Walking

P 3300 We rely upon Him.

/ DVH

Lately I have been thinking about the kind of things that that can keep us from walking in everything Jesus died to give us. Unfortunately, discouragement can send God’s kids into despair. Some of us are physically, mentally, or spiritually ill. I want to point out that the lack of an overcoming, miraculous testimony, is not a sin. 

I know some brave, persevering souls who soldier on in the faith, even when everything is not quite so hunky-dory at their house! Sometimes we relegate those people who don’t have an amazing testimony of a miraculous cure, or life-turn around – onto the back burner. Do that at your own peril. These people have been smacked about by circumstances, yet they have learnt to cling to Christ like a limpet. In a storm, they know how to stand on their faith.

It is sad to assume that because these people are physically, or mentally impaired, obviously they have nothing they can contribute. Or perhaps we think we shouldn’t bother them because they are already burdened. In my heart of hearts, I have such a passion for these brave souls, who turn up Sunday by Sunday, simply because they love Him, they love His Presence, and they love the joy of fellowship. When it comes to testimony time, their simple contributions breathe out trust and faith in His goodness.

Maybe they’ve persevered for another day, week, or month, in a marriage that clearly is not working for them. God loves it when we do things in obedience, despite our feelings to the contrary. We might think that a real testimony is about a joyful reconciliation and restoration, but a true soldier of the Lord continues to fight and love the other person even when wounded and under fire. Maybe some other person has their precious child missing, and they don’t know if that son or daughter is alive or dead. So they stand at their door daily, not just actively waiting for the return of their child, but steadfast in their belief of God’s goodness.

We are encouraged in the bible, to weep with those who weep! Our God is a Father, He longs to comfort His children. The thing that becomes incredibly important when you are sidelined by illness, or adverse circumstances is looking after our faith. Faith takes a battering when we don’t get well immediately … or the problems continue over a long period of time. Pray for, and with these people, they need your support.

The Lord was incredibly compassionate toward those who were suffering, no matter what the cause was, even if it was the person’s own sin. Jesus is always truly kind and gentle with the sick. Compassion is a sorely needed heart-action toward those who are living their Christian lives suffering. These dear people live holding their breath, wondering when that next attack, or relapse might happen. But they go on to rebuke those thoughts, and focus on Jesus instead. They already know that focussing on the suffering makes it bigger. 

These people are not second-class Christians! The perfectly well, the happily married, the parents with kids who are model children, can never be the criteria. Jesus is! And He loves mankind. He paid for every bit of sickness, disease, unfaithfulness, sinfulness, and suffering in the whole world, and so that love for this world must become the motivation for everything we do toward others. 

In John 8:11 He says something so beautiful when He asks where a woman’s accusers have gone. “She answered, No one, Lord! And Jesus said, I do not condemn you either. Go on your way and from now on sin no more.” And John 9:3 says this about a blind man: “Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed and illustrated in him.” The Lord’s answer could easily jump all over a lot of people’s theology, yet at the same time it highlights our God’s sovereignty and utter faithfulness. God is not interested in our formulaic approach to faith, He treats each person individually, so we dare not treat any one of them as a member of a herd. 

When we make healing into some sort of proof that we are saved and going on with Jesus – we are in error. Our efforts to simplify our faith, can result in over-simplifying it, by attributing blame when there is no blame. And even if we can see blame, who are we to judge? Most of the time these things are just part of this sinful world.. However, we can’t ever afford to stop praying and believing for miracles, healing and we need to do so with compassion. That’s why Christ came here in the first place. 

Jesus never tolerated illness or the demonic, so that’s the position we need to occupy too.  But at the same time,  let’s actively support the person who is suffering. We are oversimplifying the Lord’s work when we claim that nobody should ever be sick, and there must be some hidden sin in the life of the sick person.

Sometimes, because that person is so desperate for their blooming awful lives to change, we can actually harm them with our unbounded enthusiasm for the wonderful things God does. I’ve seen this scenario happen many times. Someone prays, announces that the person is healed, and walks away leaving the sick person feeling condemned. The person prayed for now feels that they are letting God down if they aren’t healed. People lose their faith in these circumstances. People should feel loved after any kind of prayer.

Always pray as the Lord leads you to pray, but please … don’t leave the person in need, worse off than they were before! That is devastating. Let’s remember we rely upon Almighty God, Who is always good!  Bye. 👋

P 3291 Here’s a part of the blueprint.

/ DVH

“Here’s how we can be sure that we’ve truly come to know God:  if we keep His commands. If someone claims, “I have come to know God by experience,” yet doesn’t keep God’s commands, he is a phoney and the truth finds no place in him. But the love of God will be perfected within the one who obeys God’s Word. We can be sure that we’ve truly come to live in intimacy with God, not just by saying, “I am intimate with God,” but by walking in the footsteps of Jesus.”  1 John 2:3-6.

A blueprint is a plan that reflects an intention to build something. God gave us His Word as a clear guideline of what He intends to build in us. As well as what He has built in many, many other people, who have gone before us. When I read what the Passion Translation says, I find my self wishing I had contributed to it. The clarity and personal application in that version is amazing. It contains the nuances that I have embraced over the last 50 years, and also the things I consistently pray for, and about. I hear the Holy Spirit’s voice very clearly showing me how to walk with Jesus. I also like two other versions:  the Good News bible, and the Amplified.

I love switching bible translations around because my desire is to understand, so I can put what I read into action. I want to know what the Holy Spirit is saying TO ME. When I’m puzzled, I often say to Him: “Lord, I just don’t get that!” This typically happens after I have read, and reread it, and then I access it in a couple of other versions. Then I wait. I’m waiting for the ‘aha’ moment when the Holy Spirit shows me what I am missing by tossing the words about in my mind. I don’t believe the individual Words are set in stone, I refuse to see the book as static. 

I believe the Holy Spirit is so brilliant He can give the same verse to billions of people, and they will each hear what He is saying to them for their lives. That’s the moment when the bible stops being black writing on a page, and it becomes real, living and transformative. Then I press in, because if I don’t “do” I know I will immediately forget what I saw… what I look like!’ (Thanks James.) Now I need to know from the Holy Spirit how to activate what I’ve just read. He tells me how to put it into action in my life. 

Over the years I have come to the conclusion that the thing the Lord loves the most … is time spent. I also know He loves acts of service and worship, we see those in the Gospels and Epistles. Like 1 Timothy 2:8 says: “Therefore I want men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger and disputing or quarrelling or about (in their mind.) ” And I know He loves gift-giving. Proverbs 19:17. “He who is gracious and lends a hand to the poor lends to the Lord. ” The bible supports and delights in our personal, every day interactions with Him. But I suspect the Lord values time spent with Him, not just in a ‘quiet time’  but during the day in the moment by moment remembrances of Who He is. He loves to be included. 

Let’s look at our relationships with others: “Beloved children, our love can’t be an abstract theory we only talk about, but a way of life demonstrated through our loving deeds. We know that the truth lives within us because we demonstrate love in action, which will reassure our hearts in His Presence.”1 John 3:18-19 TPT. In other words John is describing HOW we do it. “…not just by saying, I am intimate with God,” but by walking in the footsteps of Jesus.”  We can’t walk like He did and still live our lives the way everyone else around us lives their life. What sets us apart is WHO we are following!

I laughed when I typed that, so many people ask nowadays – “Who do you follow? Facebook? Instagram? Tik Tok?” I just love that question because… you guess it… I say: “I follow Jesus! He’s got a book and everything.”  They smile, sometimes not all that sincerely, and move the subject away from my answer very quickly! But a few are curious about what I mean. 

Jesus Christ is the Pioneer of social media! People have been following Him for 2,000+ years. He started out with 12 followers, lost one, quickly went to 120, and then … wham! 3,000 followers in a heartbeat in Acts. This year, early 2026, there are 2.38 – 2.64 BILLION followers! These people don’t have to stare at their phones all day, they have a direct inner hook-up installed by the Holy Spirit. And you get born into that app!  We don’t have to stock-pile foodstuffs or petrol, God Himself supplies all our needs.

So if you want to know if you have truly come to know Almighty God, then this is what it looks like: We love God and each other. Jesus summed up the 10 commandments in 6 words. That works for me. I don’tcollect followers  … I ARE ONE.  I spend my time practising the love of God on everyone I meet. (I need the practice BTW.) We are never alone, and we don’t have to wander about aimlessly either. Because we’ve chosen to follow in the footsteps of our Master, Lord, Saviour and friend, Jesus! 

This means we have chosen to pray for the sick, speak deliverance to those who are held captive, as well as pray for blind and deaf people. We have chosen to love the unlovely the same way we love our friends and family. If we sin, we know exactly what to do about it. Repent, confess, repair. Like John said in 1 John 1:7-9 , “…knowing that the blood of Jesus will cleanse me from all unrighteousness…” It’s all in the blueprint. Bye. 👋

P 3261 What are we walking toward?

/ DVH

If you and I want to see other people, (Christian or not), the way Jesus sees them, then we will need heavenly eyes that can see beauty in the midst of a pile of ashes. And even if we are in mourning, we are still able to find His JOY. We will sincerely praise Him, even when we feel lower than a snake’s belly and people are after us! What we need is the kind of Love that does not falter ... please don’t settle for less!  And the way to get these heavenly things, the things that money cannot buy, is to be obedient to the things Jesus taught us to do.

“This love means living in obedience to whatever God commands us. For to walk in love toward one another is the unifying commandment we’ve heard from the beginning.” 2 John 1:6 TPT. The reason we are so separated as a Body is thatwe are not walking in Love toward each other! Do you have anyone in your life that you want to run away from them? Me too. Some people scare me. But John tells us that God’s Love causes us to walk toward one another. That isn’t a suggestion, it’s an instruction – we need to use our faith. 

Sadly, we think if we can’t do that, then that’s OK, God will understand it’s a bit too hard, especially when we promise to try harder next time. John, BTW, doesn’t say TRY, he just says do it. Because doing it is what obedience looks like and Jesus has provided us with the power to participate. Many earthly relationships are shattered because we believe a lie. The lie is that other person is too hard for God to change. Here’s a thought, maybe we need to change, and when they meet with a transformed ‘me’ then perhaps the other people will change their responses! There is nothing like mixing things up a bit!!

Jeremiah says in 32:17:’Ah Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! There is nothing too difficult or too wonderful for You—“  When we read the above scripture we can see that our reality is not what Jeremiah said! Our belief system is faulty. We cheerfully sing … ‘Nothing is too difficult for thee’ … and then go out and act like what we just sang isn’t true. Um,,, that’s called hypocrisy.  FYI, saying one thing and doing another is called … hypocrisy. We are much better off to be honest with the Lord and talk about it with Him with an open bible in front of us. Just be honest and tell Him ‘I don’t want to.” Then repent for disobedience. The Holy Spirit wants to show us the way forward, and if we wait for Him – He will help us.

Any negative responses in us can be triggered by fear, or anger, or thinking we are not strong enough, as well as …just plain old rebellion! This can include: “Why should they get away with hurting me?” Because our sin hurt Him! He paid, in full so now we CAN be obedient if we use our faith instead of our faulty imagination. The reality is: “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13. That means I can love you even though outwardly you are pricklier than the ‘jumping chola cactus’ pictured above. That’s a cactus that apparently grabs you if you even remotely brush by it. Looks nasty doesn’t it?? OW!! I know quite a few chola cacti people – boy, are they a challenge! 

The point is this: If Almighty God Who made the heavens and the earth says I can do it, then I can do it. Not because I am clever, and not even because I can be obedient … although that helps! But because He said so!  We can’t afford to pick and choose what we decide we will believe. We need to go back to: ‘HE SAID SO,”Let’s repent and go at it again… and again… and again. Always remembering that God looks at our hearts and He helps us when we act in faith. The Lord knows when we don’t want to do stuff, but He is happy when we value what He values. 

Jesus didn’t shirk away from doing the hard things, just  because human beings can be hard to love. He continued to lovingly walk toward those who were going to destroy His life. Because we want to be like Him, we need to participate in the things He did. The difference for us is this— SomeBody else went down those roads to give us His power to overcome those very things that seem to be impossible. Now, we have His strength available to us to help us to do the very things we don’t want to do. Jesus didn’t run away from the cross – however, He was honest about how He felt about it. 

Hey! Personally I get up tight when I have to go to the dentist, eye doctor or the hospital etc. I ask people to pray for me or I can’t  go in the right spirit. I want to approach the staff wherever I go with love, not fear. Hope not despair. I can’t afford to let some nasty imagined outcome, spoil my day. We need our peace it keeps us going.This is what happens when we learn to value what the Lord valued – we keep our peace!

Walking toward each other is always going to be hard. Human beings have a way of pecking at each other’s faults like grumpy chickens. And the further we are away from some people, the better everyone looks!  Walking toward each other seems dangerous, but it means we are prepared to take a risk. Let’s start walking with Grace Himself guiding us, and trust the Holy Spirit to get us through what happens next. The love bit comes later. Bye. 👋

P 3188 His will His way.

/ DVH

Let’s imagine, or even try to stretch our imaginations a bit, and think about being fourteen or fifteen years old, unmarried and pregnant. You just happen to live in a society that at the very least, would shun you … but at its worst …it just might want to stone you to death! You know you are pure and innocent, but other people won’t see it that way. And you have to tell your fiancee that God Himself made you pregnant!  That would have been some conversation with him and her parents!

Now that Christmas is coming toward us at warp speed, I thought today was a good day to think about these two young people and what they had to face to carry out Almighty God’s calling over their lives. While we whinge and whine when the Lord asks us to mow our neighbours lawn! Or maybe He has asked us to be nice to our in-laws? We make lists about these presents and that food, but there are some among us that can’t wait for all the hoo-haa to be over! 

It seems to me that back then in Bethlehem it was a different, far-less-indulgent time. People often faced the consequences of their actions on the spot! God Himself chose this inexperienced young couple, for an honour the likes of which this world has never seen before — or since! Praise Him they both had integrity, character and a shared devotion to His will. They chose to obey HIM despite the hardship it involved. Imagine managing a faith test like Mary and Joseph had to face …in a very religious society to boot. 

The Roman occupying forces demanded that everyone, including Mary, who was pregnant out to here (!) ← → had to return to their place of their ancestor’s origins. Meanwhile, our census turns up in the post and people moan about that! Joseph himself was from David’s genealogy, so this young couple had to go all the way to Jerusalem. Which, BTW, was hardly a leisurely stroll to the local shops!  All this happened so the citizens could be counted and to make sure that the appropriate taxes would be paid to the Roman Government. And we think our lives are hard!! 

That donkey we see in all the so-called Christmas pictures, was probably something tradition made up, just to make a pretty picture out of a long and difficult journey. Mary and Joseph weren’t rich people, and while this young couple may have travelled within a caravan of people, simply because there was a possibility of bandits along the way — in that 129-145 kilometre week-long journey, it is more likely that they walked.… All that happened just so they could pay more tax to an occupying army! 

Let’s think about Mary for a moment… the last month of a pregnancy is not the greatest time to go on a bush walking tour! It must have been incredibly taxing for her, as well as disappointing to be in labour, and have no safe shelter at the other end. Plus she had no family on hand to help either of them with the process. I’m writing about this today because we have a tendency to mentally glamourise our picture of the birth of Jesus, without taking into account the reality of the situation. 

When we do that, we can minimise the pure faith of this young couple who were simply being law-abiding citizens doing what was asked of them!  But their obedience meant that they were walking straight into unknown hardship. And at the same time — they were also walking straight into God’s will for them. Funny how that happens sometimes, isn’t it?

When I think of giving birth the way Mary gave birth I shudder. I gave birth to three kids in a hospital. In one of them we couldn’t find a nurse. In another, women were giving birth in the corridor! But I had medical attention close to hand. All Mary had was Joseph. This young man was a carpenter – what did he know about giving birth? Mary was all alone, in pain, and her husband knew bupkis. There she is giving birth to God’s precious Son, her own Saviour – in a cave or animal shed. All because prophetically, they are clearly demonstrating that this world did not even want a Saviour. God’s will can put us into difficult situations through no fault of our own.

So much happened to them in the process of bringing Jesus into this world. I think their response is so beautiful – unrelenting devotion. After all that, this life was not finished with throwing hardships at them. They finally got settled as a family, only to have to escape from a jealous despot who wanted to kill all the Jewish baby boys so he could be the only king on the premises. So, off the little family goes again. This time they are running from persecution and the fear of death — simply trying to find somewhere safe to raise their little son. No wonder Joseph baulked at returning to their hometown, when it was finally safe again – their lives had been in chaos for months.

Jesus Christ was born under all these difficult conditions simply to fulfil prophecy. His life, birth and death identified Him with everyone. Including the poor, weak, homeless, unwanted, rejected, persecuted, marginalised people of this world – not in theory, but in practice. Jesus and His parents had to live minute by minute with stress and strain and hardship.. Nobody asked either Mary or Joseph if they thought they could handle all the persecution and fear that lay ahead, it simply happened to them. 

Let’s pray that we can grab hold of all the courage and clarity that has been made available to us because of what Jesus did. I wanted to talk about the things this couple faced, simply because we too can face awful, difficult situations regularly and we feel oppressed by them.Things can seem insurmountable. We can easily baulk at all those things we face, and wonder why God would let such hard and bad things happen to us. He didn’t spare His precious Son!  

In the bright joyous light of Christmas, we also need to deliberately remember the things which can turn us away from our devotion to Him. We won’t always understand why some things happen, any more than that young couple did. But we need to choose to look for the good in the middle of trouble and strife. Right now, we are training our spiritual senses to be aware of the very real spiritual war going on all around us.Let’s remind ourselves that some people are hoping for a decent meal in their Santa sack, plus somewhere safe to sleep – instead of being rudely awakened by vicious godless men with machetes.

What does it matter if our little Franco or Zelda does not get some you-beaut fancy electronic gizmo for Christmas? That temporary pleasure is something that will be probably pronounced boring and discarded in a week! The most precious gift ever, has already arrived, and He completed His heaven-sent assignment to the letter. Jesus Himself, is our proof that our God is out-of-this-world generous in His gift-giving. And instead of complaints, moaning and groaning, rebellion and disobedience — let’s also remember that two very ordinary people were brave enough to follow His will, His way. Bye. 👋

P 3147 Walking with the Holy Spirit.

/ DVH

Romans 8:5-9b “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you..”V5(NIV) “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.”

The battle over whether we daily live and walk with the Holy Spirit is first fought in our minds. Quite simply, the secret to walking with Him means we can’t even think about continuing to walk accomodating our flesh. When you and I gave our life to Jesus – He took it. It’s a done deal. Now, by our choices, we daily step out of this world’s way of thinking, into His Way of thinking.

The Holy Spirit loves to glorify the Father and the Son. That’s more than church or preaching or singing! It’s the way we live now. Walking in the flesh sadly comes naturally to us, after all, we’ve been doing that all our lives! But walking with the Holy Spirit requires hard choices. Cheer up! He knows you better than you know yourself. He knows what you can and can’t do – He will “let you learn at your own rate.”

There are some people who think that they have to be super-spiritual to walk with Him, or have some kind of supernatural encounter, or they need some special spiritual gifting! None of that is true. When we welcome Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit – we can’t be born into God’s Kingdom without HIM. Now we need to value Him, more than we value what we or others want, or think or feel. If we go about our days only doing the things we feel, or want, or we think we need —we are ignoring His input. He has a WAY for us to do those things that will give Him a channel to impact the people around us. The more we ignore Him, the less we will hear His voice saying:“…this is the way, walk in it whenever you turn to the right or to the left.” Isaiah 30:21b.

The Holy Spirit wants us to personally know Him, His voice. He came to be with us, to stay. This is how I think that works – when we choose to live this life mindful of Jesus and His Word and we take His word seriously, and obey what He tells us – we are walking with the Holy Spirit. The word mindful means your mind is full of Him and His Ways. Our ability to perform does not come into this – His ability to keep us, as we lean on Him, does. It is another way to look at our lives – which are now HIS. This is how we die to self.

It’s all about priorities. When we look at Jesus, our Heavenly Father, and the Precious Holy Spirit as add-ons to everything else in our lives, that is all They will ever be. But when we take our commitment to Christ seriously, and live each day with our spiritual antenna up, watching and waiting for anything that He might ask us to do — we will see His kingdom come …all around us, as well as in us. Honestly speaking, we cannot afford to hang onto our nasty attitudes, bad temper, lack of generosity toward others, cold-heartedness etc. and expect to walk with HIM! He loves people more than we can possibly imagine. Jesus has invested Himself in mankind!

Sadly, we’ve accidentally made a club mentality out of something that was intended for everyone. The Holy Spirit’s Way is living like Jesus did. He lived for the Father’s will. He “only did the things He saw His Father doing… He only said the things He heard the Father saying …”Now we too need to allow the Holy Spirit to flow through us, by yielding to God’s Ways.“How can two walk together unless they are in agreement?”That’s when we become a channel for His love to flow through.

Let’s think of other people, no matter what they believe, as people Jesus loves. He loves them so much He died for them. Now He has appointed and anointed us to be His witnesses and representatives, alert to what He wants, as well as the needs of others. We can’t afford to only love the people we like.

The bible is our guide and governor, under the Holy Spirit’s tutelage. This book daily shows us what God wants from us. We are alive in this world to demonstrate His word, His kingdom, and we’ve been given the honour of revealing His love to others. Let’s choose to see things through His eyes. Ephesians 4:17-18:“So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.”

Every single time we say no to something the Holy Spirit brings up with us, we are hardening our heart against HIm. The Holy Spirit is gentle, mild, and unobtrusive, so He will quietly step down, and we will not even know that He is gone. I don’t care if you are the best preacher in the country – how’s your heart doing? The state of our hearts is our business, and we need soft hearts. We have been destined to live this life alive to the Spirit, walking with Him and yielding to His wishes, just like Jesus did. Bye. 👋

P 2884 The life of God in us.

/ DVH

In Luke 11:46 it says:”Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.”Well this one is a doozy that nobody talks about! We cannot afford to preach what we don’t practice – we may not be perfected yet, but the starting place is having enough humility to tell God we can’t do it. We need His help, and we need to admit our lack to others.

Sometimes, at church, there may be helpful people who love to explain to others how they too can be healed, fixed, etc., because this verse says blah blah blah, so if you just do blah blah blah you’ll be right! If that isn’t enough weight to kill a sick donkey, I dunno what is! The Lord wants us to minister whatever we minister with mercy in our hearts, not law! And there is not one way to do anything. The more we know Him the more ways the Holy Spirit will help us find! Meanwhile if you ever find a pastor who will help you carry your load – treasure him!

Luke 11:42:“Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.”BTW, Jesus is not making a point about tithing, instead He is saying that there is a lot more to following God than just being definitively particular about it!

Tithing cannot make up for disobedience in other areas. In this passage He is explaining to the people around Him, that we can’t pick and choose what we will obey! Unfortunately, a kind of self-righteousness will show up in people who value law more than life. Our aim is to value and cherish HIS LIFE IN US. We cannot afford to neglect being just, and sharing the love of God toward others, because those things are a hallmark of His Presence.

I want to be perfectly clear about this next remark… the way we treat our enemies — EG:  the people we don’t like;  or people who are annoying;  or family members who irritate the living daylights out of us;  or the people who deliberately and maliciously hurt us — those attitudes show us, and others, how much we love HIM! And like Jesus is saying here, we cannot pay lip-service to these things so we are going to need His help.

Many is the time, I’ve been sobbing away before the Lord explaining that I had tried to be nice to people who have hurt me, but I was totally poverty-stricken because I could not do it from my heart. That’s what “blessed are the poor in spirit...”is all about. Jesus Christ set the bar too high for any of us to reach it … without His help!

He also identified Himself with all of mankind when He said: “When you do this and that for other people, you are doing it for Me!” Our obedience is incredibly important to the Lord. Read the book. We need to understand that Father God is not interested in all talk and no action! God is looking for us to have enduring FAITH. Hebrews 12 says He is the Author of faith, so when we have faith, the life of God is in us. 

Micah 6:8 says:“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”Mercy is now our middle name, and it is a sign of the life of God within us. Making sure that we treat others lovingly is not some old-fashioned nicey-nice concept – it is sorely needed grace in today’s self-centred world. We are to live by Christ’s brand of justice now – it is called unilateral forgiveness! Forgiveness is not optional and it is actually still justice. It is simply justice covered in MERCY! His ways aren’t ours!!

The reason the Lord was repeatedly angry with the Israelites, was because they would not obey Him – they ticked some of His boxes, but most of the time they went their own way. Father God knows how to get us through ANYTHING. He is our loving Father who created us and knows the very best way we should go. So in order to have His life, right here right now, we need to give our life away for His will, and …  … usually someone else’s benefit! That stuff makes very little sense to a legally-based mind, it will probably just make them angry. 

The Lord is not fooled by our efforts to impress other people with how spiritual we are, His kids are to carry His Presence and His abounding Life within them wherever they go. The same way David’s men carried the Ark into Jerusalem – walking and leaping and praising God! The life of God in us will lead us through anything.

Bye 👋

P 2759 🎼🎶 I’m walking with Jesus …

/ DVH

…walking all the way, walking every day. I’m walking with Jesus, walking with Him alone.🎶”  No! You have not tuned into Children’s Church, kindergarten class – it’s still me, writing today’s blog. Jesus left this earth but He sent back the Person Who helped Him with this life – THE RESIDENT EXPERT. When I walk with the Holy Spirit, it is the same as walking with Jesus, just like the disciples did way back when.

Living this life dead means we will suffer. When we make the choice to follow Him, it will hurt me, because it will uncover my selfishness, my agendas, my unwillingness to live this life not being in charge of the things I do. The Holy Spirit isn’t with us just to help us do what we want to do – He was sent to us to help us do what JESUS wants us to do! He is, without a doubt, the most undervalued, underestimated Person in the whole bible. Learn to value Him! Learn how He speaks to you. I often find that I have to listen very carefully, I have to pay attention to Him.

There are times I get so tied up in my own stuff – the day to day things that cloud my hearing – that I end up centred on what this world is saying. So I repent.  Recently I asked Him about something that is going on in this world today that really scares me – He simply said: “I am not bothered about that.” Now, I have His word on that matter so whenever it comes up, I simply remind myself about what He said. If you want a scripture for that…”In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”John 16:33b. BTW I didn’t choose that verse, even though I remember it, He reminded me of it.

Editing my blog every day can be difficult sometimes, I actually have three editors. My hubby edits it, then I read it and edit it until I’m thoroughly sick of it, and then — the Lord edits it … He is incredibly specific about the way He wants me to write things but that’s not to say I think I always get it right, BTW!  Part of my daily walking with Him includes me talking to you. He wants all of us to understand that this life we are now leading we live by faith in the Son of God …“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20.

I pray all the time as I walk with Him. I’ve done this since I was born again. I just talk to Him as I go along. I wouldn’t call it “praying without ceasing” because that seems much too grand for the likes of me!  But I consult Him about absolutely everything, as I go about my day. We do stuff TOGETHER. As I live like this, I’ve learnt that He will go anywhere — HE even went to hell for me! And I’m so-oo-oo much better off when I listen to His advice. He has my back and He is brilliant at it. The Holy Spirit is so real to me, simply because I walk with Him. I’ve studied Him, loads of times. When I get out of His way – HE works everything out for everyone’s good. But He defines GOOD – we don’t!

You and I have a Helper, Who lives inside us. He walks with us, He will guide us, teach us, show us the way we should go. This means that every single day I present my body to Him as a living sacrifice. The bible says: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship…” Romans 12:1&2a. 

Did you get that? There’s a way to worship God and not have to sing!! Singing on the train or at work might be kind of misunderstood. But this kind of surrendered worship is called the true way to worship. Do you want to worship God every minute of every day? Yield. Then present your body to Him. When it’s the easy thing to do, and when it’s not. Even when someone is jumping on your last nerve. When you have forgotten Him and then you remember. When you are busy, or not, when you are sleeping… or not. He is always with you. 

The truth of His Presence with us is in Hebrews 13:5:“Let our character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with our present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! Assuredly not!]”

This verse contains three times, very clearly, God’s intention toward His kids. It also has a condition – don’t let the love of money rule your life. One of the ways I’ve found that helps me to meet that condition is to continually look at what He has given me, not at what I think I don’t have. If we want to walk with Jesus, every moment of our lives, we must devote ourselves to learning, from our own experience, what that looks like. No-one else can do that for you.

Bye. 👋

P 2696 “This is the Way.”

/ DVH

“But the love of God will be perfected within the one who obeys God’s Word. We can be sure that we’ve truly come to live in intimacy with God, not just by saying, “I am intimate with God,” but by walking in the footsteps of Jesus.” 1 John 2:5-6.

I may surprise some people when I say I have enjoyed the series – ‘The Mandalorian.’ I’ve watched it several times, and the theme behind this fictional story, is that this man lives by a strict code of honour. His tribe adopts and looks after orphans – James calls that pure religion. Man I love it!! PS I hate all the creepy, ginormous creatures in that series – the ones that startle, pounce and munch. Back to my real point, I think there is so little honour in our society today. People criticise their spouses, friends, children, parents, teachers, workplace companions, bosses, our country’s leaders, church leaders … judgment seems to flow through most people’s lives like a river. That’s a polluted river! … Bad plan.

Because God Himself honoured us with His Presence and came here as a baby – plus He chose to obey man-made rules, He set the standard for us, His kids. Jesus Christ voluntarily submitted to His parents as well as the authorities of that time. And … He didn’t judge. His desire was to please God, and benefit others – and if He had to correct people, He did it with love and grace. Then He left here and went back to heaven, but before He left He released the power for us to live like He did.

In our current society I think we have completely overlooked the very real benefits of not judging others. Judgment is like garlic, you barely have to wave that stuff over the top of food to get it to flavour whatever it is. Our society chops judgment up and throws it into everything! We simply cannot benefit from soaking in a marinade of judgment – we’ll just STINK!  Personally, I think the lack of the flavour of the Living God, in and through our lives, can easily make us distasteful to others. Let’s always remember, religion tastes terrible, but the sweetness of His Presence enriches us as well as others. Unfortunately in our world, we have learnt to call what we say an opinion, and we think it is something we are entitled to. Sadly, God Himself still calls it judgment.

The Way into living a life of honour is to make informed choices, followed up by actions – based on the Word of God. We need to act on what we read. EG: Feed the poor. If we leave caring for the poor to established institutions, we will have totally missed out on the blessing that is promised for us when we bless others! Likewise if we judge our pastors,  … for things that we do ourselves, then they may become discouraged and leave the ministry. Plus if we deliberately harbour grudges, spite, unforgiveness, hatred, anger, sarcasm and criticism then we will spread those destructive flavours around us, and they will spoil whatever we do. But when we spread love it saturates and covers all things … including SIN. Yours, mine and ours.

Please don’t waste your time waiting for the moment to be right. The best time to do good is while it’s still daylight! I find if I wait to do good to others, I can end up talking myself out of it. So I try to do what He has told me to do – right away. Here’s the very best most fun thing to do – like EVER!  Do good to the people who are deliberately maliciously mean to you. Wow! What a buzz. When I do that my feet barely touch the ground for a week. Meanwhile saturating people in His goodness, is sometimes the only thing that impacts those people who have been hardened by this life. I’m crazy about the saying: LOVE YOUR ENEMIES, IT DRIVES THEM NUTS! However, I don’t recommend actually …doing it TO drive them nuts!  ‘See through you we do.’ 

When we are intimately involved with someone we dearly love we can’t wait to see the world through their eyes. We want to spend hours together just sharing thoughts back and forth. You and I dearly love Jesus – so we need to esteem the Holy Spirit directed skill of seeing the world through His eyes. There is no judgment in the Father’s Eyes. Judgment and all our sins fell on Christ on that cross. IT’S GONE. So let’s not drag it up again. Strangely other people don’t like being reminded of their sins about as much as you and I don’t like it! Speak life instead.

We cannot successfully walk with Him if we do not walk LIKE HIM. God’s power does its best work through the humble wisdom that comes down from above. The Way to walk with God and know Him intimately and bless others, has already been provided for us. “This is the Way.” That fiction character understood the power of loyalty, and choices. Bye. 👋

P 2688 To grow faith – use supplements!

/ DVH

“So devote yourselves to lavishly supplementing your faith with goodness, and to goodness add understanding, and to understanding add the strength of self-control, and to self-control add patient endurance, and to patient endurance add godliness, and to godliness add mercy toward your brothers and sisters, and to mercy toward others add unending love. Since these virtues are already planted deep within, and you possess them in abundant supply, they will keep you from being inactive or fruitless in your pursuit of knowing Jesus Christ more intimately.” 2 Peter 1:5-8 TPT.

I love the way this version brings out a clear meaning to some quite complicated verses. I like to look at this progressive thought Peter has, as a way of walking with the Lord. If we look at these faith ‘pills’ then we can see that this kind of walking is not aimless. We are actually going somewhere when we deliberately add goodness to our fragile as well as sometimes wobbly …faith. Instead we are deliberately, step by step, walking toward unending love.

Instead of seeing these verses as a whole lotta words that seem to be joined together like beads on a string, it helps to read it as progressive instructions. Let us say my faith is lagging, I am living my daily life doing the same old, same old. My prayers seem dead and lifeless – and maybe a bit repetitious. My bible reading ends with the thought …“thank goodness that’s over with for today.” If things get difficult my first thought is nearer to: “the end of the world as I know it”  … than it is to: “what are You going to do with this Lord?” 

I may even start to think tithing is beyond me, maybe I will just give what I can afford until I have resolved my current financial crisis.. And I begin to avoid anybody who drives me crazy because I can’t cope with them. My faith is heading for a crash, and I don’t know how to stop it. Well, here’s the solution, thank you Apostle Peter!! First of all I pick up what remains of my dragged along faith, and repent. Then I start my new spiritual vitamin regime. That means I add other things into my basket to help, or supplement my faith. I am not stingy with these add-ons, I throw lots of each one in. (That’s what ‘lavish’ means!) 

Let’s look at goodness. How do I add goodness to faith? First of all I look at the source of all our goodness – Almighty God. I deliberately sit and think about my life, so I can notice how His goodness has been following me, quietly, and unobtrusively. I deliberately look for the signs of His Presence in the midst of my troubles. I start noting all the good things, and I choose to leave the disappointments behind. Then I find someone worse off than me and do something spontaneously loving for them!  After that is moving along, and I acknowledge that I can be good to many people, not just one! Then I take another supplement – understanding. My understanding is based on WHO He is, not whether my life makes sense or not.

He is the only way my life will make sense. I must discipline myself to understand that He is God, and this means I may not always comprehend what is going on. But I know He is good, so I start reading verses about how good He is. To do that I am going to need self-control … focus. In essence I have stopped seeing my problems as the centre of my universe and I have begun to let go of them giving them over to Him and leaving them there.  I will need self control to fix my mind on good things instead of rehearsing how hard my life is. 

Next I need patient endurance. That’s because I serve Him He does not serve me! Every now and then I also stop and remind myself of these intentional supplements. I need these things to get through the mire of how I feel, simply because now I want to arrive at unending love – not just to escape from difficulties. That means that I will need to be patient with myself as well! Endurance, holding our focus, helps us to let the Lord accomplish what He wants to do IN us. 

Ding, ding! Time for the next supplement. Now I need to add godliness to the previous supplements, otherwise I can easily become obsessed with how hard things are, instead of looking for His goodness in the land of the living now I am focussing on His promise that I can endure all things because He is strengthening me! To live aware of His godliness I am going to need to adopt mercy – for you, and for me, and anybody else who crosses my path. All judgment and condemnation does is chuck us out of the battle right when we are about to win it.

Last supplement, unending love. Each previous vitamin I have taken has reminded me that I am a recipient of His everlasting, unfailing love. Even though I may not feel like I have all these supplements, the bible says I have them! “Since these virtues are planted deep within.” So my faith needs to kick in. BTW the book says that I don’t just have some – I have lots.

The bonus buy in all this vitamin taking is that I will walk away from constantly staring at my problems, because I have a new focus —  now I wanna see His goodness in the land of the living!  Instead of going round and round, trying to find solutions, going nowhere – I have a purpose. I want to know the One Who rescued me intimately and my vitamin taking helps me REMEMBER Who He is. I know I can’t do anything without His help, but I can step out in faith by obeying what He says, step by step, from His book, and become a good old lady, who takes all of my vitamin supplements!  Bye. 👋

P 2680 Walking free.

/ DVH

“I waited and waited and waited some more, patiently, knowing God would come through for me. Then, at last, He bent down and listened to my cry. He stooped down to lift me out of danger from the desolate pit I was in, out of the muddy mess I had fallen into. Now He’s lifted me up into a firm, secure place and steadied me while I walk along His ascending path.” Psalms 40:1-2 TPT.

I have this theory … the things that we consciously walk into, we often need to walk out of. What do I mean by that? When we are careless and wander off His path for us, it is highly unlikely that the Lord will sovereignly transport us back to wherever we wandered off! Instead we have to turn around and make our way out of the mess we’ve made. He will always help us, but it is our responsibility to repent and repair. An-y-w-ay, this man in the above scripture fell in a hole! I like this guy already, I’ve been down more holes in my lifetime than a gopher! 

Did you get the ‘waiting waiting waiting’ part? Nobody likes that bit. Why do we have to WWW? Patience grows as we stretch our faith by firmly holding on to HIS faithfulness. The secret is to keep looking at Him — it won’t help us to constantly revise how stretched we feel! Our spiritual predecessors knew all about waiting. Some of them died … still waiting!! Hebrews 11 – the great faith testimony chapter. There’s a whole big clump of people – whose names we all know and recognise – on that list, and it says – ‘by faith’ in it 20 times! When God repeats Himself, I pay attention.

The important part of these two verses above in Psalms 40 is this: “knowing God would come through for me.” See… I actually think that most people would think “stooping down” and “lifting me up” etc. are the important bits. In other words …we all want to escape from trouble. But the longer we stand still and wait for Him, and look at how faithful He is, the stronger our faith gets. Human beings focus on deliverance, while Almighty God focusses on growth. I’m not saying it’s wrong to focus on getting out of the trouble we’ve landed in, but there’s not that much growth on that path. In the end, it seems to me that it’s the wait, wait, waiting that grows us. And yeah, I don’t like that thought either!

The Lord wants us to know our own limitations, so we can continually enjoy His limitlessness. Everything good comes to us and meets us on the path of waiting and believing in His faithfulness. Christians are not meant to stay immature. We were born again to grow, and mature people know how to wait! BTW, did you also get that word “danger?“ Yup. Another thought no-one likes. But we will be rescued and grow — all at the same time. And that path leads UP, afterwards. I won’t have wobbly weak faith anymore, because God Himself will steady me. So the path I am on now, HE put me on! He has a purpose for me, for my life  — it isn’t just to continually test me, it is to show Himself strong and mighty on my behalf. Now I will need to live using my faith so I can see what He is doing.

Almighty God should not have to prove His goodness to us day in and day out by making our lives easier. His Personhood should be an established fact in our lives. This is not something debatable – His faithfulness is a pillar in the inner house of our hearts.  We are so blessed. We are living our lives on the other side of that cross. We have the writings of the New Testament, His living active will, to refer to. It is our check-list of who we are and where we are going. Otherwise the winds of change and tribulation will keep blowing us over, like the fierce wind speed of a hurricane. 

Psalm 103:4 says: “Who redeems my life from the pit”… Redeem doesn’t just mean ESCAPE … redemption makes things better than they were. It means transformation. Jesus bought my life back from destruction and healed me, changed, and transformed everything. My old ways to live, things like – being frightened, overwhelmed, nasty, spiteful etc. have gone. All that was killed off when Jesus took my sin onto the cross. Now I don’t have to live like that anymore.

We are blessed. We get to leave behind our grave clothes just as surely as Lazarus got rid of his! Now we have a new way to live – calling us up, higher and higher. Any tests or trials along the way are not our God being whimsical … He is not testing our loyalty – He’s preparing a table before us in the presence of our enemies! Now we can enjoy walking free of that old way of living, where we lived in fear that help wouldn’t come. We have proof in the bible that help has already come. Bye. 👋