Spring

P3445 Hold fast, dear saint of God.

/ DVH

“I pray that you will continually experience the immeasurable greatness of God’s power made available to you through faith. Then your lives will be an advertisement of this immense power as it works through you! This is the mighty power that was released when God raised Christ from the dead and exalted Him to the place of highest honour and supreme authority in the heavenly realm!” Ephesians 1:19-20 Amen.

Paul was given the ability by God, to understand what we have been given when Jesus died for all of us. In this verse he talks about this power being available to each one of us, as well as being released through us. But we have been given even greater opportunities than Paul had. Christians are so blessed, we have the revelations Father God gave to Luke, Matthew, Mark, John, James, Peter and Jude. Thank you Lord!

Paul was given incredible revelations about what Christ’s life, death and resurrection did. He teaches us that one act brought about the possibility of transformation for every human being. He shows us what living this life “In Christ Jesus” means. No exceptions. The problem is we can see these things as theology, (information), but they are not, they are a powerful way to live. We’ve grown used to thinking of God’s power as the power to do miracles, but the greatest use of God’s power is allowing it to transform each one of us, day by day. We are no longer held captive by a yoke of slavery — we’ve been set free to live the way our Saviour lived. Please notice the present tense!

Like Paul says, we can choose to live for Jesus and as we do so, we glorify HIM. That does not mean we are part of some clever marketing campaign, as we try hard to appeal to other people. Instead it means we are to be a showcase of Who He is, and what He has done … for everyone else to see. BTW, the gifts of the Spirit are a separate thing to being transformed. Now it is our choice to reflect Him into this world around us. We don’t set the standard, Jesus Himself does that! Human standards without the Holy Spirit’s input, create chaos.

The Lord Jesus’ action on mankind’s behalf, took every single human being out of the realm of sin and death, and broke it’s power over us. Then He firmly established mankind as the Father’s favoured children. Yes … even the people we don’t like!  Now sin is not compulsory – it is an optional extra – we are not powerless against it anymore! The Lord Jesus and what He did, transformed everything, and we have the Holy Spirit as  our Helper. It doesn’t matter what you think, or what I think – it only matters what He thinks and it is in the book!

We’ve been translated “out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His marvellous light.” And the view is mind-boggling … which is why our minds and hearts need to catch up with what Jesus Christ has already done for us. That’s why we read the bible, we are playing catch-up! What you and I knew before we met Him has been wiped away with His own blood, so now it is natural for us to have His point of view. His point of view is LOVE.

Our relationship has been destined by God Himself to be totally intimate and functional, so we can go back to the place before mankind sinned. Where Father God and human beings were friends who deeply loved each other. He is willing to share His thoughts with us, just like He did when He walked and talked with Adam and Eve. 

I choose to read the bible to find out exactly how His point of view works itself out in my life… by taking what the Lord has said and then I ask Him to show me how, when and where I need to apply it. Then I act on it. I am not a powerless person, a victim of my former circumstances any longer. What Jesus did for me restored me, and my whole life. With my permission, He takes every one of those hard, difficult, and sometimes terrible things in my life — the good, the bad … plus those ones I sadly think of as — “boy I wish I hadn’t done that!” …and He redeems it in ways I cannot possibly imagine. Those ways are so perfect, as I recognise them, they take my breath away. 

Giving my life to Him is not a sacrifice, it is a joy. I can have God’s opinion for free, at any time. If it happens that the Lord is silent, then I don’t have to panic because His Word clearly tells me He will NOT leave me, nor forsake me. The Lord cannot be unfaithful to His Word and that is what I now stand upon. That and the blood that Jesus willingly shed on my behalf that washed me clean. Everything my Heavenly Father does is good. If it looks bad then that means I can’t see the end yet – it isn’t over, I am just observing His processes.

I refuse to reduce my Saviour to mere actions, or answers to prayer. Instead I rely upon what God Himself says in His book, and what Jesus has taught me. God does not have to prove Himself to me, He already did. Once and for all. This life has seasons, seasons of the soul. Some of our seasons are rich and bright like summer, or spring, and others seem destined for death like winter and autumn. But the life of God for us and in us, remains steadfast. Jesus taught us that.

Let’s hold fast to Him. In season and out. “Even when we are too weak to have any faith left, He remains faithful to us and will help us, for He cannot disown us who are part of Himself, and He will always carry out His promises to us.” 2 Timothy 2:13. Bye. 👋

P 2600 Let’s be realistic.

/ 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.”2 Peter 1:3 TPT.

Knowing Jesus intimately, introduces us to a new way to think and live. It is a waste of time to try to fit Jesus into our lives the way they existed before we met Him. Let’s be logical, why wouldn’t we need to change?  After all, we needed to be saved! However, Almighty God is not in the panel-beating business! He doesn’t look at us like we would look at a smashed up car and go: ‘Oh dear, that one has a big ding here in the boot’ OR ‘that one took a heck of a whack in the side door.’  Our proximity to Him changes everything. People got healed when Jesus was around – He didn’t have to touch them.

We all need this brand new life. A life devoted to His service, His ways, and His book! We haven’t just accidentally collected boo-boos as we’ve gone along … the truth is we’ve made bad choices. Choices that led us away from His purpose for our lives. We do not need ‘make-overs’ — we need to be transformed. At the same time we need to CO-operate with the Holy Spirit. And everything we will need for that transformation has been given to us, when we admitted our need for a Saviour. We participate in this new life by using our faith.  It works like this – “The bible tells me I have been given Your patience, so thank you for that Grace Lord, now I am going to exercise that patience by acting on it.” 

I need a Saviour every second of every hour of every day of my life. Today, I’m still wrangling with what James said in Chapter 3 Verses 10-12! “Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.” However, I’m not going to go on about taming the tongue today, because I am extremely busy trying to tame my own!

However, this scripture is a diagnostic tool, it shows us how very deeply ingrained sin is in our lives. None of us are not perfected yet! What comes OUT shows us what is still IN there. My advice is don’t excuse yourself – repent! We can make excuses until the cows come home, but that doesn’t do anything. What matters is turning our hearts back to Him and taking those faith steps. It is too easy to swan about telling ourselves ‘I’m not that bad,’ but the truth is – what we do, or don’t do, actually affects other people, and we are going to be held accountable when we don’t walk in love – because THAT is available to us now too. God is not looking for perfection He wants our interaction and participation. 

Salvation has always been an ongoing process. It is a verb not a noun. Nouns name things, verbs describe actions. Sadly, we’ve settled for the name Christian, instead of becoming living illustrations of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We’ve settled for the appearance of good without actually producing it. Meanwhile if someone is mean to us, watch out! 2 Timothy 3:5 “Having a form of godliness,but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”

The power of God has not just been given to us to set captives – other people free! It has been given to us to set US free!! The sword of the Spirit is powerful. We need to know personally how powerful it is by using it on ourselves first. People sometimes waggle that sword around like they are King Arthur, but they have no idea how much damage it can do. If we continue to live this new life unaware, then it is very easy to use a full sized sword on others, and a butter knife on ourselves!

Lastly, here’s a big thought, don’t aim at having a ministry – instead aim at transformation! Your ministry will find you when you go after your true destiny. Our destiny is this: “In this [union and fellowship with Him], love is completed and perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment [with assurance and boldness to face Him]; because as He is, so are we in this world.” 1 John 4:17. Let’s be realistic, let’s aim at the things that last. 👋

P 2566 JESUS is the reason for this season – TOO!

/ DVH

Easter is well advertised where I live. Chocolate bunnies, chickens and eggs, pop up like daisies all over the place, weeks and weeks before this season comes along. These things clog the supermarket aisles and sell like we’ve never seen chocolate before. At the same time, the hot cross buns with all sorts of weird ingredients started appearing right after Christmas! After all we mustn’t miss an opportunity to sell SELL SELL!

The local fishermen love Easter time, loads of people eat all kinds of fish this weekend and they count on selling tons of it! I saw a snippet from a news story the other day where it was suggested that the crosses on top of these buns were old-fashioned, so one bakery has started putting a Nike tick on the top instead!  True story!

Recently, a trusty news crew went out to interview people on the street and asked them what they thought about this new development of hot cross buns without the crosses. One young lady said: “Well, we are a secular society so I don’t think it matters.” My first thought was, ‘She’s right!’  And my next one was: ‘Whose fault is it that she thinks that way?’ Sadly the more I thought about what that young lady said, the more it made sense. Isn’t that tragic? Easter has become the reason for all kinds of gluttony.

Too many years ago, somebody somewhere at sometime or other, thought putting crosses on top of a spiced bun was a great way to celebrate and remind everyone about what Christ did for them. But now the true meaning has been LOST over time. However, after I prayed about it, I began to be glad that people today are actually rejecting the whole thing. This is happening because nobody has told them about the reality. The reality would definitely blow them away – IF somebody who knows the Saviour, took the time to tell them!

It is sad to me that the average person in our society thinks that Easter is all about what we eat, as well as a couple of nice public holidays. Speaking for myself, I have never actually been a fan of the symbolic – whether it is a rabbit, a bun or a chocolate egg. And, right here and now, I simply must mention my distinct aversion to that jolly red fat guy who pops up at Christmas – I don’t like HIM much either.  At the same time, I am also not crazy about those baby in the manger pictures as well. Do people bring out your baby photos when they are celebrating your birthday? I think not! 

HOWEVER, if ALL Christianity has to offer is a cross on a BUN, or rampant rabbits, exorbitant gifts and chocolate eggs or a tiny baby born under adverse circumstances – no wonder they could care less! That got me thinking about what really matters. It is so easy to get stuck on how far down the plug hole our society has gone, and gloss over the fact that this world’s apathy toward God, has been caused by the church’s silence …. plus a lack of obedience by ordinary people like me.

Fortunately, the reality is Jesus Christ doesn’t need advertising gimmicks, or pretty foil covered chocolate, to gain popularity and fame be-cau-se … even though He was exactly like us, humanly speaking, and we probably would have passed Him in the street, dismissed as just another middle Eastern man. This MAN changed this world FOREVER. How? Not by clever sales marketing or other 21st century tricks, but by Who He is and what He chose to do for people He has never met. 

Yet we avoid telling His story, the reality of what He did, because we find that truth somehow distasteful. Hmmm. It is odd how we can cheerfully watch all kinds of people shoot one another apart, or blow-up, slice, dice, plus punch and kick each other to bits … for entertainment… yet it seems that the sight of an innocent pure man hanging, dying on a cross, is not palatable or marketable! He has been described perfectly in Isaiah 53:1-6, long before He was born … like this: 

“Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces He was despised, and we held Him in low esteem. Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God stricken by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed.”

Maybe this seemingly ordinary man is far more challenging than anyone thinks, when He is authentically and passionately presented to others by people who actually know Him. It would be good to clear the market place of rampant commercialism and present something real for a change! I seem to recall writing about that yesterday? Something about Jesus clearing God’s temple out of money lenders and sellers??

The Lord Jesus IS the reason for this season, and we need to take our responsibility to walk with Him seriously, and use this opportunity to shine His light into other people’s lives. There are no secret agents in His kingdom … whether they supposedly look like rabbits, chicks, buns, or way too much chocolate! Perhaps then people will believe our message is authentic. It all depends on how seriously we take our faith. Bye. 👋

P 2159 Water from the Life-Giver.

/ DVH

Because God Himself is our only source of living water – nothing else will do. Fresh water needs to move, it needs a conduit, not just a container. This means that the Holy Spirit flows through us. Into us, and out through us – like breathing. Living water needs to be able to flow, in order to keep it clean, so the Holy Spirit must be allowed to do what HE wants – we cannot organise or control Him. We need to learn to yield. Let’s not waste this precious water by allowing ourselves to have leaky pipes!

Look at Jesus. As He walked with the Spirit sometimes He stopped doing one thing to do another. He was led by the Spirit, and we need to live our lives being led too. We need that flow – a constant supply of fresh living spiritual water, in and out,  in order to sustain the life of God within us. Our active belief in Jesus creates a spring, which springs up inside us, refreshing us, and everyone around us. We need to monitor that internal spring, and check what kind of water is coming OUT of it. (James 3:11)

The way to keep this living water flowing is to let it flow in and out.  As soon as you dam water by taking it in, and not letting it flow out – you run the risk of water contamination. It is the movement of the Holy Spirit through our lives that keeps the life of God active in us, and through us, to others. We need to act on what He tells us, to keep this water of the Spirit flowing. We drink, and then we act. This process is not programmed or static.

Here’s what Jesus said: John 7: 37-39 “Jesus once again speaks of living water, saying, “’Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. ‘ By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive.”

We get His living water — the life that sustained Jesus — by obeying the Holy Spirit, as He leads us. And by ridding ourselves of our own human contamination – attitudes, thought patterns, anything that exults itself against the knowledge of God. This means that we can’t carry around our human agendas, foibles and sins and stay full!  Our job is to remain empty of self, by putting to death the deeds of the flesh. Telling lies, or shouting at people, or provoking them, being critical and mean, these kind of things are the deeds of the flesh. My advice is to stop looking at what other people are doing, and start looking at what is coming out of you. The secret to staying full of the Holy Spirit is to remain continually thirsty. It means living this life acknowledging our desperate need for God Himself and His input. 

We don’t have to be ashamed of being inadequate, we just need to acknowledge that we are, and keep the channels of our hearts clean and clear and FULL of His Love with open repentance. Because repentance has fruit and that means CHANGE. Then we put aside our own ingenuity and ability, and come humbly to the Lord for fresh water. Christ’s death made this work possible, and so we must always go to the source, which is the Cross. His life’s blood and water … flowed from His side. Ya might want to think on that. 

We cannot afford to bottle or even try to channel the Holy Spirit. He must be allowed to flow as He wishes. We dare not try to control His flow either. Instead we are totally dependent upon Him. Our belief is that Jesus Himself will always give us this living water so we use our faith to be constantly filled. However, we, ourselves, must actively look after our containers, our inner selves – by keeping short accounts with others and walking with the Lord in obedience. The bible is not full of His suggestions – He is leading us into His new life.

At the same time, we get fresh spiritual bread from the living word – the bible. We need to let the Holy Spirit daily break us, our habits, our ideas – looking deeply into the bread of the Word and then eating it –  by doing whatever He tells us to do. The only effort we make to have fresh water and bread every single day, is the effort to sustain and develop our relationship with Him. I say effort, because most of the time we won’t feel like doing it – other things will intrude upon this relationship, to dissuade us from spending time walking with Him. BTW we walk with Him, we don’t just meet Him for 15 minutes in the morning. That can quickly become a religious ritual.

Jeremiah 2:11-19 “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken Me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” Our mistake is to expect the Holy Spirit, Who is a torrent! – to flow through our teensy weensy man-made systems.  👋🏻