Watching

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 2930 Our living expression.

/ DVH

We can all quote stuff from the bible, sometimes without exactly understanding the meaning. Probably because we don’t speak ye olde English, anymore. Possibly some of us never did!  There are times we can be so enamoured with the poetry of the bible, that we miss the opportunity to look for things to learn about God Himself, and His ways. Actively seeking Him, for Himself, is our imperative. At the same time we need to stay on the alert looking for stuff for us do. Today, what are the following words saying to us?

“In the beginning the Living Expression was already there. And the Living Expression was with God, yet fully God.”John 1:1 TPT. Hmmm. What does that mean? Look, I don’t know about you but if I don’t understand what something means then I have a terrible habit of skipping around it! Sometimes I can be a teeny bit hopeful that I will discover the meaning from the words surrounding whatever it is, but in this case — not-so-much. The Apostle John has a great deal of awe and wonder in what he says. I think He wants us to comprehend God’s bigness… 

It is far more important that we take the time to understand and listen to what God is trying to say to me, today, than it is to get 100% for word comprehension! Here’s what I think God is saying through this verse… “I have always been. I became a man, and this means I understand whatever you face daily. Every fear, every bit of nastiness, every lack, every need for comfort and consolation – I know the way through all those things, just follow Me.” 

Jesus was with God before this world was created, and He is God Himself, come to earth to be with us. He was there at the time Almighty God spoke and the Holy Spirit created this world, and everything in it. When it came to MAN, God made an exception, unlike the capybaras, we were made in HIS image. In the Gospels we can see that Jesus was never concerned about mud and dirt, so I like to think He got His hands dirty in the process of creation, but that’s just me. 

So what does the above verse tell me about Him? Jesus is God’s word in human form. He is what God ordained to be written down – in the bible, per-son-ified. That’s why Christ is called the Living Word. When we look at Jesus —we are looking at God as a human being. He had to put up with the kind of stuff we have to put up with – He “gets” us. Jesus came here to help mankind find its true destiny. Part of our destiny is to BECOME the bible for other people to see – just like the Lord did. 

Jesus is part of God’s continuity. He was there in the beginning, knitting you together in your mother’s womb, He is right there with you now, and He will be with you until the end! “…and lo, I am with you always [remaining with you perpetually—REGARDLESS OF CIRCUMSTANCE, and on EVERY OCCASION even to the end of the age.” Well that pretty much wraps that lot up and sticks it into the reality file. Jesus is an ALWAYS there, always present, human revelation of what God has said and what He wants.  Boy is that a good thing to know. Here’s another pearl:“If I go up to heaven, You are there; if I go down to the grave, You are there.” Psalm 139:8. We can’t lose Him!

Our living expression of God Himself said this: “I am the Alpha and the Omega [the Beginning and the End],” says the Lord God, “Who is [existing forever] and Who was [continually existing in the past] and Who is to come, the Almighty [the Omnipotent, the Ruler of all].” Revelation 1:8. He is always ON, He was always ON, and He can’t ever be turned OFF — because He is ETERNAL. And eternal doesn’t just mean forever and ever — it means something WA-AY bigger than that.

‘Eternal’ is not just about time, it is about the blow-your-mind glorious reality of God’s Being ever-present. We know that an incredible Person, came here and walked about the streets of Jerusalem etc. and yet He is with us as well, here and now.  He was there at our beginning and He will be with us as we walk on into Eternity. Jesus Christ is the very best demonstration of who we can be. He is the living expression of what God does, thinks and says about humanity – He is our potential.. 

What these few thoughts mean to me, personally, is that He is always watching over me, protecting, correcting me, loving me in ways I may not yet understand. I don’t mind that He is far greater than I can comprehend, because He has life in Himself, and He shares that life with me. I become who I was destined to by walking with Him. Jesus is the ever present, all knowing, totally-in-love with each one of us – SAVIOUR.

So, what He said in John 1:1 – how does this affect me, my life? This scripture shows me that God is always ON. I can’t turn Him off. His Presence doesn’t rely upon my feelings or lack of them. Because of Jesus, now I have His promise. Jesus said, and the bible says – our God is faithful. Then Christ, God’s living expression, demonstrated God’s faithfulness under extreme pressure. Jesus is God’s living, breathing, personal expression of God’s Word in action. He shows us how much we are loved, how faithful Almighty God is, and how constant and consistent His love will be – always.… Bye. 💕

P 2655 Reflections

/ DVH

I have recently come to the conclusion our society is no longer living our lives in a holistic, interactive, interpersonal way anymore. We seem to see sex as the same thing as intimacy, and we have contented ourselves with living this life voyeuristically. What I mean is people are watching other people live their fictional lives on TV or social media pages. 

Even if most of what is read is exaggerated or photoshopped – and whether it is true OR NOT — it is, unfortunately, way too easy to live our lives like peeping toms peeking through life’s windows, and occasionally making clever comments. That’s a very poor use of a beautiful God-given gift – insight. People can get so busy trying to impress each other, that they aren’t living the life they actually have, … enjoying the days God has given us, plus interacting with the people who live around us.  

Many years ago, hubby and I were blessed to travel to many other parts of this world. I became so obsessed with taking photos for our memories back home, that in the end … I was looking at all that glorious once-in-a-lifetime scenery through a view finder. The Lord whispered to my heart: “Look UP. You are really here. Enjoy the sun on your face, enjoy the people around you. Enjoy the atmosphere. You can’t live your life through a view finder!” Hilariously, that whole thing had a fascinating ending … we hardly ever looked at those photos when we got home! 

You and I only have now … even the next minute may not be ours. All over this world human beings have died while I am taking the time to type this. Humanity seems to have become quite shallow parodies of who we can really be. Only standing up to demand things, and complain about what we want. We protest, instead of finding ways to contribute! We were made for finer things.

But although we can now plumb the depths of our oceans with clever, specially made vehicles, we can’t plumb the depths of our own souls! Apparently hurting people aren’t very interesting or popular — so most of us have learnt to hide what is really happening inside, where we actually live — because we need to present a successful happy face to the world around us. We’ve stopped participating and now we live our lives spectating. The only thing that can tempt us to participate is MORE MONEY.

This faith life we have been given is to be lived, enjoyed, savoured – not dissected or commented upon. As Christians we will miss the best bits if we don’t appreciate what we have right now. It is in front of us. We all need to turn off our critical responses and start looking for what is good about things and how can I help? I don’t need to be famous to help, I just need to get off my butt and do something.

There are times when we spend our precious time discussing other people and their faults, and pulling them apart with words. If we are clever enough we can make you laugh, and feel bad, all at the same time!! We dissect other people like frogs in a laboratory … but our spiritual eyes are so blind that we cannot see that other people have pain that is beyond their words, and outward appearances. Thank God for our Saviour Who sees beyond our posturing and pretence, right into our hearts.  …“Then we cried out, “Lord, help us! Rescue us!” And He did! His light broke through the darkness and He led us out in freedom from death’s dark shadow and snapped every one of our chains.”  Psalms 107:13-14.

Thank God for Jesus! He specifically came here to show us another way to live. Despite this world’s cynicism, and the need for the next thing or fad to amuse us – we have the power to choose to change and BE changed. We can control our own destiny, by participating in what is good, right and profitable. We simply must deliberately choose to put down all that stuff that is often simply this life’s pollution, destroying the beauty of who we can be. You and I are the pinnacle of God’s creation! I don’t care if you have 5 billion dollars or I have one dollar to my name, we all have the capacity to grow and contribute to this world, even in our old age.  

However, we cannot help others if we present them with a specially crafted front – a parody of real faith. To witness to others, we need to be real. So if we aren’t coping, then we need to tell someone. Pray! Ask for the Lord’s help. Life is a process and nobody is perfected yet!  Lastly, as we live our lives, we cannot afford to live with a skewed reality. That’s the way this world currently lives.  Let’s live this life, the only one we have (!!) … knowing that even our scars can tell wonderful stories about our Saviour. Bye. 👋