Step

P 2988 I can’t cope Lord.

/ DVH

There are times where we feel we need to make a ‘good confession,’ and repeat some scripture or other, when life has knocked us down — or we will be failing Him, or betraying our faith. No pressure or anything! I’d like to momentarily call your attention to the Old Testament where real people grizzled their heads off!  There are also plenty of illustrations in the New.

Today I want to point out that the Psalmists talked a lot about their enemies flourishing, plus having to hang around with wicked people, and their souls being tormented etc. So did the prophets. It is not a sin if you cannot cope! It is a sign of our own humanity. None of us are perfected yet, we are on a road with Him, learning as we go. We have the benefit of the bible, and the Holy Spirit telling us to ‘put our foot here, and put our foot there.’  And on many days we are walking up a very slippery slope. Without Him we would slip away. Overcoming is not just about having a positive outlook. Overcoming is getting up again, soaked to the skin by our own tears, covered in other people’s filth, or our own … and taking yet another trembling step.

The Holy Spirit is incredible. He can be in Dubai comforting someone, and in Tasmania comforting someone else etc. – all at the same time! He’s everywhere – because He is needed everywhere.There are some places that are so deep, so fraught with despair, that only Jesus Himself understands them. Other people can only look on in horror at our suffering. The Holy Spirit gives us Christ’s own words to shed light at these times when others are on the darkest of paths. But that does not mean the path is not painful. We cannot psyche ourselves into thinking evil to be ignored and pretend we are fine. That’s Disney – not the GOSPEL! God’s glory in these situations, is that these dear people keep on following HIM, trembling, walking on in naked bleeding faith.

In my limited experience, sensitive souls are often fighting off oppression through no fault of their own. If we are not careful we will end up developing a ‘Cone of Silence’ …thank you, Maxwell Smart! That spy loved that stupid thing … but it never did work properly!! Moving on …the bible is full of people who felt that what God asked them to do was bigger than they were. Starting with Moses, who pushed his younger brother into the firing line.  Whizzing right past Abraham – who tried to help God out because the Lord was taking His own time.  

Sometimes the “silence of God” can lead to not coping, and that is where we need our Christian families. Not to labour the point, but the other day I mentioned Ecclesiastes 3 — where not coping is clearly legitimised. God has allowed us time to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. That valley can be the death of a loved one, the death of a dream or the death of greatly needed relationship or position. 

Almighty God Himself chose to become human, so now He has a personal understanding of the result of pain in human lives.  Jesus stands next to His throne, praying for us as we walk through those valleys and He doesn’t have a stop watch on us! He has a big staff in His hands so He can clobber our enemies, not us!  We must always remember the compassion that Jesus had for people in all kinds of trouble, some of it self-inflicted.

There is no right way to suffer:“For I consider [from the standpoint of faith] that the sufferings of the present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us!” Romans 8:18. God has a plan – it’s a good plan – because He is a good God. Jesus told us that we would have trials, He said this to give us heart, as we wade through evil times and circumstances. What He said is meant to be a comfort, because He is there with us. John 16:33. “These things I have spoken unto you, that IN ME ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” HE WON!! That’s all we need to know, and sometimes it’s all we can handle.

It is mean-spirited to judge and sentence others about their inability to handle any kind of pain. What someone else can blissfully sail through, might bring my life to a screeching halt. Compassion is a real word, and it is lacking in the body of Christ today. “When He (Jesus) saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Matthew 9:36. And compassion is not just the ability to say: “Oh, I am so sorry that happened to you,” sincerely. That’s a good beginning, but it is not the whole story. 

Compassion is understanding that any sheep – plagued, damaged, and surrounded by wolves and lions – will struggle to keep going. Meanwhile what do we think WE are still in this world for? We are His hands and feet, our place in this world is to take kindness and compassion to those who suffer. Whether they are Christian or not. Faith fades when you are in pain. Many battles are too much for us – we need help from those around us.

I have often said: “I cannot cope Lord.” And I have seen the Lord deliver me so many times I can’t count them … but I don’t always whistle a happy tune…sometimes I bawl my eyes out.  He gently holds my hand either way. Showing caring compassion is the very least we can do for each other. Bye. 😭

P 2693 A new perspective on Giving.

/ DVH

“Give generously and generous gifts will be given back to you, shaken down to make room for more. Abundant gifts will pour out upon you with such an overflowing measure that it will run over the top! The measurement of your generosity becomes the measurement of your return.”” Luke 6:38 TPT.

Hubby and I have seen the truth in this verse, personally. The more we give away stuff – time, money, kindness, love – the more we are given back by God Himself. Then that interaction psychologically helps replenish our potential supply of stuff to give away next time. Meanwhile, we get our motivation to give from the Bible as well as the Holy Spirit. After a while, giving becomes a way of life. The thing is, we need those enlightened eyes I talked about yesterday, so we can notice the return waves of blessings from the Lord. Otherwise it can be too easy to miss whatever He is doing, because we are distracted by the busyness of this life. 

Here is what I’ve learnt over the years, which might help you: God does not always reciprocate in kind. In other words, perhaps you gave away apples, but the Lord may simply give you the strength to be kind in the face of someone else’s nasty disposition. The return wave of blessing, won’t necessarily contain the same thing you sent out. This is yet another opportunity to get to know His Ways even more. We can learn a lot about the Lord by the way He meets our needs, as well as the way He blesses us.

Which is why we need those enlightened eyes! Otherwise we won’t relate one thing to the other and we will miss what He is doing entirely. God gives us what He values, that’s how we get to know His Way of doing things – by taking note of what He values. This works when we are reading the bible, or we are using our enlightened eyes. It’s our generosity toward others that opens that particular flood-gate. He is such a giving God and it makes sense to me that the Lord would want His kids – who are re-presenting HIM – to be that way too. Encouragement is a great form of giving.

We can partially hinder the ever-expanding floodgates of His loving kindness toward us, by missing the blessing of giving. Giving is not just about things or money. He is always giving. In my limited opinion, God’s nature is so beautiful, He cannot help Himself! He gives because it is Who He is. Stepping into living a giving kind of life is one the ways I have found that we can ’taste and see that the Lord is good.” Many times we can pin our thoughts and hopes on Him answering our prayers. We think those things  are the only kind of blessing, but He has a myriad ways to give us Himself – I have even seen Him stretch time.

TIME is the most valuable thing we have …You and I woke up this morning, but some people didn’t!  This means our God has given us another day. Praise Him! That day is filled to the brim with opportunities and possibilities for change. We can choose to fix the things in our lives that are broken — EG:  we can choose to be reconciled, no matter who did what! And we can start dying to self, one step at a time. Dying to self is a process — it starts with taking one deliberate step after another. When our time runs out we won’t be able to do that, anymore. Today, I want to call our attention to the fact that there are so many places we can be generous to others.

So we choose not to give an angry answer – and instead we take charge, and take personal responsibility for a moment – instead of retaliating badly. We choose to say nothing, or give a soft answer instead. I have found nothing diffuses somebody else’s grumpy attitude better than apologising, even if you don’t think whatever it is was your fault! And yes, that means with some people you are always going to be the one who apologises, but this life is not a competition – we lose when we live that way. This life we now lead we lead by faith. We walk in another realm, a realm where giving away undeserved GRACE away flourishes.

Christians are not meant to walk around dishing out judgment. We died with Him, and we are now living a new life, filled with His power to overcome the old ways. When we get into how right we think we are and how wrong the other person is … even if that stuff is only going on in our thoughts, then sadly, we just hit judgment! That junk is going to come out of our mouth, today, tomorrow, a year from now. Judgment, when it is not dealt with, does not have a shelf life – it will pop out of our mouths at the darndest times. But blessing others becomes a way of life.

Leaving judgment to the Lord is another form of giving. We are giving away what He freely gave us. We have a personal responsibility to live like Christ did, and He lived a giving life. If we think about giving as simply sending out money or things, we’ve missed the greater revelation. JESUS LOVED, HE GAVE. Then giving becomes our way of life. Now we love, and we give – no matter what comes back at us. It’s His way to live. I think it is also part of that narrow gate, Jesus mentioned  – be warned …. few find it. 👋

P 2441 Faith steps are essential.

/ DVH

“IF the Spirit is the source of our life, we must also allow the Spirit to direct every aspect of our lives.” Galatians 5:25 TPT. And here’s the NIV version: “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” And the last one, the MSG bible: “Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives.” 

We must always remember, salvation is not a one off – it’s an ongoing, active, co-operative process. You see, the problem is that we think that because we have been given an option, a choice, we can still opt out of obedience and it will make no difference to our walk with Jesus. Just because the owner of the vineyard is absent that does not mean we can do whatever we like! We can ignore His directives, but we do that at our own peril. This is why…

It is the Spirit of God Who leads us and inspires us, and when we ignore Him, or whatever God is saying to us, we are actively rejecting Him. We are telling Him we don’t want His help. Remember Samson?  That guy wanted what he wanted, and due to God’s investment in his life, he could get most things without any consequence. Boy, is this man’s life a cautionary tale! He shows us that disregarding the Lord’s instructions can have dire results. We can walk with the Holy Spirit and experience His power through our lives, and if we are not careful, we can see His power flowing through us as His approval of WHATEVER we do. Our God doesn’t take His gifts back – He’s not an Indian giver.

Samson was accustomed to the power of God being with him in whatever battle he faced. Then he got careless. A beautiful woman wore down his resolve and he disobeyed God’s instruction not to cut his hair. Because of this Samson lost his connection with the Holy Spirit … and he didn’t even know it.  Like I said – a cautionary tale! Judges 16:20; “Then she called out,“Samson,the Philistines are here!” When Samson awoke from his sleep, he thought,“I will escape as I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.“The ‘she’ in this story BTW, is Delilah, who would not stop until she rendered him helpless! …To return to the most important line in the whole story … SAMSON DID NOT KNOW THAT THE LORD HAD DEPARTED FROM HIM. Pause and think on that! 

Sincere repentance is great, do it! But making allowances for our pet sin(s) is not! We are treating the Holy Spirit badly when we act like that…He will leave AND WE WILL NOT KNOW IT – Samson didn’t. The Holy Spirit is not like a plane or a train! He does not announce His departure … He just quietly … leaves. This BTW explains the people you know who claim they are definitely Christians but they stay the same day after day, year after year. There are people who pay lip-service to God but they are not fooling Him. Transformation is always our own personal choice, and our responsibility – it is our response to Christ’s sacrifice. He will ALWAYS help us if we will just take a step of faith. 

Friendship with the Holy Spirit is to be desired and sought after. Those people who like to appear righteous, however, are living in presumption. All we ever need to do is ask for His help. Um… you and I cannot be independent and walk with the Holy Spirit, all at the same time. HE. WILL. LEAVE. The very purpose of being saved includes actively relying upon Him. Here’s another news flash … the Lord’s silence does not mean that He agrees with us.

Almighty God is always looking for us to use our faith. Ask for His mercy and grace, and then stop doing whatever it is that you know you should not be doing. Leave the room. Stop thinking someone else is going to make the difference and use your own faith. Nobody is making anyone do that stuff, and SomeOne, oh so precious, is right there, wanting to help you overcome.

We are saved to walk by faith and serve Him, and that always includes our transformation. When we tell Him “I can’t” –  our unbelief in His power to SAVE us from ourselves, will be our downfall. Tell Him, “I can’t, but I want to, please help me!” – and then do something differently. The Holy Spirit will show us the way through any trouble, one step at a time. Otherwise we are parking our lives in the middle of satan’s freeway. Change is hard but necessary – God has work for each one of us to do.

However simply praying God will change us, and then walking away and still acting like our mean old sorry self is not the way to be changed. Nobody else is going to put their hand over anyone’s mouth to shut them up when they’ve wandered off into giving people a piece of their mind. Our choice to disobey is our choice. Faith steps are not optional they are essential. Bye.👋🏻

P 2328 Tenacity.

/ DVH

The bit that is actually easy in the Christian life is doing what He wants with the help of our ever present Helper. ‘His YOKE is easy, His burden is light.’ If it is hard then maybe we have wandered away from His yoke. However, sometimes we can get so caught up in trying to find ‘comfortable’ when things assail us …we can forget we are in a battle. We live in enemy territory, not the garden of Eden. STUFF is gunna happen. After a while when that stuff keeps on coming, and coming at you, you can feel you are permanently under siege. Time for a time out with Jesus.

At our house right now, we are two people with only two good useful hands between us … and both of them are left-hands. 😂 You’d be amazed how much you need both hands – maybe that’s why the Lord gave us two in the first place! Whatever. 🙄 For the past 9 weeks I have typed this blog with my left index finger. Boy has that been interesting! I am not, BTW, looking for sympathy, other people have their own problems. I simply think the Lord is currently making the Western world uncomfortable … HE wants to be our reason to live — not just an optional add-on.

So hubby and I have started to pray together that the Lord Himself will be our strong right arm … because our own arms are letting us down big time. There is nothing like running out of your own strength to remind us that we can’t do this stuff by ourselves! We never could. Some days I can be seen mumbling to myself – ‘Its OK – our side wins in the end.”

I am writing about these types of situations today to put forward the idea that we all have these blooming awful, hard-to-find-anything-good-about-them, times. This Christian life is not always some sort of ongoing party – where we all cheer for our side, because we won! Hallelujah! We DID win! Thanks to our precious Saviour – but now you and I have to walk out that victory minute by minute, day by day, week by week… …. And it will cost us.

It’s officially a fight – the man of God said so in 2 Corinthians 1:8.“We were so utterly burdened we despaired of life itself.” You and I are not failing just because we are struggling. It just so happens we are struggling to keep the faith!  Meanwhile the Lord is filling us with His endurance and stamina so we can run our race well. Paul also said this: 2 Timothy 4:7:“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith…”

We are winning, because even though we might despair and fall down, eventually we get up and go again. Sometimes we may crawl, but that’s ok – that will humble anyone pretty quickly! Tenacity is invaluable. Perseverance the bible calls it, I call it refusing to quit. And don’t be fooled by that seemingly positive statement, it sometimes takes all you have to even get up off the floor, but remember the Holy Spirit will not break bruised reeds. 

In the Western world we are often vastly under prepared for life’s storms. But Christians can survive any storm because Jesus is in our little boat with us. HE can calm the stormy sea of anxiety, sorrow and suffering inside us. Creating an awareness of His Presence and help can be our most daunting task … and our greatest asset. Mainly because life happens and it ain’t like the TV ads.

Sometimes I think I’m like Peter on one of his earlier incredible revelation/dumb days… John 6:66-69.“After this many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that You are the Holy One of God.”That was the great revelation bit…

A-N-D … here comes the dumb …’”Peter took him aside and began to rebuke Him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to You!” Matthew 16:22. Poor guy, he so totally went the wrong way – into his flesh. One minute in the Spirit … the next, not-so-much. I have a theory about that BTW, sometimes we go the wrong way to learn about ourselves. It sure helps to keep me humble!  

Tenacity is not about getting it right. It’s about not giving up when you get it wrong. It’s about facing your fears and failings and clinging to the Lord. It’s about repentance and humility and clambering up from the floor when you’ve fallen on your face. You know sometimes this life is not about making great strides… its about taking the next step. 👋🏻 

P 2253 One step at a time.

/ DVH

Our God is overwhelmingly limitless … so we must never limit what He is able to do with one person who is prepared to live their life for Jesus’ sake!  I love the Old Testament, there are huge glimpses of Almighty God’s Personhood for those who take the time to look.

Take the book of Job – he was a happy man. Then God and satan had a word war over what was the source of Job’s happiness. Job lost everything he owned, plus his wife, kids and friends! Then God did an amazing thing – He showed Job the difference between man’s wisdom and HIS. Almighty God shifted Job’s reliance over to Himself, and He made Job’s faith even deeper by revealing Himself. One step at a time.

Moses was a murderer. He ran away from his destiny as Pharaoh’s adopted son. Instead he was living a happy, quiet life, looking after his father-in-law’s sheep … when God confronted him. Through Moses we see how God handles perceived problems, situations and people. We get insight into His Ways. Our God moved that man from shepherding sheep, to boldly confronting Pharaoh and demanding that he let his Israelite slaves go. Moses followed the Lord’s instructions … one step at a time.

Gideon was another ordinary man, living an ordinary little life. He was hiding grain from the multitude known as the Midianites. The conversations that Gideon had with an angel the Lord sent, show us the way Almighty God takes into account our character, our weaknesses. The Midianites stomped all over the Jewish people, they stole everything that wasn’t nailed down, but God used an ordinary fellow to defeat the very people who oppressed them. One step at a time – that’s how the Lord taught Gideon. 

Peter, Andrew, James, and John were simple fishermen. But their Heavenly Father had other plans. One day an itinerant Teacher turned up and told them to follow Him, so they did. They saw more in their lifetimes than they ever imagined they could. God gave them a commission they couldn’t turn down, and they followed it – one step at a time.

Stephen in Acts, was Greek. He waited on tables, looking after widows and orphans, then God made him a deacon. He taught others about Christ, by what he did and said. Then he was arrested, and ended up preaching the gospel, going from Moses to Jesus in front of all the religious leaders of that day. A brilliant sermon. They promptly hated every word he said – and even as he lay dying, surrounded by their rocks, he pointed to their Messiah. He did all this … one step at a time.

Paul was killing Christians when God knocked him to the ground and made him blind. Truth be told, that man was already blind, spiritually! And Almighty God just let his outsides match his insides for a few days. However Paul was irrevocably changed by that encounter. He went into God’s private bible school – the accelerated course – for three years, and then he trundled all over the known world. He also spent time in jail on and off, and he wrote letters that are still changing our world. One step at a time.

I could go on and on – Mary was simply a devoted peasant girl. She had ordinary plans for her life, and Almighty God interrupted them with His own plans to bring His Son into this world. Esther was the town pretty girl, and God had plans to make her a queen so she could save her nation. Ruth was a widow, and so was her mother-in-law – yet God made her one of Jesus direct fore-bearers. Ordinary people living ordinary lives until an extraordinary limitless God transformed them all into sign-posts, keys, and examples of what His Grace can do with an ordinary life – one step at a time.

My point today is this: … what does He want to do with your life?? We will never know our real purpose for being here in this world, outside of His plans. Our lives may be ordinary and hidden – but when we read the Old and the New Testament, these people who went before us, are a blazing flashing neon sign in the sky that our God can do anything …if we will just follow Him … one step at a time. When we follow Jesus we don’t arrive, we begin a journey … one step at a time.

Will you let Him use you? It is highly unlikely that most of us will have a book written about our God-given exploits – but I believe, in heaven, there are books and books and books. Why? Because the things we do down here, are the things of faith, and they point to Jesus, just as surely as Job, Moses, Gideon, Paul, Peter, Andrew, James, John, Stephen, Mary, Esther and Ruth’s faith steps did… one step at a time. 👋🏻 

P 2248 Make a commitment to obey.

/ DVH

Here are some things I’ve learnt over the years that have helped me with growing fruit, that lasts. My first bit of advice is that we need to do what He says. It will not help us to make excuses for ourselves, just do it anyway. And here’s the oddest thing like … ever! 🤪 The Holy Spirit’s fruit grows when we are not looking, and it grows from our deliberately chosen and carried out, obedience. This has taught me that we are not saved to be blessed … although we definitely are!  Instead we are saved to be a blessing.

“I just want to obey all You ask of me. So teach me, Lord, for You are my God. Your gracious Spirit is all I need, so lead me on good paths that are pleasing to You, my One and only God!” Psalms 143:10.

When I first became a Christian I was one of those people that other ‘“normal” Christians avoided. I was just too enthusiastic. To be fair, it was a quiet little denominational church, and I was kind of a culture shock. Well, 50 years later I can say – “I think I’m worse, now!” Ha! Ha! … And I’m not sorry either. Growth is essential, even if we all have to learn the hard way sometimes, and growth means changing. Some things have taken me years to learn. I’d purpose in my heart not to make that mistake again, and then fall down the same hole, because my own feelings and previous hurts sucked me in.

Learning to forgive over and over again is difficult. Some people just keep re-offending, no matter how often you ask them to ‘please, stop!’ No wonder Jesus said we must forgive others even if our brother offends us 490 times in a day! Sadly, some people seem to have perfected the offending others skill, into an art form. Over time I’ve learnt that the people around me probably won’t change when I need them to, instead I needed to change my response to their sin. I’m definitely going to need the Holy Spirit’s help to do that!

For years the Lord taught me that obedience is better than sacrifice, so I learnt to obey whatever He asked me to do, whenever He told me to do it. Sometimes when I did those faith things for Him, I looked like a goose … but most of the time, I saw HIM in action. Boy watching God work after you’ve given Him room, is incredibly addictive … in a good way. 😊 You can’t wait to obey again, trust me!!  Meanwhile looking like a goose is kind of good for excessive pride – win-win! 

However, I still had no victory over some negative stuff from my childhood. I’d go up the front and get prayed for, and a few days later all my good will had worn off and I would go back down the hole again. What helped me in the end was my commitment to obedience. Whenever the Holy Spirit told me to go and help somebody, I did that immediately. But until the Lord revealed His Ways to me, I did not understand that changing my character happens the same way. 

I kept asking Him to do it for me. I think I expected that I would just wake up one day different, and it would all be easy. I knew He wanted to help me with these things, it says so in the book! But I failed to realise that I had to step out in faith and do the exact thing I thought and felt I couldn’t do – just because He had said it, and that’s also in the book. Instead, I had to learn to monitor myself – one conversation, one thought, one interaction at a time. I needed to say NO to my grumpy impulses born from all that pain, and ask Him to heal me. Our hearts are born to bear fruit – but His fruit cannot grow in an angry broken heart. The fruit of the Spirit needs a new soft heart toward others to grow so I had to learn to let Him soften my heart toward the people who continually hurt me.

Saying no to our natural impulses in the heat of a moment, begins the process of growing the fruit of self-control. Self-control grows out of that obedience, as His acceptance of us takes over our thinking. Proverbs says: “He who guards his mouth preserves his life, But he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction.” And James 3:2 also taught me a secret. He said this: “We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check…”  

I discovered that mastering my inner pain was dependant on my choices to obey what He said, in the book. He taught me that obedience counts. Not just to do this or that good work He prepared for me before I was ever born – it also helps me overcome my failings. This way of life has been my constant learning curve ever since. When I do what He says, I do well and experience victory – when I don’t I fall down a hole and feel sorry for myself … and get up and go again! 

The same obedience that I use to do His will, can form my character, one chosen step at a time. 👋🏻