Truth

P 2164 Dealing with all kinds of pain.

/ DVH

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

Wow. Talk about confronting the things we often want to avoid at all cost! Have you noticed how the Lord just loves to look in those dark hidden corners that we hope He doesn’t see? He does it to help us out of pain. Some places we go to in our minds and hearts, are not in line with His thinking, so we need to have Him examine us, and sort out what is behind them. We also need to recognise enemy attack. Obviously, we are told to resist satan, and press into the Lord instead. 

Any diagnosis needs some sort of treatment! The bible recommends humbling ourselves, and submitting to others, by inviting the Holy Spirit to search our hearts prayerfully with their help. We also need God’s help and wisdom to find the stuff we have hidden away, even from ourselves. Human beings are funny creatures, we don’t like to admit faults and failures, yet confessing that stuff is a pathway to a new place in Him. I’m not talking about getting so self-obsessed you turn yourself inside out, but there are the times to pray the search me prayer and submit yourself to Him … as well as someone else. We are not alone, anymore – let your Christian family comfort you.

It is also good, in those times, to ask someone to join you that you know will tell you the truth. None of this flattering, “Oh you’re OK, it’s just a bad day” junk! Other people can have a wider view than we do, they can see the results of our attitudes and actions. Unfortunately we sometimes only see or understand our own intentions. It is incredibly easy to confuse those two things. “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12. We need the bible to help us sort out what is motivating us.

Many arguments that occur in a Christian home have been about what was intended. We need to carefully examine with His help – what was the real-life result! Our intentions don’t nullify what actually happened to someone else. Learn to listen to your spouse, your kids, and/or any people close to you who know you – let them reflect the YOU they see. Don’t hide behind hurt feelings, or fear of change, but open yourself up, because this is a normal part of growth. Real change comes from confronting the corners of your heart and it isn’t all bad stuff. Pain has a pathway – let’s dig up the pathway!

In times of anguish we do need the body. Other people who are more mature. Or perhaps someone who has experienced the kind of pain you are going through, to help straighten out our perspective. I ask myself a couple of questions, when or if, I don’t like the other person’s answer: “Why would this person lie to me? What have they got to gain?” Heads up! Most other people usually have nothing to gain and they are also running a big risk of alienating you. In my experience, people who tell you what you want to hear aren’t helpful – they want something.

Here is some stuff I have observed from just living. Pain numbs our spiritual senses and clouds our view of Who He is. It forcibly shoves us over into our minds … logical answers, and problem-solving. Then thinking-our-way-through-pain takes over. But, in reality, PAIN doesn’t actually diagnose the cause of anything! … So doing that won’t help us. Pain is a symptom, not the cause – a result, not the initial issue. 

Always remember, we don’t have to deny or hide our faults and sins anymore, because we know we have a Saviour! Plus, most of our faults etc. have a way of showing up so clearly that the people around us are well aware of them anyway! The bible tells us to humble ourselves, God will exalt us when He is good and ready. (Paul did it – Galatians 2) Even my enemies have something to teach me about myself. My immediate response to being around them is a sign post to what lies within ME!  👋🏻

P 2140 I will show you THE most excellent way….

/ DVH

I Corinthians 12:31”Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.” 1 Corinthians 13:1 “And yet I will show you the most excellent way.”

The most incredible thing about those two separate verses is that Paul previously described some of the most important gifts God ever gave the body of Christ, in them. I mean apostles, pastors, teachers, prophets etc. etc. These roles are a show case for the Love of God through His people! They are gifts from God Himself. And Paul says we should eagerly desire them. There is no shame if we want to bless God’s people with the gifts He gave us. Unfortunately sometimes we’ve elevated those gifts to rock star status, and we’ve forgotten Love is our catch-cry!

Absolutely everything hangs on the phrase ..  without love those gifts are rendered useless. And worse still … unfortunately the vehicles God designed to showcase His Love, have sometimes become instruments of control. That ought not to be so. Sometimes I think we are like children in a toy shop, we want the bright shiny brand new ‘IN’ thing, not the thing that will last, and truly bring heaven to earth. LOVE LASTS. Everything else will fade away. Only Love will remain when this world is rolled up like a scroll.

Love is described as the most excellent way, and it is not a feeling, because Paul goes on to tell us what it looks like when it is present and none of those things are feelings. Instead they are bodily actions and attitudes in our hearts. A number of years ago the Lord taught me to turn the coin over whenever I read the scriptures. That process looks like this to me – if it fails then it wasn’t love. We all might want to take a seat and think on that. 🤔 The thing I have learnt about HIS kind of love is that it knows the way through any and every problem – and everybody will get blessed … except for the devil. Sometimes when His love comes, because we don’t understand it, we don’t see it.

I just want to pause for a moment to be clear, sometimes things in our lives LOOK terrible, but afterward .. suddenly we get a glimpse of what was happening. God was working everything together for everyone’s good. The cross is an incredible example of that. Christ warned His disciples, over and over again that He was going to die, and they definitely didn’t like that teaching!  They were shattered, so much so that when they were told Jesus was alive after they had seen Him dead – they didn’t believe what they heard. Like I said, feelings aren’t the whole story. Sometimes feelings don’t even enter into our FAITH stories … 

Jesus taught many hard things, and even His own disciples didn’t understand what He said, and they didn’t like it either, until afterward… After He had left them … then they thought about everything He said. That’s because God’s Ways are not our ways. No wonder Jesus stood up at that great feast and said: “I AM THE WAY.” But since the dawn of time, human beings have kept right on looking for alternatives  … even when God Himself handed us HIS way to relate to Him, we ignored Him. It seems all we care about is our own pleasure. You know, Eve thought that fruit looked and smelled pretty good!

Over the years, we have mistakenly thought that whenever God is speaking to us – we are going to love it.  So we dismissed any of the things we didn’t like, as things that didn’t come from Him. He had to invade our space to change our minds. The bible clearly shows us the way God loves: “the Lord disciplines those Whom He loves..” (Proverbs 3:12; Hebrews 12:4-11) EVEN HIS SON! So God’s idea of love is absolutely different from ours. Especially in this permissive, anybody-can-do-whatever-makes-them-feel-good, age! However, right now we have an opportunity to learn His ways.  Maybe we need to revise how we see Him, as more light comes to us – instead of steadfastly maintaining our man-made traditions.

It is unfortunate that the church has decided that something that is GRACE, is only meant to be an outward appearance. The Lord could care less about appearances – He wants the things we do to come from faith expressed with love. And we can’t pretend His kind of love, no matter how hard we try. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to us to help us. Thank you Lord!  I practically wake up saying “Help Help!” I know I’m going to need His help at any given moment! The Lord Jesus is the embodiment of this passage, check it out for yourself. He had infinite patience with His disciples who didn’t listen to Him,  He was kind to everyone and met their needs. He never boasted about Who He is or where He came from, and He never even spoke badly about His enemies.

As a human being He felt the pain of betrayal and rejection, as well as the whip of jealousy and hatred, like we all do. At any given moment in all that suffering, Jesus could have left us to our own devices. Instead, He took ALL our records of wrong with Him, and nailed them to that cross through His own body – never to be seen again. Evil broke His dear pure heart, because Christ loved truth. He IS truth personified. And Love is an action – we can see it over and over again in the book. Talk is cheap and it fades. Love remains forever. 👋🏻

P 2103 There’s a difference between truth and a concept.

/ DVH

For instance, faith is living truth, it has substance – faith in God is trustworthy. It is not a theory a concept or an idea. Instead faith is designed to be the way we live. It is definitely substantial – you can stake your life on it – other people have!  “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” Hebrews 11:1,2.

First of all, faith is always now – ’Now faith is.’…” Faith is not just about yesterday, it needs to be active all the time for it to be the driving force in our lives. If we are going to live by faith, then faith needs to occupy the way we think. EG: I exhort you to go to work using your faith that God gave you that job and He wants you there even if the boss is not happy with you. It is helpful to remind yourself often: “God’s got this and He’s got me!” Honing our focus = using our faith! God uses our faith as a vehicle to manifest Himself to others. 

Faith also has EVIDENCE – it is not just a nice hopefully-it-works theory. That’s what other religions look like – all noise with no power. Real faith results in real actions and produces real results – IN us and in this world.. It is actively investing in what we believe by acting on it. Simply saying what we believe without any accompanying actions is not the same thing. No action means what we have said is just a concept, not truth. Acting on our faith totally changes our hearts within us, as well as the world around us. Faith is see-able when you use it. Think about catching a train, when you get ON it, you expect to arrive at your destination. Wanting to give up smoking is merely a concept – refusing to smoke again, is a faith-filled action. When we use our faith, we expect to see something change.

People who want to mature in God’s grace, take the little bit of faith they have, and invest it in Him. And I’m not just talking about money. They live their lives voluntarily giving up having safety and comfort. Instead they’ve chosen to live their lives daily dying to self. They live by the faith they profess, it is not just a concept they trust God and act on what He has told them to do, day by day. They have learnt to appreciate that we can do nothing without the Holy Spirit so they pay close attention to Him. He is so gentle and kind they don’t want to send Him away, so they consider Him, FIRST.

Faith is about taking risks … risks that show others that you love them even when that person treats you badly. When people are mean – and we all are sometimes – faith means we offer them understanding, because their view of this life may not be the same as ours is. James, Chapter 2 says: “Faith without works is dead.” Our faith needs to be used and stretched, so that means we will end up doing stuff that doesn’t always appeal to us and it isn’t always comfortable. Like apologising to someone who provoked YOU. This means our faith is stronger than the person we are engaged with because we don’t need their validation – we already have the Lord’s!

Our God used HIS faith by speaking this world into being. Actually, He spoke and the Holy Spirit went away immediately and created what Almighty God had spoken. The Holy Spirit is waiting for us to speak, and then act. He is longing for us do things using our faith, hope, and love out there, in this world. As we step out in faith, and go and do what He brings to us, we are choosing to learn obedience – He loves to be around obedience. Using our faith shows our Heavenly Father that our faith is not dead. It is about our obedience. It is good to remind ourselves that our God doesn’t work with theories – Jesus is the original action Man! He used every opportunity to display the love of God to other people.

He said: “Consider …(think about – look at – and wonder about) … the lilies…” To show us that worrying and obsessing about the things we have no control over, is fruitless. We need to start reading the bible like a prescription that needs to be followed, not just a description of something that happened long long ago. This book is a practical book – full of practical illustrations of ordinary people, who trusted Him, used their faith and saw God’s great exploits. They can teach us about the ways that the Holy Spirit interacts with people like us. Our bible is a testimony to God’s Grace operating in ordinary people’s lives. 

People heard and saw the Holy Spirit at work on the day of Pentecost. It was seeable, it was heard! At that time He touched ordinary people who were milling about in the streets, and many of them got saved – on the spot. But if our inner hearing is not good, that is still not an excuse to give up and say; ‘Well, that’s not my fault, I can’t hear anything.” I urge you to get yourself your own spiritual hearing aid, by reading, and praying, and rereading His book and asking questions.  Then we need to act upon what we read – then the little bit we have, will lead to MORE. Fortunately, the bible is full of instructions which encourage us to change, and act.

To start with, Christians need to be the most forgiving people on earth, no matter who jumped all over our hearts, and broke them. We are going to choose to bless them.“  …do good to those who despitefully use you” “…Bless those who curse you …” We need the help of the Holy Spirit for that kind of reaction and it takes deliberate, inconvenient practice – because … ’faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things NOT YET SEEN.”  Our faith can’t just be a theory, or a nice comforting thought, it needs to be used to become visible, because it is displaying God’s truth. Just imagine where mankind would be if Jesus Christ had lived His life with a secret faith.

Transformation is part of our job description and using our faith ushers in transformation – that is what makes the difference between truth and a concept – concepts don’t always happen! 👋🏻