Trust

P 2287 Trust.

/ DVH

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8

Trust is an amazing thing, it undergirds faith. Any building that has no strong foundation is doomed to fall. Those amazing skyscrapers that tower over us in our cities start from an absolutely huge hole in the ground. The bigger the building the deeper and more complex the foundations are. Trust is the foundation of everything else we learn from Him. Everything else is like a multi-storey building which is seen by other people;  but the stabiliser, the thing that keeps us strong when storms come, is trust. 

Even faith is built on trust. If you have trouble with your faith, then my suggestion is perhaps you have trust issues, and maybe you and the Holy Spirit can spend some time in the Word praying over it. Even the love we receive from God Himself, however we receive it, is based on trust and our personal decisions and choices about the authenticity of His WORD.

Unfortunately, we learn to trust, or to not trust, as the case may be, almost from infancy. You can see this when a loving Father throws his toddler up in the air and he catches them. That child is not afraid. At the front of my mind and heart is always the thought that: ‘“HE knows the way I should take …” Jesus talked a lot about His death toward the end of His ministry. He was preparing the disciples for what came next, even though the thought was distasteful for them. But, after His death, because their trust in Him was not yet deep enough, they did not appear to cling to what He had already told them. Rather they clung to each other like frightened children.

So words alone sometimes do not produce trust – we need the Presence of the Holy Spirit. How do we deepen our trust in God in a way that will lead to a firm trust foundation? We make friends with the Holy Spirit, and we study His ways. Plus we deliberately pay attention to the things He does. This means living our lives watching out for, and appreciating even the seemingly smallest miracles of protection and provision in our lives, helps trust grow. 

Secondly, and this almost sounds like an oxymoron (!) – to learn trust you have to take risks. Taking risks is the last thing you want to do when you have trust issues. But it is a sure way to deepen and strengthen your foundations. If your trust has been abused by people, then I recommend doing a character study about Father God’s totally reliable character. 

At the same time there is nothing like trusting the Holy Spirit and speaking to someone about your own faith, when inwardly you are feeling afraid. Using your faith in these moments gives us an opportunity to experience God’s grace in action. “What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee.”  When the person we are speaking to cracks open like an egg, and we can see their heart, then we know whatever we heard from the Holy Spirit was accurate and He is there with us! 

I believe most Christians nowadays do not have the sort of abiding trust we are going to need in the difficult days that lie in front of us. The saints of old had a tangible trust that Almighty God always knew exactly what He was doing. However, today’s generations think way too much of what they think they know, and not enough about what He says, in the book! I urge everyone reading here today to stop playing it safe, and relying on their own understanding, and start following our Mighty GOD as He is described in His book! This is one of the finest ways I know to get to know Him intimately. Bye 👋🏻.

P 2272 The Lord will fight for you.

/ DVH

Exodus 14:13&14  “Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

These verses from Exodus 14 talk about the sort of commitment the Lord has toward our own personal situations. The Israelites are our illustration. They have escaped from Pharaoh and now he is in pursuit, so they complained at Moses and told him to reorganise God because they didn’t like their current circumstances. 😳

First of all I think their responses are quite normal for a people who have no real faith – or for anyone whose God is a concept and not a reality. The very essence of the story of the Israelites and the Promised Land is they were constantly wanting God to prove Himself to them. These people had grown up on the stories about how they came to be in Egypt in the first place. They called Abraham their father, yet none of what they had learnt and memorised was a comfort to them. 

They did what many of us do, they thought following the chosen leader was going to be enough and while they were being delivered, God was brilliant, He was wonderful, let’s all sing and have happy dances together. 🥳 Have a party. But at the first sign of trouble because their faith had no root, they were like the stuff you see blowing around in Western movies … tumbleweed. 

In the ninth and tenth plagues, it was obvious that God was making an exception for them, it was pitch black for the Egyptians when it was broad daylight for the Israelites. The Egyptian firstborn died and theirs didn’t. It was made clear to these people, by signs and wonders, that God was on their side. He had a purpose in mind, and He was going to perform it. Sometimes we can think if we can only see a miracle, if only something spectacular changed, then it could increase our faith. That doesn’t seem to have worked out very well for these people! Here in these 2 verses, God is promising to fight for them but the fear in their hearts was greater than anything He said. 

The truth is, seeing the miraculous and the extraordinary can be a wonderful way to boost your faith, but only if you have a mustard seed of faith inside you in the first place! Faith doesn’t fall on us from the outside, it’s our hearts that need to be changed – we need to learn to trust Him, no matter what. These people’s hearts need to be softened toward Almighty God. It is all too easy to be crazy about Jesus when we first meet Him, but then the trials and tribulations of this life erode that faith to a point where we almost become skeptical, hardened against the very God we profess to love. 

Sometimes bad things happen, so we pray, we get other people praying, we find a bunch of scriptures that express our needs and hold them up to heaven, but the real problem is inside us. Our faith is not strong and steady. HE wants us to grow in our own personal knowledge of how much He cares for us. But we just want the pain to go away, or we need a rest, and we need an answer. Every unmet disappointment, every time our hope is deferred, our heart gets sicker and sicker. 

I believe God fights for us all the time and most of the time we don’t see Him at work because the only answer that is acceptable to us is: ‘I need this fixed, I need it right here and right now.’  One of the best ways to pray is also the hardest – ‘Thy kingdom come Thy will be done ‘ etc. ‘and please give me the strength and courage to wait for YOUR answer.’ Yet despite what the Israelites felt and thought, God’s plans for them never changed, they simply needed to learn to TRUST HIM! He was always there, sometimes working out of their view, paving a way into a new life for them. A glorious revelation of Himself. 

Christ in us IS the hope of glory. The way to make our faith deeper isn’t always to be snatched out of problems, the way to make our faith deeper is to exercise it when it looks like there is no hope. Hanging onto the fact that He is good! Our faith should always be in Him. Who He is – not what He does. 

“I know what it means to lack, and I know what it means to experience overwhelming abundance. For I’m trained in the secret of overcoming all things, whether in fullness or in hunger. And I find that the strength of Christ’s explosive power infuses me to conquer every difficulty.” Philippians 4:12-13 TPT

P 2269 We need to use our faith to access His Grace.

/ DVH

Think of Grace as a huge endless heavenly container that has all the provision you will ever need to access in this life for anything you need to do. It is limitless. It is time to rely upon His boundless Grace to change our ways of thinking being and doing instead of misusing it as an escape clause to remain the same not change. We can’t see it, BUT … it’s in the book! Having faith is about trusting God to be true to His Word.

At the immediate point of impact when somebody says or does something that hurts or irritates us … we need to take a breath and ask the Lord for help. It’s a choice. It’s a hard choice because we are used to making decisions without referring to anything else other than what we know. Or maybe in desperation, we try to make scriptures back up what we want. Faith is about Who HE is – can we trust Him to work everything together for good, even in our bad moments?

Think of it this way God knows the way through anything we come up against, no matter what difficulty we are in. This is why we need His help, to put this Grace that is so readily available in our time of need, into action. In Exodus the Israelites could not go into the promised land because  it was in signs and wonders and provision. We need to change our focus. Our faith needs to be in Him, in the One who did everything for us. 

We don’t have to feel ashamed of being inadequate in the face of trials and tribulations. Our GOD loves to help and protect us. The more we use our faith to access His grace the more our faith will grow. Faith is not just the thing we drag out when the sky has fallen on us, or something bad has happened. If we live that way then we could easily find that our faith muscle will atrophy, and we have no faith strength to make it through whatever it is that confronts us.

The Lord Himself told us to live by faith. Living by faith means it’s a day by day thing, sometimes minute by minute. The only way to strengthen this kind of Living interactive  faith is to continually use it. Unfortunately we are way too used to relying upon our own understanding and strength so we automatically do some things out of habit or personal ability. 

This means we are living our lives acknowledging the power of God but not using it. It is no wonder that faith fails to uphold us, when it is the emergency spare. To live by faith means we live by our confidence in the power of His Word, from His book. Because we have become so used to referring to what we know, and going on with that –  this will mean praying without ceasing, sometimes. 

Not the sort of prayers that we sometimes use and try to hope in …these honest sorts of prayers … like help Lord or I need You, Lord. Heart prayers, not just pretty prayers we hope the Lord will accept. He already permanently accepted us, forever. In our efforts to be reverent and to pray the sorts of prayers we think God wants to hear, we’ve lost the ability to communicate with Him in every day language that comes  truthfully from our hearts. He’s our reference point, which means He knows what we need before we do! Believing in His goodness, and acting upon that thought in mind, means we are moving in faith.

This does not mean that we run around like loose cannons blaming our mistakes on the Lord, and taking credit for the victories. It’s an attitude of heart that says ‘I can’t do anything without You’ Jesus. We do not lose our independence by force, rather we surrender in favour of His great great wisdom and insight. I often find myself praying what do I do here Lord? 

True freedom exists when you have the freedom to make a choice. Automatic responses are not choices either. They are a reflex action. Sometimes we do things ourselves because it seems quicker than leaning on Him. The more we practice leaning on Him – using our faith, the more it becomes the way we think. That’s called renewing our minds. Do you think Jesus was ever so distracted by His circumstances, or whatever was going on around Him that He forgot about His Father or the Holy Spirit? He started from what God said and went from there. He was still Himself, but He was Himself with the benefit of the Father’s wisdom and the Holy Spirit’s applications. 

Using our faith is an investment in our relationship with Him and whatever ministry He has for us. Faith needs to be like sneezing or sitting down … a part of life. Remember we must never be afraid of getting it wrong, Jesus redeemed everything but He cannot redeem our inertia! Grace is accessed by faith, no matter how wobbly that faith seems to be to us. Let’s live our lives believing the bible is true. He said He did it, so it’s done. Bye 👋🏻

P 2252 Trust is more than a word!

/ DVH

Genesis 15:6 “Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” I think this is one of the most important verses in the Old Testament.  Paul says this about Abraham in Galatians 3:6-9 TPT:“Abraham, our father of faith, believed God, and the substance of his faith released God’s righteousness to him. So the true children of Abraham have the same faith as their father! And the Scripture prophesied that on the basis of faith God would declare Gentiles to be righteous. God announced the good news ahead of time to Abraham: ““Through your example of faith, all the nations will be blessed!” And so the blessing of Abraham’s faith is now our blessing too!”

Abraham’s example of faith and trust is an illustration of our new place of freedom in Christ. We accept that what Christ did for us, was complete. Being subject or powerless to avoid any kind of sin is living in slavery!  Christ set us free to choose to follow Him and the Holy Spirit leads us into a new way to live. Just like Abraham chose to follow God to a new land – we choose to follow Christ into our eternal destination – living in His kingdom right here, right now. We use our faith to live this life differently, as the Holy Spirit leads us.

Abraham’s decision to follow God’s instructions, implicitly, even to the point of sacrificing his only son, Isaac, shows us the focus of this man’s heart. He utterly trusted God. In conversation with Isaac about where they would find a lamb for the sacrifice – Abraham said this: “…“God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”And the two of them went on together.” That was a faith statement and it also pointed toward Christ, 4,000 years later! Jesus is our Lamb of provision – He is our way out of serving sin… His Spirit leads us into serving God.

We need to actively learn, day by day, to trust our God … and that means we will do some dying to self along the way! To live in Christ’s freedom means we leave our old life behind, and we use our faith to live the life that God has prepared for us. Sin is not our main focus – what He wants for our lives is. We know that God Himself has provided the sacrifice for our sin, just like He did, on Mount Moriah, with Abraham and Isaac. So we press on, following in the footsteps of Christ, denying ourselves the things we want, in favour of the things HE wants. We’ve decided, once and for all, that what He said He did, He did. It’s finished. It’s done. 

Now it is our responsibility to live our lives, every single day, for love’s sake. Because of our devotion and allegiance to Jesus we accept that the things that happen to us, around us, and in us, are opportunities for change. That change consists of finding out what Jesus wants us to do in any kind of situation, for His kingdom to come. That’s the way we live now – we choose Him. He chose us, and now we choose Him right back. 

Sometimes that may mean that our days pass uneventfully, but those are the days that we need to stay focussed. Because we’ve learnt, that when we least expect it, we are going to need our faith … in the heat of sudden battle. We’ve learnt that our faith is developed by the everyday choices we make. It is strengthened every time we use it. Our faith will be tested, just like it was for Abraham! And he is called the father of our faith – he did it first. This is why we need to practice letting go of what we want, and learn to trust God instead. True freedom comes when we live in that trust because we are not driven about by our own sinful desires.

However, there is no real working faith if we simply let life happen to us. Instead we need to purpose in our hearts to rely upon God’s Grace to only do those things we need to do – and some of those things will involve sacrifices. That is part of our new life, our commitment to Christ. We cannot serve our God part-time or half-heartedly. We will end up disappointed and we will miss out on the freedom Christ died to give us. As Christians we need to pay attention to developing our trust in His ways. 👋🏻

Titus 2:11-12,14.“God’s marvellous grace has manifested in person, bringing salvation for everyone. This same grace teaches us how to live each day as we turn our backs on ungodliness and indulgent lifestyles, and it equips us to live self-controlled, upright, godly lives in this present age.”…  … “He sacrificed Himself for us that He might purchase our freedom from every lawless deed and to purify for Himself a people who are His very own, passionate to do what is beautiful in His eyes.”

P 2226 Jesus helps me to keep going.

/ DVH

When I sit and read about the Lord, and think about what He did while He was on this earth, and how HE struggled with facing His own death – it helps me to keep going every day. First of all, let’s look at the fact that the Lord needed to pray 3 times in the garden of Gethsemane. He needed to pray what He was facing through, and He waited on God for the spiritual strength to carry it all out. Jesus prayed until He knew the job was already done – spiritually speaking. His total surrender, in those awful moments, gave Him the power to endure what came next. He died to Himself in that garden and it was a terrible battle. 

This scene shows me that it is OK to struggle with spiritual stuff – it doesn’t mean I’ve missed His will, or I am going the wrong way. When things are hard to do – we need to press into Him. Jesus spoke a great deal about His death in the days before the crucifixion, so He already knew this time was coming. Yet He still prayed for that destiny to be taken away! He struggled with God’s Will. Praise the Lord, because Jesus is my visible illustration of God’s Will in action! It’s OK to struggle – remember to surrender and then go into trust. Push on past your fears etc.

Let’s look at this in Matthew 26: 38-46 …“Then He (Jesus) said to them, (His disciples) “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me.” Going a little farther, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.” Then He returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with Me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

“He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may Your will be done.” When He came back, He again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So He left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. Then He returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners…”

Jesus allowed Himself to feel the total appalling impact of what was coming toward Him. He didn’t hide from it, or  have a stiff-upper-lip mentality, nor did He deny the reality of what He was facing. It’s OK to hurt, it is OK to be disappointed or even grieve about whatever has happened to us. But, at the same time, we need to remember that we have HOPE – His Name is Jesus … He is our anchor. If someone you love is suffering then pray that God will give them real HOPE in the face of adversity.

Jesus was very hurt with His disciples, for not praying with Him. I think He was also disappointed for their sake. Getting in touch with God in a crisis is the only way to get through whatever is coming next. The biggest test those men had ever faced was hurtling toward them… and they were vastly under-prepared for it. He was still caring for them on the brink of His own pain, suffering and death.

Lastly, the Lord Jesus helps us to have courage because He did everything He did for all of us. Our failures, fears, sicknesses, disappointments, sins, those things were all dealt with as He struggled with the concept of being a substitute for us. He was about to be separated from God’s bright Presence and He did that deliberately for our sake. He became our separation so we don’t ever have to be, or go anywhere without God’s Presence again! 

In times of despair difficulty and trial – I think of the Lord Jesus saying, with such incredible faith: “… Your will be done.” That was a faith statement. Christ had never physically suffered to the point of His own death and He had to rely upon the Holy Spirit to bring Him out of that grave. Jesus knows how hard it is to have faith in times of crisis. His vulnerability at that time helps me keep going when stuff happens in my life.  Praise Him. 👋🏻

P 2192 Activating my own faith.

/ DVH

The amazing thing about this new life of ours is that God Himself, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, does all the work in our hearts as we yield to His will, His way. We must deliberately choose to learn to live co-operatively with Him. Disobedience drove mankind away from the Garden in the first place, but our obedience – our “yes” … our own personal choices – takes us into the kind of relationship Jesus Himself had with His Heavenly Father. And our loving Father heals us over and over again, through the choices we make. Our faith, expressed by our personal works/actions done in faith, opens heaven’s doors toward us. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” James 5:16.

When I choose to deny myself for His sake, I am putting to death my old way of thinking, in favour of something God Himself said in the bible. At the same time this means I am deliberately yielding to the Holy Spirit, believing that He knows what is best for me, better than I know it for myself. I’ve learnt that my first response may not always be my best response… BUT I can trust what the Lord has said in the book – because He wrote it down. It’s in black and white, with some red thrown in!

I used to read a lot of other books to help me understand what the bible said, but I discovered that eventually other people’s interpretations actually coloured my POV. It meant I kept seeing verses, passages, themes through that particular teacher’s eyes. In the end, I stopped reading other books – because I wanted to know what He wanted to say to ME – right here, right now! What He says to someone else may not be what He wants to say to me. It is good to read testimonies about other people’s faith etc. and the revelations that the Lord has given them, but it is not good to substitute reading about their faith, to digging in and finding your own.

Meanwhile, I totally think we’ve beaten that verse in Acts: “God is no respecter of persons.” (10:28) almost to death! We’ve developed a tendency to major on, and quote from a few verses that support our own POV. In doing this we’ve reduced 66 books in the bible, to the size of a brochure! That verse in Acts is talking about humanity’s salvation – not God dividing up His love fairly! That is not something we should even begin to think about. 

I love to pray that the Lord will bless our pastors, because I know that they devote themselves to listening to God, for us. But nobody expects to eat just one meal a week! It will take me using my own personal faith learning to listen for myself – to grow. And at the same time I am strengthening my inner spirit man. The Body of Christ worldwide is struggling over the issue of faith – our faith is being tested everywhere we look. We all need to know that the God we love and serve wants to talk to each one of us, daily. He knows our names and He knows what we are going through and He deeply cares about each and everyone of our trials and tribulations.

However, unfortunately, most of the time we are not digesting what we read. Reading is not digestion. We must “taste and see that the Lord is good,” for ourselves, personally. When God Himself helps us change our stinky attitudes, our faith grows – we activate our own faith. If I am to … continually forgive others …  I can’t just say: “That doesn’t apply to me, I’m not mad at anyone.”  Instead I have to go to the King and ask Him – “Holy Spirit, who am I mad at?” Reading this way is a proactive process. We will have to put down passive agreementto pick up the shield of faith. We desperately need to look for ways to act on our faith in our ordinary everyday lives and consider how what we’ve read today, applies to us! 

It is way too easy to hinge our relationship with Him on perceived answers to our prayers – or even how we feel. Our God is incredibly gracious and generous to His kids. However, answers to our prayers are not signs of His favour. His favour was demonstrated, once and for all, at Calvary! When you or I say ‘I can’t change’ or even:  ‘they won’t ever change’ – you may as well say the sky is green! When we think like that we are scrunching up our faith and throwing it in the rubbish bin. Our God can do anything. That is an established fact. Just because He hasn’t done anything so far, that doesn’t mean He won’t. Timing is everything to Him.

It works like this: we ask for His Grace and help, then we purpose in our hearts to change our behaviour, and then we go ahead and step out in faith changing our behaviour. Activate your own faith – listen, apply, and DO.👋🏻

P 2187 Let God be God.

/ DVH

“Everyone look! Come and see the breathtaking wonders of our God. For He brings both ruin and revival. He’s the one who makes conflicts end throughout the earth, breaking and burning every weapon of war. 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. Here He stands! The Commander! The mighty Lord of Angel armies is on our side! The God of Jacob fights for us! Pause in His Presence.” Psalms 46:8-11 TPT.

With everything that is going on in this world today, we just have to give all that stuff over to Him and let God be God. Mainly because we have no clue how to negotiate such a mess. Human beings can use up an awful lot of energy trying to control things in this life. As I’ve said before, other people do not have your script. And even if you carefully explain your plans – that doesn’t mean others are going to like them! Plus what other people want probably won’t fit in with our seemingly fantastic thoughts and desires. and so they can and will object. Sometimes very loudly! It can be extremely difficult to let go of things when we think we know the way stuff should go.

I just want to say today, that for many years the Lord had to practically arm wrestle me, to get me to let go of things I really had no control over in the first place – but I wanted to control them anyway! In my current physical circumstances I have had to learn to let everything go, because nowadays I can barely control my body, let alone other people! But back then I would pray pretty, nice-sounding prayers to try to convince the Lord to see things my way, because I was quite sure I knew what was the best outcome.

And before you look at me sideways, I’m guessing that we all do that? “I want what YOU want Lord,” is such a hard prayer to pray. It kind of gets stuck somewhere in our throats. I have some theories about why it is that is true. I don’t think we know our Heavenly Father’s Ways well enough and sometimes … we just plain don’t trust Him. Even though the bible is chock full of descriptions of how trustworthy He is! Go figure. Plus, we have Jesus Himself as a living, documented example of His Father’s attitudes toward human beings. And yet, sometimes, depending on how important the matter is – we still don’t trust Him. It seems to me that our finite minds cannot grasp God’s goodness on a grand scale. 

What to do? Admit your fault! That’s what I do, I tell Him I really don’t trust Him enough to take care of my kids, my life, my health, my family, my church, my future. Meanwhile, you can see that problem immediately can’t you? 🙄  It’s that sneaky little word ‘my.’ When I find myself grasping at things, trying to make them work somehow, it means that I’ve taken over again. However, I have learnt to stop, and assess where my confidence in His goodness went.

And most of the time it will be an area where things did not go the way I thought they should. Maybe they even got worse. That unpleasant land of worse …or even some unanswered prayers … these things have taught me something over the years. I got desperate enough to find out why I was reacting like that.  Brother James helped me out. “You ask [God for something] and do not receive it, because you ask with wrong motives [out of selfishness or with an unrighteous agenda], so that [when you get what you want] you may spend it on your [hedonistic] desires.” James 4:3. Oh! How I’ve hated that verse!

Meanwhile, I could easily explain why my motivations were pure and kind … just ask me. 😶 Yet somehow, even at my age!… I still hate the word – “No!” So I’ve come to the conclusion I don’t like hard stuff much. I want my life to be easy and I want it to suit me. And changing that thought process has taken me down some very difficult roads. Like I’ve said before, I came from a time where ‘you are the Lord’s favourite kid’ was preached from the pulpit. I really liked that kind of sermon BTW. But because of that kind of teaching I had a wrong concept about Who was God and who wasn’t. Sigh … and it wasn’t me. Everybody out there should breathe a sigh of relief about that fact, believe me! I’d be appalling at it. I’d probably smite people first and say “whoops” afterwards. Fortunately, I’ve learnt some stuff since back there, but I still catch myself doing it!

I’ve written about this today because it occurred to me that this self-elevation may not only be my problem. If your prayers are going unanswered, check to see if He wants you to persevere … and if He doesn’t … then give up! Quickly! God obviously has much bigger, better plans than we do – and we need to use these kinds of opportunities to repent and be transformed. Perhaps we also need to learn to pray to endure, rather than be fished out of difficult circumstances. And … let God be God. He’s good at it. 👋🏻

P 2151 We are the new influencers for good.

/ DVH

“The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged.” Deuteronomy 31:8.

In the recorded history of the bible, Our Heavenly Father, God, has never quit on humanity because He was totally fed up with us. Instead His book is filled to the brim with His interactions of love, direction, correction and passion for all of us. He has spent thousands of years reaching out to us. Human beings are the crown of His creation. This world is the setting, and people are the precious jewels He deliberately put in that setting. His book clearly shows us His intentions, plus His great great Love for every single person who has ever been here.

But if humanity tried to go into His Presence without a Saviour we would instantly be overwhelmed by our own sinfulness, because His holiness is all encompassing. Sin separates us from Him, as well as other people. It separates families, marriages, congregations, denominations, countries …  all different kinds of people. So, because of His incredible love and forgiveness, and desire to know us, and be known by us – He took our sin out of the equation. Now we are free to love Him back … or not … the choice is always ours. 

The Lord is not like other people we have known, who wanted us to behave for their reputations, or convenience. Rather, our God wants us to be close to Him. In order for that to happen we cannot afford to have pieces or parts of our lives that are not submitted to His sovereignty. Those supposedly harmless things that don’t seem to be all that important, are the holes in our lives that our enemy can aim His darts and arrows through, to wound us and try to take us away from the Father’s Love and His Way to live.   

We begin our journey by understanding Who He is. He is so marvellous, so precious, so incredible, so beautiful, that even being around Him, changes us. Have you ever had a friend that  seemed to bring out the worst in you? Conversely, have you ever known a person who left you feeling bigger, freer, more able to be yourself?  His influence in our lives is not only for our good, but it has an effect on everyone around us. EG: Have you ever been grouchy around someone else only to find that they, in turn, became grouchy too? People influence each other… and not always for good. His influence brings out the rainbow colours in all our personalities – we stop being one dimensional.

One of my biggest disappointments with this world at this time, is that our children are being greatly influenced by others who are angry at others, or themselves, and angry at this world’s systems. These people live carelessly seemingly unaware of their effect on the people around them. They do this for MONEY. Their influence is a little like the measles or the mumps – it’s contagious. Most of us were born with a desire to belong somewhere, and if nothing good, pure, right and just is available, unfortunately, even our children will tend to gravitate to the instant, glossy, glittery, fashionable over-the-top and often evil expressions of humanity.

If Christians do not put something of His Love out into this world’s atmosphere — then our kids have nothing to guide and lead them in His Ways. We have the power to bring His kingdom here by simply cherishing His Presence in our lives, and sharing that with others. You and I are living illustrations of what His Love looks like in action. It is time we picked up our real inheritance! Jesus left this world to us, in our hands. And right now it is our responsibility to influence others for good – to point them toward the Eternal, ever living, ever loving God.

Remember, our God is not just with us, He goes before us. Even before we start out. Imagine that! Whatever you go and do, He has already been there. He won’t leave us, because our God is loyal and true to His Word. He has always been loyal to His chosen ones, the Israelites, and now He is loyal to us because of the blood of Jesus. He signed His agreement with mankind, in Christ’s blood, and that agreement stands forever. Even when it seems to us that He is not there, He is there, purely because He promised to be there.

It is time we decided to believe His promises. We have so many!! In these busy, turbulent times, He wants us to stand on, hide behind, and trust in what He told us in the book. You and I have been given those promises for us to use them. Forget the Lear Jet, or new fancy house,our God told us He would be with us always! Now there’s a promise!  We are to hold His Word up in front of us like a shield, against the onslaughts of the many fears and threats in this world, when things try to overwhelm us. So when the wind and the waves bash us and threaten to drown us, we simply stand still and trust and wait for Him to do what He has promised. We cannot afford to be overwhelmed by the activity and noise around us, because our eyes need to be fixed on Him. 

Focussing on how much Father God loves us, instead of the turmoil outside in the world, will transform us into wells of peace and light. People will be drawn to us purely because we are able to be content, even when the world around us is rocking and tossing with hatred, anger, sickness and sorrow. The thing is, we must learn, in the middle of a world that values how we feel, more than anything else – how to have and use our FAITH. 

This world only values things that make US feel good. However, we need to actively learn and practise minute by minute, relying upon HIS WORD more than what our eyes see, or our ears hear, or what we even think. He has made His desires for us, His people, plain. We have it in all in writing!  We no longer have to be afraid of facing this life alone – HE IS WITH US. His Presence with us helps us influence others for good. 👋🏻

P 2144 The Faithful One.

/ DVH

“We all experience times of testing, which is normal for every human being. But God will be faithful to you. He will screen and filter the severity, nature, and timing of every test or trial you face so that you can bear it. And each test is an opportunity to trust Him more, for along with every trial God has provided for you a way of escape that will bring you out of it victoriously.” 1 Corinthians 10:13 TPT

Our God is so faithful, HE LOVES US … whatever happens to us is not proof of His love or even a sign that He is angry with us. He put all His anger on Christ. He loves mankind because He says so – in the book! Here is one of my favourite verses: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful [true to His word and His righteous character], for He cannot deny Himself.” 2 Timothy 2:13. 🥰 Unfortunately we can be faithless, often … and we are!  What makes you and I the same as everyone else in this world, is the blood we all have coursing through our veins. Colour, size, age, sex, race and religion none of that matters because we are all human. Human beings assess things by performance, but we dare not assess the Lord that way. We must learn to take Him at His word! 

The above verse tells us the Lord God Almighty IS always faithful – let us pray that we will begin to understand just how faithful He is! Just like our blood is a part of humanity we have in common, His faithfulness is a part of Who He is!  He is faithful through and through. Those qualities we sometimes think of as passing human characteristics, are permanently, FOREVER, HIS! Love, joy, peace, etc – these things are not whimsical, or seasonal, or subject to change with Him – our God is always the same. Hebrews 13:8: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” And Malachi 3:6: “For I am the Lord, I do not change; …” 

We need to do more than nod our heads or even say Amen to verses like that. They are not just there to cheer us up when we feel down. They are there to reveal His heart. We must start living our lives treating whatever He says, in the book, as the truth, because it is. HE CANNOT CHANGE. When we try to elevate humanity up to His level, we are running the very real risk of lowering His status down to human standards. Jesus is God, and He is like us – but Almighty God is like no-one else.

And I’m just going to let that statement sit there by itself because we must do more than simply agree with it. We need to start living our lives depending on how permanently dependable He is. Our lives have become more and more unstable because the things we’ve stood on – or gave our attention to – started to wobble. Misunderstanding the Lord God’s motivation means we are in danger of attributing Him with our human characteristics. Even though Christ came as one of us – He did something human beings cannot do – He was purity Personified. After that He chose to become sin. In these matters we cannot trust our own understanding. The mysteries of our God are beyond our understanding … and that’s a good thing!  

We need SomeOne wiser, kinder, more loving, and more committed to us, than we can ever be to each other – otherwise we are sunk. We will all be stuck in a rut of trying to be better people and failing. Whether I like you or not, or you like me or not, we need to start to know and see each other after the Spirit. “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.” 2 Corinthians 5:16. In other words I begin to see the Holy Spirit active in you, and you see Him active and working in and ON me. That will not happen when we spend our time trying to impress one another with our spirituality. Rather it happens as a byproduct of working together for a common cause as we submit to His ways. 

When we actively look for and take particular notice of the signs of His faithfulness in our lives, and store all those things in our hearts –  like a squirrel stores up nuts for the winter – we will begin to know one another after the Spirit! The power of God is not a reward for good behaviour, or super spirituality. As we let the Holy Spirit develop who we are, we will be transformed to look like Jesus. Jesus didn’t have to try to do this or that – HE JUST DID IT. It is time to deliberately transfer our trust, from what we think, see and know, into simply trusting in WHO He is. 

We must put aside the prayers of “please fix this and that thing, or everything that matters to me Lord” and start to pray: “Why am I here Lord, what is Your purpose for my life?” Whether you or I are the head pastor or the janitor – all those things are up to Him. The things that are weighing heavily on each of our hearts will be: “…ADDED UNTO US … as we seek His kingdom FIRST.” He cannot be anything else but faithful to us, and He is looking for us to be faithful to Him in the midst of a faithless generation. 👋🏻

P 2124 Ambassadors of peace.

/ DVH

Living aware of His Presence, creates a peace zone … all by itself. At our house we do our best to protect that zone. Hubby and I have experienced what it is like to live that way, and today I want to talk about the results of that zone, so you can be encouraged that this also happens in YOUR life too. I’ve included some thoughts and tips about welcoming and hosting His Presence and peace in your own house. Learning to trust Him, no matter what is happening in our lives, is one of the best secrets to keeping and maintaining peace. We all need peace, the bible tells us it is our umpire!  His peace, or the lack of it, shows us where we need to back up and rethink our attitudes. Along with Hope, PEACE is one of our most powerful weapons in our daily lives.

Isaiah 26:3 “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in You.” Romans 12:18 “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” Hebrews 12:14 says that thought like this: ”Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”

It is unfortunately, way too easy to blame our lack of peace on someone else. Our failure to take personal responsibility can open up already difficult situations into even worse misunderstandings. We need to do everything in our power to treat honesty about our own limitations and motivations, as a priority. Today in our society, it is almost an unspoken agreement that there are good guys and bad guys .. and WE, of course, are not the bad guys! Here’s red hot flash for you, we can all be the bad guys to someone else. So we need to make peace our personal treasure.

Nothing can be gained when we make a mutual problem someone else’s problem. I exhort everyone reading this blog to remember that blame is deadly – to both parties. The bible says that we are to be ministers of reconciliation, not judgment. Speaking for myself, I not only apologise to others, whether I think it is necessary or not, I also actively ask people I trust: “Do I do this?” We must remember, that feedback from others is really important, sometimes it gets very hard to see around the LOG in your own eye! 😊 So I look at me, first. This means I need to actively revise my own behaviour, and stand back and look at it from a distance. Sin can trip us up, but we have no reason to hide that junk from ourselves, or others – anymore. We have a Saviour! Glory!! 🙌

Actively or inadvertently hiding from reality is tempting but it is also a dead end street. Rather, exposing ourselves to the truth, opens windows and doors into His kingdom. And welcoming His kingdom means welcoming His peace. I have also found that this sort of open, honest attitude, takes time – maybe that is why many people avoid it.😂 In another version of the above verse – Hebrews 12:14 says: “Pursue peace …” I take that to mean – run after it! When, or even if, we cannot hear the Lord clearly – a lack of real peace can often be at the bottom of the matter. We need to value His peace more than we want to make our point or win an argument – or justify behaviour we don’t want to change – no matter how right we seem to be.

Jesus’ peace is not this world’s idea of peace. We can live in HIS peace in the middle of total chaos, because we know Who holds the future! Plus peace is an inside job. Here are some things hubby and I have noticed that show that there are signs of His peace in and over our lives. When people talk to us, they don’t want to stop – strangers tell us their life-stories. That’s a distinct hallmark of Christ within anyone – it is most definitely not our stunning personalities!.🤣 People are attracted to Him. Anyone who does not live in peace actually values it when they experience it, even if they don’t know what it is.

At our house, we are often quite naturally silly and lighthearted – hubby is like that far more than I am – he tells the most woeful dad jokes! 🙄 Laughter is another valuable tool in our fight against losing our peace. It is good to learn to laugh at yourself. I take myself way too seriously at times, and it can border on trying to control the atmosphere. Laughter removes pressure. I think it helps other people relax too, and they feel free to be themselves, because the need to pretend is taken away. Remember, peace is fragile, we must watch over it.

A number of visitors have commented on His peace in our house as they come through our front door. Like I said before, we know it isn’t us! It has to be the Presence of Jesus, because He is the Prince of peace and He is welcome in our home. We value His presence more than we value our rights and opinions. We intentionally make room for Him. Plus when any of us value His peace, which goes right round our minds and soothes our hearts, we can become ambassadors of peace for others. 2 Corinthians 5:20. 👋🏻