Thinking

P 3487 We have the freedom not to sin.

/ DVH

“Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new person. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17.

The grammatical tenses of the above scripture are incredibly important. What Paul is saying is that we have spiritually moved. Our old life is behind us, and what we choose to do about that fact is the coal face of our new life in Christ. Now we have His power to help us. We take in what Paul said, remembering it is past tense. It’s done. Like Jesus said from the cross —- “… it is finished.” Some things can jump up and down and shout at us, and demand our attention – but those things are echoes, they no longer have the power to capture us. We’ve been set free from sin and death. We may die, but death can’t hold us!

The sin in our lives has already been dealt with – now we simply take His word to be truth and act on it, using our faith. We too, follow Jesus. It’s just like when Jesus said to Peter and Andrew …”I will make you fishers of men.” Jesus met them where they were, and took what they knew and turned it around into Kingdom actions. He will take what you already know, and who you are, and turn all that into glory for the Kingdom of God as you live this life for Him. He’s a brilliant Redeemer – He takes bad things and turns them into the kind of good that is beyond our imagination.

Yes, we must choose to repent, repair and reconcile, and that will mean humbling ourselves — but we don’t do that alone, anymore. We.Have.Help! Every time Jesus gave His mum, or His disciples an instruction regarding this world— when they acted on it, a miracle occurred. They were standing on His Word. That’s where we want to be. Standing on His Word. We listen, then we obey.

Where our word disagrees with what He said, we put what we think aside, and go with what He has already said in the book. No matter what the cost is. I’m not talking about selling your house and sitting on the curb, or some other extreme action — I’m talking about daily living for others, loving them the same way we have been loved…unconditionally. When we live cherishing Holy Spirit’s help, living His Way means He likes to hang around with us. I tell Him I need Him over and over again during my day.

I think the thing that gets in our way, even more than any error in our thinking – is how we feel. You can correct errors simply by reading the book, and obeying it – but feelings are demanding. I’m not saying emotions are wrong, I’m just saying they make very poor leaders. So many of us have become used to running on how we feel. The people around us had better watch out …because how we feel is probably going to run their lives too! Hubby found this helpful little piece by Dr Tony Evans, in something He was reading recently.

“Here’s an important truth about emotions: they don’t have an intellect.  They don’t think. They merely respond. 

Emotions must borrow thoughts in order to stimulate feelings. Therefore, whoever or whatever controls your thoughts, controls how you feel. Your emotions are established and ruled by how you think about the circumstances in your life. So, if you want to master your emotions and overcome emotional strongholds in your life, you will need to master your thinking. 

When you align your thoughts with God’s truth, you will be set free.”

I agree! However, saying and doing stuff can be two very different things. As we know – agreement with what Jesus says needs our response. We must act on it. We simply need to recognise that we have a new Leader in the house of our lives, thoughts, emotions. Someone Else is in charge now. When we gave our heart and life to Jesus, He took it, but He will not take the power of choice away from us. Our habit of explaining away stuff away, by complaining or defending ourselves, has probably  been cultivated for most our lives. Those things can be hard to break. We will need to use our faith and God’s power to overcome the way we have always reacted to trouble.

When I was tiny, about 5, my mother and I were walking down the street and she was explaining stuff to me that I wasn’t supposed to do. At the same time a bus roared past us. I said: “Shut up!” and she instantly fixed her eye upon me, prepared to pounce. “WHAT did you say?” Undaunted by her stare I said: “I was talking to the bus.” Looking back, I think I might have made a great politician.

Stuff has happened to each one of us as we have walked through this life’s ups and downs. Our response was often labelled – ‘normal under the circumstances’ by other people, who were learning to dodge their own bullets. But the truth that sets us free is this – nobody can make us do nuth’ng no more … we choose. At the moment of impact, when someone else’s will crosses ours, that’s when we need to call on His help to say that “soft word that turns away wrath, etc.”

We will never be alone again. Now, because of our Heavenly Father, our wonderful Saviour, and the precious Holy Spirit, we can be guided personally through any stuff that wants to capture us. We don’t have to sin, we can overcome sin with God’s already firmly established goodness, and as we do that, we are spreading His kingdom of love all around us. Bye.👋

P 3480 More attainable than we think.

/ DVH

It can be hard to adapt to new ways of thinking, doing and being. But when we choose to live this life totally sold out to Jesus, living out His Will, His way, that choice is far more easily attainable than we’ve ever realised. It is worth anything, but it will cost us, comfort-wise. Nowadays, bad stuff happens all the time.

As usual, I have what I hope will be an illustrative story. A couple of years ago, my dear hubby began to develop osteoarthritis in his hands, feet, fingers, toes, back, shoulder etc. and he not only experienced awful pain, he had to have injections for that pain regularly. His ability to do ordinary things easily, just disappeared. It was very traumatic, as you know, we travel a lot. Hubby had just begun to enjoy watercolour painting and he loves to give his paintings away. He paints whatever God tells him to paint and it speaks to the other person.

Because of his lack of dexterity and the awful pain, losing the freedom to paint was very hard. Then the Lord gave me a word of knowledge – the skill to paint does not come from our hands and fingers or their co-ordination.. that skill comes from God and it can’t be taken away. It is a gift. A visual word of knowledge. I passed that on to hubby and suggested he try to paint with his other, non-dominant hand. At first he thought I had gone a bit loopy, but he trusts the LORD, so he began to paint with his other non-dominant hand, which wasn’t as painful. He had never ever done this before.

Lo and behold the pictures he painted with his left hand, were fantastic! Even more full of life than the original ones. The original paintings were beautifully done, but his left hand produced things that were much free-er. Now here’s what I think … hubby could always paint, with his left, or right hand, it didn’t really matter – but using his left hand to paint meant he really had to extend his faith. What we do in faith reaches into God’s kingdom and it creates miracles. Read John 21:6.

Over to my point today. For years the church at large has wandered in the wilderness, trying so hard to please Jesus, and follow Him. But we did not know what to do with the “stuff’ that continued to happen to us, every single day. Everybody wants to cope and remain victorious, but we don’t seem to have the skills to help us to stay away from the very things that were sent by the enemy to drag us down. So we often have no personal victory over sin. We promise God over and over again that we will not gossip, or drink too much, judge others, or watch risqué films  etc. but it seems we have no power to change.

However, because of what Jesus did, now we have inside us the very gift and power we longed for, it just isn’t going to manifest itself according to our knowledge and our rules. God Himself has a WAY to do things. The bible is full of illustrations of what His Way looks like. His way looks like total surrender and confidence in everything Jesus achieved on that cross. It operates in faith and splashes love freely all around it. It knows when to say yes, and when to say no. Now we need to lay aside our coping mechanisms and learn to live this life dead to what we want and think we need, and alive to what Jesus wants for us, every day.

It is easy to say that we want to do everything the Lord asks us to do … until we don’t — because suddenly it seems too hard. Sometimes what Jesus asks us to do, doesn’t suit our plans, or make sense to our natural minds. Acting in faith is not automatic, it is learnt by practising it. Living this way. I know I need to take what the Holy Spirit said in the bible seriously, and continually choose to act on it at every opportunity, even when my flesh is desperately screaming its head off. I do that by returning love for meanness, faith for doubt, exercise real joy because of what Jesus did, no matter what else is going on. As we are following Jesus we continually need to make faith adjustments. We pray – do whatever He tells us to do – and then we follow Him. Human beings  want to escape trials, but the Lord has promised to take us through them.

Humility is one of our greatest strengths, and we get it by humbling ourselves and admitting we need His help to die to what we want, and live for what He wants. When some awful trial or other seems to be much bigger than we are, we have an opportunity to lean on everything Jesus did for us, and learn to trust Him, no matter how it looks. Let’s use our faith to respond to trials differently. This is not a passive thing. We must grab hold of Jesus, just like Peter did when he thought he would drown. 

Jesus once said this to Peter when he began to berate the Lord for talking about His death. “Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Matthew 16:23. But this man had been following the Lord for over two years! Then Jesus explained what God wants: “…“Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me will find it.” Verses 24&25.

In other words we have to be prepared to put down our own ideas, and agendas, and pick up the things of God, that are eternal. Returning love for hate. Faith for passive resignation. When we were born again eternity entered our hearts. Let’s begin to rely upon His ability to know what we can and can’t do and trust the Lord to get us through it. We can get through things we have never ever dreamt about because we have God’s Spirit in us, with us, to guide us. Just like my little illustration, we can paint with our left hand even though we can barely write with it! This new way of living is more attainable because of His Grace, than we realise. Bye. 👋.

P3454 Remembering Helps!

/ DVH

“…and when He (Jesus) had given thanks, He broke it, and said, “This is My Body, which is broken 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.”” 1 Corinthians 11:24-25 ESV. 

People participate in this scripture in a number of ways – all of them are wonderful and worth doing. From blessing our food and drink daily, to taking communion together, and reminding ourselves that Jesus’ broken body and shed blood makes a way for us to be able to run to the Lord any time we need to, or want to do it! He is here to help us.

Remembering the Holy Spirit is a great daily aim. The thing that stood out to me, in 1 Corinthians were the words … “remember Me.” These verses are a prompt to help us to value our memories of good, moment by moment, during each and every day. I liked that thought. So much crowds in on us during our daily lives, lots of things that demand our attention, it means that Jesus sometimes becomes an after-thought — if He is even a thought at all … and I’m not condemning anyone! Let’s pull our focus off the situations around us, and back onto the One Who is here to help us – the One Jesus relied upon.

Many years go, I had 3 children under 5. Trust me, you are lucky to be able to think at all when you have babies or toddlers. It was over 50 years ago, and yet I still remember the endless  wailing and feeling powerless to help the child! Not to mention the futility of trying to quiet an infant when you have no clue what caused the problem in the first place. New mothers, take this from me, please — these days will pass away and you will look back at them with bitter sweet sadness… especially the part where they hadn’t learned to say “NO!” yet. Whenever you can, enjoy the little ones.

Parenting is not about perfection, it simply requires plenty of  participation. We can’t prevent the lumps and bumps of this life happening to our kids – it’s all prep for adulthood – yours and theirs! One day soon all the intense work that goes into raising an infant will go away, and you are left with raising a brand new human being, with its own will and preferences. Parenting is not as much fun as the magazines pretend it is, and, trust me, we all fail at it – despite our dedicated efforts. Remembering Him helps us keep our cool when we can’t cope with our inadequacies.

I am learning that reflecting on the things that the Lord helps us with — successful times from the past — can often help us get through the things happening right now. David did it in 1 Samuel 17:34-36  “But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.” Please let us remember, David is talking about two really really bad things … a lion and a bear. This is not a kitten or a cuddly toy!

And he took the past, his own personal experiences with God, and used it to do two things. It gave him courage and confidence for now. And then he used it as a weapon so he could carry out the next thing. Remembering is a very valuable tool, when Jesus Himself asks us to do it. When we are hurting, sometimes we need to be our own cheer squad. Some people enjoy writing a journal, my hubby does it periodically, and it blesses him to go back over the things that the Lord has said, and done, in the past.

Jesus asked us to remember Him when we take communion, when we eat, when we sleep, when we wake up — even as we are going about our normal lives. His Presence goes before us, and comes behind us as we walk this walk of faith. “Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; He will neither fail you nor abandon you.” Deuteronomy 31:8. 

Nothing happens to us that the Lord Himself doesn’t know about. “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember Your miracles of long ago.  I will consider all Your works and meditate on all Your mighty deeds.” Psalm 77:11,12. It is so beneficial to our faith to remember the things He has done, especially when we feel oppressed,  ill, or even a bit depressed. You know, it is of no use to pretend that Christians don’t struggle with mental disease … that’s what it is …. mental DIS-ease. Something inside our thinking is not helping us, and we are no longer at ease. 

One of the best ways I know to help that, is to phone a friend, or if you pray in tongues do that. And if you are locked in then please don’t beat yourself up. Life may seem to be suffocating you and you do not need “ought to” and “must” sitting on your heart and mind as well. God loves us as we are. If we could perfect ourselves we would not need a Saviour! Maybe we have allowed some squirrelled up ideas about appearances and expectations to put even more pressure on our faith. These things deny our humanity. (2 Corinthians 1:8; Matthew 26:36-46.) 

I urge everyone to cultivate the remembrance of good in your life. Was someone kind? Thank them, and tuck that kindness in your heart, you might need it someday. Remembering helps us to keep on pressing on. Bye. 👋.

P 3210 NEW YEAR’S DAY, is just another day.

/ DVH

“Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new person. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 TPT. A whole lot of sweet, sincere people look at a New Year as an opportunity to turn over a new leaf, and begin their life again, choosing to leave something that is bad for them – behind them. We call them New Year resolutions. However, whether you make them or not, it can be good to revise our thinking and behaviour … but not just once a year! 

The-people-who-don’t-know-Jesus-yet only have their will power to cling to, but you and I have SomeOne of substance Who will not only help us — we can cling to HIM! I’ve seen my own will-power in action many times in my life, and sadly I think it’s overrated. Some of these things we think we might be better off without, are not habits … they are strongholds ruled by the demonic. My prayers at this time of the year go a little like this:

“I love you so much Lord Jesus, but You and I both know that there is stuff in my life that has got to go. It needs loads more effort than just my will-power. I will fail without You! I need Your power active in my life and decisions, to deliver me from the things I have willingly embraced in the past. I throw myself on Your great mercy and grace because I know I can trust You to change those things that need changing. I give You permission to get to the bottom of anything I am unaware of, or ignoring. My goal for 2026 is to be more and more like You. Thank you, again and again, for saving me Jesus!”  Amen.

So, what does it mean in 2 Corinthians when the author uses the word ‘enfolded?’ It means ‘to surround, envelop, hold or clasp (someone) lovingly in one’s arms.’  Who wants that? Me! I need lots of enfolding. Being surrounded by the Lord Jesus’ loving arms is more than just a wish, or a dream, it’s a promise. And do you know what? The minute you and I said “yes’ to Him that’s where we’ve landed – right in the middle of those arms that loved us so much, He died for us.

The Lord Jesus loved the world so passionately that He allowed His enemies to pull His precious arms out of their sockets to make room for all of us so He could enfold us. He is so terrifyingly amazing. And the minute the Holy Spirit arrived at Pentecost everything changed. Now we live our lives in the middle of that change – we don’t have to wait, the power to overcome is here. The Love of God, that had been exclusive to the Trinity, was made available to people everywhere, for free. That Love we’ve been given isn’t full of pity or condemnation, but full to the brim and running over with compassion, understanding, and a new way to live.

Here’s a clear explanation of the word ‘pity.’ ’“To pity someone means to feel sad, sorrowful, or sympathetic for their suffering, misfortune, or unhappy situation, often with a sense of looking down on them or feeling superior, but sometimes just a gentle sorrow for their undeserved hardship. It involves feeling bad for them but doesn’t necessarily require action, differing from compassion, which actively motivates help.”

Jesus knows we are all just glorified dust, so instead of lowering His expectations of us, or even eliminating us — He chose to became one of us. Then He paid the necessary price for us to be able to receive the Father’s Love, all day, every day, for free. He chose us and now we freely choose Him and His ways, right back. 

In these turbulent times, let’s remember there’s no room for fear in love. When love is present fear has to leave. LOVE IS SO BIG – FEAR SIMPLY CAN’T STAND IT – it has to get out of town. If we have fear, then we have not yet been perfected in our knowledge of His love for us. Ask to be perfected in His love. Our prayers are powerful, so let’s pray for the spiritual things we need. Unfortunately, waiting for fear to go before acting, is not wise. We must oppose fear with faith in what Jesus did. His love truly, truthfully, accepts everyone. As human beings, we are so helpless without Him. This life is too difficult alone – but we are not alone. We are IN HIM.

If our inner man is not transformed, then the outer man has very little or nothing to contribute, to changing our lives. Our inner yes, accompanied by suitable actions, is so powerful! Our feelings often change with our circumstances, so it is unwise to trust them, so our attitudes can start taking over our actions, because we’ve chosen to sit on the fence, and not actively participate in our own transformation. It is easy to make up reasons why we shouldn’t or can’t love this person or that one. We all have very real earthly reasons. But our higher calling demands obedience, it is not optional, nor can it be re-shaped to suit us!

I’m not big on “HAPPY NEW YEAR” simply because it  means that we will only think to revise our behaviour once a year, and most of the time, failure is tolerated. We will all fail without Him, but we do not have to be without Him. Only a fool lets his enemy steal everything from right under his nose! I urge you to go to the enemy’s camp and take back what He has stolen from you. Take your clean hands, cleansed by repentance and reparation and go and take that stolen stuff back! Whether you’ve lost work, health, your family, or love, joy and peace. Tell satan to take a hike, you are in God’s kingdom now. Bye 👋

P 3176 Sounds like a laser to me!

/ DVH

“For we have the living Word of God, which is full of energy, like a two-mouthed sword. It will even penetrate to the very core of our being where soul and spirit, bone and marrow meet! It interprets and reveals the true thoughts and secret motives of our hearts.”  Hebrews 4:12 TPT.

Yeah, that last bit is a bit of a doozie! The writer is talking about those inside, hidden-in-our-heart bits we sort of kind of know about, but we do our best to hide them from ourselves, and others! You know what I mean, the things that we suddenly glimpse, and we try really hard to instantly forget them because they look like the Great Wall of China and it’s all too hard! We all know a Godly life is a priority. We must remember that stuff like this is a distraction. The thing is, those hidden things I’ve mentioned, flavour our lives and our points of view …to the extent that we end up seeing bad motivation where there is none. Then we end up trying to escape or debate over the issues of the very things that can transform us.

We know that God’s Word will go straight to the heart of any matter and, at the same time it lays our phoney, self-serving excuses bare. So there we are … uncovered and exposed, feeling lower than a snake’s belly in a wheel rut. Guess what? In those self-discovery moments we must remember that Jesus died for every stinky evasive attitude we have as well. We will lose our way when we stop listening to the cues that the Holy Spirit gives us. He wants to lead us back into true fellowship with Jesus and our Heavenly Father. That’s the only safe place for us. Our God is always for us.

When we choose to allow His Word to work on our hearts, it will do the kind of surgery that will affect our minds emotions and bodies. It can expose errors between what the Lord says, and what we think. It often shows us the way we think is shooting us in the foot spiritually, especially when we choose to take it seriously! His Word takes the doubt out of what we believe because it reveals to us the Way the Lord thinks, and what He wants from us. Plus it separates our way of thinking away from the world’s way of thinking. All that happens because this morning we decided to prioritise His Word – reading it until something strikes us in the heart. Then we choose to go out and act on what we read. 

The acting on it bit is incredibly important. James 1:19-27 exhorts us to not just hear what the Lord says but go out and do it. “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 

For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

Looking into God’s word and persisting with it, until we identify how to act on it, means we are moving away from being a hearer, into being a doer. We will begin to walk with the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God never theorises – He acts! It is in His nature to be active for us and others. The people who choose to follow Him, act like Him. They know they need His help, because they know themselves clearly enough to realise that they can be deceived so easily.

These people are not driven by emotion, instead they manifest what righteousness before the Lord, looks like. The Word working in them and on them changes the way they react! They truly love the Lord, because they have discovered His love is a love that is like no other. ‘Listening and doing’ people deliberately set aside anything that remotely looks like it might hold them captive. They know that Godly actions bless them and others, as they participate by working with Him. His kids understand Who the Lord is, who they are, and they are realistic about this life. They constantly remind themselves that Jesus died for their inadequacies.

These people James is talking about are never self-deceived because they don’t trust their own opinions – instead they use the bible as their permanent reference book. They are well-aware that life and death is expressed through what they say, so they pray and watch over the way they use their words. Their desire is to bless others and if what is said won’t bless anyone, then they refuse to say it. His kids love to honour the Lord in everything they do, simply because He has revealed His heart to them and they’ve fallen in love with Jesus and the Way He does things. They can never forget that the poor, hungry, homeless among us are our responsibility. 

The Holy Spirit’s leading and freely given understanding are just like a laser, cutting through our wishes and wants, to expose who we really are, but without any fear or shame. Bye. 👋

P 3083 Adaptability.

/ DVH

““Learn this well: Unless you dramatically change your way of thinking and become teachable like a little child, you will never be able to enter in.” Matthew 18:3 TPT.

Back when my kids were little, once a year I took the three of them, separately, off into the city to buy an individual ornament each for our Christmas tree. Those individual journeys included a visit to the Christmas theme park on Myer’s roof, a ride on something or other, plus a joyous inspection of the Myer windows. Then we wandered around the Christmas shop together choosing this year’s ornament. Finally they had a yummy treat, and a return long train ride home, with lots of time to talk. 

However, even though fun was on the agenda, I knew I was there to teach them how to be responsible caring people, whilst preserving as much of their childhood fun as I could. So somebody else, (me!), cleaned their clothes, and decided what they would eat, and I looked after them when they were sick etc. Unfortunately, once they started to grow up, things became more difficult. They didn’t like this and they wouldn’t eat that. Their ‘teachability’ and ‘adaptability’ levels dropped clear away as they grew older. 

I discovered today, when I spent time meditating on this verse from Matthew, that I personally have no idea how to be a child when I am with the Lord. After all children trust their parent to get things right! But that kind of freedom was absent from my own life, because I don’t think I actually knew very many carefree moments. I’m not complaining BTW, I simply lived with a distinct lack of the kind of freedom a happy child enjoys. So it continually clouded my view of the way the Lord sees me. 

And let us be clear —the Lord sees us as His children, as well as seeing us as His people. It dawned on me that I need my thinking transformed in this area as I have a limited human reference point to draw upon. I strongly suspect that I am not the only pickle in this barrel, many other people have had limited childhood experiences too! But is this what this verse is all about? Is it just the idea of being taken care of without even noticing? Or being able to play anywhere you want, whenever you want? I came to believe this verse is all about our inner attitude toward God Himself.

So I did further research and decided to look at children in other countries. And lo and behold, in the midst of war, starvation, and suffering, I saw that if a child can play, it will. We’ve all seen pictures of children playing in bomb sites, or in the dust and dirt of a refugee camp. I came to the conclusion that childlikeness is an inner attitude – it is not formed by our outward situations. It seems to me that Jesus is talking about the way we approach this life. Things like wanting to learn and being adaptable to change.

Those children in refugee camps etc. don’t want to be where they are, they would probably like a nice little safe house to live in, but their circumstances have taught them to ADAPT.And as I have aged, it seems I have become less adaptable. That attitude, plus life’s ongoing difficulties, trials and heartaches can actually keep me from the very place Father God wants me to live in! He wants me to remember that I can always be confident in Him, despite my inner or outward circumstances. 

Faith is defined in the dictionary like this:“complete trust or confidence in someone or something.” That’s when I took a good look at my own measure of faith and I decided that my somewhat oppressive childhood was no excuse. I can’t hide in what other people did to me, because now – today! – I have a choice. I can’t even hide in what some people continue to do to me …because my confidence is in GOD HIMSELF, not in my circumstances or other people’s actions. Whether I am damaged by this life, or ill because of my body’s weaknesses, I can still choose to live in complete confidence that God is with me, and for me, and He will finish the work He started in me.

That’s what childlikeness looks like. It is about trusting in  SomeOne Who is greater than I am – even when I don’t understand what is going on. Every single thing that happens to me does not always have to be assessed by my understanding because my understanding is broken! Unless I believe that God Himself means to do me good, when things look bad – I will start to lose my childlike attitude and trust. 

Wonder of wonders, my glorious Father has given me a book that gives me detailed descriptions of how He feels about me, (and many many other people) so I need to put my faith in His written word, more than I put it in whatever is going on around me. Children trust their parents to fix things – while they go on with what they are doing. In the end, I decided to pray to be more adaptable … how about you? 👋 

“Energise the limp hands, strengthen the rubbery knees. Tell fearful souls, “Courage! Take heart! God is here, right here, on His way to put things right And redress all wrongs. He’s on His way! He’ll save you!” Isaiah 35:3-4.

P 3002 Win, win.

/ DVH

There is one kind of work that we cannot avoid. It’s the work we need to do with ourselves, our responses to difficulties. We do not have to do this work alone, we have the Holy Spirit’s guidance and help. Unfortunately, the more we postpone surrendering our faults and foibles to the Lord, the more ingrained they will tend to become in our old nature. So we need to recognise those behaviours, and throw off the old way of thinking, and put on His new way of thinking instead. We must learn to put the deeds of our flesh to death – God won’t do that for us. He already provided a permanent solution!

“For if you live according to [the dictates of] the flesh, you will surely die. But if through the power of the [Holy] Spirit you are [habitually] putting to death (making extinct, deadening) the [evil] deeds prompted by the body, you shall [really and genuinely] live forever.” Romans 8:13.

When we realise that there is something, some attitude that does not fit in with the bible, and we need to change,  we need His help — that’s the best moment of true honest response. There are times we hope that the Lord hasn’t noticed those things, or hope they won’t matter, and so we continually choose to live with whatever it is. Hmmm… good luck with that idea!  The reason I know this is because I have tried to excuse some stuff and failed! If God brings it up, and we see it, that means it is the right time to deal with it.

We are often challenged because familiarity has a great appeal … especially if our attitude is just a bit off. But eventually, if we choose to keep after Jesus, even that useless lie wears off … and then those little things we have hidden away, start to leap out and niggle at us. Then someone says something that seems so pointed we feel like everybody else knows about our dumb attitude and that they are staring at it! Hopefully, that is the time we go on a little quest to find out what the Lord has got to say about these things. 

First of all we need to pray and acknowledge our sin — a lack of patience, long suffering, self-control etc. Then we go to His Word, and voluntarily start reading what He says, looking for answers. We are about to use our faith. Many times I have specifically researched about a subject that I’m concerned about in my own life, just to see what Jesus has to say about it. But there are other times I continue to read wherever I’ve been reading day by day, and I have faith that I’m going to find the answer that I need, as I simply keep on reading! These are the times when what I need will just jump off the page and almost bite me. 

But at other times the Lord says to me: “Did you see that?” And I’m like .. “see what?” and He says: “Read it again.” And I’m like…”huh?” (I told you I’m dumb!) And He says:“You missed it, go back and read it again.” And then, most of the time I understand why He stopped me and told me to reread what I was reading! I get so excited I’d probably bail up the postman and tell him what the Lord just revealed to me.  I think people often can’t receive revelation, because they don’t persevere. Actually, sometimes things happen at the very moment you want to give up and ignore the whole thing.

The next step is obviously repentance, then finally, transformation. Transformation comes when I recognise where I am wrong or sinful and I ask Him to help me. I say things like: “You might have to put a big sign on this new thing you have shown me Lord, because I’m bound to forget, or get distracted, or miss it.”  Most of the time I’ve discovered that what I find can be something that’s been there for ages and I think that kind of behaviour is just ME. It’s often something I do to make other people ‘back off” when I feel threatened.

However, when the Lord puts His finger on something, there is enormous wisdom to be had, if you don’t excuse it or just pass it off as a one-time mistake. Instead pray over it and ask Him to show you how you can apply that scripture into your everyday life. The only other thing I can tell you about that, this is the place that often requires humility. And it can also require loads of personal honesty.

I need to be prepared to put aside my idea of my personality quirks, in favour of who the Bible says I am, and that can create a conflict. It is a very difficult thing to confront yourself and realise that you have been indulging something inside you that God would describe as ‘not good.’ Nobody grows through concept and principle, we grow through humility and application.“How does this apply to me?”

The only other thing I want to mention that may be relevant — is this — in order to change the habits of a lifetime I may have to confront whatever behaviour He has indicated, a number of times, and take the same stand each time. I have become increasingly aware that the most wonderful thing about change, is that Holy Spirit is always with us, helping us, and so we end up with a testimony! Suddenly a new world opens up in front of us, many times on the back of that very transformation, because the Lord has very generously given us fresh revelation. 

If any verse of scripture leaves you questioning whether you need to do something about it  or not, my advice is to err on the side of caution and pray over it anyway. When sin is dealt with there is no shame, except the kind of shame that bumps into our pride. Win, win. 👋 Bye.

P 2948 Times of refreshing …

/ DVH

“God will continually revitalise you, implanting within you the passion to do what pleases Him.” Philippians 2:13 TPT. This is one of the enormous benefits of living a transparent life before the Lord and others. We can actually hear Him whisper. I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. Years ago, the Lord said this to me: “If you will hear Me for correction, you will hear Me for direction.”  (Proverbs 3:5; Psalm 32:8)

I have taken that to mean that if I am prepared to throw myself into reverse, and own my faults – to Him and to others – it will help my spiritual hearing. The trouble with this thought for many people is that they kind of argue with what they hear. EG: “Did I make that up?” Like our imagination is somehow bigger than God Himself!  And then they start to cancel out their faith with doubt. We have the bible so we already have what the Lord thinks – in a book – check it out in the book!  I also spend a lot of time capturing my thoughts like butterflies in a net!

To do what God says we will need to be prepared to look dumb to other people. Think about Gideon, Noah, Joshua, Moses, Abraham – these men did the strangest things on God’s orders! The secret to walking in faith is to put your faith in His goodness, and don’t take it back. However, don’t put your faith in accomplishing what He told you to do – the action — because that will get you stuck quicker than superglue. A whole lot of great people fell down that hole! Put your faith in WHO HE IS, in His incredible character, His reliability, His kindness, His faithfulness etc. WHO GOD IS is our plumb line. 

Nowadays when He tells me something I just do it. If I look like a goose, that’s even better, because I can use all the humility I can get! My faith is in His goodness, and if I get it wrong, then I know, from the book, that He is a Redeemer, He can redeem anything! I’ve also learnt, the hard way, that nobody knows what they will do when they are under pressure!  Pride has to go.

The Lord regularly speaks to me through His word, and He also speaks to me in my head…my thoughts. It is extremely tempting to think, whenever that happens, that “I made it up.” However, when we make the effort to know the book, we are learning to know what He likes and wants, and what He doesn’t – so we can walk away from sin and unbelief. I also find it easy to follow a Leader, like the pastor or my husband, my faith is in GOD in them, not them. When we get into judgment of what other people are doing, we are walking away from following Him, and we start “Ieaning on our own understanding.”

We can also be tempted to take a poll, by asking a lot of other people what they think about the fault God pointed out in our lives. Polls don’t work! Big clue in the words: “what God Himself said to us!” That’s a neon sign moment. We need to trust Him. Otherwise everything becomes about us – how we feel, what someone else did to us etc. etc.…As soon as our own judgment, or man-made systems come into play, we will lose His wisdom and insight. He will just quietly disappear.

Here’s a question … why didn’t God STOP Adam and Eve? Because He had already given them instructions. It was up to them to obey what He said! The Lord wants willing obedience, and obedience involves an action. Nobody is going to like this next thought, but one of the best ways to start learning to trust the Lord is with giving. Generosity opens spiritual doors. In our Western world money rules everything, and Christians embrace “tokenism.” We need God to be in charge, NOT money, or this world’s riches. 

The point I want to make today is that God doesn’t just want to revitalise us, and rewire our thinking, He wants to go one step further than those two great things and give us a passion TO DO what pleases Him! That does not fall on most of us, we will have to go after it … because our Bridegroom loves to be pursued. In my experience of the faith life so far, this means God will be continually praised;  someone else will be blessed;  and I will be too, because I saw Him do something extraordinary! So I pray regularly for eyes to see Him at work, because what He does in our lives is so undercover, and subtle, it can be easy to miss Him. 

When the Holy Spirit does something only He can take the credit for what happens…it is always so quietly extraordinary! He never once takes a bow. Boy do I want a heart like His! John 3:8 “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”I too want to be the person that remains unseen. Sigh. But there are still times when my flesh squawks worse than Peter’s chicken!! Time to die, again!

I love the Holy Spirit’s nature, He is so selfless, and unassuming. Nobody can refresh us like He can. One word from Him and the colour of our day is suddenly brighter, and the world is full of possibilities again. That thing we didn’t understand is now clear, and we understand what He wants better than we did two seconds ago. Enter into times of refreshing with the Lord – by practising obedience. You will get to know Him better. Bye.👋

P 2898 Wot’s in YOUR way?

/ DVH

As you know, we go away regularly on the road, to give away bibles and other Christian materials. This time, as we’ve been preparing, it seemed that my health was going to be more of a problem than it has been in the past. Yet hubby strongly felt that God wanted us to go to Robe SA, plus a few places along the way. That town is over 2067 kms one way, 4,134 kms there and back! That’s a whole  lot of driving and traveling.  

In the end our only option seemed to be to travel down the inland road, which would take us 10 days –  nearly 20, there and back.  We can only do about 300 kms each day because we both have health issues, plus we always want to allow time to go to talk to people along the way. We had already eliminated flying because neither of us were sure if either of us could manage the long flight. However, we weren’t very concerned about any of it until the time got a lot closer, and by then, it became apparent that physically neither of us would be able to cope with such a large journey. 

Plus, our middle daughter, Kylee, and her son Jed, suddenly had to move house. The house they’d lived in for 11 years is going to be sold in June/July. She is a single mother of a 14 year old teenager, and she is homeschooling him, plus working 3 jobs. Fortunately recently she cut those jobs down to 2 – otherwise we might have to clone her!! Like a lot of other people today, she has to work very hard just to pay the rent, and put food on the table. And right at the time she had to move, and one part of her back-up team was about to trot off and leave her! She also can’t afford time off, she will still have to work as well. That’s the trouble with money trees, you over-pick them or they die!

Parents like to fix things. To be completely honest I personally probably jump in and ‘fix things’ without always praying first! Ho-hum. Because we want to help our daughter, it seemed that we couldn’t go on this journey at all, unless we went at some other time. Fortunately hubby hadn’t booked anything yet, so we prayed and the Lord confirmed our choice – March. Meanwhile, while we weren’t looking God had already taken care of ‘what concerns us’, as He promised He would in the bible! Our daughter and grandson have found somewhere to live, praise Him! I think, that when we make arrangements in our own strength, driven by worry and concern, God laughs. 

However, it seemed to us like we were between a rock and a hard place at the time! Over to my point: After this complication I gave it all up – my plans, plus all the bits and consequences to the Lord, and shut the door between me and the whole thing, very quickly. Then I left it alone. The next morning I continued to read the bible in my normal place, Mark – about the Lord’s death:

Mark 16:1-3“When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” …

Did you get that? It is easy to miss. These dear women had not planned ahead, they were already on their way to do what they set out to do. It was their final act of Love for the Lord. And it suddenly occurred to them they were not going to be able to GET IN. Now let’s read verse 3.

“… But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away!”  The pressure on these precious women had immediately come off. God removed the impediment, right out of the way, and they didn’t even pray or ask for it … because they didn’t even think about it until they were nearly there! How good is God?!

Boy, that scripture hit me so hard … right between the eyes…. I realised that I had to use my faith and step out, despite the impediments. Yeah, can you believe it? After all I’ve written here! Then He spoke to me in my heart: “You can go on the plane, I have removed that stone.” That stone was unbelief I’m thinking!! The Lord patiently explained to me that travelling by plane actually meant only 2 hours of discomfort, against 10 days of tiring, uncomfortable car travel.

When you look at it like that — it’s an easy peasy choice! The minute we heard from the Lord: “Go by plane” — every single thing fell into place. We had favour everywhere we booked – especially with the plane bookings! People bent over backwards to help us, because God Himself was working on our behalf.  

I want to finish today by saying this — there will always be a stone, a rock, a canyon, a river, an ocean, a boulder the size of Uluru in our way, when we decide to choose to obey Him! Whether we remember to ask for His help or not, God is still faithful. Stuff happens …all of the time. We can choose to do things with Him, or without Him – but with Him is so much better! And sometimes, because Jesus is GRACE personified, as we make a decision, He takes the impediments out of our way.

He is waiting for our ‘yes’ … …so wot’s in your way? Bye. 👋

P 2887 What ARE we thinking?

/ DVH

“Perfect, absolute peace surrounds those whose imaginations are consumed with You; they confidently trust in You.” Isaiah 26:3 TPT. What we think about matters. You might ask me can anyone change their own thinking? God says we can! What I mean is this, because our minds are often easily distracted, we need His help. Here’s another scripture to chew over from Proverbs 23:7 it says: “As a man thinks in his heart so is he…”Proverbs 14:12 says: “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.”

What we think about will eventually come out of our mouth. Let’s just stop and selah that thought for a hundred years or so! One day, the bible tells me, what I am thinking is going to be broadcast from the rooftops. Luke 12:3. Man have I thought some dumb stuff! Stuff that I sincerely want to take back. Today’s world wants us to be consumed by what we think we want, or what we think we need. There is a general assumption that people know what is best for themselves. My point is, what occupies our thoughts even when we are ‘resting?’ Even in His Rest, God is thinking about us! He’s always thinking about us. We are so blessed.

If God is a PS or an after thought in our lives then it will be much harder to occupy our thoughts with Him, we will be distracted and established on other things that can colour our point of view – the things of this world. Thinking about what the Lord has already told us in His book, needs to be cultivated. When someone we love gets sick – they are never far from our thoughts. At the same time, we are often bombarded by negative thoughts of death, devastation and destruction. That’s the other guy – he is very adept at throwing thoughts at us and then blaming us for having them!

Eve tangled with him and look what happened there – mankind lost their intimacy with God! Our thoughts need to be regularly transformed through dedicated application of His Word. We must change the ungodly patterns in our minds if we want to transform our hearts. When the Lord made Adam and Eve, He put them into the garden of Eden to enjoy it – then He came every evening to walk and talk with them. You know, in the absence of God, sin flourishes. The responsibility to cultivate and correct our thinking rests on us.

The sin Adam and Eve made was one we often make, we use our own understanding. Big mistake – HUGE! Let’s look at Genesis 2:6:“When the Woman SAW that the tree LOOKED LIKE good eating and realized what she would get out of it—she’d know everything!—she took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.” Eve’s weakness was that she wanted to be “in the know,” then she influenced Adam to join her. 

Human beings are already way too power hungry and revenge-seeking for that kind of power! The enemy ambushed Eve with ambition. She wanted to be like God and know everything. That’s what the fruit of satan’s work does. It puffs up. Humility and obedience go sailing out of the window, and people throw away our position of protection that God gave us. Sometimes, we don’t even bother to find out why He said no! Instead we start assuming He is keeping something from us, like Eve did!  

Our loving Father had already had a plan for what Eve went after – He planned it HIS WAY. Christ death is the God-given link to God’s power in us and for us. When we start feeling cheated, or robbed, that means we’ve fallen into our own understanding and we are ignoring His. It isn’t that we not allowed to think our own thoughts — it is about staying safe under the shadow of His wings. It’s about having peace in our hearts and minds, instead of the chaos of manipulation, fear and domination that comes with our enemy’s whispering! Our thoughts are often influenced by our circumstances and the immediate. This is why we read His book. The bible is food, it helps us grow spiritually, and digesting it creates a spiritual outlook, not a fleshly one. It feeds our minds and hearts with what God thinks … and why.

We must learn to cultivate that fixed reference point, because our own understanding is far more interested in our gain than obedience. We need obedience with trust. There is such incredible substance in God’s goodness, faithfulness, and His Ways. There is enough glorious reality in Him to keep us all busy for zillions of years. Our God is not boring. He is complex. Instead of talking with Him and negotiating with Him – like Moses, or Abraham, or Elijah, or Malachi, or Peter did — many people want to be wise and run their own lives, without any oversight. That kind of independent spirit can lead us away from everything that lasts. Human beings were made to inhabit eternity. 

Father God was not withholding anything from Adam and Eve, He simply wanted to protect them from the responsibility that comes when humanity has the knowledge of good and evil. Our judgment is faulty! It is influenced by our own passions. Peace went right out of the window the moment we gained that knowledge, and chaos ensued. Knowing evil also means that evil can tempt us.  Peace is our portion, but we must learn to think like the Lord does to live in that peace. Bye. 👋