  We need to learn to stand on these things, gratefully. 🕊❤️‍🔥 

P 2439 We are His children of the light!

/ DVH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

P 2424 This is His way.

/ DVH

“So I kneel humbly in awe before the Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the perfect Father of every father and child in heaven and on the earth. And I pray that He would unveil within you the unlimited riches of His glory and favour until supernatural strength floods your innermost being with His divine might and explosive power.Then, by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of His love will become the very source and root of your life. 

Then you will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences—the great magnitude of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far-reaching is His love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding—this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!” Ephesians 3:14-19 TPT.

We don’t do the things that Jesus did or the things He asks us to do simply because He needs our hands and feet. We are not His robots, or even His portable advertising!  Christians do what they do to be obedient and their obedience expresses their loving devotion to Him. But at the same time the more we walk with Him in that obedience, the more we will see and experience His incredible Love for us. This is the very heart of these wonderful verses in Ephesians 3.

His love for us, as well as in us, these things are the riches we’ve been promised. Forget gold, silver and precious stones, His love is beyond price! And His Loving heart is toward us. He is like that King, Ahasuerus, who adored his wife, so he held out his sceptre toward Esther even when she  disobeyed the rules of his kingdom. God’s heart reaches toward us, to relieve us of our burdens and to help us with life’s difficulties. There are days when others do not like me or my company, but those days, those feelings, don’t reflect Him. Nothing will alter His love toward me. That is a huge gift. In those moments, I simply must believe what He says, not how I feel.

Years ago on ancient TV in the 1950s, we had an ad in this country for a man’s hair product, called Brylcreem. Its motto was “a little dab’ll do ya.” Father God’s love is NOT like Brylcreem! It is not mingy, or space-saving or economical! Christ’s sacrificial love sustains this universe and beyond. Despite what the scientists say, if God withdrew His loving favour from mankind the stars would fall out of the sky. Read the book of Revelation! You will see written there what happens when His boundless Love is withdrawn from the earth. His love is the incredibly powerful force that holds this world, including us, together.

The more we use our faith by being obedient, the more His love expands within us, until it becomes the very centre of our lives. Slowly His love transforms and replaces any imperfect human love we have that may have done damage to our hearts. Some of our responses are not sin – pain causes reactions too. However, the knowledge of His love is expanded in our hearts as we watch Him touch other people’s lives through us. 

While we were away this time, because of a series of God-ordained events, we managed to give an older cleaning lady a keychain. Her face seemed hardened by age and life, she was tiny but she looked tough. Scary even! But the Lord said to bless her, so we did. And the most amazing thing happened. Her face cracked open, and she looked just like a happy little child. Transformation happened right in front of our eyes. She danced up and down on the spot. This keychain was the most delicate one I have ever made. I probably would not have given her that particular one – my own judgment of how she looked would have gotten in the way! 

None of us know how hardened anyone else can become inside and out, because this life can deal each one of us terrible blows. In order to go on, human beings put on protective armour. That armour often changes our outward appearance, and at the same time it can alter what comes out of our mouths! Just like a barking dog that is scared of a stranger – we can become vicious and mean. But Father God’s love goes right around our disguises and touches hearts. Then we have the privilege of seeing someone else the way He designed them, that utterly transforms both parties, and opens their eyes to new possibilities. 

The bible says:  “perfect love casts out all fear…” The reality is, if we are afraid, it is not enough to just know this verse, that’s simply words. We need to know the heart of the One Who is speaking love over us. Watching Him work in the lives of the people around us opens our eyes to how incredible His love is. It seems upside down to think that in order to get love, we will have to give away Love. But that is His Way. It’s the way of faith. His way forward is for us to learn LOVE. 👋🏻

P 2394 Releasing His Grace.

/ DVH

Forgiving someone is simply the starting place for the process of releasing Grace into a sinful atmosphere. We ask the Lord for His Grace, and then we release that God-given Grace toward the person who has sinned against us or offended us. This is a deliberate act, using our faith. Most of the time we probably won’t feel like doing it immediately – but immediately is definitely the best time! 

However, I’ve found that the memory of whatever happened to me, can come up again and again. So I need to release His Grace again. I don’t have to forgive again, I just need to release more Grace toward that person. We step into the flow of the Holy Spirit and, living with His Grace toward us, we don’t step out again. Grace is like air, it comes in and goes out.

When we go to the cross and confess our sin of judgment or whatever, and repent, we are reminding ourselves that the cross of Christ is our source of endless eternal Grace. No matter how hard I try, I cannot forgive someone who sins against me, in my mind, or even my feelings. I need to use faith to do it. I ask the Lord for His help and then I deliberately pray and release that person from my judgment. I know I personally have a tendency to steer clear of people who hurt me. That’s not GRACE … it’s avoidance. BTW, the more you hold resentments against others the more skilled you will become at finding fault in them.

Now if I think about a bad thing that has happened, EG …’they did this, but I didn’t deserve it’…and ruminate over what happened, then I can easily rehearse myself back into the same state that I started in – or even worse. Instead I must go back to the cross, and Him ask for His Grace, and repent for digging up someone else’s sin. This needs to be a daily habit, because some bad attitudes sneak up on all of us, and we end up 200 kms down the wrong road without even noticing it! We need to acknowledge other people’s sins, then forgive them, and start releasing Grace every time we think of them.

We have been saved to be His GRACE dispensers. That’s what healing is – God’s Grace toward the sick. It’s what wisdom is, it’s what the power of God IS. We embrace the companionship of the Holy Spirit and cherish Him by our obedience. Grace is God’s unmerited favour over our lives, and His people can release that power toward others by forgiving someone else who doesn’t deserve it. Jesus set that example. But we cannot manufacture this stuff without humbling ourselves and admitting our need of it, first. Grace is heaven’s currency.

Transformation occurs when we walk in, and value His Grace for us, and through us. Instead of making our own needs our priority. If we choose not to participate in the flow of His Grace we are actually holding other people captive, because God gave us the power to release them into His hands. (John 20:23)… That power is designed to flow through us. We become acquainted with the power of the Holy Spirit when we live this way – we can’t, or won’t live this way of ourselves, but when He is in charge, we can.

Personally, I can’t live the life I currently have, without utterly relying upon the Holy Spirit and His Grace. Most people I know don’t think about stuff the same way I do. We simply do not gather information the same way. God’s way of Grace is the great undergirding that brings us all together. Outside of His Grace I know that I am probably going to get clunked upside the head by someone, or something or other, and spend a week trying to simply stand up again so I can keep on walking with Jesus. I’ll probably tread on someone else as well! And, if I am not paying attention to what matters, I will fall right out of Grace into judgment. Then judgment picks up resentment and that leads to bitterness.

The good news is Christ overpaid our debt so we have a limitless supply of Grace. What do I mean by that? Let’s start with the obvious. I don’t mean that we can do whatever we like, and live however we want to, ignoring God’s wishes and His instructions in the bible! That is treating God’s costly Grace, disrespectfully and irreverently. We have more than enough Grace to give away, not to horde or misuse for our own agendas, pettiness or deliberate sin.

His Grace received into my life is the beginning of a production line. It produces the kingdom of God in me, and releases His kingdom toward you.  It facilitates a better relationship between me and God, and me and you! Grace washes us both clean, so we can live God-conscious lives instead of sin-conscious ones. Part of the function of this Grace production line is that it becomes the new way we live, as we practise it. We automatically release it to others, and that Grace flowing into and out of our lives, continually washes us. It is much harder to be proud when you know that without His Grace you are sunk! 

Finally, Grace produces gratefulness. It is an equaliser. Everybody needs it. It will produce the kingdom of God in our lives, if we choose to live and walk in it and work with it. Here’s a huge clue that might help you, so you can step into the flow of God’s Grace – if you roll your eyes, or grind your teeth when you see someone – you need His Grace to help you. Releasing undeserved Grace to others gives us balance, we know full well, at any minute we will need it too! 👋🏻

Romans 12:18: “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”

P 2383 Love is not the same as … ‘Like’.

/ DVH

And love doesn’t look like tolerating others, either. Yeah, I don’t like those two sentences much myself.  But Jesus gave us clear directives about love… 1 John 3:16  “By this we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”  

Matthew 5:44-47 ““You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the supple moves of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives His best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the loveable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.”

John 15:12, KJV. “This is My commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” – Love is a great subject to study because it will definitely give everyone plenty to pray over and act on. It is like most things in the bible if you apply them into your life you will know about it!! Jesus said, ‘love your brothers, love your friends, and love your enemies,’ and none of that is easy. Especially when we take into account that the people who can hurt us the most are probably not our enemies! 

Here’s some stuff that has helped me to cope with dealing with people who are a black hole where love is concerned. First of all I remind myself that I don’t have to feel like it, to do it. Love is a verb not a noun – it’s something I do, not something I feel.  I deliberately bring to my mind that … ‘I can do all things through Christ because He strengthens me!’  So I ask for His strength, then I do whatever He says in the book. Take emotions out of your effort and obey instead.

In my experience feelings always come later. Sometimes MUCH later. I have people in my life that I have been loving for years, I wish I could say that living this way changed them —- but it hasn’t – not so far. Instead it is changing me. I simply need to learn to fight disappointment and resentment and as I did that, I learnt about self-control. This became another way to invest my life in the kingdom of God. And it also showed me stuff I did not know I had – until the resentment etc. bubbled up!

When you make a big effort in your own strength toward people and they flick it off like it is nothing, it takes real dedication to continue to love them. I discovered I didn’t want to make that kind of effort for careless people, because I quite quickly ran out of dedication … But when I did it for Jesus — my expectations and motivations changed. So now I do whatever I do, for HIM. I do this to obey Him. I stopped putting hope in someone else to get it right. Because Jesus is my hope, my anchor and my source of strength – I’ve learnt to put my hope in Him, not others.

This means I’ve learnt to love others literally ‘under orders,‘ and now I do whatever He tells me to do. Often a bible verse pops into my head. Previously, I had become used to being motivated by need, or human affection, or some other feeling, but there were also times that Lord asked me to do something sweet for someone else at a time when I had no desire to do it. Choosing to love in the face of lack or need is powerful. When the people you love don’t love you sacrificially, you can suddenly find a whole lot of anger you didn’t know you had!

I also learnt the wisdom of Colossians 3:23 … “…whatever you do, do it with all your heart as though you were doing it for the Lord and not for people.”. That phrase ‘and not for people’ really resonated with me. The Lord explained to me that when I did things for others, hoping they would appreciate my efforts, I was doomed to fail because I can’t ever control other people’s responses. But when I do whatever HE asks me to do, I learn obedience… plus I ‘die’ to self in the process. I am renewing my mind. 

Obedience always brings us closer to Him. The Lord Jesus was obedient.  Loving by choice is not easy, but it sure beats the heartache of ‘trying hard’ with people who have no idea how much they are hurting you! Love is not the same as human emotion – whether it is ‘like’ or ‘tolerating’ – it’s an investment in someone else as the Holy Spirit Himself leads you. 👋🏻

P 2346 Be a conduit of comfort for someone else.

/ DVH

“All praises belong to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For He is the Father of tender mercy and the God of endless comfort. He always comes alongside us to comfort us in every suffering so that we can come alongside those who are in any painful trial. We can bring them this same comfort that God has poured out upon us.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 TPT

What comforts you? Seriously. 😶 Do yourself a favour, don’t pretend – be truthful. In your little list of comforting things you could find family, potato chips, hugging your pet/kids, having a proper job, or enough to eat, perhaps somewhere warm to sleep, yummy chocolate, or maybe just a hot drink on a cold. 🤗 First of all I want to say that none of those things I’ve mentioned are inappropriate or wrong but … if you want to be truly comforted inside, where you feel so broken, or even give away true comfort to others – you will need a whole other source. God Himself.

Yeah … I know, Almighty God is kind of hard to get on the phone in a crisis. 😳 Yet it is astonishing how quickly human beings call out for Him when life presses in on us hard. People who say they don’t believe in Him start crying out: ‘God help me!’  We’ve been designed with a need to have God Himself as our primary source of comfort. And, as the scripture says, we will have nothing lasting to give others, that will still their spirits and bring them fresh hope -except God Himself. Whether we believe it, or even feel it, or not – the reality is – we are God’s chosen method to reach out to other people.  Please note the Lord does not push His way into anything – He loves volunteers. 

True comfort is very lacking in our modern world. Instead, the people around us stuff all sorts of things, like excesses of gambling, drugs and alcohol, other religions, even strange relationships, into the deep parts of their hearts hoping to alleviate their pain and ongoing suffering. I’m not going to comment about whether that actually works or not – because today I am talking about US passing on something we have already received from God Himself on to someone else in need. 

It almost goes without saying that the reality is, we have nothing lasting to give if we do not trust our Jehovah Jireh our Provider, as our Source to be there and help us. So how do we do this? We begin by renewing our minds as a priority, so any rumour or innuendo or inaccuracy will start to kind of slide off us, because our first response to something that is a bit ‘off’ is this: ‘I don’t remember reading that stuff in my bible!” And then we go away and check out whatever it is, in the book. And THEN we believe what the book says, above what we think or feel. 

I have seen God comfort someone else with the dumbest, weirdest scriptures. Things that appear to have absolutely no relevance to this person’s situation AT ALL and yet, comfort entered into them immediately. I literally watched it happen. I didn’t even give them the scriptures that the Holy Spirit had used to comfort me in the past. I just did and said what He said and watched Him move.  At that moment, I became a conduit for the Father’s loving comfort to flow through me. 

This is our destiny – yours and mine – to give away what God gives us. Not just good advice or even scriptures we know off by heart – unless the Holy Spirit highlights something in particular to us. Our response comes directly from the One Who used His word to comfort us. These times are also opportunities for us to experience ‘God’s love for me,’ personally. People can get caught up in seeking after experiences, but at times like this a scripture can jump out at us – almost with flashing lights. Just as clearly as a sign flashing in our heads, it dawns on us that God Himself just spoke to us. And that’s comforting. Not only does Almighty God know … He cares and we have proof.  These things become our own personal memorial stones.

Maybe a phone call comes unexpectedly, and a loved one, or a brother or sister in the Lord, has been moved by Him enough to call to see how we are doing. To comfort someone else with that kind of supernatural comfort, all we need to do is pray, listen, and OBEY.  That’s all it takes to make us a Godly conduit of comfort for someone else. 👋🏻