The Lord’s purposes

P3446 Let’s talk about Psalm 23.

/ DVH

“Because the Lord is my Shepherd, I have everything I need! He lets me rest in the meadow grass and leads me beside the quiet streams. He gives me new strength. He helps me do what honours Him the most. Even when walking through the dark valley of death I will not be afraid, for You are close beside me, guarding, guiding all the way. You provide delicious food for me in the presence of my enemies. You have welcomed me as Your guest; blessings overflow! Your goodness and unfailing kindness shall be with me all of my life, and afterwards I will live with You forever in Your home.”

This Psalm was written by David, who was a shepherd – so he knew what he was talking about! I sometimes wonder how a plumber or a taxi driver would write it? Moo-ving on … I enjoy watching a Scottish shepherd and his dogs at work on Youtube. The thing that hits me every single time I watch it, is that those dogs never take their eyes off their Master, and he never takes his eyes off the sheep, or the dogs.

David knew all about sheep, that was his job. His part in his large family was pretty minor compared to his big deal brothers who were allowed to join the army and help their Dad run the family property. The blessing of doing unnoticed things well, is a huge asset. It helps form character in us, when we are prepared to leave acknowledgement from others, behind us. It teaches me regularly how needy I am regarding praise!

David did what he did well. He knew how to care for his sheep, protecting them from harm, and when they needed a rest, he took them to a green, well-watered safe place. Jesus makes sure we are rested and ready for hard parts of our journey. Some tasks may look very small and insignificant but they teach us to rest. The Lord knows what comes next, and He will provide us with a safe place, right near Him. Jesus Himself taught us about faithfulness – it matters! “He who is faithful in a very little thing is also faithful in much; and he who is dishonest in a very little thing is also dishonest in much.” Luke 16:10.

Psalm 23 tells us we can learn about fear, whether real or imagined, WHILE we are walking through the valley of the shadow of death! Our Heavenly Father often ‘trains our hands for war and our fingers to fight,’ in difficult, dark places, where we want to curl up into a ball and hope we die. Why would He do that? Theory in the Body of Christ doesn’t benefit anyone … but using our faith changes our view of things. The bigger the resistance, the stronger the muscles. Faith is a spiritual muscle – it needs to be resilient, because bad things happen unexpectedly.

We can theorise all we want, but the truth is – when the stuff is going down, and all hell breaks loose, that is THE very best time to practice what we believe. When we feel paralysed by our circumstances, then we can choose to lean on Him. HE becomes our  hope – not our changed circumstances. Our God is training warriors, not Tinkerbell! Later on, David himself became a mighty warrior, but when he was a youth caring for sheep, he had already learnt to fight with God on his side. That’s why he ran at Goliath.

The Holy Spirit, daily walks with us, guiding us, teaching us … He does not leave us. Instead He says: ‘put your foot here, put your hand there … stand on this scripture … do that other thing now.’ Our Shepherd doesn’t only lead us, the goodness of God in Jesus and His Word, glows right in front of us, lighting up the way ahead of us. Today’s Word, from the bible is our light for this day. “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” Psalm 119:105.

The Lord releases His word to show us HIS pathway through our trials. When this happens, He is not punishing us, nor has He forgotten us. He took our punishment, once and for all. We can’t ever be forgotten because He carved us on the palms of His hands! This Psalm also tells us that the Lord prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies.

So let’s look at 1 Corinthians 11:24,25 it says: “… 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 also He took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”” This is the Lord’s table! His broken body and His blood willingly poured out for our sake, made a way for us to survive everything that comes at us. In Jesus’ mind what we need is already done, and we have been given His mind. 1 Corinthians 2:16.

Christ’s death and resurrection on our behalf made a way for us to be certain that no matter how things look – God will not fail us. And then the Holy Spirit assures us that God’s goodness and mercy runs after us. He follows up our times of difficulties, to the point where we are so blessed we run out of words to thank Him! We won’t always feel it, instead we choose to believe what Jesus said, and live our lives depending on it. We are His people, and He knows when we need to lie down. Plus He knows the way through anything that comes against us to make us afraid and He will lead us through it.

Psalm 23 is an example of the Lord’s purposes in our lives, it is not just for funerals. It teaches us that He leads, guides, and travels with us every step of the way, every single day. He feeds us with Himself, and blesses us. His all-consuming desire is to walk with us, forever. Bye 👋.

P 3328 You may need your molars!

/ DVH

“When You speak to me, I devour every word. Your Word brings me such boundless joy. The endless delight of my heart is in knowing that Your beautiful name is attached to me, O  Yahweh, Commander of Angel Armies.” Jeremiah 15:16 TPT.

Right. Let’s be clear. This is Jeremiah speaking, he was the prophet who didn’t want to be a prophet — who had to lie on one side for a year, and then he had to do the same thing on the other side – all of this was for the Lord’s purposes. Once he was told to bury his loin cloth in the dirt, to teach the Israelites a lesson, and after that he had to wear the mangy, mouldy, mostly-destroyed loin cloth … that’s the scoop for all you fashionistas out there – mouldy clothes! 

This is a guy who walked about with half his head shaved … nothing new there! He was known as ‘the weeping prophet’ because his life was very hard. He was imprisoned, persecuted, betrayed, thrown into a pit by his friends. This man was a walking illustration of what God wanted to say to His people about what was rapidly coming toward them! But, please note — this stuff wasn’t just information to Jeremiah – it was his LIFE! And this man, whose life wasn’t a whole heap of fun, fun, fun — also still said those beautiful words at the top of this page.

My point today, is that life is filled with dichotomies. None of us are just one thing, we all wear different hats in different circumstances and each of us have been asked to deal with all kinds of things in our lives. Some people won’t like what we say – or we do – or even what we don’t do. My conclusion is this – you can’t please people, they are way too fickle! Go with pleasing the Lord. It’s much safer – He’s reliable! Just wait, your troubles will all make sense, eventually.

It is time to relinquish the idea that our lives are always meant to be happy, and but go after His joy! Instead of chasing this world’s idea of happiness our God saved us to use us to enlarge His kingdom. Let’s also remember, our God loves a big family! But just like Jeremiah … belonging to the Lord and being named and owned as the Lord’s child, is our greatest joy and aim as well as … … here comes a word we all hate … responsibility! 

I’ve learnt to deeply appreciate what Father God says, and what He does, and how He does it. Often that actually happens after the hard stuff has been resolved. The difficulties life throws at us can hurt like mad, but eventually these thing fade, or we get used to it … or … we learn from Him how to live with it, like Jeremiah did. The secret to surviving is to allow the bad stuff to be regularly replaced by our ever-present knowledge that Almighty God loves each one of us, unconditionally, and He always wants our good. At the same time, we need to remember, whatever we focus on becomes bigger. 

Try focussing, like Jeremiah did, on Who the Lord is, and what He says about this life. We belong to Him now, that’s a comfort as well as a promise! Many people today want to be the prophet. I just want to say to them — “have you even read the Old Testament??” That kind of life is not as much fun as someone might think it is. A prophet’s life is a visual aid. Jesus’ life was! They often show us by the way they live that God’s Ways are costly, even though they are beautiful to behold. Jeremiah’s life did, so did Hosea’s!

The bible says: “It was for freedom that Christ set us free no longer to be made subject to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1). However that verse needs to be firmly accompanied by the knowledge that we are now yoked to Christ. So now we go where He goes, and do what He does – we become His heart, hands and feet.

I believe the Lord’s Word sustained Jeremiah through the hard times that constantly came hurtling right at him. This is a wonderful reason to cherish whatever the Holy Spirit says to us, when He says it. He wants to sustain us through trials. Father God promises to be with us, when we are in trouble — but sometimes the distance between that promise and its fruition is bigger than we would like. That’s when our faith in God’s goodness is tested.

Jesus warned us about this, in another back molar chewy verse – “I have told you these things, so that IN ME you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33. So where is the peace? IN HIM. God has stated His purpose for what He does, and why He does it. We need to listen. Everybody likes the peace bit, but many of us wanna skip the ‘in this world you will have trouble’ part.

When we take what He says as information, we are instantly missing the application of His Words into our own lives. It means we aren’t chewing, instead we are browsing looking for answers that we might like more than the ones we found so far! Here’s my advice for free – simply ask the Lord: “What would You like me to learn here Lord?” This means we are both chewing and digesting God’s Word with the help of our molars!!  Bye. 👋