Tested

P 3250 Stay poor in Spirit.

/ DVH

“Strong to overcome. From Prayers on Fire, written by Brian Simmons and Gretchen Rodriguez.                                                     “Every trial is a divine opportunity for our character to grow. It’s a chance for us to discover how truly faithful Jesus is and how strong we are when we’re fastened to His love. When our faith is tested and fear looms in the shadows, we can reach for the Light and He will come.

Trials are a launching pad for our glorious transformation. Though the enemy creates them to take us out, Jesus shakes things up and turns things around. Ironically, trials become things we can be thankful for. If it weren’t for them, we’d never know how faithful He is. If our love was never tested, we’d never truly know how devoted to Jesus we are. To discover His power, there must first be a need for it. To relish the joy of laughing in the face of adversity, there must be an enemy to laugh at.”

“Jesus, teach me to fight my battles from the posture of confident trust and perfect peace. Help me to remember that the safest place to be is in the warmth of Your glory, where the flames of praise are ignited by Your nearness. Your love casts out every fear and fills me with confidence.” Amen.

My thoughts: some Christians have such beautiful insights it blows my mind. I don’t often read this particular site, but hubby receives regular input from “Encounter God” The Passion Translation. As you know, I’m not big on including things, but this particular piece really challenged and spoke to me personally. Boy there is nothing like the truth to sort out your motivation. In this case my trials can show me how faithful Jesus is. 

Sometimes difficult things continue for a while. Unfortunately, they don’t just disappear on command! Aligning our hearts is one thing, steadfastness under pressure is entirely another.  And we never know which way anything is going to go, so we must be prepared to hold fast under pressure. That takes practice. I must say, I am learning that the Lord is not only stretching our faith to grow our faith, He is also revealing His goodness to us through the tough times. He knows better than we do, how far we can go. That’s called trust. 

The following scripture tells me who Jesus is —it comforts me better than someone else’s words can … Isaiah 42:2-4a “He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow weak or discouraged before He has established His justice on the earth….”

Instant comfort! Our part is to believe what He says and hold onto it, by reminding ourselves that He’s good and He’s looking after us. Then we deliberately give the whole situation to Him, and only do whatever He tells us to do. The we leave it with Him. Don’t try to figure out an answer or oppress or berate yourself for being human and hurting, instead allow yourself to rest in Him. He already won that battle you are fighting! Learn to rest.

Matthew 11:28-30 says: “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  We are bathed in His comfort, as we read and believe His book. The Old Testament or the New Testament – it doesn’t matter! If we actively listen to what the bible is saying, and act on it, treating the scripture as instructions, we will begin to learn His Ways.

So first step – we need His Rest. Our own rest can be kind of seasonal, it comes and goes with whatever is currently going on. Taking up HIS yoke means we are choosing to learn how to respond, from Him, our Personal Counsellor. We don’t ignore trials, we face them leaning on His understanding and we follow what Jesus said or did. We can do this without fear because of Who He is and What He has already done for us. I put what I think aside. This is not the time to figure out someone else’s POV, it is the time to let go. Our ways are complicated, His are EASY.  So, if it is complicated it is not His Way! If what is happening is heavy and it is burdening me, I haven’t entered into His rest yet.

I only do whatever He tells me to do – if He says fight, I fight. If He says rest, I rest. We are not fighting against other people! Our warfare is against principalities and powers and Jesus already beat them. He has a plan for you and I to get through things. So I pick up my frayed feelings and mentally walk away, and continue to thank Him for helping me. His desire is to reshape my thinking so I trust Him more. I love the line in the “Encounter God” inclusion that says: ‘To discover His power, there must first be a need for it.’  It’s OK to be needy! 

Our God always cares about the needy no matter what the need is! My best advice comes from the Beatitudes:“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3. I am learning to stay poor in Spirit!  And I refuse to be satisfied with the things I think I know — otherwise I know I will stop moving. I just keep going back and back to Him. There are people who fall over and can’t get up again, because their ‘system’ isn’t working anymore. I don’t have a system, I just rely on Him! 

Many of us have gone from trusting Him, into trusting what we’ve learnt about Him – we’ve stopped being poor in spirit and became satisfied. And yes, there IS actually a difference. Bye. 👋

P 3178 Our thoughts.

/ DVH

Most despairing attitudes start in our thought-life. However when we take the time to pay attention to what we are thinking, we can exchange those thoughts for Who He is and how much He loves us! His love is the only constant thing this world has! It is a matter of choice, not a matter of proof. Do we believe what He says or how we feel. The more we know what the truth is — the bigger our opportunity is to be blessed, because we have come to know personally, intimately, a greater reality. 

These two seemingly opposite things, like hardship and blessings can co-exist. Pain, heartache, and sorrow, can be present at the same time as our knowledge of Who He is and how much we are loved by Him. Open the bible and find a scripture that helps, and then hold fast to it.  His love is always greater than the circumstances. When these things fall upon us, we need to learn to insist, purely for our own good. The Lord Jesus outweighs the things that come against us to try to drown us in our problems. He is bigger than anything we might face. Yelling ‘help,’ helps me! And no, I don’t always do that out loud!!

When we are under any sort of duress, we need to deliberately read the bible to remind ourselves of His kind of love. At the moment when you feel you can’t – you must! His love is so good, so faithful, so steadfast, that as we read, we will come to a place where we feel the darkness recede … don’t stop there, keep going. The enemy is pushing you, push back! If we fall into something testing or tormenting we know that He will help us. He says so! The Holy Spirit, the One Who comes alongside us, will kiss us back to life again. This is when our faith in God’s goodness has an opportunity to grow. Jesus died to give us that choice!

Faith needs to be tested otherwise it will not have depth. There is a stronger kind of faith that has been tried and tested and come through all kinds of difficulties with even more gratitude and worship. I know people who have this kind of faith. All kinds of hardship are actually fertile ground, fertilised by our surrender and our active faith that He is bigger than anything else. Being tested, and pushing on, can only deepen what we already know about Him! We cannot trust the Lord completely until what we believe has had our beliefs tested and shaken, so that all the unbelief falls off. Then we’ll discover that He is more than able to keep us.

If we choose to continue to follow and submit to Him even when we feel we cannot find our way—we will get through whatever is shaking our world, and come out of the other side – whether the situation changes or not.. Let’s make the immediate choice to look up and see that dear face of His so close to us. He knows all about pain and suffering and sorrow – personally. He understands it is hard – personally! At the same time the Holy Spirit will comfort us, and teach us that we can rely upon the very real fact that He will never leave us or forsake us. 

The Lord is closest to us whenever we feel devastated and alone. We have His promises. The question is, do we believe what He says, over and above what we can see with our own eyes or hear with our own ears? Hebrews 13:5b,6. “Never will I leave you;  never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my Helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” Did you see what that verse says? ‘So we SAY with confidence …’  At this point I start speaking to my soul, like the Psalmist told us: I tell my soul to ”… hope in God!” (Psalm 42:11.)

Now let’s look at James 1:2-4 – “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colours. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” James says that the thing we often desperately want to wriggle out of, is a GIFT. Because under pressure we are forced to face what we lack! When you know what you don’t have, you can target it with repentance and scriptures. Start by identifying what you are feeling: ‘I’m angry;  I’m afraid;  I’m jealous;  I am in despair.’  We no longer need to be afraid to diagnose the places in our hearts that lack — Jesus died for that lack. All we are doing is working with the One Who was sent to help us through!

Finally, we begin to realise that there is even something greater at stake than our immediate sense of comfort or peace of mind. That is God’s Kingdom blooming and blossoming in us. Hebrews 10:35-36 “Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.”  Don’t choke in the hard bits – press through – grab hold of Jesus and hang on!

His kingdom will begin to be revealed through your life, simply because it is our destiny to bring the kingdom with us. The gospels are not some sort of fairy story with a happily ever-after ending. They end in the death of the HERO. But – His resurrection ushered us into a whole new kind of world. His world has love in its centre and it is filled with hope and faith. OUR world has things in it that can be stolen or broken, but His kingdom is an incredible storage unit, we can deposit our precious families etc. with the Lord, where this world can’t get at them.

Our thoughts are so important, they can turn the ship of our lives into the wind, to be moved by our beloved Holy Spirit – HE knows where we are going and what we will need to get there!  Bye. 👋

P 3158 Red and yellow flags.

/ DVH

Sometimes in my daily life, I notice the same or similar situations, happening over and over again — so I asked the Lord to show me what and why. He explained to me that we need to stay on the alert for things that seem out of place, when they happen repeatedly. Especially if each time they are about about a similar subject. This repetition can indicate we are ignoring something important. For instance, if you suddenly get a whole lot of people who are rude to you, we can easily think it is enemy attack, but there are times when Lord allows these things because we need to practise forgiving those who trespass against us!

It is like the Holy Spirit is our lifeguard and we have wandered off and we are now swimming outside the flags. Things get difficult when you swim outside the red and yellow flags. Those flags, those interruptions to His flow in our lives, are there for a purpose. Father God loves us – He doesn’t want any of us to drown! Meanwhile if you ever see a double RED flag, then stay out of the water! That’s some useful free lifesaver advice. Even if whatever it is you are doing seems harmless, take notice of the Holy Spirit’s absence, or His kiss upon your day, and stop and ask Him why. When He isn’t kissing something we need to stop moving ahead.

We must recognise, with His help and guidance, to learn to value the kind of obedience through the suffering that denies itself. We deny ourselves, pick up our cross and keep right on following Him no matter how we feel! Father God has a reason for His discipline and chastening, and it is not about punishment. It is about His loving provision for whatever is coming next. He is training us. We need to yield and allow His fruit to grow in the middle of that difficulty. This is clearly spelled out in Hebrews 12:6-11.

“For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” 

Correction to any course of action is present in our lives to train us. I’ve found, in those times, that things seem to  go on repeat – because we haven’t fully embraced obedience yet. Our God is good He will not let us move on into the next part of our growth, unprepared. Meanwhile, even these things are not always about us, sometimes it is about the damage we will do to someone else if we continue down the wrong road. The Lord forgives us whenever we ask Him to, but we are not on a desert island, other people live around us! We must never forget we are His agents of unconditional love and peace to this crazy world. That means we will be tested on what we think we know, because other lives are tied to ours!

Testing times are about testing our faith in His goodness and compassion and care for us, despite our circumstances. 1 Corinthians 10:13&14 says this in the Passion translation: “We all experience times of testing, which is normal for every human being. But God will be faithful to you. He will screen and filter the severity, nature and timing of every test or trial you face that you can bear it. And each test is an opportunity to trust Him more, for along with every trial God has provided for you a way of escape that will bring you out of it victoriously.” Our way through any test is to believe in His goodness, His personal oversight, no matter what is going on! And then we need to keep on thanking Him for loving us so much that He is teaching us with His eye on us.

I haven’t lost my mind, it’s in the book. Father God is not against us having a life, but He is against us wasting it on the stuff that will not last … and there are times when we all do that! If you read the story of Jonah you will see that God led that man step by step to the place of obedience – Jonah’s feelings about the subject did not matter. Father God had His own agenda – He wanted to save Nineveh! We must rest in the fact that He is wisdom itself, and we are just like Ruth, gleaning whatever wisdom we can around the edge of our own little paddock – looking at our circumstances without complete clarity. But if our purposes and sensibilities cross what He wants done, then I’ve learnt, our purposes and sensibilities will go straight out of the window!

Just like when we swim at the beach — there are yellow and red flags in this new life in the Holy Spirit, they are not threatening flags, they are protective flags. They tell you where it is safe to move forward. When we ignore the Holy Spirit’s red flags in our own individual lives, we are deliberately stepping out and away from His protection. He will wait for us to wake up to our error, repent and turn around. The Holy Spirit has been given to us to help us do everything the Lord brought us into this world to do. It’s incredibly dumb to step away from SomeOne Who only wants our good!

Our God disciplines and tests the people He loves, for their benefit. He wants us to share in His holiness. Those God-sent ‘flags’ are in our lives for a purpose. Things only get harder if we ignore them. The secret is to stop, wait, consult the Holy Spirit, and don’t proceed until the sea is calm again and the flags are green. Bye.👋

P 3042 The real and the unreal.

/ DVH

As Christians we dare not live our lives in religion. We have been reborn to live permanently in the reality of Jesus’ death and resurrection – together with all He died to give us. This attitude needs to be present, daily. The Holy Spirit will correct us with His eye on us, then we pray and then we yield. Living with a metaphor – a concept, a mere picture of the truth – means that we will find our metaphorical faith is tested a whole lot, because it does not have its roots in the reality of what Jesus already did!

At the same time, we cannot afford to have untested faith. Otherwise, how will we know whether what we believe is real or a theory? When tests come, and they will!…The first thing to do is check with Him that He is giving us an opportunity to practise what we preach. Then we prayerfully accept the Holy Spirit’s guidance and help, and go forward into doing or saying whatever it is from His point of view. If I haven’t got a clue – I make use of His reference book – the bible.

Cultivating a quiet spirit within, is essential. It can be difficult, but it is not impossible. I know the world around us is like a brass band at full volume, but living in the awareness of the stillness of His Presence will help us triumph over everything else that comes our way. Jesus lived this way – He was peaceful inside despite the outside circumstances. The difference between the real and the unreal, is easily diagnosed by its fruit – agitation or acceptance.

Likewise, giving up on people just because they are not responding to us the way we want them to, is self-centred. You and I don’t have the only way – Jesus Himself is the Way! What we need in awkward moments, is a word of knowledge, or a word of wisdom, or a revelation from our King about how we interact with that person. Here’s a helpful hint:  spiritual things don’t always come with a huge angel and a trumpet! His Voice inside us is so discreet, so gentle, we can miss it.  But there is a way to check out your own hearing— love knows how to be quiet and let the other person speak. Many times we are actually dealing with our own fears and insecurities and projecting them onto someone else. 

God loves them.Ask yourself: ‘why would I annoy or hurt someone GOD loves and expect it will be alright?’  He loves the world, remember? Personally, I would not like to have to explain to the Lord, why I thought brow-beating somebody else was a good plan. Jesus didn’t do it, and neither should we. Our aim is to respond with Grace, Love, Kindness and Peace, and those precious things are enough to keep us busy! Positive things can create teachable moments.

In John 20:11-18, it says:“Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put Him.” At this,she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking He was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have put Him, and I will get Him. Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward Him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!”

Human beings can be so distracted and disturbed by our current circumstances, that we miss Him when He speaks to us  As you can see, from this scripture, Mary was absolutely overwhelmed by grief, and consequently she was unable to see the Lord when He was right in front of her! It is good to ask the Holy Spirit to keep us alert to whatever the Lord Jesus wants to say to us.  

The thing about Mary in this scripture, is that her faith was at an all-time low, and she didn’t expect to see Jesus again. He was dead and gone in her mind. And if He wasn’t in the tomb, then where could He possibly be? The unreality of the situation channelled her thoughts in a specific direction — to a human answer. Somebody must have done the unthinkable and stolen His body!

If I get bewildered or I am full of despair, then I stop and I refuse to move. After that I go back to the beginning and start to pray all over again. But if my thoughts are still as clear as mud, then I put everything down at His feet, and ask the Holy Spirit to take care of it – until I am led, by Him, back into clarity again. Hearing from God is our birthright, it is not a test. It takes faith, but every single one of us has been given the ability to hear our Shepherd. After all, we are His sheep, the people of His pasture!  

Let’s not underestimate the value of PAUSING. Pausing gives me a chance to catch up with what He is doing. It steadies my personal human reaction, and takes me into His space – where there is no panic, no timetables … only Him. Our faith has been carefully designed, by the Holy Spirit, to be active and real, every single day. If we find we are mistaken, then we need to prayerfully replace the unreal with the real. Bye. 🙏

P 3023 The testing times.

/ DVH

John 19:11: ”When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free You or to crucify You?” Jesus answered, “You would have no power over Me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed Me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

The fear of God is real! Here is an illustration of that reality from the Gospels. Pilate did what we all do from time to time — we question God, and then we chase about looking for a loop-hole because we don’t really want to know His answer.. We are not sure we will like it, and we definitely don’t like the cost! This man was looking for a way to let Jesus go free that wouldn’t throw blame on him … be-cau-se … his wife had told him to be careful….

Pilate’s wife told him to ‘have nothing to do with this good Man’. Pilate was not a complete numb-knuckle, he was  trying to negotiate a way to do both things at once. After all he was the procurator/prefect of Judea – this man had power! He really wanted to release Jesus, listen to his wife, plus try to please the Jews. Fat chance of that! Sadly the Jews had already made up their collective mind. But God had a bigger plan!

This portion of John shows us a wonderful truth about Father God’s dealings with His precious Son — and us. Jesus clearly tells us that nobody can have power over any one of us unless we give it away, or God allows it. Now before you get alienated by that statement, we need to look at Job. Job is greatly underestimated!

“And the LORD said to satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.”So satan went out from the presence of the LORD.” Job 1:7-12. Job loved God, but he feared for his family. and those fears put him squarely within satan’s reach. God did not hurt this man satan did. 

However, it is clear that Father God believed in this man’s ability to endure, or He would not have allowed him to be tested in the first place..so satan went all snarky about God’s blessings on this man’s life. Because our Father is a good, good God and Father, He knew that testing would bring out things in Job that were not there before. He and Job would grow closer – and one of the things that Job grew into was a greater intimacy with Him. Job himself says: “I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen You with my own eyes.” Chapter 42, verse 5.

Once we have given our lives and hearts to Jesus, Almighty God is constantly transforming our circumstances, our joys and sorrows, our likes and dislikes to shape us into the image of His Son. He’s God! He can do lots of things at once!! Remember, our destiny is to be Jesus’ bride … it’s far bigger than just going to heaven. The Lord Jesus deserves a bride worthy of His sacrifice for her. That is why our character – our heart toward Him – day by day by day, becomes more and more important. 

This is also why the bible says:  “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28. My translation of this verse is this:  nothing can happen to me in my situation – or to you in your situation – that is beyond our Father’s redemptive loving care and transformation. All He requires from His Son’s bride-to-be is that she would yield to His greater wisdom as it is revealed in the bible, plus we have the precious Holy Spirit’s guidance always with us.

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” 2 Peter 1:3. We can count on the fact that God knows the end from the beginning, and there is nothing that can prevent Him from taking all things—every single thing, and weaving and working them together for our good. This is the way the Apostles lived and worked and spread the Gospel. They believed In their Heavenly Father’s power to redeem bad situations into good. 

Doubt is our enemy. So is carelessness and a lack of love for others, and we dare not doubt His goodness and His faithfulness.  We are transformed from day to day by believing what He has said about WHO we are now, because of Christ’s sacrifice. Let’s not miss the mark and get picky and choosy about being obedient. Meanwhile, the Lord is all wisdom, so we would have to be mighty dumb, or pretty disobedient not to pay attention to the things that are written in His book. If He has allowed a testing time, then He knows you can get through this – the Holy Spirit will walk you through it – ask Him to help you..

We will get stuck if we believe the enemy’s lies that we can’t do, or endure whatever God told us to do. We quite simply cannot afford to believe our feelings over Christ’s life and His testimony. If we mess up and go the wrong way then we repent, turn around and go back and do whatever He asked you to do, the way the Holy Spirit said to do it. 

We are His, and He is ours, and nothing can separate us from His incredible love. Jesus Christ Himself died to release all of us from satan’s power and JESUS LOVES HIS BRIDE!  Keep believing God is good, and turn your eyes away from any and all of the circumstances that drag you under. Ask others to pray for you. When God stretches our faith, our faith will be even bigger on the other side of those testing times. Bye. 👋

P 2822 Remembering.

/ DVH

Mark 1:9-13 “At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptised by John in the Jordan. Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, He saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on Him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, Whom I love; with You I am well pleased.” At once the Spirit sent Him out into the wilderness, and He was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan.”

My first thought when I read this scripture is this: isn’t Almighty God so wonderful to bless and reassure His beloved Son in this way… He owned Jesus as His Son right in front of His cousin, John. It was so personal! And then the Holy Spirit came and kissed Him. All that happened immediately before He had to wrangle with extreme fasting – and the kind of temptation that urged the Lord Jesus to accomplish what He came here for without any pain! satan tested Jesus at His weakest physical hour. And there would come another day, three+ years later, when satan would come at Jesus again, as He wrestled with God’s will in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Here is something I have noticed over the years that can happen in our walk with the Lord. (I try not to make a rule out of anything, this is just an observation.) I’ve found that the Lord sometimes extravagantly blesses you or I and our families, with something quite wonderful and unexpected – and right after that – something happens that truly stretches and tests our faith. You will notice I offer no explanation for this – I don’t have one. I’ve just seen it happen.

My point today is that God is so good, and so kind, He gives us something substantial to hold onto as we slog through our own personal wilderness and testing time. A memory of good is a brilliant asset, it will hold you up in times of pain and sorrow and stress. Here’s my free advice — don’t be someone who is always looking for the next thing, the next blessing, the next breakthrough – take the time to savour everything He has ever done for you in your life-time, so far. 

Also, don’t ever wander so far away from your salvation that you can no longer see the cross anymore. To me blessings and trouble mean I had better pay close attention to whatever is going on, in me and around me. Otherwise I know I will  totally miss the blessing, and end up flailing about when the bad stuff hits me. I have a teenage grandson, he used to be little now he is taller than his mum! Growth stretches us and sometimes that is uncomfortable, the clothes we’ve grown so used to don’t fit anymore!

Jesus Himself did a reassuring thing with His disciples, right before He was betrayed. It says in 1 Corinthians 11:23b-25.”The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My Body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”We all know this litany by heart, but there are also times when God is doing something on many levels – we need to live looking for Him in everything that happens to us.

Right after this meal, the downward spiral toward Christ’s death starts. His betrayer and captors are almost at the door. Jesus knows these men, He loves them. They have been dependent upon Him, His leadership. They have seen His wisdom in action in every single moment. While He was eating, sleeping, and interacting with them and others. He has been their in-front-of-your-eyes example of how to live. He was with them for three and a half years, and He knows they are going to need something spiritually substantial to remember Him by — because right after this meal together, He will be brutally beaten, murdered, and resurrected. Soon after that He will go back to His Father in heaven. And then, for our sake, He sent back the Holy Spirit for us. The Holy Spirit has never left.

Christ lovingly gave His men something spiritual and physical to do that night – it will remind them in the dark days to come, that He is still with them – even though He is no longer physically present. This action is to be a continual visible reminder, a joining together, ‘a remembrance party’ that what He did will last, and be with all of them their whole lives. But like I often am, sometimes these men were clueless. Fortunately the Holy Spirit came and opened their eyes at Pentecost!

I love another story that is in the book. It also happens while all these devastating things were going on. Two of the Lord’s men walking along the road to Emmaus. And Jesus, the resurrected One, walks with them and joins Himself into their conversation. They have no clue Who He is!  The Lord gives these men an opportunity to remember and revise all the things that have happened to the Jews, as well as when He was with them. He is so kind even in the face of their heartbroken loss. Further, the Lord pretends He wants to keep on going with His journey, but they are so taken with Him, and the conversation, they beg Him to stay…

…AND THEN HE BREAKS THE BREAD. Those men knew that action!!!… They had seen Him do that very thing days before with their own eyes. Suddenly, He is gone again, but now, their hearts are are rejoicing. They gallop off to tell the others – because now they know that DEAD isn’t DEAD! 

In this life, of ours, our human ways are often like a little stream bubbling along, moving past this, bumping into that — but God’s ways are a river in full flood. Carefully moving this obstacle, watering that dry place, and teeming with life. I exhort you to keep daily jumping into His river! We have a river of life in us. Remembering is part of following Him.  Bye, 🙌.

P 2705 On being tested.

/ DVH

Jesus Christ, God’s precious Son, became a man. He respected and obeyed what His Father wanted above His own personal needs and ideas. He lived, and then He chose to die, in accordance with His Father’s will. He is our example of how to deal with temptations. Right at the very beginning of His ministry, the Lord Jesus was thoroughly tested, under extreme circumstances. FYI, that is recorded in Matthew 4:1-11, and Luke 4:1-13. Jesus came through it all, despite the incredible hardship He faced. But He met with the Holy Spirit and POWER on the other side of that test. This is a great place to stop, and think about what that means to ME. 🤔

The Lord personally demonstrated and proclaimed during this testing time, that the way for human beings to live – is primarily by the Word of God. He did this, under dire circumstances, live and in person, in front of His enemy. That is when He put a stamp on the scriptures as our primary source of spiritual food and defensive weapons..

After that, in the second temptation, His enemy offered Him physical well being, protection and personal safety – for the exorbitant fee of worshippinghim. Jesus refused to have anything to do with getting where He needed to go using His enemy’s help. He responded to this temptation with another scripture. Making it clear that He was not going to trust in anything but God’s Word to care for Him. The truth set Him free. Another good spot to stop and think about what that shows me! 🤔

The last and final temptation was that His enemy would give Him everything He came to do, without making the ultimate sacrifice. Our enemy tried to blind the Lord with success, which included the price tag of saving the world … without Him having to die. It looked like an easy answer, but it involved putting this world into satan’s hands permanently. 

I believe we all face temptations, often we face them daily. We are tempted to lose heart, and put our faith and hope down. Sometimes we are tempted to live by what Brother so and so says, and when we do that means we have put the Word of God second. We are taking another man’s interpretation of the scripture over what God wants to say to US, personally. The most valuable thing we have is our bible… obedience to what is commanded in that book is incredibly personally powerful. When we choose to live by His words — instead of our circumstances, or experiences, or what someone else thinks — we elevate Almighty God in our lives to His rightful place as GOD!

Secondly, there are times when we too are tempted and tested regarding our participation in whatever needs to be done in His kingdom, by methods other than FAITH. Things like clever marketing, slick presentations, and popularity without us having to make sacrifices. The Word of God is powerful all by itself, it does not need to be marketed! In the hands of someone who is obedient to the Holy Spirit, His Word will cut between human thoughts and intentions and go right into the heart of any matter. On that day in Christ’s life – it cut the enemy to pieces! When we rely upon our own skills and energies we are succumbing to the temptation to help God out, and so the accolades may go to a person, instead of the One Who made us and deserves our worship.

I think Father God is very particular about where our worship goes, because: a/ He is a jealous God. And: b/ our frame is not strong enough to be able to manage the kind of praise and worship that belongs to Him – alone. However, His power will flow quite naturally through our lives as we learn to resist temptation and live in obedience. There is always a way through whatever is going on, we just ask Him for His help! Christ was led into the wilderness, by the Holy Spirit — but He came out IN THE POWER of the Holy Spirit. Facing temptation and overcoming it, is part of our growth process – it is meant to test and stretch our faith and resolve to rely upon God and His Word. That means it will hurt!

The bible says this about being tested:“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed.”1 Peter 4:12&13. And in James 1:2&3: “My fellow believers, when it seems as though you are facing nothing but difficulties, see it as a valuable opportunity to experience the greatest joy you can! For you know that when your faith is tested, it stirs in you the power of endurance.”

Let’s reflect for a minute – in Jesus, Father God finally had a man He could talk to and trust. Just imagine the depth and breadth of the Lord Jesus’ faith!! God’s will was His only aim! In this world we will face trials and tests, but we do not face them alone. Praise God, our knowledge of His Word is our personal shield of faith. Jesus Himself overcame our enemy, and because of what He did on the cross, we can too. Now we can walk forward like Sons and Daughters of the Most High God. Bye. 👋

“Let me emphasize this: As you yield to the dynamic life and power of the Holy Spirit, you will abandon the cravings of your self-life.”Galatians 5:16 TPT.

P 2628 “Don’t You care??”

/ DVH

“Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”  Mark 4:38. Of course you would never say that … and I would never say that either! 🙄 Hmmm… while we are all on this learning curve called life, I believe that there are times when we’ve all prayed, we’ve hoped, we’ve stood on the Word and …. and! … nothing changed. It’s what we do after that happens that matters. Fear makes a poor leader – yet we all know how it feels and what we sometimes do to avoid it!

We had one of those times recently. Hubby and I have been married for 37 years, and there are times, not often, 🙌 – when we disagree. That chaos, of course, is instantly replaced by something spiritual and peaceful…  we sing ‘Kumbaya’ and it is all fixed!! It is a wonder my nose is not in Pakistan by now … Me and Pinocchio, just like that.🤞

So, long story short, we argue just like everyone else. My primary reason for talking about it today, is that the only way for all of us to get to the other side, like the disciples wanted to – Is to be real about who we are and the fact that we aren’t totally transformed yet! I like to throw blame in the bin. However, there are also times when I can miss! … I always was a lousy shot!! That’s when I discover, all over again, that I still need His help and transformation badly.  I too, can get tired of cheerily singing: “I’ve got a new way of living”  … 😊🙌 … and instead I want to have a tantrum.

So I’m praying, with tears, of course! ‘God don’t you care??’ And somehow, in the back of my mind, I can see these 12 guys stuck in this boat going up and down, up and down, taking a violent seawater bath … Now, let’s look at this …Jesus is up the back of the boat taking a power nap. Yeah.I’m pretty sure I would have had a “Don’t you care Lord?” in me too.

Now let’s be clear. The Lord Jesus needed that sleep. He had just delivered an amazing sermon about planting seeds in good places and watching them grow. Of course, the disciples all thought they were getting a horticultural lesson! But the Lord was teaching them how to retain good seed and become fertile ground. Stuff like getting rid of rocks (of unbelief) and weeds (of fear and arrogance) as well as shoo-ing off the birds that want to steal and peck at your faith. (Other people’s anger, and rotten behaviour toward us.) 

These guys had had a great meeting, right before this. They learned lots … they took lots of notes … well, … probably not, … because they would have looked like nerds. Anyway!! The blooming boat starts to sink and things look pretty terrible …!! It’s not just a bit of a splash in the face, BTW, this boat starts taking water in. Boat in water OK! Water in boat NOT OK!! Anyone knows that. The disciples let their KNOWLEDGE of the sea drown out their FAITH.

These experienced fishermen were frightened out of their wits by the power of the sea and they knew a bad storm when they saw one.  So there were “we’re gunna die” shrieks and shouts … and then they remember that Jesus is up the back of the boat — and — “How on earth CAN HE BE SLEEPING??!!” Just like little kids run to their mum or dad and demand that they fix something that is broken – we too sometimes run to the Lord and drop our faith along the way. We simply can’t work out why He isn’t helping us.

In times like these we need to tell ourselves – one more time  … and press on, remembering that we are stretching ourselves a little bit further.  Do yourself a favour, try not to set false finishing lines. The bible teaches us: “WE STRIVE …WE STRETCH toward the goal …”  that doesn’t mean we always get there! Sometimes knowing where to run TO is everything —  especially when life produces chaos. Even though these men had just learnt about being careful about where to plant the seed of God’s Word, they immediately planted it in earthly fear instead. Don’t we all?!!  

Whatever we think we’ve learnt, is going to be tested. God is not interested in raising up a whole lot of people with fat heads and skinny, dried-up hearts. Pain will overcome our faith unless we cling to the SAVIOUR … not just focussing the result we think we need. It is not about finding the answer or not, it is about: ‘where is MY faith, right now?’ Sometimes my not-so-spiritual-answer is: ‘I dunno! I think it fell right down the well of my unbelief!”

If we want to follow Jesus with all our hearts, even though we know that we do dumb stuff, or sometimes we are oppressed by terrible things – then WE’ve won. Press on… !! We simply must stop throwing away our faith … or even other saints because people make mistakes or they are not perfected yet. None of us are. Redemption is a process. Half the time none of us know what’s IN our own hearts until we get squeezed tightly by circumstances. These fishermen walked with Christ and fear still jumped on them.

The bible wouldn’t teach us how to overcome fear if we didn’t need to learn it. Some awful thoughts attach themselves to Christians like rampaging elephants, crushing the life out of them. Those thoughts do not make us a failure. Hold on … if we can just hold on, and breathe, our faith will come out the other side stronger. When we cling to Jesus in the storm we are doing OK. Remember, the God of all LOVE stood up and HE CALMED THE STORM. We cannot begin to understand the Lord’s aim in whatever is going on in our lives… all we know is that He’s been there before us!

Here’s something to chew on …“the natural mind perceiveth not the things of the spirit.”  1 Corinthians 2:4. So we can’t trust what we think or feel, we must learn, progressively, by pressing in, to trust what He says. We know He cares. It’s in the book. 👋

P 2597 A funny thing happened after I wrote yesterday’s blog.

/ DVH

…Like, at this moment I’m revisiting my own words. That didn’t take long … 🙄 Let me set the scene. Before we leave home for a bible run, the precious people from our church gather around us and pray and prophesy for miracles and souls to be saved. Their faith is fantastic!! After I’ve heard all their prayers I often start to wish they’d go instead of ME. You see, I know what’s out there … and even worse … I know what’s IN me – those two small things can sink my boat! Without Jesus I’m sunk. Moving on…

Actually, I need to be very real here or you will miss my point. Let me share with you what we’ve learnt over the last 19 years. God has a plan for each of us. We have each been given kingdom work to do, and all of it is a part of God’s MUCH bigger plan. Personally, I don’t think the Lord is looking for the next Billy Graham coming down the turnpike … 

… I think He is looking for ordinary willing people, like you and me. People who will believe they really did give their lives away to Him, and bravely stick up their hands and say: “Here I am Lord send me!” And then they go and do what He says. If anything good has come out of the last 19 years we’ve been travelling all over this country — it is because GOD IS GOOD – and He’s not fussy who He uses… sometimes He uses donkeys and whales … 😂 Hubby and I know we are both totally incompetent without Him. To be frank, without Him we’d probably give up when it gets too hard.

You and I, are a tiny part of His kingdom, and in that kingdom some people have heaps of stuff to contribute and others take their two little coins – which is all they have … and put it into His treasury for His glory! Yes, I know I just shoved two very different concepts together … hang on …  my point is that hubby and I are two normal people who dared to believe God is much MUCH bigger than our fears and we go and do it anyway – trembling most of the way.

Speaking of that … trembling I mean … the other night we sent out a frantic text to our prayer support explaining that we had suddenly discovered the next stop over on our trip is a dangerous place. That info is on Google, so it must be right! And we are staying there for two nights. It is one thing to talk about letting perfect love cast out your fears, and totally another to do it – right here, right now. We are on the coal face … so we are facing that fear. We are back in the place where our theories are going to be tested, again.  It is time to remember our peace is in HIM – not the circumstances.

A nice Indian man, who is our host at this motel, doesn’t seem thrilled with us. His spirit of kindness and co-operation flew out of the window. So, no to bibles, no to stuff for his kids, no to practically everything – including putting our food in his freezer. There are rules pasted up everywhere. To get to this outback place, we drove down appalling roads  and … …we just drove through a local locust plague. That was interesting!!

Plus, also on the road yesterday, a car driving along in front of us suddenly stopped in the middle of the road, in the 110km per hour zone … presumably to look at a great view! Another one nearly cleaned our clock in a local supermarket carpark doing 60 km/h right behind us as we were quietly reversing out.  Let’s not kid ourselves, this stuff can be hard work. Right now, hubby needs a cuppa tea, an aspirin and a big lie down!

However God is so cool, before we left home, the Lord told me to make a bookmark with an elephant on it, for an Indian lady I was going to meet. That unhappy Indian man’s wife LOVED the bookmark – even though her husband wouldn’t let her take another thing – she kept it. And the Lord did that ‘sneaky Pete’ thing He sometimes does and snuck under the radar, again. Nevertheless, there is no grace and power to do anything, unless the Lord gives it to us – you run out of manners pretty quickly!

Hubby and I have a habit of valuing obedience over everything else. We’ve learnt that if we want to see greater miracles we will need to face greater hurdles. You know … I really don’t remember signing up for some of this stuff.  I do however, remember praying … when I had no clue what was in front of me … ‘here I am Lord send me.’ Sometimes doing the work of the ministry is not as exciting as anyone might think — a lot of it consists of slogging on against opposition. 

On the plus side, living this life has taught me to throw away my always-be formal meter. Those things have gone right down the gurgler (drain), and now I have no trouble being truthful about the difficulties of this life we encounter along the way. Jesus Himself said:“I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace. In the world you have tribulation and distress and suffering, but be courageous [be confident, be undaunted, be filled with joy]; I have overcome the world.” [My conquest is accomplished, My victory abiding.]”  John 16:33. My advice? BELIEVE HIM.

So why should any of us be overjoyed when doing stuff for the kingdom stops being fun and becomes life-threatening? Because joy is another point of obedience. Jesus didn’t say feel like it – He said do it! I have been laughing while writing this blog today because everything in it is just so true for us currently. Almighty God doesn’t get glory because we are trying hard to be stoic – He gets ALL the glory because HE IS GOD. ← And that’s a full stop right there. 👋

P 2487 The power of God is for the persistent.

/ DVH

The Lord Jesus went out into the wilderness and He was led there by the Holy Spirit, but, when He comes out of that place — He comes outin the POWERof the Holy Spirit. So this is what I want to say for today … some times when I am tempted to fight I think to myself – just one more time! The power to overcome comes with perseverance. Therefore, I will say that soft word that turns away wrath, one more time, I will turn the other cheek, one more time – I will forgive… one more time. Our enemy defeats us by projection – he projects a future that is not there, and he uses our past to do it. he says: “It has always been this way, and so it will always be this way. You have to fight or you will lose something valuable.” 

If God has not spoken to you, it is not over!  STAND. Sometimes we give up and quit fighting our enemy too early – we give in to our baser nature. Christ fought His battle through until His enemy was defeated. (Read Matthew 4:1-11) He stayed the course until the end! The power of God came and empowered the Lord in the middle of His weakness as He stood firmly on what the Holy Spirit gave Him to say, in this incredible fight. In those moments, it could have become a battle of wills, but Jesus was too spiritually attuned to play satan’s little game, He used God’s wisdom to bring about God’s purposes.

We cannot fight our enemy by ourselves! We too, need to be too smart to be pulled into “if only” and “what if.” It is what it is. A battle. Quitting early means we are letting our flesh win. Keep fighting until you hit His peace. Without His peace we can easily be sidetracked into places we were not meant to go. Seek God for a word, (or three) … and then WAIT. Let the Holy Spirit pick your battle ground – sometimes the battle is not ours. Whatever the circumstances, let the Holy Spirit guide you through them.

It was the verses with the POWER of the Holy Spirit on them in this incredible battle that WON! After the Lord was tested 3 times, the enemy had to leave. Jesus did not buy into satan’s ?logic? Remember the introductory verse to Matthew 4 says,  it was God’s idea for Jesus to be tested. The Holy Spirit led Him into that battleground. My advice is this – don’t be led into a battle you cannot win. When it comes to someone else’s will, or mind attitude – you and I cannot change it. We need to step back and let the Holy Spirit have His way … by letting love for the other person reign, the Holy Spirit knows the way through. Sometimes we fight, sometimes we die to self, sometimes we stand. But we always aim at maintaining LOVE for the other person.

In the first two of the three temptations mentioned in this scripture, satan says “if.” What is he doing? he knows the weaknesses of human flesh and he plays upon those weaknesses – he’s trying to get Jesus to accomplish what He was sent to do, in the flesh. Christ’s flesh was weakened by that fast. But Jesus had the One Who wrote the bible, with Him. (He is with US too!) We cannot fight without the Holy Spirit’s help.

In the end satan drops his pretence of helping, and blatantly goes for what he really wants … Christ’s worship. he wants the throne … satan has always wanted the throne.  he is jealous and he wants power. But because of what Christ did, we can sit, stand and walk with Jesus Christ daily. Never forget, that in times of trouble WE can walk right up to the throne of Grace and GRACE WILL MEET US. 

The Holy Spirit knows the perfect word of God to make our enemy flee. You and I may end up using more than one verse, but as the Holy Spirit hands them to us, we fling them at the things that are assailing us. Blame is useless in this place of battle – we are fighting the devil, not a human being. Stop fighting the person – resist the devil. Don’t be tempted to think up some snappy reply … the other guy has heard them all!  Just like Christ’s ministry belonged to Him, whatever we are fighting for belongs to us. But the way to win, is to lay whatever it is down at His feet, keep walking in Love, and use the scriptures that the Holy Spirit gives us to defeat our enemy. 

Lastly, Jesus had to fight the enemy in His weakened flesh – He was hungry and thirsty he needed food. The enemy is a snake, he will come at you when you are already weak. Then in Christ’s mind – He was offered everything He came to earth to buy back, without the cross. He saw those cities. Just one word and they were His … because satan owns them. The cities of this earth are corrupted. The power of God is the only true, permanent vehicle for change. There are no short-cuts. The only way up is down, the only way to live is to die, and the only way to do what He sent you here to do, is to lay it all down. Let the dream die. Maybe God gave you that dream … now, lay it down at His feet. Remember, this is one of the purest forms of worship. 

“Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for He gives to His beloved sleep.” Psalm 127:1&2. The power of God is for the persistent, those who will do whatever it takes, and give up everything, for His sake. Doing that will not be comfortable! “If we perish, we perish …” Esther 4:16. God’s will be done. His will, His way. Bye 👋🏻