Truth

P 2549 We are His radiators!

/ DVH

“Now may God, the fountain of hope, fill you to overflowing with uncontainable joy and perfect peace as you trust in Him. And may the power of the Holy Spirit continually surround your life with His super-abundance until you radiate with hope!”Romans 15:13 TPT. OK so I am still kind of stuck on hope … mainly because hope kicks open doors to other qualities. My best advice is go and stand in that fountain in Romans 15 – and don’t step out. Stay IN the water of the Word, let it wash over you as it cleans out your thinking. 

We sing songs about the fountain of God and claim that we have a river of life flowing out through us … and  …then go out act just like the rest of the world that surrounds us. It is time to remember that these people around us have no hope! Let’s make it our goal to go and stand in that fountain of hope, every day. And remind ourselves:  “I’ve been saved, I’m no longer in the kingdom of darkness that I see every single day – I’m now in the Kingdom of marvellous His light!”  Then start looking for His bright shafts of light all around you, shining through other people and even our difficult situations. We have unfortunately become so adept at finding faults:  in ourselves, in the system, in the way we live, as well as in others. Let’s look for His light instead.

Letting the Lord’s love flow into and over us, means we will begin to automatically overflow with joy and peace. You and I have been given all the riches of heaven. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control, we’ve been given everything as a product of His Grace. So let’s go out and live in the light of all Jesus did for us. That’s when we will start to radiate hope toward others. You can tell when you’ve moved house from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His marvellous light – other people notice your behaviour has changed and say so.  Standing in His fountain means that the water flowing over you will eventually overflow… into joy. However, focus matters. Our focus on Him can lead us back into the light so we can stand again in His fountain.

Look, it is easy to just kind of file our salvation under that happened back then, and instead be distracted right now by things like;  ‘life is hard and I’m struggling with this and that!‘ The answer to any situation is always the cross. We must choose to decide He died for whatever happened this time — whether it is your sin, or mine against you — and then we pick up our own cross and keep on following Him. Picking up our cross means we own it. We don’t hide from the bad things, we let His light in instead. The Lord Jesus solved everything right there.✝️  Never move past the cross! 

The cross is the reason we die daily, plus it’s our motivation for change. The cross is the symbol of everything He did for us. It seems to me that we have anchored our hope into the wrong place. We have anchored our hope into everything going well. So when things go wrong, we can even think that somehow we aren’t walking with the Lord anymore. That can’t happen – He will not leave us or forsake us. But WE can easily be deceived into walking away from living in the light. Darkness never announces itself … it creeps over us quietly, shifting our focus and attitudes toward others. SIN KILLS HOPE. Sinlessness is not IN us, it’s IN HIM.

We’ve been born again to be His radiators, reflecting His life, His hope, His love, His warmth into everywhere we go. I have learnt that it is ME that needs to change. I am not always that person that other people meet, living on my nicest politest behaviour and smiling through pain etc. Polite does not carry the Presence of God – unconditional love and truth do! Sadly, I am still sometimes the person who shouts at my dear husband, uses sarcasm way too much, or yells at the poor sod on the other end of the phone who is just trying to do their job. But the reality is that’s actually no longer ME. Now I have a choice. Now I carry within me the potential for change. I have been born again, now I have God’s DNA.

When pressed beyond belief, Jesus Christ didn’t retaliate – He radiated God’s Grace and Love. My life is no longer about pleasing ME, and making me happy, it is about pleasing HIM!  Hope will start to die unless it is regularly fed by visiting the cross and looking at the One Who made a way for us to live differently. When we choose to die to self, we too will begin to radiate Christ everywhere we go.  👋

P 2544 Surprise!🥳

/ DVH

Isaiah 55:11 …“So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void,but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”

First of all, I love the fact that God says so clearly and so positively: “when I speak – stuff happens!” You might want to think on that like …for the rest of your life! Hmmm. In my mind, people often look at verses through the filter of brother or sister you-don’t-have-to-study-the-bible-deeply-I’ll-do-that-for-you-and-tell-YOU-what-God-told-me! That action keeps people immature.

You see, when we accept that what God Himself says is truth, then we actually have a fantastic diagnostic tool for our lives. Now, let’s think about that verse above for a moment… or nine! Does that mean that if nothing happens when I pray – HE DIDN’T SAY IT? Jesus Himself said,“I only do what I see the Father doing … I only say what I hear the Father saying…”  He was fulfilling that scripture in Isaiah. He understood that God’s word is never void.

When I read that verse again, what He actually says is: ‘My Word won’t just do what I sent it to do, My Word will THRIVE.” PLUS !! The Only One He intends to please is HIMSELF.Take a big breath alright? Almighty God is not your mother, who loved to spoil you. It seems if we take whatever the Lord says seriously, and pray about it, then we may need to revise whatever happens afterwards. There are times I wonder why things aren’t working out so well, and I hope like mad that it isn’t my faith or my theology that’s at fault. But, sadly, it probably is, because there isn’t anything wrong with what the Lord said!  His aim is to accomplish what HE intends. The bible says this:“He is the Rock, His works are perfect, and all His ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is He.” Deuteronomy 32:4. 

Here’s a completely useless rabbit trail: I know a song from way back in the ark about that verse in Deuteronomy, which means now I’ll have it stuck in my head! 😱 Maybe that means I am now praying without ceasing …!!  Meanwhile, we had some pretty old fashioned music way back then. But I’m pretty sure most people had no clue what they were singing, they just liked joining in. The good bit is … we all got to memorise scripture. The bad bit is … it was in King James English. Someone ought to have a word with that guy, you can’t understand a word King James says!!

Meanwhile, I think it is time to take a teeny tiny look at what we say, and work out if it is in line with what He says and the way we are living. When God speaks, He means what He says – and we are to behave the same way because we all follow Jesus. This stuff is in the book for activation not just contemplation. There are times that I think none of us know what to do with what we believe, because what we say we believe seems to only work in somebody else’s life! We kind of shove all that mess under a rock and hope nobody notices. Some really brave souls may ask “what did I do wrong?” But most of us dumb sheep—BAA! We don’t have a clue what happened or why, and we are either too scared to ask the Lord “why”… because He might not answer us. OR … because He just might answer us!

At this point, I was hoping the trouble I had just might be the language, so I looked it up in another version – a more manageable one. Well the New International Version actually kind of stuck to the KJV, using a few less unto-s and goeth forths. So I went on to see what the Message bible says. The main trouble with the MSG bible as I see it is this, it really does say what it says in English, but it takes so darn long to say it you need to take a cut lunch. Have a read of this …

“I don’t think the way you think. The way you work isn’t the way I work.” God’s Decree. “For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think. Just as rain and snow descend from the skies and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth. Doing their work of making things grow and blossom, producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry, So will the words that come out of my mouth not come back empty-handed. They’ll do the work I sent them to do, they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.” Verses 8-11.

You may have noticed that I included w-a-y more than verse 11. That’s because the Message bible says things in clumps like daffodils, and you have to take them apart and look at each piece separately to get the meaning. That’s great for repotting plants, but a bit hard on the old concentration. 

So what IS my point today? Perhaps we need to be way more careful when we use the words…”God said…” unless we intend to follow it up with …”and this is what happened!” Always remembering that He already HAS plans.  …”to give us a hope and a future ..”   I think this entire verse explains itself in the first sentence of the Message bible version… “I don’t think the way you think ..” That seemed pretty easy to understand to me!  He knows how I think, but most of the time I know bupkis about what He is thinking or doing. BTW, I’m not talking about tacking on “if it be Your will” to our prayers – I’m talking about knowing Him well enough to see what He is doing, or trusting Him if we don’t!

Father God is perfectly capable of making Himself clear. He’s God — I’m not. We think we need proof, but that’s not actually faith. If I don’t think like He does then He’s going to “surprise” me — a LOT… 👋

P 2525 Go after more!

/ DVH

Be self-motivated. Jesus Christ surrendered His will and His life for us, and now we voluntarily surrender our life —- the only life we have been given, to Him. We cannot afford to compartmentalise the Lord of all glory, into a designated time, place and space! The bible says: He is our all in all. We have the power to make that word, that God Himself spoke —- flesh… By doing it. Devotion to Christ is not an over-the-top concept – it is the reason we were saved!

“Be imitators of God in everything you do, for then you will represent your Father as His beloved sons and daughters. And continue to walk surrendered to the extravagant love of Christ, for He surrendered His life as a sacrifice for us. His great love for us was pleasing to God, like an aroma of adoration—a sweet healing fragrance.” Ephesians 5:1-2 TPT. 

This verse is telling us how we can please God, and smell good to Him. Forget Chanel, or Yves St. Laurent … death-to-self smells good to God. His only Son sacrificed His life, to give US life, and that pleased the Father. ‘Our lives are no longer our own, we’ve been bought with a price – paid for with a preciousness that is out of this world.’ Our own personal response to that incredible gift and invitation, matters.

After that we step through the door of deliberate obedience, into the world of the Holy Spirit. Those of us who may have been StarWars fans will know that famous line Yoda spoke. “Do or don’t do. There is no try.” Isn’t it amazing how the rocks cry out sometimes? There is no “try” in dying to self. We choose, we don’t try.  “We (deliberately) set our minds on the things above …” Colossians 3:2. In Christianity, there is no try. The thing is, it is way too easy to bail out of ‘trying’ when it gets too hard. We need to trust God with everything we have, because He gave us everything He had.

In the Old Testament smelling good to God included slaughtering and burning dead sheep, or a bull, a goat, or a turtledove. In my opinion, blood smells terrible. It has an ugly tinny metallic smell – ugh! Death smells even worse! Imagine the flies!! This was not a quiet gentle scene, with angel singing, and a holy hush! And yet our God loved it. “It is a burnt offering, a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.” Ephesians 5:17.

His own precious Son, hanging, dying a terrible, painful death was pleasing to Him – Almighty God looks through pain to the holy results. We simply must stop making a God after our own image by deciding that of course He will like what I like! He is not there to please US – we are here to choose to please HIM. 

And the real truth is, we still sometimes don’t know what He likes, because we are still learning. His book, the bible, keeps unfolding itself before our very eyes day after day after day!  That’s why Jesus said “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.” Matthew 5:6. We all need to go to church hungry and thirsty for more of God. 

Many people in our churches are now sitting back in their seats, arms folded, double-daring the poor pastor to say something they haven’t already heard! It is almost like they think God is lucky that they came there at all! Hebrews 2:1 says: “For this reason [that is, because of God’s final revelation in His Son Jesus and because of Jesus’ superiority to the angels] we must pay much closer attention than ever to the things that we have heard, so that we do not [in any way] drift away from truth.” My advice is to pray that we will always listen with our hearts open, even if we have heard some things before … maybe the pastor is not preaching new stuff because we are not doing what he has already taught us! Let’s selah that thought…

These pastors preach to inspire us to greater things. Their desire is to see us grow up into Christ Jesus’ likeness. Otherwise they are simply running a spiritual day-care centre. Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. With spiritual babies yelling play with me, feed me, make me feel important! No wonder these wonderful people, who are gifts from God Himself, can get fed up and quit the ministry! Yet Sunday after Sunday it can be so easy to thank this person for their sermon:  and still go home and kick the cat, yell at our spouse, and chastise our kids. And we kid ourselves that Jesus understands how hard it is to be us! 

We all need to mature. And maturation takes more than attending church meetings, bible studies, prayer meetings. It takes SELF-WATERING, plus the cultivated curiosity to get to know all three of the Trinity better. They are not just our ‘Suppliers’ of answers to prayer, or even wise life information. We have been saved to interact with the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. 

The Christian life is more than going to church Sunday by Sunday – it is a way to live. If we only ATE once a week we would rapidly starve. Most Christians are malnourished with some of the most brilliant meals in the world, right at their finger tips. We must grow up into the fullness of Christ. We will never realise our dreams for more, sitting about hoping it is going to fall on us! …  It is time to go after MORE.  👋🏻 Jeremiah 15:16.

P 2524 This natural world has to yield to the spiritual one …

/ DVH

“Once your life was full of sin’s darkness, but now you have the very light of our Lord shining through you because of your union with Him.Your mission is to live as children flooded with His revelation-light! And the supernatural fruits of His light will be seen in you—goodness, righteousness, and truth.” Ephesians 5:8-9 TPT.

We need to deliberately determine in our hearts, to actively cultivate our relationship with Jesus – on purpose! We do that by regularly reading the bible, and going to church. And also when we pray  – which is talking to Him – referring to Him, and deferring to His will, His way. This is how we make Him a part of everything – we come into UNION with Him. I talk to the Lord all day long. I include Him in everything.

One thing makes all the difference to daily living constantly aware of Him, so I can be obedient. I lay my life down at His feet, deliberately. I have made a quality decision to live this life dead to what I want.  And that includes revenge on anyone who has hurt me. Then I ask Him for His help. I pray things like “You’re in charge, Jesus, please do whatever You want Lord, whatever You decide will be exactly what I need.” I pray like this even when things look awful. Or I’m scared. Or I can’t see anyway through something.

I don’t lie! I tell Him that I am scared etc. … but I probably won’t tell YOU! I’ve found that talking about fear or anger etc. makes those things bigger. It brings temporary emotional relief, but not permanent heart change. Over time Jesus has helped me to normalise my thoughts into His kingdom thinking. He taught me that I sometimes panic unnecessarily. I can scare myself by projecting even more bad thoughts into unknown or difficult situations, based on my previous experiences. So I’ve learnt to yield to Him all the time, not just once every morning. Day by day I accept whatever happens during the day, as my training with the Holy Spirit – because He is my Coach. One of my all time fav prayers is: “How are you going to get me out of this Lord?”

He often reminds me of some scriptures, and then I have something I can hold on to. But I have come to understand that in those difficult moments — I am confronting my own fears. Those things I have allowed to remain in my life because it seemed to be too hard to deal with them when they happened. Jesus always does over and above anything I could ever hope for… every single time. And it never ever looks like I think it will … the Lord knows the very best way through anything. I remind myself that the SPIRIT Who lived in Christ Jesus now lives in ME! (Galatians 2:20) He guided Jesus and He will guide me too.

“… Your (Our) mission is to live as children flooded with His revelation-light! And the supernatural fruits of His light will be seen in you—goodness, righteousness, and truth.” Ephesians 5:8-9 TPT. Love is an action not a feeling. We forgive those who trespass against us because He said to do it – that’s called faith in action.  When you and I bring the bible’s teachings — the supernatural thoughts and actions of Jesus into any natural situation, the natural world has to yield to the spiritual one. 👋🏻

P 2518 Faith says I need HIM more than stuff!

/ DVH

“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, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.”1 Corinthians 13:4-7.

The difficulty we face with verses like these, as I see it, is that we can read them and say to ourselves: “Oh, dear, I’m not like that. That means that I am failing God. I don’t see how I can ever be like that, I’m too bad tempered, too selfish, etc.” Hmm. There is no faith needed to diagnose what everyone else around us can already see! However, these verses are about faith, they are not there to diagnose lack. They are a description of what the Lord’s love does, and His design and purpose for our lives. They show us what we are aiming at! We can have anything on that list IF we are prepared to die to self!

Using our faith to act on what He says is the key to giving these things substance —  BUT — telling ourselves that we already have them, without using our faith, is not scriptural! Be-cau-se  “FAITH is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not yet seen.” Hebrews 11:1. Faith is not just claiming stuff — it is love in action so others can then see our faith! Ya might want to think on that the next time you are shouting at someone. It will be hard for them to believe you have faith to overcome sin when all the evidence they have to hand is to the contrary! It will hurt to deny ourselves take up our cross … (that cross is often people who just don’t get us!)… and follow Jesus.

These things already exist in Christ, and HE is now our new home. In Christ we have all these glorious qualities – Jesus died to give us all this, and more. Jesus didn’t just say He died – HE DIED! We cannot pretend to have this stuff and hope He is fooled. These things are precious Holy Spirit qualities, and they are real tangible things, not wish-thinking. They are the language of love between the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ died to give us what He already has with the Father. “In this [union and fellowship with Him], love is completed and perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment [with assurance and boldness to face Him]; because as He is, so are we in this world.”1 John 4:17. We are destined to look like Him, and we get there by our obedience, one step at a time. Which includes shutting our mouths when we want to let fly, or by curbing our ungodly desires etc., and asking the Holy Spirit to do what He does best. HELP US.

Those qualities written down in 1 Corinthians are a check list, but they are not there to condemn us. They are there to help us recognise that when we deliberately choose not to keep score of someone else’s sins – we are manifesting His love toward that person. When we choose to be satisfied with what we have, then we are manifesting His love! Practically speaking … when we are supernaturally patient, using our faith, when we are dealing with a two year old who wants what he wants – we are manifesting God’s love toward that child!

But if and when, we miss the mark, then we confess our faults, to the other person, and repent and restore relationships as needed.Repentance is now a part of our way of life because we are be-i-ng perfected … but we ain’t there yet! Right now we are all learning to walk in the WAY … “I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, bestowing a rich inheritance on those who love me and making their treasuries full.” Proverbs 8:20,21. See?! We are to be a source of great blessing to many … and I’ve always started with my family! Here’s an example of what that looks like from the book —“Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her …” Proverbs 31:28. This is a way of life, not a book of nice theories. It is a faith book.

Unfortunately, many of us have misinterpreted scriptures as a free for all to ‘ask and you shall receive,’  and think that means that we can have whatever we want if we just ask for it in His Name. 😱 Jesus Christ lived a life full of LOVE from God — to manifest GOD — here on earth as it is in heaven! Not a new yacht or a diamond ring or a McDonald’s cheese burger!  He will supply all our needs and this is a huge gift to us, because Jesus Christ is rich in glory with every heavenly blessing, but those things are not necessarily material! They are kingdom things.

However, because God is a loving Father we can always ask Him. And we can always ask Him for help. But our very real need is transformation, not material things! Priorities matter.  We can have the kingdom of this world, but it is far better to chase after the kingdom of our God! So now we use our faith to access His Presence. His fruit. His incredible love for us, that other stuff will follow along … or not!  Bye. 👋

P 2513 Jesus is the very best Prince – EVER.

/ DVH

When I was a little girl, I loved fairy-tales. Mainly because my home life was pretty real and raw, so I hid my nose in the Blue book of Fairies – and others like it. And BTW, Grimm’s fairy tales were actually, really GRIM! Even as I was growing up I held fast to the idea that some day my prince would come. Well, he did! A-n-d … that’s when I found out that childhood dreams are destined to crash and burn. Sigh.

However I also learnt, sometimes the hard way, that JESUS Christ is the authentic PRINCE, He’s the Prince of peace … and that has never changed.  Even now, I can sincerely say the very best thing I ever did with my life wasn’t having children, or getting married, or having a good job, or a nice home – the very best thing IS, and always will be giving my life to HIM. I wish I had known about Him sooner because I would have followed Him earlier!

In the beginning of my relationship with the Lord, He and I were going to change the world! I was convinced that when I told people that He is real … they would instantly believe me, because of my sincerity and passion. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve definitely still got all that passion. But now, wisdom and years and years of living this new life, have shaped me into someone with more understanding than I had – to start with I stopped believing in fairy-tales a long time ago. 

I met the Lord when I was in my twenties. At that stage, I had 2 little ones under 2, both of them in cloth nappies at once and I was permanently tired. Then we added another one 3 years later!  We didn’t have those nifty disposable nappies back in the ark. Which means that I didn’t technically add to the mountain of rubbish we are trying to shove under the grass all over the planet!!  Hmmm … the real truth is, we didn’t have disposable nappies back then …but — I’m pretty sure that if we had had them, I would have used them!!  I’m not stupid. 

Chasing 3 kids under 5 kept me pretty busy in those days. I didn’t have a car or drive. So we walked – everywhere. In the rain, in the cold, in the heat. We walked 1.5 kms to the shops, and we stopped and looked at nature along the way. Actually I think I used those nature pauses to just plain rest! It was a pretty BIG hill, especially when you were pushing a heavy stroller UP it to do the weekly shopping. That stroller looked like a Christmas tree on the way home, with shopping bags hanging everywhere.

I think I spent a lot of time as a young mother being terrified something awful was going to happen to the kids or I would ruin their lives. I’ve always felt inadequate for the task of raising children …but then the Lord saved me and that meant, at that time, that I had even more pressure on me to get it right. PS… of course I didn’t! If you are raising kids right now, reading this, God’s got you – He’s been raising kids for thousands of years.  Almighty God Himself grew the lovely adults and parents my kids have all become.

On a further fun note …. about growing older  … without your permission! I’ve found that life has presented me with interesting challenges. There is a world of adjustment to face as bits of you start to wear out. Yes, yes, I know you saw someone on TV the other day, who inspired you to believe (falsely), that old age is going to be as good as you want it to be – just keep fit and use this face creme. Maybe you saw some old guy or gal with a face that has been reshaped so many times, it now looks like it has been ironed.

Yet these old/young codgers are still able to cheerfully hang upside-down from the roof like a bat, or they are doing 50 one-armed push-ups every day. Don’t you believe it – they are selling something! Meanwhile, I couldn’t even do that stuff when I was young! Fat chance now! It’s all a big lie you know! The bible says Moses was 80 and his eyesight was fine and so was his hearing – so that wasn’t common – that’s why those words are in there!

However, now the Lord and I have found a new way for me to live. Quietly. You won’t see me roaring around the suburbs at 3.00am doing donuts in the car park! The truth is, I have never done that in my life! But nowadays, I’ll be pushing up Zzzzzs in bed, groaning as I roll over. 😴 But you know what? The older I get the more grateful I am for SomeOne Who doesn’t see me as an old crock, He sees me the same way He has always seen me … I simply belong to Him. And that means even more to me now, than it did in the beginning.

After Jesus came into my life, I had SomeOne Who loved me so much, and my great joy is that He is so much wiser than I am. He is always more than happy to help me. The reason I gave this blog this title today is:  despite my childish wishes, blunders, and all my sins – both wilful and accidental, my Lord has never ever changed. But because of Him, everything about me has changed. One day my Prince DID come – His Name is Jesus! 👋🏻

“And His Name shall be called … Prince of peace, …” Isaiah 9:6

P 2506 What is God’s love language? God’s love language is obedience.

/ DVH

“Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.”1 John 3:18.“Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me.”John 14:21. BTW, let’s not get stuck on ‘but I can’t do that – I get it wrong all the time.’ Yeah me too. Jesus gave us something to aim at – the results come with practice … plus denying yourself and taking up your particular cross and following HIM.

There has been a lot of talk in the past about our own individual love languages … this one means this and that one means that. Yay! They are all very useful when we are trying to relate to one another. However, when it comes to Almighty God, He has ONE love language. Obedience. Funnily enough, if you practise obeying Him, you may not need to know your own love language – you’ll be too busy getting DEAD.

Anyway, this stuff isn’t all that hard to remember is it? Actually, it’s dead 🤪 easy — the problem seems to be about applying it … not understanding or remembering it! Let’s look at what Jesus did while He walked amongst us – after all, He is our Role-model. Oh! And my plan is to jump all over the current theory that Jesus obeyed so that we don’t have to. Rhubarb.

“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:5-11.

You see, first of all, that’s a whole lotta words, and unless we take the time to pull those words apart, and even check on some of their meanings, we can easily read, blah blah blah blah! nice thought …And we conclude — isn’t Jesus ace!? Of course He is!! Thank you Lord for doing that for us. Big sigh. All done now for today, nice thought that one… praise God!! I got that part. And so we move on to the rest of our day, doing what we’ve always done   … 😳

EXCEPT! It actually says at the beginning of that passage … “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus …“ In Philippians we are being exhorted to think about others the same way Christ thought about us. So we’d better pay attention because there are some pretty big obedience issues in there. Remember, our premise today is … what is God’s love language (?) and … I decided it’s obedience. But He said it first.

There are times when we read those words that we have not comprehended that when the Lord walked those dusty roads, and sometimes slept beside one, or ate nothing for dinner, or sat on the side of a hill for hours teaching people etc. etc. … He was obeying God. When He let men do those awful things to Him before He died… He was obeying God! Yeah, I know, that kind of jumps all over a lot of our current theology eh? He did all that to show us how to live – so we’d better pay attention. Because any minute now a TEST is going to show up!

Once, long ago, 120 people waited in an upper room because … Jesus Christ told them to do it. And that obedience changed their lives. We can so easily concentrate on the external vi-si-ble things: like fire falling on their heads, speaking in tongues, preaching a fantastic sermon about salvation. But what happened at Pentecost started with obedience. You wouldn’t want to be some guy that asked to be excused the day before all that happened, would you? You know that guy, the one that got married and bought a cow and had to get back home to take care of them and he couldn’t go to a wedding? Yeah him. Disobedience comes with big risks… just saying is all …

Now, let’s go back to looking at Jesus – because He is the best place to look! “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” Romans 5:19.“Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?” Romans 6:16.

Because we are pursing righteousness – and getting DEAD to self in the process … then that stuff is going to require our active obedience, not just our agreement. We could all agree that the sun is purple but that won’t change the reality and could bring on the men in the white coats to help us out!! Our agreement isn’t worth a load of old washing if it is not backed up by truth. FYI, truth is in the book – not the latest Christian doctrine, fad or fashion!

“Whoever says “I know Him” but does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in Him …” 1 John 2:4. Yeah, I wish He hadn’t said that too. But He did! Not liking what the Holy Spirit wrote down doesn’t change a thing. Let’s go back to James and that mirror we would rather forget about. “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.“James 1:23,24. This dumb schmuck has forgotten what a mirror is for!!  

Here’s another one to chew on as I leave for today: “And to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbour as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Mark 12:33. Our Heavenly Father sees our deliberate, dying-to-self obedience as LOVE. Now there’s great motivation – when we obey Him we are showing Him our love.  Just FYI, SomeBody else did that first, remember? Bye. 👋

P 2482 Avoid self-deception like the plague!

/ DVH

“Don’t just listen to the Word of Truth and not respond to it, for that is the essence of self-deception.So always let His Word become like poetry written and fulfilled by your life! If you listen to the Word and don’t live out the message you hear, you become like the person who looks in the mirror of the Word to discover the reflection of his face in the beginning. You perceive how God sees you in the mirror of the Word, but then you go out and forget your divine origin.” James 1:22-24 TPT.

Because it is a New Year, this is one of the times, we hopefully like to revise our thinking. It is incredibly easy within this honour system the Lord has given us, to deceive ourselves. The only clue we have that we are doing that is the absence of the Holy Spirit. The absence of His Presence means we have fallen out of harmony with Him and He has simply quietly gone away. He’s incredibly gentle and humble, and He likes to remain unseen, and so it is up to each one of us to honour Him by taking what He wrote in His book, seriously. 

I make it my priority to pay attention to His way of life – the stuff written in His book – plus the things He says to me  personally… and they are also in the book! I would rather look like a goose, than accidentally send Him away. Sadly, my humanity still gets in the way regularly – I wander off into judgment. Watching the NEWS is one of my downfalls. I start having opinions!! And if you pick on one of my kids I will still love you but … you won’t be my best friend quickly! You can see that I am not perfected in this area …. but like the scripture in my blog title says …I press on…  … I press on because Jesus is my only hope. I simply do not know how people manage without Him! 

Reading the bible and agreeing with what it says, is just the beginning of change.The way to read this book is to check yourself against every single line and then ask the Lord, “Do I do this?” And if something pops into your head, then you follow it up. When it comes to forgiveness, I just repent – Meh! It won’t kill me!! Actually, hilariously, 😂 it will! … But in a good way. Teehee. If we are continually hurting others, we are not abounding in love. It is way too easy to write off someone else’s pain as their problem … but if you have contributed, then how hard is it to take what you did seriously enough to ask for their prayers and help, and the Lord’s help? That’s what humility looks like.

Unfortunately, some forms of humility can be imitated, but in our heart of hearts we really do know when we are feigning something … it simply doesn’t resonate, and the matter keeps on coming up! Then the only person you are fooling is yourself. To me, obeying what the bible says and paying particular attention to what Jesus taught us, is my way of presenting my body as a living sacrifice. That’s my go-to method of worship at all times. Anyone can sing and wave their arms about, but unless our hearts are engaged in the process of renewing our minds and actions, you can go away from worship the same way you went in.

Even when I actually don’t want to obey, I still go to the Lord and tell Him that I know that my attitude is wrong, and I desperately need His help to obey Him. Then I go and do whatever it is I don’t want to do … using my faith. I believe all this nice-ey nice-ey pretend stuff is hobbling the Body of Christ. We can all put on a good show, for a couple of hours on Sunday …but what is actually happening inside? If hearing someone’s name makes me want to punch them on the nose, then I haven’t hit real repentance yet!! Even worse still –  I definitely haven’t hit His kind of love! I can give my attitude a fancy name, or hide behind my hurt …or I can confess my fault and face my flaws – knowing that the Lord will always love me. That’s a done deal.

Hubby sent me this verse this morning – he didn’t know what I was planning to write about: “I consider Your Word to be my greatest treasure, and I treasure it in my heart to keep me from committing sin’s treason against You.” Psalms 119:11 TPT. The WAY I value His word dictates the measure of love I have for Him. If I lightly dismiss it, and then excuse myself, because I think I can’t help it … then I am resisting the Holy Spirit. I have stopped operating in faith and gone back into feelings. It means I have forgotten what I saw about myself when I read it. The more I dismiss His word, the harder my heart gets against what He wants. It also hardens my heart against others at the same time.

Reading without doing, is self-deception, and that attitude is one of the hardest things in Christianity to get rid of. Everybody else thinks you are Mr or Mrs Nice-guy but inside you are a fake pile of dirty stinking old rags. We need to remember that SIN is the one thing we all have in common! Pretending we are perfect, is self-deception. Not dealing with myself over whatever it is is just sheer laziness! Jesus provided a WAY. I exhort everyone reading today, to pay real attention to the mirror of the Word, it is the only way forward.👋🏻

P 2480 Empty cups!

/ DVH

We have all been born, broken. There was sin in this world before we arrived here, and it will still be here … when we die. Someone once said that we come into this world with our little cups that need love, empty. Yet we all need love – some of us need it so badly we steal it!  The sad fact is we often wander around with our little empty cups from person to person, looking for someone that gets us … someone who sees us. Someone who will understand us, especially in our best or worst moments.

We may be fortunate to find a selfless person who gives freely, but for every selfless person there will be many many others who drain the cup of our hope and provision. So we need spiritual help and provision. Jesus never felt the lack of His Father’s Love, until He was in Gethsemane and He went on to die on that cross. That’s where He suffered that awful loneliness for us — if we need understanding we need to remind ourselves that the Lord Jesus understands. He entered into the human condition. We were designed to LIVE in the Presence of God. Go back to Eden, look at Moses, or Abraham … human beings were not designed to live without God and still flourish. Life batters everyone.

Sadly, many of the people around us that we choose to fill that cup, either leave, or they damage us further. Sometimes we even get married, with that huge thirsty need in the back of our emotions. We badly want to be fixed, but …. often so does the other person!!  And they too, see US as their answer. Human beings have a deep need to be loved … and those other people cannot fix you or I, because they have empty cups too. The ability to love others freely without limits, even the vile and the profane, is not found in people… that ability is only found in God Himself. We need His love to fill us and overflow in us and through us, then we will be giving away from abundance. If someone hurts us, most of the time they are not doing it for spite … it may well be that they are also hurting. I know this is trite – hurt people hurt people. But when we actively apply the truth into our lives it will set us free.

I believe the answer to filling this cup to overflowing is found in the 23rd Psalm. He prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. Even at our lowest moments that cup is there to be drunk, using our faith. Don’t search your feelings, simply remember God’s realm operates through faith. Sit with Him, discern your need for love in the middle of the chaos, and ask for Him to overflow in you. When we are tormented by the pain of lovelessness, loneliness and emptiness we also need to ask to be able to discern His cup, which is always available. We must take our eyes off the problem and fix them on Jesus.“He is the Author and Finisher of our faith …” Hebrews 12:2. Faith is always the source of provision. 

Other people cannot fill that void. Only Jesus can. He said: “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].” Human beings were designed to be loved and accepted for who they are and Jesus is the only Person I ever met Who does that!  We simply need to go directly to the source. Jesus did. He got alone with His Father in the midst of a busy schedule. We must stop badgering God for answers, answers are a temporary patch. Tomorrow you will need more! Just go and sit and be with Him. He is LOVE, and all the acceptance we will ever need.

Jesus  also said:“I am the way the truth and the life …” Did you get that? Our new life is in Him now – He is the way into that new life and He always speaks the truth. He is more alive than anyone else that has ever been on this planet! He has that vibrant life in HIMSELF – He paid an enormous price to get it, and He gives us His life for free. Our faith is the key to unlocking the door to love’s provision. Only our Heavenly Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit can love human beings the way they need to be loved. Why? Because the Trinity are not needy. They have Each Other. Love is the language that flourishes between Them and They all love to share.

Just to remind you that He is our help with the empty cup pain that no-one else but He can fill: “… my cup overflows …”(Psalm 23:5) Remember this cup is to be found in the presence of our enemies … We need to take our focus off our feelings of emptiness, or the lack we feel, or even the people tormenting us—and focus on the overflowing cup …“The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup … “Psalm 16:5. We are the people who never have to live this life with an empty cup – we have a Saviour. 🙌

P 2471 “My God is my protection … and with Him I am safe.”

/ DVH

Some strongholds can occur in our lives as protective mechanisms that we’ve employed and embraced to keep us safe. Here’s a thought … if we are protecting ourselves, then there is no need for the Lord to protect us! The Holy Spirit will quietly leave when we lean on our own devices, because that is not the Way He operates. He loves openness, submission, truth … HE LOVES THE OPENHEARTED WAY OF LOVE…which suffers long, believes all things, hopes all things, does not take offence, confesses its faults freely without prompting and is not afraid etc etc.

I think many of us have accidentally created strongholds to protect ourselves from perceived danger. But Jesus did nothing without consulting His Father first. Imagine what that might look like if we practised that! Christmas often stirs up mindsets we really don’t need but Jesus understands families – He had one. PS He didn’t always agree with them either! He understands the kind of help we need from those who have known us all our lives. Let Him be your protector. But also … ask Him to care for everyone, not just you and yours, but even those who are not easy to get along with.

A lot of people don’t know that they have strongholds … so here’s a couple of scriptures to think about today. The disciples had been out, at Jesus’ command … healing the sick, raising the dead, etc. And they are jubilant, because what the Lord said to do when they got there… worked!! Yaaaaaay! And suddenly they get a bit puffed up. Boy I’ve seen some people fall on their faces over that one. Here’s the bit I’m talking about …

Luke 10:19-20 “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” ← That last bit, right there, is called perspective. A-n-d … here is some more perspective …Luke 9:53-55 “…but the people there did not welcome Him, because He was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them…” In another version the last part expands that to this:“But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT MANNER OF SPIRIT YOU ARE OF! For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them…”

Jesus is saying: “That is not the Holy Spirit, be-ca-use …He’s not like that! I came to save the lost. So if they look LOST, then I’m here for them!!” The disciples clearly exhibit the fact that their judgment was clouded by something other than the leading of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps it was clouded by the stronghold of self-importance and success or maybe even fear? A stronghold may be logical, and look like righteous self-protection, it could even seem like loyalty. Loyalty can be misplaced, and come from a wrong spirit.

Jesus was always showing the disciples His priorities. Making sure that we take notice of things like this, in the bible, is how we start to learn the way Jesus thinks! He is saying:“You are saved, be happy about that … but they are not. Don’t let your self-importance or fear, or even misguided loyalty, cloud your motivation.”  We can easily have the kind of strongholds that say: “If you aren’t on my side, then you have to be a bad guy!” 

Christians can agonise over the fact that we want to hear from God. Well, all through the Gospels Jesus is telling us and demonstrating to us, over and over and over again  … “THIS IS HOW GOD THINKS.” How does the Lord treat the poor, or sinful, or proud, or disgraced, or rude, or mean, or even people who think they are important? It is all in there, in the gospels. Everything we need to know about what He thinks is in there!! He’s never ever motivated by anything other than love.

Because of what He did for us, we don’t have to be too proud to admit our faults. Casually dismissing strongholds in our lives is like tying weights around our ankles. We can’t flow with the Holy Spirit. Instead we need to confess them to Him, repent to others we may have hurt, and ask for His help and deliverance. Then, seize the day! Today is always the best day to get free. He is our deliverer from those things we have employed to protect ourselves from people we are afraid of.

Because Jesus Christ is now our protection, our aim needs to be staying connected with everyone. Not in an obsessive way, we simply do it to obey Him. Let’s tear down, or discard any strongholds that prevent us from running freely, and practice trusting Him with the people around us who don’t understand who He is … yet. 👋🏻