Thread

P 3474 We follow the thread.

/ DVH

This is something hubby and I have learnt to do over the last 20+ years. Personally, and together, we walk with the Holy Spirit, daily. He tells us “Go here” and we do, then we follow the thread. We feel so blessed when we do it. This is how He stretches  and strengthens our faith. It is the way we live. There is nothing like working with the Spirit of God!

The first thing I want to say is that — the Lord loves it outside our comfort zone, because that means we are using our faith. Just tell Him:  “I am going for You, and You are utterly in charge. Please help me to pay attention to everything You say!” No matter how unusual stuff seems, as He brings it up, hubby and I simply go and do what He tells us. This has led to growth in the area of our own faith — and bucket loads of Grace for others, plus something I call automatic praise. 

That’s not like the loving cheerful songs we sing to enter His courts. Automatic praise is startling in it’s power and accuracy. It happens when we get so overwhelmed by His goodness, and we are so happy – praise just pops out, unbidden. When you get to see the Lord at work, it’s not hard! The Holy Spirit loves it when God’s people do what He asked them to do – and one of the things He has asked us to do is: “GO!” As far as I know the Lord Jesus has never taken back that directive. Simply tell Him you are available and then you obey.

When I read the Epistles I can see a whole lot of very different people who spent their lives “going!” Even those people who didn’t travel. The ones that stayed home reached out to their neighbours, and the church functioned together as a unit to bless anyone and everyone around them. You don’t read much about them buying this and that, or going on holidays – their plan was to follow HIS PLAN. 

There are times when the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet can be difficult … but just when we want to quit, we pray: “help help” and He helps us. If He says: “Go down that road and talk to someone at the other end,” we do it. There is always somebody who needs to hear what we have to say, at the other end of that road! It never ceases to amaze me. Someone needs to know that God loves them so much that He sent His Son to bring them into a relationship with Him. We have driven miles out of our way to go and talk to just one person. 

Let’s be real, there have also been times when we were both exhausted from driving for hours, and the Holy Spirit said: “Turn off here” … and … we didn’t. That is hilarious. Have you ever watched something that isn’t aligned properly as it tries to continue with the task it performs? It kind of clicks, and clunks and stops, and slowly clicks and clunks some more. That’s what it is like when we don’t turn around. We both look at each other, and then turn the car around and go down the road we tried to avoid. That quiet feeling of being ‘out of step’ just gets to you. 

Nobody taught us to do this kind of reaching out, it simply happened as we obeyed Him and followed His thread. It has never been our intention to make a big deal about it. I’ve only written about it here, in case someone wants to know how you reach out to complete strangers. It’s actually easier than reaching out to the people you know! The Lord gave me this helpful thought on one of our trips — “You are never going to see these people again. Do you care about what they think of you?” After I finished laughing …because boy is that true … I realised I actually was scared of other people’s faces and dealt with that. 

The Lord is so gracious about helping us when we are trying to obey Him. Do we get it right all the time? I dunno ask Him! That part actually doesn’t really matter. We’ve personally seen that God cherishes anyone’s baby steps into His much larger world. At the same time, we’ve learnt so much about humanity in the past 20+ years. The people we think won’t respond, usually bawl their eyes out.

Please understand that we are not evangelists. We simply take the command of Jesus to be witnesses seriously, that is all. “But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth.” Acts 1:8. It is not hard to be a witness. They simply tell others what they know, and what they’ve seen, and invite those people to come and meet Him too.

Here’s what I’ve noticed … when you make yourself available to Jesus, He will take you up on it, because He is looking for witnesses. Ordinary people who will probably never stand out in a crowd, but they know that they have a story about Who He is and what He has done in their lives. My advice is, just tell your little story. We call things like that a testimony, but to be honest … it really is just you, telling your story! People have said to us: “Why don’t you write a book?” I said… “Because we are too busy doing it!“

The Holy Spirit will have people lined up for you to talk to. Half the time we don’t look for them, now they talk to us first!  We’ve seen miracles. We didn’t set out to see them, they just happened along the way. I encourage you reader to follow the Lord’s thread, His leading. The Holy Spirit has been sent to lead you and He will lay what He wants out in front of you. Then you follow it as far as it goes. He lives inside you, please, let Him out! Bye. 👋. 

“But we are certainly not those who are held back by fear and perish; we are among those who have faith and experience true life!” Hebrews 10:39.

P 3323 Follow the thread.  

/ DVH

Last night we stayed in a Motel room that was the worse for wear. The tiles were coming off the bathroom wall, and it looked like there had been a fire in the room at one time. It was however, immaculately clean. Yet, today we are staying at a resort-type place on the Murray River, right on the border of NSW and Victoria. Here’s the fun bit – the room with the tiles coming off the wall was only $AU9 cheaper than the resort. Go figure! 😂 

Life on the road is like that, and we have learnt not to concern ourselves about small things, because getting upset means we will most likely miss the blessing. Letting in anxiety also uses up heaps of energy, and we are running low on that at the moment. 1,250 kms in 5 days, 360 things given away! If we did a rocket imitation we could have driven the distance in 2 days. But then we would not have had time to stop for the people who turned up in front of us. We’ve had 6 or 7 close encounters of the God-kind, not to mention being blessed by these people just because we met them.

My poor hubby has to do absolutely everything. My contribution is to move things one at a time toward the door, then fold the dirty towels for the cleaner, and …. I do my best to stay out of his way. He’s kind of a skinny blue and grey blur that rushes in and out, packing the car. We’ve also given away 3 bags of blankets, 30 blankets in all, plus toiletries and bibles. But we have 7 bags and loads of extras to go, yet. 

One of the roads we traveled on is known as the worst highway in our state. We agree with that assessment BTW. Road trains of 3 trailers or more, were hurtling along swaying and bouncing all over the bumps. It ain’t boring!! But on one of those bad back roads – the Lord picked it – we met a Muslim man and his wife and shared Jesus with them.

In our very elderly motel, we met another Muslim couple, and hubby told these two young people about the Lord’s love for them too. They told us they were so lonely, because nobody in the country town talks to them. They even wrote us a thank-you-for-coming letter! Please pray, there are so many lonely people out here. A lot of the churches have closed, and there is limited support and a huge need.

Hubby sometimes has a hard time with me, not just because I am disabled, but because the Lord tells me stuff and he – poor sod – gets to do it for me. But there is a side blessing for him – he gets to talk to people, face to face. He loves that part. I honestly think he really was born to do this, it comes so naturally to him. I have to gird up my loins and pray like mad, or the words fall out of my brain. I can forget what I am saying in the middle of a sentence when I am tired!

We met one guy through a series of God-sent miracles, and  the Lord said to me: “Tell him he needs a compass.” We sometimes have compasses to give away, they often have a profound message for people. So, there he was, a youngish tough looking guy, and I blurted out: “God says you need a compass!” And as I handed it to him – he said, with tears in his eyes. “I’ll say!” What I’ve learnt from things like this is that the Lord Himself picks the people He wants you to interact with. This young man needed straight talk. Tee-hee, being older has its perks, old ladies can pretty much say whatever they like, so long as it is caring and sweet and fluffy. I like to take advantage of that.

We don’t have to individually be the whole ballgame. Jesus is the whole ballgame … He’s the ground, the sky, and in the players etc. Plus the Holy Spirit is the best Coach and our Father is the team’s owner! The Lord wants YOU to be YOU, but that doesn’t mean you are destined to sit in the bleachers watching on, while the game of life progresses. Too many precious saints are in the cheap seats thinking they don’t belong on the field because of this and that. The past is gone. It’s time to pick up a ball and bat and join the game – it will take all the members of our team to help us win, and you definitely have a part to play. The Lord has something planned for you that will knock that baseball out of the park and bless you at the same time.

When I was a teenager I wanted to be a journalist/reporter. Much later in my life, God gave me my dream. He kind of turned it upside down and tweaked it a bit, but now I ask questions and write things down. I listen and then obey. Now I write for Him. Like I’ve said before – it ain’t rocket science. America just sent 4 astronauts around the dark side of the moon, and they discovered something amazing – the earth is not just fragmented bits floating about in space. You might think it is, the way we all act! He made our earth with love, it was never His plan for people to chop it up in pieces. 

Today, together, we can each do our bit. Some of us trundle down dusty roads to meet the one person who needs to hear about Jesus, and some of us will have a conversation with a stranger in the supermarket. Some teach Religious Instruction in the schools, and some talk to people on the train. There’s an interesting bit of a verse in Genesis 24:27:  “I, being in the Way…” The no-name guy who said that ends up being an integral part of the story.

I think none of us need to continue to sit on the bench or in the bleachers. Let’s decide to live our whole lives in His WAY and get our head in His game. I hope to see you there, and you might see me. We’ll both be following His thread. Bye. 👋

P 2625 Love needs to be given away.

/ DVH

“Love is never wasted for its value does not rest upon reciprocity…  …To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” (C.S. Lewis – The Four Loves.) “Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” Matthew 6:21.

I was challenged by what C.S. Lewis said, because I think it is so true. I have met people who decided loving others was not ‘safe’ — and, sadly, they seemed to be some of the most black and white people I ever met. It was as if all colour was sucked right out of them. In my opinion ‘compassion and empathy’ bring God’s glorious out-of-this-world’s colour into, and out of our little lives. Those incredible gifts are the very essence of Christ’s being and life. However, without His Presence we can do nothing but flap our gums and look awkward. But with Him, we can usher in His kingdom here on earth, right here, right now. Our God is always NOW.

Let’s be clear, loving others is not only hard, like C.S said, it is fraught with danger. People are not reliable by nature, instead they have been badly influenced by the world around them. However, we have, inside us, the power to speak His life into others. Nobody can tell me that this kind of thing doesn’t or can’t happen, because I’ve watched it happen time and time again! A seemingly ordinary person, who is polite and helpful – but distant – suddenly floods with the Lord’s colour and His light, and they are alive in a way that seemed impossible a second ago. It takes my breath away every single time.

If we want to see Him at work and watch what He can do, first we need to lay aside our fear of rejection, abandonment and looking foolish. We will need to be brave. At times like this my favourite thought is: “I am never going to see these people again, what do I care what they think of me?”  So I start with whatever small thought He has given me, and I just keep pulling on that thread. Then, I stop and wait. I’m waiting to see what the Lord will do next. I try not to speak in paragraphs or whole pages. Instead, I do my best to speak as simply and clearly as I can. But the main point is: I do what He tells me to do the way He tells me to do it.

My dear hubby has been used by the Lord in this way, in front of my eyes, many times.  And he illustrates this releasing of God’s  glorious colours in others, time and time again when we are on the road. He is normally quite shy, and retiring, or that’s how he appears, until the Lord lights up inside him! At those times he is so bold when he speaks, even to strangers. And they glow under the lamp-light of God’s kindness and approval.  Then they tell him all kinds of personal things they probably wouldn’t even dream of telling people they know!

Hubby’s personal transformation illustrates to me what the kingdom looks like when it flows through us toward others. In those times we do not have to persuade anybody that God is real … when He turns up, His Presence is self-explanatory! Everyone knows that He is there. They don’t know, how or why … but they know that something extraordinary is going on. Mostly, the people we speak to look like little children who suddenly feel at home and LOVED.

God loved us so much He gave… and unless we participate in a lifetime of giving, loving and continually caring for everybody we meet, we will get stuck in a grey world that is the same old same old, day after day after day. You know, when many Christians get stuck spiritually, they end up hoping that going to church week by week will do. Actually, our relationship with Him is meant to be alive and vibrant minute by minute. If we only have Christian friends and Christian fellowship, then we have limited our exposure to the world around us. This means we will most likely never see the Lord shine as brightly as He does in the darkness.

Lately, we’ve all been so focussed on making ourselves feel better, we forgotten we are keepers of the most precious substance on this earth – HIS LOVE.  Love is meant to be given away, not hidden or hoarded. Hiding it defeats the very purpose we were given love in the first place! The more we give His love away, the more our lives will be bombarded with His colour and beauty. Jesus can’t help Himself, He just loves to do extraordinary things … usually without our permission! YAY! Our privilege and joy is – we are allowed to watch Him do them.  Aren’t we the blessed ones? 👋

P 2551 Run after Him and He will catch you!

/ DVH

When I am typing this blog the Lord will often drop a phrase or a few words from a scripture into my spirit, to start me off and help me. Sometimes it is a phrase for a title, and it floats through my mind unexpectedly. At that moment I know that this is what I call, a loose thread. If I pull on that thread and/or follow it as far as it goes, it will lead me into knowing Him better. 

So I take those few words I have, and type them into Google. Or I look the phrase up on Bible Gateway. It is always amazing to me how well Google knows the bible – especially as I am pretty sure they don’t believe in it!! 🤪 This stuff often happens outside of my normal bible time with Him – but He also inspires me in the same way, as I am reading the bible privately, for myself. 

I am sharing this because when I was first born again, I was given the traditional method of bible reading  — pray, read, take notes, then pray again. In the main, that did not work for me. I took copious notes, that I never ever referred to again (!) but taking notes did not result in building a relationship between the Lord and I. As time passed and I continued the routine I was taught, my faith eventually grew stale, because my appetite to know Him, decreased.

There is nothing like meeting Almighty God over the pages of the book He wrote! The bible is full of HIS stories, His interactions with mankind – they may feature Moses, Noah, Elisha, Amos and Habukkuk etc. but those stories are actually about the Lord, and what He did … and is still doing! Almighty God has not stopped doing stuff just because we regard the bible as a complete work! 

I cannot remember how many times I have read all the way through this book. Although, to be fair, the systems that people recommend to read it in a year have always let me down. I find myself caught up in the system, and ticking the box in my mind that says I did my duty.  Meanwhile I am pretty sure I was totally missing out on what He wanted to say to me! I don’t think dotting “i’s and crossing “t”s works for me. In years gone by, I was lousy at playing games like chasey or tag at school – I can’t run for toffee. But I love to chase the Holy Spirit … plus … I strongly suspect He loves to be chased!

Nowadays, I spend as long as it takes to research what I want to know. Sometimes that can take me quite a while. It seems to me a little like the Holy Spirit and I are playing “catch Me if you can!” … as I go all around the place, picking up stuff here and there. There are still times when I misremember a scripture, which means I’ve managed to get my theory wrong. But then I repent and ask Him to help me fix it and He never lets me down. I know this random method will not suit some people, but just for today, I wanted to offer an alternative way to get to know Him.

I’ve often thought about the fact that the disciples followed Jesus around for three and a half years – so this “follow the Leader” game isn’t completely weird! Today when I was prayerfully thinking about this subject, I was reminded of Moses and his personal encounter with the Lord. Moses was walking along minding his sheep, making sure none had fallen down a hole, or gotten stuck somewhere, when something unusual captured his attention. He saw a bush that was on fire but it did not burn up. 

“There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.So Moses said, “I must turn away [from the flock] and see this great sight—why the bush is not burned up.” Exodus 3:2,3. Moses’ innate curiosity drew him away from his work to something totally new, and that’s when God changed his life. He went from chasing sheep to standing up to Pharaoh … and we all know that outcome!

I believe that formality can have a place in our lives, but if it overwhelms spontaneity and true affection, then we are in danger of becoming religious. I want to be clear — there are days when I do not want to read the bible at all … but I read it anyway for my spiritual health. Sometimes I will read whole books … other days I only read three lines and His inspiration falls on me and I follow that instead. The bible is the only reference tool I use every single day.

What I have learnt is this: The Holy Spirit wants to be known. But He is not frivolous, or capricious, even though He is fun, He will always have a purpose for what He brings up in our lives.  It seems to me that He is more interested in our lives changing, than He is in us ticking the “I read the bible today” box. And that includes our prayer time as well. Christians desperately need His divine intervention into our bible reading times. I think if what we read is simply confirming what we already believe … we’ve missed Him. We cannot possibly know all there is to know about our God!

We can’t grow, if we are not challenged to think differently, behave differently, and do things differently. I say that mainly because whatever we are doing now IS NOT WORKING. The Body of Christ at large is vastly idle — it would rather go to a prayer meeting, or a bible study than witness! The Lord is not static – He has a plan. It is important that we join in with His plan, instead of fitting Him in around ours. Running after Him keeps us spiritually fit. Bye. 👋

P 2439 We are His children of the light!

/ DVH

“Once your life was full of sin’s darkness, but now you have the very light of our Lord shining through you because of your union with Him. Your mission is to live as children flooded with His revelation-light! And the supernatural fruits of His light will be seen in you—goodness, righteousness, and truth. Then you will learn to choose what is beautiful to our Lord.” Ephesians 5:8-10 TPT.

When I read this today, my first thought was this – we are His happy shiny people!  Everywhere we go we take His light with us … forget about long-life batteries … we have a source of light within us, that will last into infinity… and beyond!! Imagine that. This world has no comprehension of the treasure we have inside us. And ps … that’s very likely our own fault!  Moving on … because I don’t want to be a down-a-later… all the time!

What does it mean to be children of the light? Hmmm… I think it means, no matter what the problem is, no matter how hard things seem, we will always have an answer … because we know the Answer personally! He lives inside of us. Now some other people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet may not like His answer, but that ain’t our problem. We don’t even need to get together a bunch of people for us to shine, one of us and Jesus is a majority!  I’m pretty cheery about that thought too.

We have been re-designed to be optimistic people. No matter how big that problem is – our God is bigger. No glass half-empty here, we are totally overwhelmed and overjoyed to have His life-giving water inside us… Let.It.Out!  Because of this our catch cry toward others is: “How can we help you?” Jesus set that precedent in Mark 10:51-52: “What do you want Me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.” There ya go — another way to evangelise!

You know, without Him we can do nothing. How-ev-er!! That means WITH HIM 💥 watch out!! The Body of Christ has left this stuff to the experts for way too long. It’s time to get in the game folks. Here’s a red hot tip … you too, can be an expert on all things godly. Think on this – if I asked you about your fav movie, you could probably give me a pretty good summation of the plot and what you liked about it. Our interest in the bible is our thermometer, we just need to take our temperature – regularly.

Like Peter said in 1 Peter 3:15: “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”Studying the bible IS preparation, then doing what it says aids digestion. Your digestion of His book clears the grit and grime off the outside of your INNER light bulb. And just like moths and mosquitoes like the light – lost people who are sick of walking about in the dark bumping into awful stuff, love His light too!  His light through us is all the light this world needs.

Our God is so wonderful. He doesn’t expect us to memorise great chunks of His book– His word just needs to be a flowing river … because He is GOD … He can save people in seconds. Don’t believe me? Think about Jesus talking to the thief next to Him on the cross. That was not a comfortable conversation! Do you know how you get ready to witness etc? VOLUNTEER. “Lord I will talk to anyone You send my way today, but I am going to need Your help, as always.” Amen.

You and I, we have His marvellous light inside us. It could be as simple as saying to someone who asks you a question like: “How do you manage those difficult circumstances you are in?” I don’t even say I’m a Christian. I just say: “Without Jesus I can’t.” It’s always up to Him. The beginning, the middle and the end, I just grab hold of His thread of Love and then I follow the Leader. He knows where He is going. The Holy Spirit rides on our obedience … and it doesn’t even matter if you are scared to bits either, because the Holy Spirit LOVES this gig. You be you and let Him be Him. 

Finally, think on this – any light-bulb needs a power source. We have the power source that created this world, light bulbs and all! … inside us. It doesn’t matter how we happen to feel, faith doesn’t require feelings, it requires actions. It’s a ‘doing’ word! You and I can never ever be who we used to be, despite those awful pictures the other guy keeps throwing up in our minds… we’ve moved! Permanently. Out of the darkness into the light. 👋🏻