Spiritual breathing

P 3335 ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER.

/ DVH

“This gospel unveils a continual revelation of God’s righteousness—a perfect righteousness given to us when we believe. And it moves us from receiving life through faith, to the power of living by faith. This is what the Scripture means when it says: “We are right with God through life-giving faith!”” Romans 1:17 TPT.

Father God had a plan for mankind before He ever spoke the words …”Let there be light…”  I really like the picture below because the bible says: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God …” John 1:1. Jesus Christ is the personification of this written Word and we too, will be transformed into living testaments for God’s glory. Father God gave us His perspective of what this life is about … and He sent us the best example to show us that there is no other way – Jesus is the Way!

Unbelievable Grace was released the day Jesus chose to die, but this action was planned by Father God, from the beginning of time, so that you and I would learn to live using our faith. And that faith would grow so big in us, we would use it to live this life, day by day, minute by minute, here and now. Our faith is not just to be used to get us out of trouble, or sorrow or strife— our faith is a WAY OF LIFE. Pressing us deeper into relying totally on Him, no matter what our circumstances are. “The just shall LIVE by faith.” Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 10:38.  

Like the scripture above in Romans says …our faith is not just meant to be an occasional exercise – we are to live there. Everything that was done for us will be continually revealed to us, over and over again. There are golden threads of heavenly wisdom that criss-cross our lives enriching them with His value, depth and colour. Jesus’ righteousness has been freely given and sent to keep us moving forward, deeper and deeper into our Heavenly Father’s love. His love is about WHO HE IS. 

We dare not take advantage of His generosity by doing whatever we like and thinking: “That will be OK, everybody does it.” That’s called presumption, and it is holding us back from the depths of His love. Sticking our heads in the sand and hoping no-one (like the Lord) will notice that we are not being transformed, is futile. The first person to notice transformation should be ME and hopefully my spouse etc.

In our struggles to maintain our personality – which is a selfish concept from this world – we are hurting other people. “Love does no harm.” The Lord’s love has been freely given to us and we need to gladly share it with anyone … including our enemies! Not living by faith will restrict our spiritual breathing. Faith is a road not a one-time destination. But we can so easily stop at the knowledge, and not move forward into the actions that appropriate the POWER to live like Jesus did.

Living by faith produces that power. The more we obey Him in faith, the more we increase God’s power in our lives to overcome our own peculiar foibles, this world’s temptations, and the devil’s wiles. We must keep moving. Moving ON… Christianity is not meant to stand still, or rest on the laurels of things that have been revealed in the past. There will always be new mountains to explore, new rivers to cross, and other oceans with new worlds that have brand new beginnings on the other side of them.

Stopping that loving way of life moving forward is fatal. Whether we are a church group, denomination, or a single soul following Christ for themselves, there is no arrival place this side of heaven. However, our faith down here is designed to be mobile – tested, sometimes weighed and measured, as we willingly choose to live in love and experience the Holy Spirit’s transformation. 

Jesus left this earth so He could leave behind a group of people who were so enabled by the Holy Spirit they would do what He did and more. God’s righteousness, so freely extended and given to all of us, is the vehicle that makes this forward movement possible. As we obey, using our faith, we will stop going round and round, wasting our time doing the same dumb things over and over, and start fulfilling our personal destiny. Our destiny is to love others the way He loved us. Forget grubbing around in the dust looking for this gift or that ministry – let’s go for what God Himself says is GOLD. A love that will die for each other.

Then we’ll become like pure spring water leaping into this life over all the rocks and barriers that a life on earth has constructed in us and around us. We bring that joyous life and loving to others, no matter what tribe, tongue or creed they have. The thing is – it has to be real. We can’t fudge transformation or even try to maintain it. All this holier than thou stuff that goes on in our lives is an impediment to the real. I’ve seen the real, it is tangible, life-giving and powerful!

Many saints want God’s power without transformation, and that is as dangerous as giving a lit stick of dynamite to a little kid to chew on. The kid doesn’t know what it is playing with! … Nor the danger it is in. Without a Christ-like character being developed in us, we cannot be trusted with Holy things, because our minds and hearts can easily be corrupted. The good news is this:  we are all standing on the same ground. No-one is better at this than someone else. If we are still breathing on this earth then we are still in His processes and He promised to finish what He started!

The Good News is, the more you live this way the more you fall in Love with the One Who paid the ultimate price for you! Remember, one thing — using our faith – leads to another — living by faith. Bye. 👋

P 3312 Staying in the river!

/ DVH

“Believe in ME so that rivers of living water will burst out from within you, flowing from your innermost being, just like the Scripture says!””  John 7:38 TPT. Great scripture! … I love to watch things on YouTube that many people might think are a bit boring. Every morning we put on one of those supposedly, sappy Christian music videos, that feature pretty pictures of nature. They can stream away for like 11 hours. And then I just let that stuff quietly run, so I can be engaged with my blog, bible reading, prayers and thoughts. You might like just plain silence!

I’ve personally found I’m far more likely to recognise His ‘rivers of living water’ when I am not distracted by other noises, or things that fly past on the TV screen trying to capture my attention! Meanwhile, I’m incredibly blessed and grateful that my time is my own, and how I spend it is up to me. Many people reading this don’t have that kind of freedom. But I think the secret to staying in the river of God begins with staying aware of Him and giving Him my attention. Have you ever watched a well trained sheep dog? The dog never takes its eyes off its Master. Meeting with Jesus is the place where we can ‘let it all hang out,’ because He knows our junk anyway!

Today, I want to talk about the importance of spiritual breathing. Living this new life the way God Himself has designed it, is a natural process with no striving involved. It’s just as natural as breathing IN and OUT. After all we do that without even thinking about it – unless we have some sort of disease or obstruction – we just do it!  “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, 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 toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 3:12-14. 

Jesus has taken hold of my life for a reason, He will help me find my real life in Him. I am greatly cheered up by the fact that the Apostle Paul, who wrote most of the Epistles — who was, some say, taken up into the 3rd heaven  — told us, he hadn’t arrived at that goal yet! This means that the best bits are still out in front of each one of us. However, just because this goal can seem unattainable, that doesn’t mean we should give up on aiming at it! It simply means we are in the best company, so I shouldn’t give up I should press on! He is now my focus.

Pressing on involves dogged dedication. So does finding out,  knowing and liking the same things the Lord likes! Plus doing whatever Jesus would do in any situation. All that takes focus, time and energy. To do this we need to sort out our priorities. Is it to be God – or the washing first? Jesus has to be more real to us than the people around us. Be assured that I don’t always get it right, that’s why I keep pressing on. However, I have learnt over the years that when my heart is pointed in His direction, the Lord is incredibly loving and tolerant of my muddles and misses, and ‘He makes my paths smooth.’ 

His infinite patience lovingly watches over us. He despatches angels to catch us when we fall, or fail. He can redeem everything and anything. “Who redeems your life from the pit and corruption, Who beautifies, dignifies, and crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercy;…” Psalm 103:4. In other words, to the Lord, human beings are not just a hobby, or a pastime – we are the focus of His attention and affections. Let’s not relegate Him to the back burner as SomeOne we call on when the ceiling falls in. He is our refuge, not our emergency standby. 

“But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9a. What does that scripture mean when we are talking about the River of God? I think we can often put an accent on one bit of scripture over another, and in this instance that means we will be skipping over the best bit. The River bit. The bit that says: ‘My grace is sufficient for you…’ that is the important bit. His Grace is always enough! We just need to return our focus to Him when distracted, and GRACE WILL BE THERE.  Instead of looking into our hearts and seeing our inner cupboards bare and bankrupt—choose to look into Jesus’ eyes and heart, and see the abundance He has for you. We dare not try to manage the weakness we see in ourselves without looking at the greatness of His Grace toward us. Despite our whimsical feelings, we are not poverty stricken!

His power is made perfect in our weakness, but we can’t afford to be distracted by those weaknesses! Instead,let’s pray that He will give us the Grace to comprehend the incredible POWER that was released through the cross.  Our weaknesses cannot stand in the face of that power. Let’s not focus on the negative, let’s focus on Jesus and what He already did. The only thing that can negate His power from releasing itself into our situations, is our decision, or choice, to believe that our badness can possibly be bigger than His goodness!

The Lord Jesus did not just emerge from that grave ‘alive’ like Lazarus did! He was filled with so much Grace and power, He instantly saved the world! That included those Who believed before He came and all those who came afterward. The Grace He gives us is without limit. We need to cherish it with every part of us. The river of God is always available to us, so let’s jump into His love and grace, and stay there on floating on our backs. If we fall out of the river, then we need to jump back in again. Bye.👋