Trust

P 3517 Love Himself will stand with us.

/ DVH

(TPT)“God, I invite Your searching gaze into my heart. Examine me through and through; find out everything that may be hidden within me. Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares. See if there is any path of pain I’m walking on, and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting way— the path that brings me back to you.” Psalm 139:23-24. (NIV)“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

If I choose to evaluate what is good and what is bad in me — or my circumstances, or this world, or even … dare I say it, Almighty God Himself — this means I am defining things using my own reasoning, standards, thoughts and hopes. At some point I will need to remember that I am limited, which means my conclusions will be faulty. I need the Lord’s searching gaze all over my life because I can be self-deceived. That can happen so easily when what you hear the Lord say, disagrees with what you want to hear.

I have observed that there are some things in my own nature I simply do not want to see, so I will most likely hide them from myself, or worse … I will blame you for them! EG: “If you didn’t do this, then I wouldn’t have done that.” Some people call that passing the buck. The thing is in the middle of all that evasion we are missing the most incredibly important thing … we no longer have to hide from our sin! It was bought and paid for.

However, let’s not sit about planning our next nasty plot either! And we no longer have to hide. Hiding is a genetic trait we inherited from Adam and Eve. This is what the Lord, Himself says! “BUT … YOU are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a [special] people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies [the wonderful deeds and virtues and perfections] of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.” 1 Peter 2:9.

Hiding implies we have something or someone to hide from – we don’t. We don’t have to live in that sinful unproductive place anymore. God Himself has seated us in heavenly places – and He bought and paid for our seats! If only we would stop thinking about this statement as some sort of elevated, coveted, arrogant place;  and start thinking about it simply as our God-given God-planned home. It’s the place we serve others from. So we can be transformed as we go about our daily living, loving others the same way He loves us.

Asking God to search our hearts is wisdom. Otherwise we will continue to move aimlessly on, hoping against hope, some how, in some way, we are pleasing God. But John 6:40 – “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life.” Looking at Jesus intently and reverently, changes us. Let’s put that another way, what we behold we become. We please God when we believe in Him, and we read what He has said, and act on it. Then we are adding our yes to His Amen. Who would knowingly look at our suffering Saviour and be presumptuous?

We don’t have to be afraid to ask the Lord to search and try us, because He already gave His life for whatever is IN there. We no longer have to be ashamed of our malformed characters: Jesus knows it all and He loves us – because His love is not based on feelings it is based on His choice! He chose to come here and He chose to die for you and me. He took our shame on Himself, and set us free to be obedient children of Almighty God.

Paul said this to Timothy:“This is why I suffer as I do. Still, I am not ashamed; for I know Him [and I am personally acquainted with Him] Whom I have believed [with absolute trust and confidence in Him and in the truth of His deity], and I am persuaded [beyond any doubt] that He is able to guard that which I have entrusted to Him until that day [when I stand before Him].” 2 Timothy 1:12.

I don’t have to be afraid or ashamed anymore than Paul was, because I’m choosing to live persuaded! I read His Word, I trust what He says. Jesus is far greater than the ugly things I have done in my life, to myself or others. The only reason to hide from God is fear and shame. And our precious Saviour took them to the cross. When we go to the Lord and ask Him to search us, and look for any wicked way in us, we don’t have to be ashamed of our past sins. That sin was put on Christ. He hung there naked … that means nothing was hidden. Oh, if we would only understand what He did for us! Not just with our minds, but with our whole lives.

There is no fear in love … because Jesus’ love is so perfect. It minimises all the other kinds of love we cling to that are imperfect! Let’s stop expecting other people to supply what only God can give us — simply because it is more convenient to demand it from the people we can see. We are burdening each other by expecting perfection, but the Perfect One already did all the work. We can’t do anything to make Him accept us, because He did everything that was necessary in our place! Now we work out of love for Him and others.

I invite us all to regularly pray this prayer from Psalm 139 – because Love Himself will stand with us. And Love Himself will lead us on from the place where our hopes and dreams died, into a new place of His total love and acceptance. It is easy to forgive others when you realise what you have been freely given. Bye. 👋.

P3506 Which do we want to be?

/ DVH

Do you like Christmas trees, or fruit trees … or maybe you like both? Let’s not ever become so enamoured by God-given gifts that we omit to continually yield to Him so He can develop each one of us into a fruit-bearing tree. I think this could be why many men and women of God have fallen away from the faith, people see the gift not the person. We need to learn to care for those God-blessed men and women, who have miraculous gifts from Him. If we are not prayerful, they can become spiritual superstars. However, these gifts are God-given in the first place to be used for His purposes and glory. They are not necessarily a sign of complete maturity, with a force-field protecting the receiver from temptation.

At the same time, elevating one ministry over another puts instant pressure on the person who is ministering, no matter what other supporting gifts may surround them. Someone may have many gifts, but because of what they have been given, they are often used as a resource – instead of the Body of Christ developing and finding the gifts they have also been given. We’re to be an army first and foremost, not just a hospital.

I have said this before, but I want to repeat myself, a small congregation is no reflection on the minister. Sometimes Jesus gives His choicest sheep and lambs into special care, where they go from being one of many, to being intimately known and cared for. ““The one who faithfully manages the little he has been given will be promoted and trusted with greater responsibilities. But those who cheat with the little they have been given will not be considered trustworthy to receive more.” Luke 16:10 TPT. Jesus Himself had twelve men around Him whom He trusted with His life. But one of them was not worthy of that trust.

Sometimes big congregation numbers, can consist of people who hide within the larger structure. They are never really being challenged to grow themselves, and they continue to remain spiritually immature. People come for the miracles and/or brilliant preaching, not for transformation in their own lives. They are what I call musical-chair Christians. They can be devoted to a doctrine that they agree with, plus a ministry that benefits them, but they will move on the minute the music starts up again elsewhere. Their aim is to gain, not contribute.

Personally I think none of us should leave any church without making sure we love the people in the church we want to leave, wholeheartedly. Then if we must leave, we will leave love, not pain, behind us. Our churches can be a bit like ships. Some of us return to the shore and watch others move on into their destinies knowing that we will not be a part of what they are doing, but blessing them in their travels. Romans 13:8 says:“Owe nothing to anyone except to love and seek the best for one another; for he who [unselfishly] loves his neighbour has fulfilled the [essence of the] law [relating to one’s fellowman].”

Likewise we cannot learn to love others who are different to us, or difficult, or even those who don’t agree with what we think — if we don’t prayerfully and carefully, wait on the Lord, and discuss any proposed departure with our pastor. The Lord is never in a hurry to uproot people, unless they are physically moving house. If we take a good strong tree and plant it in the garden, but then uproot it regularly for one reason or another, we will eventually kill the tree. Let’s learn to bloom where we are planted. This life is not about our needs being met, children need that. Adults learn to care for others – for no reward at all, just to give glory to Him.

Likewise, I don’t believe we are to be like margarine, spread all over the place, going off to this church for this, and that church for that, doing whatever suits us! I have heard others say: “This church doesn’t meet my needs, so I’m going to move on.” The point is we don’t just go to church to get our needs met, rather we go to meet with Him, plus Jesus told us not to forsake meeting together! Perhaps we’ve been planted there to be a blessing to someone else!

The difference between a Christmas tree and a fruit tree is obvious, one is productive the other is not. Our own Christmas tree is soon to make an appearance again this year. Hubby will drag it out and carefully decorate it for the umpteenth time! Then after Christmas it will be packed away into its boxes until we need it again. But our mango tree is a huge blessing, it produces fruit from within it. A fruit tree will nourish your body, soul and spirit, a Christmas tree will nourish your soul and emotions, briefly. Fruit is far more important than decorations in the long run.

Let’s choose to go to church, because otherwise we will remain hidden and stagnant, and stay immature in our faith. Being in a fellowship means we will bump into and annoy each other, and that point reminds us of our shared humanity and our personal need for transformation. If we choose to follow someone else because of their gifts then we can easily become disillusioned and disappointed, and fail to develop our own. So let’s prayerfully ask the Lord where He wants us to be, and make a quality decision to learn to love others – warts and all!

A body cannot fully function when it has been dis-membered or dis-located. Your home church needs you, and you need it.  Be a fruit tree. Bye. 👋. Read … Psalm 1.

👋 c.c.

P3504 Look for the possibilities.

/ DVH

As we live our lives giving away that life for Jesus’ sake, we also need to watch and listen for His way through difficulties. There are times where there doesn’t seem to be a way, and that’s when I stand still and look out for possibilities. I know, He’s not done yet.

Our Saviour is a Redeemer, the Lord didn’t just make our sins go away, He let loose a brand new way for all of us to live. He exchanged death for life. We are participants who participate even while we are spectating! WE DO EVERYTHING FROM REST. Psalm 91:7-10 says: “A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. … … as we say – “The Lord is my refuge,” and we (you) make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you,…”

…. This is what being IN Christ Jesus looks like. He becomes the place we hide in, in good times or bad. Even when those huge house rattling storms of life come. When I am hidden in Him, He will reveal the possibility of something else He wants to do, while all that chaos is exploding around me. I can learn something about Him, or myself — and about how both of us can work together. He gives me insight about what is really going on, so now I know what to forgive, and what I need to give to Him. He has promised to show me how to love the unlovely, this means I shift my focus off the problem and onto that. And maybe this is an opportunity to develop further trust?

2 Timothy 1:12 says: “…for I know Whom I have believed and I am CONVINCED that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.” We cannot move forward without trusting and knowing our Leader. He’s the One we are following. Knowing His Ways gives us discernment, and our trust in Him takes us beyond the places we think we can go, or the things we think we can’t bear – into a new spiritually stronger place. “But as it is written, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9.

The Lord Jesus is like a Field Marshal, and He is a Master Strategist. He knows how to fight and He has a plan. However, He may keep His strategies quiet until the last moment – after all, someone else is listening! You and I may experience a false start if we rush on, trying to get ahead of the race. If you have ever run in a running race you will know that you position yourself to start, and then you wait for the gun to go off. This life is a race. Paul called it that in the above scripture from Philippians, sometimes we are on the sidelines waiting for our turn, and at other times we are on the track. We live ready to run that race. It is a marathon, not a sprint.

The society around us is actively dissuading us from our primary purpose, serving Him. Instead it brings up all kinds of postponement, “I’ll wait to serve Jesus until my kids are older” OR  excuses, “I need to pay off my mortgage before I tithe or give offerings.” Things that seem valid, but they are a distraction from our primary purpose — which is to serve Jesus first. We can still raise kids and wholeheartedly serve Jesus – He’s a fantastic money-manager!!

Otherwise, we will live our lives distracted into being like these guys who ignored a free feast: “The first one said to him, ‘I have bought some land. I must go and look at it. Please excuse me.’ “Another one said, ‘I have purchased five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.’’ Another one said, ‘I have just got married and I am sure you will understand I cannot come.’ ” Luke 14:19ff. We cannot afford to have a divided heart.

It is not good to become an expert in making up excuses so we don’t have to engage in His processes. Then change becomes a ‘some day’ thing, but ‘some day’ never comes. And our faith starts sliding down into pedantic and predictable. We can even begin to despise those who are actually engaging with Him, because their devotion prods our conscience. This means we never get to the place where we can see this world through His eyes of love. Let’s remember that LOVE is a verb, not a noun!

The second we step into our blood-bought inheritance, the enemy will target us with all kinds of temptation and lies. he won’t hesitate to drag up the past, and colour in the future. We need to remind ourselves of what Father God, His Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit look like! “Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, … … keeps going to the end.”

The Trinity look like this! They are where these glorious qualities come from! Read the above passage like this just once, it will blow your mind. “Jesus never gives up, He cares more for all of us than Himself…etc…” These verses are a perfect example of the Lord’s character, and this is the real war we face daily. We are daily tempted to doubt His goodness. We will need to battle every single day, to put aside our own selfish aims and pick up His plan for the ever-present, ongoing WAR against love. The possibilities are endless, but we can find them in the beautiful character and personhood of Jesus Christ. Bye. 👋.

P3503 Live in this minute.

/ DVH

“Anxious fear brings depression, but a life-giving word of encouragement can do wonders to restore joy to the heart.” Proverbs 12:25 TPT. Anxiety can seem quite normal under very difficult circumstances. When I read this, and other challenging bits of the bible, my first temptation is to check out what it says against my own experiences. This means I can easily get stuck on the bit up to the comma! If we check out what the Word says against our own experiences, we will find that a whole bunch of negative thoughts can assail our minds and emotions. Plus the other guy is delighted to pile on more!

It is absolutely essential that I understand that not every thought in my head comes from me. I am in a war, and the devil knows how to throw up all kinds of future situations and past defeats onto the screen of my mind. If he can affect my emotions, then he has me on his hook. The good news is – a fisherman will tell you that many a fish has jumped about so much it got itself off the hook, and went merrily on its way. My advice is — don’t give in. Fight the temptation to try to deal with the enemy’s wiles on your own – instead remind yourself that Jesus died for all the things we’ve done, past, present and future. Then cry out for “HELP!”

We all know that we can still choose to sin, and miss the mark, and let the Lord, other people, and ourselves down. Paul gives us the Lord’s answer in Romans 7:24,25: “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, Who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!…” It’s past and present tense – the work has already been done. We’ve been delivered and it is still going on. Now we put our faith in what Christ has done for us. It’s there in our bank. Rescue has come, just climb into Christ’s boat, and make a faith withdrawal!

My best advice is to drop whatever it is that has captured and hooked you, and jump into the river of His unchanging, never-ending love — repenting all the way!! Throw off the things that seek to hold you down and remind satan that Jesus WON. Done deal. If you need back-up then phone a prayerful friend. The battle for victory lies in what God Himself has already done and said. Not in what’s going on around you, and in your feelings. Forget what might happen, or what happened before. Glory to God, our past is gone, dead and buried with Christ, and we need to leave it there! Now we are here to proclaim His kingdom, which is full of His life.

I want to address something that can shoot anyone of us in the foot before we start. It is this – we need to learn to watch our speech. If we want to overcome the temptation to mull over bad news, here is a good rule of thumb. If it is bad, pray about it, then give it to Jesus, and ask the Holy Spirit: “Set a watch over my mouth please Lord.” Let’s not let our emotions lead us, the Holy Spirit loves to do that.

“And never let ugly or hateful words come from your mouth, but instead let your words become beautiful gifts that encourage others; do this by speaking words of grace to help them. The Holy Spirit of God has sealed you in Jesus Christ until you experience your full salvation. So never grieve the Spirit of God or take for granted His holy influence in your life. Lay aside bitter words, temper tantrums, revenge, profanity, and insults. But instead be kind and affectionate toward one another. Has God graciously forgiven you? Then graciously forgive one another in the depths of Christ’s love.” Ephesians 4:29-32 TPT.

By the way, if we focus onto what is going wrong, we can easily miss the blessing that is available, now. The secret to deliverance, is to live in what we have been given, NOW! We’ve all messed up somewhere, somehow, so after we have repented and repaired stuff, and done what He has asked us to do, let’s deliberately decide to choose to stand still, and live our lives for Him now. We don’t have tomorrow, we have to seize this day. Hand it over to Him.

Then I deal with my attitudes or any incoming problems. Those things are a bit like a parcel. I hand them over the same way I would treat posting stuff at the Post Office. When I post stuff I give it to the person behind the counter, and I trust them to take care of it. Hand it over, and then trust God to lead you and get you out. Every time I am tempted to help the Lord out — I stop, repent and hand it back again.

This is what the bible means when it says: “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:6. In all times and all places we go to Him. So now, I am actively: “…casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully].” 1 Peter 5:7.

Did you see that? We do what He says and give it to Him. Cast means throw. Throw the difficulties onto our Saviour. He has already dealt with them. Our God is not careless with our hearts, He is protective. The knowledge that we can give Him our cares and concerns holds us secure. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of conviction, not condemnation. Stop and pray. Let’s deal with stuff immediately, and keep on trusting the Lord – He’s the One Who never sleeps!

If we project our problems into the future we can lose heart and give up. If we concentrate on our past, we’ll drown in it! Let’s choose to live in what Jesus has already done, just for this minute, and then take each minute one at a time. Bye.👋.

P3500 The Bible is Words of life!

/ DVH

“Cause my heart to bow before Your words of wisdom and not to the wealth of this world. Help me turn my eyes away from illusions so that I pursue only that which is true; drench my soul with life as I walk in your paths.” Psalms 119:36-37 TPT.

Let’s daily give the Lord permission to change our hearts, our minds, plus the way we choose to walk, and what we look at. This life is filled with a whole lot of time-wasting illusions – I’ve found that very little turns out to be exactly what I thought it would be  … how about you? Illusions seem to be occupying our children’s minds and hearts, so this Psalm could be a good one to pray over your kids. However, we read the bible, choose to bow our hearts, and wait and watch to see what He has to say, and then treat it like medicine by following what it says under the Holy Spirit’s guidance. That’s what obedience looks like.

The bible is not a irrelevant old book, it is the wisdom of the ages. It has been tested and retested over time, in other people’s lives and their experiences. We have witnesses everywhere in that book! Let’s remind ourselves that we cannot afford to focus on the fact that once we were yoked to a yoke of slavery, but now the past is gone. It died when we chose to die, and it happened when we asked Him to save us. Total commitment is not an optional extra. After all, there were no part-time disciples! The ones who followed Jesus walked away from their old lives.

The minute we choose to live for Him, and put to death the deeds of the flesh that hinder us, we go on a death-to-self march. You will notice I refuse to sugar-coat what it costs! That”s because it’s a choice, and it’s a tough one! But, the more we say yes to His way, and follow through on our ‘yes’, the easier it gets. Many of us have spent much of our lifetime struggling and striving to be heard and seen, and now, because of Who He is, we’ve chosen to let all that go. Instead of proving our point, we choose to prove He is Lord. In these dark days we need to say ‘yes’ to dying to self, with the full understanding that the life we once lived for ourselves, is gone.

Our part is to live this life, the only one we now have, the Way God Himself prescribes in the bible. Father God is constantly speaking to our hearts on every page of His book, regarding all sorts of difficulties, situations, and unhappy people. His words are now our life blood, they are so firm we can stand on them: “Surrender your anxiety. Be still and realize that I am God. I am God above all the nations, and I am exalted throughout the whole earth.” Psalms 46:10 TPT. This is true clarity.

So, obeying this means, we choose to give up our anxiety in favour of knowing He is God. BTW if we feel anxious, that does not mean we have failed – it means we are under enemy attack. Everything that  happens to us, is Father-filtered, even if it seems earth-shattering. I’ve had some of that stuff lately …  panic has grabbed me by the throat. But I know I will find His peace when I prayerfully give up the right to defend myself, and walk away from conflicts. I may often feel rejected, but the God of the Universe has not, and will not ever reject me. “… He knows the way that I take [and He pays attention to it]. When He has tried me, I will come forth as [refined] gold [pure and luminous].” Job 23:10. We’re going for the gold folks!

This world around us loves to live in grey areas, but personally, I think grey areas produce grey people. We are designed to be like our Saviour, full of love, life and colour! We don’t just talk positively, we are positively convinced that: “ … I know Him [and I am personally acquainted with Him] whom I have believed [with absolute trust and confidence in Him and in the truth of His deity], and I am persuaded [beyond any doubt] that He is able to guard that which I have entrusted to Him until that day [when I stand before Him].“ 2 Timothy 1:12. I urge you to pick verses like this one up like a sword and use them to fight with whatever is going on. For me that comes out like this: “I know my God and He’s got this!”

Choosing to deny ourselves is not the end of anything. It means we now have the opportunity to come alive to His POV – those things that are a theory can become a reality. When love reigns, we are to be occupied with spreading His love wherever we go. We no longer have to live in this world’s grey, grabby, me first attitudes and actions any more. We can add colour and beauty everywhere we go because we choose to carry His love. What a sacred duty!  Living like this is a by-product of our relationship with Him. Those people around us can be refreshed, revived, and have their lives utterly touched and transformed because they’ve met the love of God through us.

We don’t have to be the source, Jesus Himself is our source. But we’ve chosen to make room for Him to reach out to others through our lives, and as we do that, He will change our life at the same time. We don’t have to be fabulous, famous or clever to drip the love of God onto others – we can do it  because we know Him personally. Death to self is not an optional extra it is the point. Our bible is merely a book, but when the Holy Spirit kisses something in it, that book becomes the Words of life. Bye. 👋.

P 3495 Don’t let the mountain be bigger than the Lord.  

/ DVH

In a lifetime, most of us face a great many spiritual mountains, and also some valleys. Some of these things seem easy, we just follow Jesus up the mountain of difficulties we face, and then stand at the top, arms uplifted, and grateful that we managed to survive that one. 

But then suddenly we might find ourselves facing a mountain that seems insurmountable. We know that He has led us here but we don’t understand why? For some reason, we can’t seem to find Jesus on this mountain. First of all, this situation is not about sin, it is about growing our faith. However, our question could easily be… are we on the wrong mountain? Are we facing something that was not ours in the first place? Is it possible we somehow staggered blindly around, with the sound of the last victory in our ears, plus the sweet smell of success yesterday still present … and we got lost? No!

Here is a scripture to think about carefully. “The Sovereign Lord is my strength; He MAKES my feet like the feet of a deer, He ENABLES me to tread on the heights.” Habakkuk 3:19. Without Jesus we can’t and probably won’t, try to face things. He knows that better than we do. So the first thing we must do is to remind ourselves that He will never leave us or forsake us, and then we have to move. It’s time to take a tentative faith step forward. Be like that deer, who just leaps about knowing it can manage the terrain. This is how faith grows. First we hear the word of God, and then we act on it. So we take our wobbly little foot and plant it in front of the other one. This is how we move up bigger mountains — prayerfully and carefully, one step at a time.

New things are scary. It is so easy to rejoice in everything He has already done, for us and in us, but then we hit that wall of … I’ve never seen this before … then we can feel flattened and frightened about what might come next. Why would the Lord send us here? … To strengthen our faith. If we already know what to do, then we don’t need to lean on Him, and we will lean on what we already know. Faith is a journey that requires ever increasing boldness, and a big heart that keeps going despite the circumstances. 

‘Faith that is not tested is not faith, it quickly becomes something unstable.’ Listen to Peter in 1 Peter 1:6,7. “In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.”  

So-oo-oo-oo, this stuff has happened to prove our faith is genuine – it is not just fair-weather, waiting-on-the-answers-to-our-prayers, faith … We want genuine faith that desires God to get all the glory for the great things He has done in our lives. Here’s a big thought. Dead people don’t need applause – living ones thrive on it.

This whole issue, every time it happens, reveals to me that I am not all dead yet. If I cannot hold fast when I cannot feel Him, see Him, or even hear Him, then my faith needs further perfecting. My faith is not about what Jesus does, it is about Who He is. What He does deserves our praise, acknowledgement and worship. Who He is, reminds us He is our living God embodied in a Man, for us to praise, worship, look at, learn from, and follow. 

Sometimes our grief and inability to believe, clouds His faithfulness to get us to where He said He will take us. When you find yourself staring at something so big you can barely comprehend it, then you have entered a possibility. When we read Hebrews 11 carefully, we will see that everyone mentioned in that chapter had faith that God would carry out what He said He would do. But most of them died before that promise the Lord made them was fulfilled. Faith is not about claiming promises, it is about taking God at His Word. It is not about the strength of our ability to hold on, it is about His ability and strength to hold us! Praise God we have a book full of His life-giving Words!

Bigger mountains mean that Father God has pruned, fertilised, watered and fed us, and now He is trusting us to press forward into what comes next without visible evidence. We are ready, whether we feel like it or not. Like Hebrews says, the seeing, the evidence, comes after we use our faith, not before it. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things NOT YET SEEN.” Hebrews 11:1. Our faith in action proves God is Who He says He is, and that has become our aim – not just our answers to prayers.

If you feel lost and that mountain seems too high, remember, God is calling you to unknown places – things you have not even thought about. Now is the time to focus on the fact that He’s good! This calling we have is not about miracles – or looking clever or even knowing what comes next. It is about finding out how much we love and trust Him. We take these steps because He asked us to. “Faith learns to see beyond the moment, to the work of God unfolding within it.” (Anonymous)

Don’t let the mountain be bigger than the Lord – He knows you can take that next step. We all love to follow Jesus and He climbs mountains every single day. Bye 👋.

P 3482 Priorities.

/ DVH

Our priorities matter. Making Jesus our first priority can seem foreign in a world where ‘how I feel’ is the main event. It is no wonder when we are under attack, we often feel weak. Mind power is strong, but it is not strong enough for the kind of testing this life will throw at us. You can’t fight the enemy with anything but a God-given sword. We certainly can’t think our way out of the bad stuff. I’ve learnt that broken hearts have jagged pieces, they hurt! I’m learning to make Jesus my first priority, I suspect that fight will go on while I’m still here.

Just stop and think and pray for a minute. What would my life look like if I made Him my priority and let the Lord have His Way, instead of talking my self out of doing the hard things? Some questions really challenge me … I do wish the Lord would give them to someone else! It is one thing to say it and another to back up the words with our chosen actions – in the middle of the battle is a hard time to assess things – but I want fruit more than temporary relief!

Sometimes this life hands us such ugly things — they look like toads or frogs. It takes faith to be able to see the Prince of Peace while you are in the middle of it, and it seems like you have to kiss the frog! The secret is to ask the Lord to reveal His blessings in the middle of the stagnant ponds of this life, instead of trying to avoid or escape from them. We desperately need to see His hand at work in and on whatever is happening to us, and around us. Although there may be enemy strikes everywhere, we can be guided by Him. He will show us when we need to resist the enemy, and when we need to yield to the Holy Spirit. Let’s make it a priority to co-operate with Him.

This new life we have is lived, minute by minute. This is no blanket methodology that we can throw over the top of difficulties. We live, move, and breathe with His eyes and hand upon us – and knowing He is always there is now our place of comfort. We can’t afford to aim at stuff like:  feeling better or things changing. If that does happen it is a very precious plus… but instead, right now, we are learning to hold fast to what He has said. When He says He will not leave or forsake us, that’s what He means, and so that’s what we cling to. Let’s choose to remind the Lord that our trust is in Him, and then remind ourselves that He has a bigger plan than we can see. Life will batter us, but Jesus already WON. 

We can’t even try to patch together some sort of human methodology so we can prepare ourselves for the same sort of situation when it comes up again. Here’s what I’ve learnt about that. The same things never happen twice, and  even when what happens seems vaguely familiar, we often don’t recognise that until we are on the bottom of some nasty little hole looking UP! PS: At those times the only useful thing we can try to cultivate is to remind ourselves to keep looking UP. 

We are not in some kind of test with the Lord looking at us, from a distance, clipboard in hand, scoring whether we did OK or not. Jesus already took that test you are struggling through. He took it in your name and mine and He not only WON —  that whole thing was nailed to the cross, right through His own hands — together with everything else that needed redemption. Our job now is to trust what He did and live this life believing everything Jesus said is true. So now we can live that way too.  

This has nothing whatsoever to do with presumption and everything to do with GRACE. He gave Grace to each one of us, when we were lost and forever damned to hell — no matter how nice everyone else thought we were! It’s our hearts that need to be transformed, we can get so busy concentrating upon the details, correcting this, loosing that … but the Lord values the state of our heart. I’m so glad one of the Psalmists prayed …”Create in me a clean heart O Lord, and renew a right spirit in me.” The heart is the place to start, not our outward actions. Those actions are like the leaves on a tree – they are simply a consequence of the state of the roots. 

Meanwhile the bible shows us that we can legitimately cheer up because Jesus died to save sinners! Those things in your life that heckle you, and laugh at you … remember, He chose to hang there long enough for them too! There is no need for pretending when we truly understand that our inadequacy has been totally replaced by His adequacy. Now we need to use our faith to appropriate what we have already been given — our faith in His truthfulness, His loving kindness, His goodness and His power! 

“So come on, let’s leave the preschool finger-painting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ. The basic foundational truths are in place: turning your back on “salvation by self-help” and turning in trust toward God; baptismal instructions; laying on of hands; resurrection of the dead; eternal judgment. God helping us, we’ll stay true to all that. But there’s so much more. Let’s get on with it!” Hebrews 6:1-3. 

Our priorities and our choices matter. Even the little, seemingly insignificant ones. When we choose to trust He is Who He says He is, even when the circumstances seem bigger than you are, let’s lean on Him. That’s more solid than the ground we stand upon. “God is not human, that He should lie, not a human being, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfil?” Numbers 23:19. 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. 👋.

P 3478 Participation and dedication.

/ DVH

“Trust in the Lord completely, and do not rely on your own opinions. With all your heart rely on Him to guide you, and He will lead you in every decision you make. Become intimate with Him in whatever you do, and He will lead you wherever you go.” Proverbs 3:5-6 TPT.

Living like this scripture says needs dedication. However, to be honest with you, when the Lord first brought this subject up with me, I kind of avoided it. I thought living like Jesus did was for the special people – the ones who had spiritual gifts and titles. I was just a bod. A nobody. Someone’s wife, someone’s mother, someone’s daughter. Jesus didn’t buy that little story when I kept trotting it out, BTW.

Due to circumstances totally beyond my control – prior to meeting the Lord, I had never had a life of my own that came from my own choices. I literally went from parental oversight to my ex-husband’s plans, and my own preferences didn’t come into it. My personal choices were framed by a threat of rejection, and that influenced me regarding total surrender. I did not want to give up my choices to SomeOne Else.

Inner rebellion grabbed me – plus I didn’t know how to change. I’d go up the front when the pastor called for the congregation to make a deeper commitment to Christ, and I’d cry my eyes out, then go home and  … wait for God to do His bit.  I had no thought that I would have to change my responses, and attitudes with His help. Or that I had to see my old life through His eyes, and TOGETHER we were going to walk away from the things I did, thought and said before.

I asked Him to help me, because at that time, I thought transformation relied upon what He did. Eventually I came to the erroneous conclusion that because He hadn’t changed this or that in my behaviour, then the things I did must not bother Him. I had blinded my eyes to the scripture and by doing so, I lost my hearing as well — mainly because I kept choosing to excuse myself from any participation! God is so kind, I reasoned – I knew He would understand that my life had not prepared me for this. Well, He is kind and He did forgive me  – but the reality was that I stayed in the same place because of those choices. I was not growing, or maturing – instead it was hard work not to go backwards!

Despite my squirrelled up thinking, Father God never rejected me. Not even once. At one stage I walked away thinking He could not possibly want me now, and I hid. I stopped going to church. Well we all know how hiding from God turns out … thank you Gideon and Jonah! However, the Lord, in His incredible Grace came after me. Father God is so much more faithful than we understand — He does not give up on us. He did not give up on me, and He won’t give up on you either!  

I had no comprehension of how faith works, so when the pastor preached that we were to ‘love others’ I automatically thought of someone I didn’t get along with at all, and I tried my best to love them. I did it using my own strength. Of course the Holy Spirit wanted to help me do what God asked of me, but without His help I failed. All that other person had to do was snarl at me, or be mean, and I would immediately run away like a scared rabbit – and then I went back to complaining about them behind their back. I felt imprisoned by other people’s attitudes which did not change – I had no sense of freedom.

The truth is, I didn’t know what was in my own heart – and I wasn’t sure I wanted to either! It takes pressure to show us what is really in our hearts. Our reaction to pressure is not a whoopsie, or a little error, it is a diagnostic tool. It shows us what’s really in there … hiding away amongst the pleasant smiles and happy little testimonies. Things like judgment can hover away in the background influencing the way we think. Plus, when bad things happen it can be far too easy to complain. Complaining seems normal, because we are human. I had no idea, at all, about how faith works and I took no responsibility for my responses to difficulties. Instead I made excuses for myself. James talks about the real issue, our lack of ability to change ourselves: chapter 3, verses 7-16. 

“This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue—it’s never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women He made in His image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth! My friends, this can’t go on. A spring doesn’t gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it? Apple trees don’t bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don’t bear apples, do they? You’re not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you? Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here’s what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It’s the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts.” 

When we choose to merely tackle the outcome of the things we do, we are not tackling the root of these issues in our lives. The truth is, we don’t have to be afraid or ashamed of owning our faults because Jesus took all of that to the cross. Everything. Not some of it … all of it. Now we need to humble ourselves and ask for forgiveness and learn to rely upon Him, and use our faith. Jesus forgave us unreservedly … so we have more than enough Grace to give away, which will flow on, to others.

The only claim to fame you and I have ever had is that we know Jesus Christ personally. The thing is — we aren’t  just meant to ‘know’ Him or say that we ‘follow’ Him. Jesus learned obedience through suffering … and SO DO WE. The same Spirit Who was in the Lord Jesus, is now in us, He wants to  teach us personally, how to follow the Lord, step by step. But that will require participation and dedication. Bye. 👋

P 3475 Pause, remember … and reset.

/ DVH

“God, You’re such a safe and powerful place to find refuge! You’re a proven help in time of trouble— more than enough and always available whenever I need You. So we will never fear even if every structure of support were to crumble away. We will not fear even when the earth quakes and shakes, moving mountains and casting them into the sea. For the raging roar of stormy winds and crashing waves cannot erode our faith in You. Pause in His Presence” Psalms 46:1-3 TPT.

When I read this today I realised that the last 4 words are the key to the first 79 ones! “Pause in His Presence.” What does that mean to you? To me it means when ‘the stuff’ is flying about so rapidly I can hardly breathe, my very best first response is to stop … and stand in His Presence. Why? Because those first 79 words remind me of Who He is and how much He loves and cares about us all – every single minute of every single day!  Those last four words show us how blessed we are. We can be in His Presence anywhere. Doing this will remind our spirits to defer to His ways.

Wherever you are reading this blog today, now is a good time to stop … and just stand or sit, in His Presence. Remember, it says pause, it doesn’t say ‘you must spend three hours.’  Anyone of us can pause for a few minutes, just long enough to slow your breathing and look into Jesus’ dear face. This is one of the best habits we can cultivate. We will momentarily block out the immediate, and focus on the eternal.

Our world may be groaning and griping all around us, but Jesus is not fazed by it. He knows what comes next. “He knows the plans He has for us – the ones that give us a hope and a future.” What we focus on gets bigger. When we focus on Him, He gets bigger than the problems, especially when we take a moment to renew our trust in Him.

Everything seems to be spinning around so fast sometimes, it is hard to keep up with what is going on. However, when we go and stand with Jesus and look up at Him, the noise, the fear, the challenges and the heartache come into perspective. These things come, and they go … Jesus always stays the same. His loving face toward us will not change.

The Lord Jesus’ love does not change, that’s why we can trust it. “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases …” Our ineptitude in spiritual matters will not change His response. His love continually comes toward us. You are taking a moment to be with SomeOne Who truly understands humanity. And as you pause, please remember, despite what is going on around you, He’s the same Jesus Who loved you so much He died for you. Just let that soak in … then go back to your day. 

He is praying for you right now, right where you are. He prays perfect prayers. Pause and remember… ‘His goodness in the land of the living.’ ‘He is with us to give us His abundant life.” Those promises are not only about earthly things, they are about forever things. Like love, joy, peace. We can have peace with God because Jesus came here and made peace for us in His own Body, with His own blood. He will not take it back … “He demonstrated His love while we were still sinners….”

Troubles come and go, but our God’s Word remains the same. Your version of the bible may be a little different than mine, but it is still His Word to you today, right where you are. Pause, remember how much you are loved. He loves us when we first wake up and we haven’t even done anything yet! This love is not the kind of love that keeps score, because Jesus is not interested in Himself, He came here for mankind. We are His joy. The Lord looked through the pain He suffered and saw US. It is His greatest joy to facilitate our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Let go of all those bad, unhappy feelings, because they will cause you to stumble. Just cling to His truth and remember … the God Who made the Universe loves you. As we take a moment to pause in His Presence, we will begin to realise that these afflictions we are going through are momentary. They simply seem endless while we are in the middle of them. Remember, disappointment and despair do not come from our Heavenly Father, God. That’s the other guy. Resist him and bring all those busy thoughts captive, and just take the time to breathe. 

These moments belong to you and the Lord, whether you are on the train, in your car, on a bus. Wherever YOU are HE is there. You and I both know that the Lord has asked us to keep no record of wrongs, because Jesus Himself doesn’t remember our wrongs! In your pausing, remember to let go of any hurtful or bad things — just like you would let go of a balloon and watch it float away. Those things can’t hurt anybody when we let them go! Jesus understands … let that be enough.

We pause, remember, and reset, even if it is just for a few moments on our way to somewhere else. Stand in His Presence and watch the worries, cares, and seismic shifts jostling you, simply melt away. God’s got you, your family, and this world. Like Jesus said to the wind and the waves: “Peace, be still.” So let’s take any opportunity to quiet our hearts in the middle of life’s bustle and strife… and pause in His Presence, remember and reset. Bye. 👋. Thank you Jesus!

“So above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23 TPT.