Stronger

P 3233 Here’s hubby!!

/ DVH

1 Corinthians 14:12: “So it is with you. Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church.” Today I want to introduce a very special guest speaker. My husband made these remarks to me a couple of days ago, when we were sitting talking together. What he said was so good, I simply had to share them with you guys. So I asked him to write it all down. My dear husband loves to see people like you and I stepping up and using their gifts to help others. Today I’ve  made it his turn to help you. I pray you will be blessed by the wisdom and clarity of what he said to me. 

“There is a gulf of real difference between 2 paradigms — the world’s way and God’s way.  One is about procurement of information to ‘better’ the self — and the other is about God’s kingdom activated and working through our lives. 

If you are working person, you will already know that workers can get Professional development days. They are paid to do courses to improve their professional status and expertise. Or perhaps someone might buy self help books etc.  Alternatively someone else has been encouraged to gather more information, to gain a greater advantage, or knowledge of a subject – as a person or a professional. So the self gets ‘better’, more improved, stronger, to gain an advantage in this world. This system glorifies man himself.

However, God’s way is to die to self, to serve, to prefer others to yourself, and constantly rely on Him. That aim is to glorify God alone. If we take the methods of the world’s paradigm into Christianity, we too will begin to gather information, and be deceived into thinking that we are progressing in the faith life and equipping ourselves to be a ‘better’ Christian. But in reality, we are piling in more knowledge – without the power of God working in us, and through us to others. We will have more reliance on self, instead of on the Holy Spirit. More insight from human knowledge, instead of revelation from heaven. 

Christians have learnt to gauge their ‘growth’ on how much we know, instead of allowing Jesus to teach us “through the kind of active obedience that can only be learnt through suffering.” This means yielding and allowing the Holy Spirit to divide our soulish attitudes and actions by deliberately choosing to use the scalpel of God’s Living Word, in and on our lives. At the same time, we also make quality choices to love others … even those who are not with us.”

…I’m not going to play ‘top this thought’  today— quite simply because I know I can’t. Hubby is saying a whole lot of stuff that I know I have said in various ways for the past 8+ years – except He took ONE page … and I have taken 3,232 of them! Is my face red? Ho-hum! I think this is what Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 14:12, when he exhorted us to excel in gifts that build up others. This means we will know it’s a spiritual gift when it benefits other people! That, BTW, is our Godly criteria. 

Let’s choose to be a people who don’t care about all kinds of spiritual hoop-la, the kind of enthusiastic stuff that turns up in our churches to try to attract the-people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet. We want Jesus to come and be with us, to do what He wants to do. He loves to set people free. We want true, genuine joy and wisdom from God Himself because He always changes lives. Those things can only come from the Holy Spirit, not from our own clever self-improvement think tanks!  Plus we want all of us to thrive in the Holy Spirit’s Presence, and go out and do whatever God has set for each one of us to do, for His glory.

I won’t say anything else today, I will leave you to think on what hubby said. Man I love clarity and he’s got bags of it. Such a blessing! Bye and bless you! 👋

“I pray for you that the faith we share may effectively deepen your understanding of every good thing that belongs to you in Christ.” Philemon 1:6 TPT. “But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.” James 3:17

P 3039 You gotta dig to find gold.

/ DVH

“How enriched are they who find their strength in the Lord; within their hearts are the highways of holiness! Even when their paths wind through the dark valley of tears, they dig deep to find a pleasant pool where others find only pain. He gives to them a brook of blessing filled from the rain of an outpouring. They grow stronger and stronger with every step forward, and the God of all gods will appear before them in Zion.” Psalms 84:5-7 TPT.

I find the Psalms are such an enormous comfort in this life! There are times that I simply cannot cope with some stuff. I need Jesus, and the precious Holy Spirit. And if you think that sounds pious or something …you would be wrong! The Holy Spirit’s Presence comforts me, and whispers things I need to hear into my heart, when I am angry. Like:“Why not suffer wrong?….” Jesus can say that to me because He lived His life that way long before I was ever born! 

When things get difficult, or I’m tired, or I have had a series of unlovely events that were not my fault — that is when I can get tetchy. Suddenly I can’t hear Him clearly. And yes, there are also times when I can hear Him fine — but I still get cranky anyway. That’s the time I know I made a choice … it was the wrong one …but I know I definitely made a choice! 

This life to me, is a battlefield, and there are seasons when we end up in the firing line. The thing is, it is not good to beat yourself up when you fall off the wagon, and you end up needing to deal with your own temper – as well as whatever caused it to flare up! Sadly, that response can add to an already difficult situation. Rules don’t help me then, they are too easily discarded. Instead I pray:  “Please help me Holy Spirit!” I have found He is so utterly dependable –  He always answers that prayer. Take a pause and a deep breath, so you can let Him help you through whatever is happening. 

The bible says this in Proverbs 25:28: “A man (a person) without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” It is way too easy to put self-control right down the bottom of the list of things that we know we are going to need. Other spiritual graces sound so much sweeter …but self control is an important key to everything else. This is the digging part of Psalm 84:5-7. We have to dig down into what we already know about Him, to help us withstand what is going on externally. 

After a while, like the Psalmist says, we also need to cultivate and develop a habit of going to Him first. Even when all you have is a desperate cry for help! That choice is ours. We have to choose to believe He will answer us. But whether we feel His Presence in those moments or not, He is always with us – that is where He promised to be!  It’s in the book. Sooner or later we all hit the very difficult wall that says — “do we believe our experiences, or lack of them — or do we believe in Him because of Who He is, and what He said?’

That’s what Lordship is. It is the place where the rubber hits the road and we choose to go His way instead of ours. That’s also the place where we will need to start digging deeper. Eventually our tears and heartache will create a pool that can comfort others. Finding our strength in Him takes perseverance. And when that Grace is cultivated within us, it will produce His fruit, in its season. Holiness isn’t what we eat or drink or do – holiness is in Him.The more we trust in Him and put our faith on the line, the more we will end up walking like a child of the King. The Spirit of God within us, rises up to help us.

Some people think of Grace as something that comes upon them. That is not true. We stir it up from within us, we don’t pray it down. Listen to this:  “Asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He replied to them by saying, The kingdom of God does not come with signs to be observed or with visible display, Nor will people say, Look! Here [it is]! or, See, [it is] there! For behold, the kingdom of God is within you [in your hearts] and among you [surrounding you].” Luke 17:20-21.

You and I, together with entire Body of Christ, are the display case of the kingdom of God for the rest of this world. Yeah, that’s kind of a bit daunting isn’t it? We will allow this kingdom to grow within us as we choose His ways over ours. And let me tell you, in  my experiences, those opportunities will always come at the most inopportune times!  

Maybe somebody just jumped all over your feelings, or a pet theory and then …watch out … what you can potentially display is either His kingdom, or your own bad temper! Yes, you have a reason to be angry, yes you may want to strangle the offender, but if … at that moment … you ask for His help, and pause, and pray, and then you will be empowered to give a kingdom response.

That’s what grows that fruit we are always on about. Growing fruit is vastly underrated. However to grow a fruit tree, like a lemon tree, or a cherry tree – you will have to dig deep. You have to make enough room for the roots to expand and grow. We have to dig to produce His fruit! It  is eternal, it’s golden, it’s forever. So we gotta dig out the weeds of our old life and let the tree He plants in us grow!  Bye. 👋.

P 2617 Thinkaboudit. Prayaboudit. DOsomethingaboudit!!

/ DVH

“But how can people call on Him for help if they’ve not yet believed? And how can they believe in One they’ve not yet heard of? And how can they hear the message of life if there is no one there to proclaim it?”Romans 10:14 TPT.  Quote: “There would be no sense in saying you trusted Jesus if you would not take His advice.” (C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity.) 

Jesus Christ told us, as His disciples, to “go.” It was not a suggestion, or a happy thought, it was a direct order! The Lord wants us to go … individually, personally, and corporately. Whatever He wants us to do when we get there, is between Him and you. However, we all need to obey what He said when He said GO! And here’s a very good reason why we should go, that many people aren’t aware of…

… the plain fact is, most Christian people are stuck in a rut when it comes to their faith. They battle doubts and fear all the time, but especially when life gets difficult. And life, nowadays, gets difficult OFTEN! Jesus Himself is speaking here: “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]” John 16:33. He said, expect trouble!

Here is a fantastic secret I have discovered about go-ing. Go-ing means we will have to use our faith. Well, that seems like a duh! thing right? But it’s true. In order to obey Him, we will have to take what the Lord Jesus said seriously, and move out of our comfort zone and into the battle zone. The thing is, if we look carefully, we are already living in a battlefield every single day, anyway! However, daily using our faith makes it stronger!

satan doesn’t just want you and I to be inactive – he wants us dead. So, every day we fight for our faith as well as our lives. But, at the same time, we can also use up what little faith energy we may have developed, by striving to live in a neutral place — seeing only occasional evidence of our faith’s reality. Most of us live pedantic, sadly disappointing lives, and we never experience the joy of being in God’s right place, at His right time. Trust me there is NOTHING like that in this world. Instead of doing the same old, same old, every day – spend your life for His sake!

There is no surer way to kill off faith than to live this life only dusting off and dragging out our faith Sunday by Sunday. Or using it as an emergency cord, when things get bad. We either believe what the Lord said, or we don’t. Practically everyone I know believes what Jesus Christ said is the truth … the whole truth and nothing but the truth! But most people do nothing about what they believe. How tragic! You and I have God-given appointments to fulfil.

We all have a destiny. I discovered that there were actually things that only I could do, that didn’t involve setting up a tent somewhere and hiring an evangelist! I read in His book that I am destined to usher in His kingdom everywhere I go! So I decided to believe what I read. Now, I live this life aware of the kingdom of God in me and around me. You and I carry His life within us. All we need to do is to let His life out every day – instead of saving it for a chat around the urn, slurping on a cuppa tea at church!  We are all full of faith round that urn! There are people all around us daily who have no idea that Jesus Christ is alive – today.

Yes, it IS dark out there, but remember Christ Himself said: “The light shines more brightly in the dark.” At the same time, please, don’t let fear stop you. Fear is the antithesis of faith. Fear will make you self-involved. I’ve found out personally, that even tiny little things matter – they sure make a difference to people who have heard nothing. The truth is, people will be drawn to His light in us.  Kindness and love toward others can make a huge difference. We don’t have to give them the whole gospel in one sitting, sometimes all we need to do, is to say: ”Jesus loves you so much. He cares what is happening in your life.” Then they cry, and you get to explain why they are crying – it’s a piece of cake!

The bible says: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you …”  Along the way in my life, I’ve discovered that faith gets ‘added to’ when you use it.  Don’t let anything stop you from entering into any God-given opportunities He will send your way. Look for them, they will build your faith. Tell Him, daily: ‘Lord, I am available at any time, any place of Your choosing.”  Thinkaboudit. Prayaboudit. DOsomethingaboudit!! Bye 👋