Ways

P 2765 Jesus just wants you.

/ DVH

 “A thief has only one thing in mind—he wants to steal, slaughter, and destroy. But I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect —life in its fullness until you overflow!”John 10:10 TPT. Let’s LET Him decide what abundant life looks like for you.

We can get stuck on verses like this one, especially when we think we already know what an abundant life should look like! Unfortunately this means we are trusting in our own understanding not in the Lord’s guidance. No matter what our situation is, whether it is good or bad, we need to ask Him for His input. Otherwise if a disaster falls on us suddenly, we can end up judging God’s integrity by what has happened. But the bible says:“The rain falls on the just and the unjust.” We can only see in part, Almighty God sees the whole picture and … He has a plan. Trusting in God’s goodness and faithfulness is an essential part of the Christian life.

This world has been making so much noise and fuss lately that without His help and daily input – I think it is difficult to see anything clearly. Opinions fly about like butterflies in the spring! The thing to cling to in any sort of trouble is His goodness and faithfulness. “He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.” Psalm 91:4. He said it, we believe it – that’s the end of it!   

The Lord disciplines and teaches us His ways for a reason – He wants us to be SAFE no matter what is going on – and He values our faith. So we humble ourselves before Him, and wait for Him to speak to us. Things may not always look that great from our end while we are in the middle of this process — but we need to learn to resist the devil, and that means he has to leave!

Because it was good enough for Jesus to follow the Holy Spirit then it is good enough for us too. He will tell us what to do: “This the enemy – fight it.’ OR … “This is My will for you, just keep on walking. We are not there yet.” Almighty God has His Way of doing things, and we need to learn to yield to His processes – instead of trying to avoid them. He is refining us. Let’s not be fair weather friends — let’s choose to grow into being a faithful fiancé! The Holy Spirit knows how to prepare Jesus’ Bride. We don’t. We just like an easy life!

Isaiah said this sad edict about God’s kids: 5:12b”…but they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord, no respect for the work of His hands.” It is foolish, BTW, to read these words as if they only apply to the Jewish people, instead, ask the Lord – ‘do I do that?’  Read the bible like He is talking to you, even if you don’t understand what it says, or why He is saying it! He is a faithful God and He is looking for a faithful people. That means in good times or bad, we keep on seeking Him. 

It says in Proverbs 3:6: ”In all your ways know and acknowledge and recognize Him, And He will make your paths straight and smooth [removing obstacles that block your way].” Instead of ticking boxes when we read, or perhaps excusing ourselves, instead ask the Lord: “Where am I not acknowledging YOU?” The bible contains diagnostic tools that only work when we apply them to ourselves. Be humble – ask questions. Wait for Him to talk to you, before you excuse yourself. I have fallen down the ‘excuses’ hole many times, and then I started to see that I was dodging the Holy Spirit’s conviction! We are not right in our selves, we are MADE right in Jesus. God’s love includes correction.

Humility is a strange thing – it is much more than just self-effacement. It is an attitude of our hearts. My bible says that ‘our hearts can be deceitfully wicked above all else’ and I’ve caught mine out loads of times protecting itself. If you aren’t like that, I urge you to start thanking the Lord and don’t stop. What a gift you have been given! Humility begins when we realise what we are not, and we begin to see everything HE IS. In the face of His true holiness, that pious stuff we make up to look spiritual, crumbles instantly.

To be Holy we need to deliberately stay under the blood of Jesus. That means respecting and obeying God is …IN;  but rebellion against His will is …OUT.  Wishing you could whack someone around their ear-hole is … OUT. Secretly looking at others lustfully is OUT. You can make up your own list, but the point is, we may fool our friends, rabbits and relations but we can’t fool Him. 

Jesus Himself gives us the most wonderful key to overcoming all sorts of things in the Beatitudes. “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3. Recognise you are poor! Then live poor, and be needy. Need His help and instruction. We do not have to know everything. We are HIS. We gave our lives away – which means we don’t have them anymore!  Now we get to work alongside Him, and watch Him do stuff. Jesus just wants YOU. Bye. 🥰

P 2708 Why would we limit the LIMITLESS ONE?

/ DVH

Let’s fervently pray for our understanding of Him and His ways to be stretched instead! Why would we settle for other people’s limited views when we can go after and know HIM personally. My best and only thought is kind of a small one – and most probably a big fat understatement! When someone asks me what God is like, I say: “He’s like Jesus!” That’s because Jesus clearly told us in John 5:19 that:‘He only did what He saw His Father doing, and only said what He heard His Father saying.’ 

Also Hebrews 1:3 it says: “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”From those verses alone, I learn that Christ is indeed God stepping into time and limiting Himself to our ways. It blows my mind! At the same time, Jesus walked this earth and still lived within our normal human limitations, except HE lived a totally limitless life. Nothing stopped Him – nothing took Him by surprise. Read the book and keep on reading it. It will blow your mind, it always blows mine!

Our Heavenly Father speaks to us in many ways. He has so many more ways to speak than human beings realise. God speaks the languages of angels, as well as every human one – past, present and future! Even the sky shouts to us daily about Him. Plus the stars sing out His praises. Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.” Job 38:7 “ …while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy …”

His Love speaks a language that doesn’t always have words, and His idea of faith reaches beyond mere human understanding into the supernatural. My point is – we are chasing after SomeOne unknowable, without help. We need revelation from His Word and the Holy Spirit. I think we can easily succumb to over-reaching if we think we can define Him without His help! Our finite beings are too small to understand the incredible complexity of Who He is..🙌

Today I want to talk about our limitless Heavenly Father, from this POV … we need to understand our side of this glorious endless relationship. There are times that we can think this prayer, or that question has remained unanswered and become disappointed with Him – although we probably wouldn’t say that out loud! It is imperative for us to understand that Almighty God always answers us … HE JUST DOESN’T ALWAYS USE WORDS! Continually pray for eyes to see and ears to comprehend His Answers – because even His silence has a purpose!

Sometimes our understanding of His Ways etc .can come later, perhaps retrospectively. But in order to walk with Him and grow, our faith in His goodness must conquer our doubts and disappointments. Otherwise we will impede our progress in our faith, and we may never reach our full potential. Jesus died to give us the capacity to be stretched and transformed, not because He finds us unacceptable, but because our personal and even learnt inclinations, limit our understanding of Who He is and How much He loves people.

The very best mutual language, the one that will always be understood, by Him and us, is LOVE. That’s why it is imperative that we learn how His kind of love works. How it functions  – what it produces. When we begin to uncover the mysteries of LOVE we will begin to understand Who He is.  I know I rattle on about that over and over again – but knowing His Ways is an important key to defining the way WE need to live.“How can two walk together unless they be agreed?”

We can’t walk with Him and be restored into the innocence and purity we were always meant to have – unless we put aside those things that weigh us down. Both personally and corporately, we are currently limiting ourselves. We allow a few men’s insight to rule many churches, at the cost of broadening our base by going after insight for ourselves. “In order that the many-sided (multi-faceted) wisdom of God might be made known now to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places through the church,…”Ephesians 3:10. BTW innocence and purity were restored to us at the cross. It is time for us to fight this world’s definition of wisdom and freedom – and return to the simplicity and power of the cross. 

One of the things we will need to put down is accepting religious doctrine as representational of ALL of His truth. You and I are the only people who can limit the size and function of our faith. When we deliberately choose to learn to love as He loves, all sorts of barriers will blow away, our eyes will be opened;  and then we will look at others with the joyous word “brother” on our lips! 

This is when we will begin to “know one another after the Spirit”instead of eliminating others because of their beliefs. Only God Himself can take the muddle of our denominations and personal proclivities of faith in Him, and bring it into a cohesive whole. Defining God separately is a waste of our time … we must start learning what His love looks like and begin to fervently pray that we walk in it, toward each other. Why would we settle for a limited edition god when we can know the LIMITLESS ONE?  Bye. 🙏

P 2670 It’s later than we all think.

/ DVH

Romans 13:11-14: “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarrelling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

In these difficult times, we can get extremely busy, and then we forget WHO we belong to. We start acting and re-acting like the people around us. Sadly, their god is often their appetites and misery. Even our own ideas of down-time and entertainment can sometimes wander off into hedonism and violence. Like Paul said – that stuff is not for us. I exhort you to treat entertainment like food, and pray over everything. I believe the Lord Himself will show anyone what is good, or not good in their life, when we ask Him. My own policy is this – when in doubt, don’t!  I have a pretty fertile imagination and so I’ve learnt you can’t un-see or un-hear stuff once you’ve sat around absorbing it!

As for casting off the works of darkness, the things of the darkness aren’t always on TV or in some game …we can easily be distracted by an argumentative spirit, or a bad temper, or a negative or critical attitude. The enemy’s deceptions are not obvious like sexual deviancy or a violent response to provocation! ‘It is the little foxes that spoil the vines…’  Likewise it is the things that we make allowance for, that drag us away from the Lord’s ways. We are exhorted to number our days, because they are few. Actively choose to learn to co-operate with the Holy Spirit, nobody else can do that for you.

The bible tells us clearly what to put off … let’s do that and leave our feelings and needs out of it! Currently practically every generation on this planet is held captive to how it feels at any given moment. Human beings are bigger than their feelings! Praise God, the bible doesn’t just tell us what to put OFF – it also tells us what to put ON. We put on the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords using our faith in His power within us…We do this one day, one interaction with Him, at a time. Basically Paul is saying: ‘Don’t make a space for anything that will entice you away from loving and serving Jesus. The things of this world will drag you under into despair and shame.’ Amen!

Our lives are geared into working hard, so we want to allow for relaxation. And if that pleasure is taken away, then we think the sky will fall, because we instinctively know that we need rest. We get our REST from Christ! Anything else is a poor substitute. Just because there are times when we are not good at achieving that aim, that does not mean we have permission to let loose, and ignore things. Pleasure itself is not bad, but exalting anything over our passion for Him, will result in the Lord ending up in second place. And eventually, if we are not careful, He slides right out of the picture. 

That’s one of the things I truly love about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They will not force Their Ways on us. We don’t have to do anything! We choose to do it, to remain close to Him, and daily learn more about our new life in Christ. There are times I wish preachers would talk more about falling in Love with Him, because I think the Body of Christ really needs this kind of exhortation. When we love someone we will do anything for them, and abstinence is not painful, because it is a joy to be close to them. Personally, I love to hang around with someone who knows Him much better than I do. I can learn from them how to hold Him up in such a way that my response is pure worship. The more we invest in His life in us, the more His life will flow out of us.   

Our contribution matters – even if it is unseen. Many, many people underestimate their contribution. A loving heart that wants the best for everyone around them, makes a far greater contribution than someone who is caught up in their own needs and wants. To live like Christ did, we must actively, daily, choose to die. Physically, the truth is, we are all dying anyway – we start to die the moment we are born! But if we cling to this life and withhold our loving contribution from others… our true self will die a lot faster!

James 4:14: “How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.” Let’s learn to respect the fact that we are visitors in this life. None of what we have been given belongs to us. As one very far-sighted person once said: “You will never see a U-haul trailer filled with this world’s goods, attached to a hearse!” Only God knows how valuable each contribution is – and how much it affects the people around us. Instead of languishing away under how hard life is – let’s learn to celebrate the fact that now we have the Author of life, living within us. That will involve our active participation. It is MUCH later than we all think.

Bye. 👋

Romans 14:8: “For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”

P 2581 Living Grace.

/ DVH

“God’s marvellous grace has manifested in Person, bringing salvation for everyone. This same grace teaches us how to live each day as we turn our backs on ungodliness and indulgent lifestyles, and it equips us to live self-controlled, upright, godly lives in this present age.” Titus 2:11-12 TPT.

Our God’s great grace has been manifest in Christ. In order to understand it we must carefully observe and interact with Him. Jesus Christ is God’s grace in human form. I deliberately said that today, because sometimes grace is reduced to a nebulous thing that we are supposed to have toward everyone else, as well as live by it. Nebulous things add to uncertainty and they are definitely hard to grab hold of!  

Our uncertainty disappears when we understand that Christ is God’s illustration of grace, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness etc. in action! Almighty God gave us a glorious gift – CHRIST. Grace we can see and hear in His book. Reading the Gospels makes us acquainted with what grace looks like because it is the way SomeOne lived. It is not about stories – the stories Jesus told are illustrations of God’s ways in action. If all we do is read the Gospels and think, “oh that’s so nice.” We missed the point!  These ‘stories’ show us how to act and react!

Jesus Christ is God’s LIVING GRACE. God does not need visual aids – He went way beyond them to sending SomeOne Who would illustrate a lifestyle! The bible is not just teaching – Jesus, in the Person of the Holy Spirit,  is with us so we can learn His Ways. The way Christ lived His life, is the way we have been designed to live ours. Yeah. Ya might want to sit and think on that one for the next 20 years. 

It is error to think that Jesus could do stuff because He is God’s Son and He is ‘special.’ He’s not superman who came from another planet and that means He can do stuff we can’t!  He did not operate in some sort of incredible way that meant He always did things right and was full of the power of God all the time. He simply chose to live in the Holy Spirit’s Presence in all things.  

Jesus Christ chose to come to earth and be a man – that’s Grace and Love IN ACTION. That was a normal little baby boy born in Bethlehem, He chose to learn about God from when He was young, and He did so well at it He amazed all the people who supposedly knew everything! Jesus made knowing God His priority from His youth. He had grace on His life as a child.

But He was tempted just like we are. The difference between Him and us, is that He said no! There is great power in our NO! I know that today, it seems like ‘no’ is an optional extra, but it isn’t. Saying no to temptation and sin is the way into bringing that new heart God gave us into this life … our reality. Doing what God wants becomes our life-blood. It’s the way to be dead to self and alive to God. And every single thing you do counts! Praise God we can repent from our lack of single-mindedness and go back and partake of His grace – over and over again.

We are limiting ourselves by thinking that Christ was some sort of special-case human being so He could do stuff we cannot. That is a lie from the pit. “God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.” 1 John 4:17.

Fear of over-stepping our place in God … is still FEAR!  We start to overstep when we use God for our own purposes or benefit.  Our Lord Jesus Christ was the perfect example of grace in action. He had authority, but it was love-based authority, and He allowed His Father to decide what that looked like! Our hearts matter, and God knows when we choose to excuse ourselves rather than obey. It is the things that we choose to do that can shoot us down. Power can be misused by self-indulgence, instead of ushering in God’s kingdom! Jesus came to serve, and so we are here to serve – God first, and then others. 

God’s Grace is not of this world. It is a heavenly quality which is to be lived out in everyday life. And when we look deeply into how Christ acted, and what He said, we gain His clues from His lifestyle. He lived in grace, He constantly gave away grace even to His tormentors.  Like I said, the things Jesus said are not just stories or parables – they are a way to live. Paul, Luke, John and Jude etc. developed these themes in the Epistles. They tell us how these things worked in their lives. In Paul’s case they give us further revelation of what God did when He sent us Christ, why He did it, and how it works! 

The bible is God’s book about GRACE. Grace is God’s enabling power to prevail over our own sinful nature, sin in this world, and the devil. This is God Himself speaking …“I will graciously give you a new, tender heart and put a new, willing spirit inside you. I will remove your hard heart of stone and give you an obedient, responsive heart instead.” Ezekiel 36:26.

We have already been given this new heart, God gave it to us – because Christ made a way for us. Grace is LIVING  and practical it is not just a mushy attitude toward others. It is strong and powerful. Jesus Christ is our perfect example of God’s grace – alive on this earth!  He showed us that it can be done and how it is done! 👋 

P 2567 He did it for LOVE!

/ DVH

Almighty God was never ever going to be content with lip-service and form – His love is way too relentless and all-encompassing for that! His desire is to have a real relationship with each one of us. To our astonishment, now we have discovered what He did to make that happen… And we stand by in awe and wonder about the God Who came to earth by His own choice, to pay for our sins, misunderstandings and lack of comprehension! And He did what He did personally … Jesus Christ died for LOVE’s sake.

Every single human being ever conceived and/or born, has been and will be known, cherished and loved by our God. Try standing in front of a mirror and telling yourself that regularly – it will do you good!  Today is about how far the great and Almighty God of our Universe and beyond, was prepared to go – in order to set us free from the sinful things we’ve chosen. We have all made ourselves captive to our enemy in one way or another. But our Father did what He did, so we would be free to comprehend and partake of what He has given us – at great personal cost to Him.

In order to understand God’s Love for us, we need to comprehend the lengths that His love went to – to rescue even the vilest sinner. Love is not a sentiment, it is an action. It looks like something we can see, read, feel, hear, touch and experience.  Love sacrifices even itself, in its relentless quest to restore the recipient of that love. It is utterly selfless. It is not kissy kissy love hearts, chocolates and lots of flowers! It looks like a bloodied and badly beaten, deeply maligned, and unrecognisable Human Being, Who allowed mankind to take out our murderous spite, hatred, rage and anger on Him. Those men who whipped and tormented the Lord were demonically inspired — yet they were still part of God’s plan, and His love was available to them too. 

Personally, I’ve learnt first-hand how shallow my love for God can be, I’ve had my theories tested and I found out I was definitely capable of loving me, more than HIM! Those Roman soldiers were exactly like US – even though we weren’t there in person. Nobody knows what they will do until they are tested. Christ was tempted, tested and yet He completed what He came to do. You know, you and I were in that crowd yelling abuse at the Lord, or turning our heads away, as surely as we were born back then. We’ve all sinned. We are not even remotely like our dear Saviour, Who gave up everything for us. We need help. And Help … came! 

In our minds and thoughts, what happened at Calvary does not seem like it is love – that’s because we do not define love rightly! We cannot afford to define LOVE for ourselves – when we do that we will end up indulging or even excusing ourselves. God’s idea of love does not look like our idea of it. He tells us about Himself in Isaiah 55:8-9. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

In our own personal lives, we want to be, and sometimes even choose to be – the heroes in our own little stories. But, in the new life that HE gave us, we are daily, minute by minute, challenged to change our minds, by renewing them — so that GOD Himself becomes the Hero in ALL our stories. The Father God, the Son, the Holy Spirit and everything They did together for each one of us on that cross, is our uniting force. Their love for us – unites us. No matter who we are or what we’ve done… WE.ARE.LOVED.

I know I have said this about a kajillion times, but our task now is to observe, learn, and absorb the way our God thinks, into our own personal lives until it becomes the way WE think. And we have a bible with 66 books in it, to help us. It details the way that God Himself interacts with other people in their own lives. It teaches us clearly what love actually looks like. It looks like sacrifice.

The bible showcases our Father’s thoughts toward mankind. His thoughts are always for us, reaching toward us. Here’s a little bit of what I have observed. He doesn’t treat any two people the same way. Our uniqueness is not a liability. To Almighty God each human being is the pearl He sacrificed everything precious to Him, so we can be His. The Bible is a LOVE STORY!  And we need to be transformed into a Worthy Bride for His dear Son – Who gave up everything for us. Our Bridegroom is oh! – so worthy of all our love and gratitude.  

OUR HEAVENLY FATHER WANTS US TO BE JOINED WITH CHRIST AND SHARE HIS LEGACY. We have a family inheritance – it is not gold, silver or precious gems  … our inheritance is the ability to love others the way Christ loved us. Loving others so deeply our self involvement fades away. Bless you today, as you press on toward that mark. 🕊️ 🙌

P 2474 His Presence is our PRESENT.

/ DVH

Christmas is a time when we think about the giving and receiving of presents. This is one of my favourite things in the whole world to do – I just love giving presents. I always invest a great deal of time, prayer and thought into this process because I want the people I am giving stuff to, to know that they are cherished and special. 

However, over time, I have discovered there is something that I love much more than blessing others. His Presence. Please understand I am not talking about feelings because I don’t approve of them – I rarely get them! But whenever I open the pages of the bible, I am always blessed. HE’S right there. Which is why I recommend doing that, all the time, when I write this blog. When you love the bible, the Holy Spirit loves you back, because its His book, He wrote it!

I’m writing about this today because so many people miss the blessing of knowing Him, and His Ways, through His book. They do the obligatory half hour etc. with the bible, reading more info, and absorbing more knowledge, but they miss the opportunity to meet with Him. Jesus loved the Word of God – He is called, in the bible, ‘the Living Word.’ The Holy Spirit brings Him to life every single time you open its pages. 

Jesus quoted the bible He had, everywhere He went. And, even better … He unfolded it in so many ways, in front of the people He was sent to help. When I say unfolded it, I mean that this book is an incredible book, unlike any other. The meaning in it is layered. It will teach you one thing one day, and something else entirely new the next!! I believe this book won’t ever come to an end. 

“and He (Jesus) will reign over the house of Jacob (Israel) forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end.” Luke 1:33.”Your Word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens” Psalm 119:89. “Jesus Himself said … “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away” Matthew 24:35.

When we read the bible we are reading something eternal!! Ya, might want to ‘selah’ that for a minute or ten! 🧐 People can drive themselves nuts, chasing around trying to find Christian services or conferences, where they can feel His Presence … because being in His Presence is just beautiful beyond words. BUT … there is absolutely nothing like finding His Presence in His book! It’s real, it’s personal, and its free – you don’t even have to leave your chair!!

Most of us have lots of bibles at our house, and if we don’t … well there is always the internet. I read the bible online all the time. I want to know Him … just as much as my little heart can while I am in this world.  I freely admit I am easily distracted. But sometimes when I am reading His book I’ve just read 3 words and I’m like … “WOW! Who put that in there??” I dearly love this book. It is like a trillion pathways to other things I’ve never even thought about … then He tells me something else, and my mind is blown again.

I’m reading in Ruth at the moment and I will share some stuff from that book in a little while. Look, I too have soldiered through the Old Testament, skipping whole passages in Numbers, Genesis and Chronicles. Yawn! 🥱 I complained to the Lord about how boring they were, full of weird names I can’t pronounce, and He told me this: “Genealogies show that I am very interested in families, and family lines.”

That tells me that Father God knows all our names and He gave us our families. He even knows how many hairs are on each head. Meanwhile, if you are bald that info won’t matter much!! We need to stop being clever all the time, and stand in awe of what He reveals about Himself! God loves families. His Precious Son was born into one! So much so, in the books mentioned above, He wrote down all their names. And meanwhile, they weren’t all ‘good guys!’ Well, there’s a place of worship right there!! 

Cherish the book, and you will end up cherishing the Author. I am not talking about the leather bound, scritta papered physical item, I am talking about the Person Who spoke it into being. 66 different people wrote these books, but the One Who called them to write stuff down, is the real revelation that runs all through each one of them. Read the book looking for the Author and read it like you never read that portion before. Always ask questions and keep badgering Him until you understand … don’t give up too quickly.

His Presence is always in His book. We can cherish His word spoken to us, personally, just for us, just for this day. What kind of daily bread has He got for you today? His Presence in His book, is our PRESENT. Bye 👋🏻

P 2447 We need to learn His Ways –

/ DVH

He already knows ours!!Judges 7:1-7 “Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against Me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.  But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men.

Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.”

The first thing I want to say, is that it is extremely important to:  a/ make sure you don’t miss any of the details when reading scripture;  and b/ today, take particular note of the fact that Gideon eyeballed every single man as he drank and there were 10,000 men! There were 22,000 cowardly custards BTW! Our God is always in the detail! Human beings love to run on and start planning how to make what God says work.

Maybe like this? … “Oh so the lappers stay, and the cupped hands guys go? Hands up all the lappers.” But Gideon had to listen to God for each individual man’s involvement. All 10,000 of them! God’s answer to prayer and Him helping us, doesn’t look like we think it will. I cannot begin to count how many times that has been my experience. My advice is this – don’t get ahead of Him – you’ll miss the blessing. HE’S THE BLESSING. 

When you are about to fight an army that is called, by reputation, ‘without number’ … eliminating fighting men does not seem all that clever. And that’s the bit I want you to take away today – the Lord does not do things the way we do them. HIS WAYS ARE NOT OUR WAYS – HIS WAYS ARE PAST FINDING OUT. I often wonder why people drive themselves nuts trying to figure out and plot the way that the Lord is going to do something or other, in the light of a story like this one. He exhorts us to wait for Him.

His ways are so far above ours! I urge us all to read the book looking carefully at the details, He reveals Himself there. Otherwise, it can seem out of touch and pretty weird … that He would even think of saving a whole city with an evangelist who spent his entire preparatory time for preaching, in the belly of a whale! Maybe getting swallowed up, helped with repentance and obedience.  

Let’s look at the New Testament to see if things like this are any different from the stuff in the Old… sh-a-ll we? How about feeding thousands of people from 5 loaves and 2 fishes … Now you and I don’t see that every other Friday at the fish shop do we? Or how about making a brand new eyeball out of spit and dirt? Granted, it was Jesus’ own spit, but … … you get my drift. You know I figure the Lord was there when Father God made man in the first place, so He knew all about how to make people’s spare parts out of dirt! 

What about walking past a pool, which was specially set up for sick people to congregate around, and yet the Lord went there and healed just one man! Where did ‘He healed them all’go?? We need to learn to laugh at ourselves and our pitiful attempts to understand what He is doing and WHY! To know Him better, and stand in awe of His awesomeness, we must begin to notice the details in the book. We can’t just cherry pick and choose the bits that suit us and our own understanding – which, BTW, we are not supposed to lean on (!) … when we read the bible.

You know, the bible says God Himself laughs!! Psalm 2:4 “He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision.” I thank God that I have an Advocate standing right by my Heavenly Father’s right hand explaining the way human beings think. No wonder the Lord laughs! We make such hard work out of everything!

Finally, have you ever reflected upon why the Lord God chooses such unusual methods of operation? Why was that snake allowed in the garden? What can I learn from that?? Why stick Jonah in a whale? Why take trumpets and lamps into a battle, or march round the city for 7 days in silence, and then shout!  Why pour gallons of water over an altar that is meant to be set on fire? God’s ways are past finding out … we need to stop trying to finagle Him into bringing about the results that we think are going to be great, AND instead start listening to Him. Let’s follow His implicit instructions, obey what He says and learn how to trust Him instead. Learning to listen… another great key.  Bye👋🏻

P 2370 God has given us clear guidelines.

/ DVH

When you read Exodus and Leviticus in the Old Testament this line appears in practically every paragraph: ‘this is what the Lord has commanded you to do, so that the glory of the Lord may appear to you…’  Father God does not do or say anything without a reason – we need to pay attention to what He said.

He wants to teach us how to live our lives reconciled to Him, progressively learning His Ways. In the Old Testament His requirements were temporarily satisfied by the blood, of sheep, bulls, goats and birds – in the New His requirements were totally satisfied, now and forever, by the blood of Jesus Christ. Hebrews1:1&2 “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world.”  

What Christ did was so powerful, it went backwards and forwards throughout time! The blood of animals previously satisfied the Lord’s anger at man’s rebellion and disobedience to His instructions … for a season. Meanwhile, do look at how patient He is – that first season lasted for approximately two thousand years!  (Moses to Christ.) For those two thousand years He provided a way for human beings to be able to relate to Him by a series of rituals and instructions … and then Christ came … and everything changed forever. Now, instead of temporary reconciliation, we have a reconciliation that lasts forever. Thank you Jesus!! We can go boldly to the throne of GRACE at any time.

Jesus took all those many commandments and transformed them into two. “Love God” and “love one another.” However, He was not just content with telling us about them – Christ fulfilled them both. We are not thinking clearly enough if all we can see is that Jesus died to reconcile US to God. That thought makes US the focus! NO!! He deliberately died because GOD wanted to  reconcile Himself to us. None of us qualified to be able to approach our great and mighty Father without the ceremonial rules and regs of the Old Testament. But He is not satisfied with lip-service. He loves the genuine heart felt response that comes from real revelation of Who He is, into a heart seeking after Him. 

Let’s be clear. Father God loves the man He made. He does not just tolerate us – HE LOVES US — Our God loves the vilest sinner as deeply as He loves the sweetest saint but, we eliminate ourselves when we refuse to live this life His way.Human beings have no idea what unchanging means, because humanity is so changeable and fickle. However God’s love is like a mighty heart beat steady, strong, powerful and the Holy Spirit goes after each one of us with a plan and a passion we will never understand … this side of heaven. We think too small. And when we think too small, we make God too small – we make Him like us by using OUR logic to explain – or sadly, dismiss Him. 

Actually I think we have even presented Him to other people in an incredibly limited fashion and that’s why many people reject Him. Because we explain Him like a list of rules and regulations, dos and don’ts … instead of a vibrant living, loving, passionate Being Who cares about each one of us so much He has done all He can to bring about reconciliation. That ball is now in our court. We need to remember, that He knows how many hairs we have on our heads and the deepest joy and sorrow of our hearts.

We dare not reduce the God of the ever-expanding universe, to a formula!  He is the God Who produces tiny babies almost by the second all over this world, AND… they are all different. How astonishing. He knows each one of us by name, by nature, and by His own choice. His love is personified in Christ and spread abroad by the Holy Spirit – that’s why walking with Them both is so incredibly important. Through the Son and the Spirit – even though we are limited, we can see parts of the Father’s heart toward us that we cannot see any other way. All this is evident to me when I see Him take such a personal, intimate interest in my life and well being. He helps me please Him through the Grace released at Calvary and the precious Holy Spirit’s help.

The Lord has taught me that Love doesn’t come by command — but through appreciation, by beholding … by seeing Him. Our great quest is to personally discover, through His Word, and our experiences of His intervention in our lives – how truly beautiful He is. Jesus Christ’s BRIDE needs to be pure, utterly in love with our BRIDEGROOM for Who He is, not just what He does.Then that deepest sacrificial love for our bridegroom will take us places that we have never even dreamed about. Our Gracious Father has given us clear guidelines, through His book, how to be transformed by His Grace into a Bride worthy of His precious Son. 🙌

P 2316 Faith requires ACTION.

/ DVH

However, we all need a huge dose of what James said in chapter one V6-9.“But he must ask [for wisdom] in faith, without doubting [God’s willingness to help], for the one who doubts is like a billowing surge of the sea that is blown about and tossed by the wind. For such a person ought not to think or expect that he will receive anything [at all] from the Lord,  being a double-minded man, unstable and restless in all his ways [in everything he thinks, feels, or decides].”

So if you want wisdom – ASK – and don’t take no for an answer…INSIST! Pretend you are 5 years old and NAG! This kind of asking shows Him we believe He said it, we know He heard us, and HE WILL ANSWER US. At the same time, the state of our mind matters, that’s why it needs daily renewal. We don’t have to read twenty chapters from the bible every single day— we just need to pray, pause, and wait for Him to reveal what He wants to say to us for today. That’s ‘our daily bread!’ 

What James is talking about here – is faith in action, not theoretical faith. This kind of surety in God’s goodness can’t be borrowed. It must come from inside us. But it can be learned, from our personal, hard-fought knowledge of Who HE is. Action is how you go from theory to experience. We have to cultivate our relationship with Him by listening and doing.

Personally, I also encourage myself in the Lord so I can access my faith — just like David did. David looked at Goliath and remembered the God Who sent him there to that battlefield. That God helped David kill a lion and a bear. His courage for doing the next thing, came from his previous experiences with God. This is what builds faith into our lives – not how we feel but what He did yesterday or last week.

Actually, last week we gave away bookmarks etc in our various trips to doctors and physiotherapists. The Lord told me to give a bookmark with a ballet dancer on it to an older lady. My thought bubble was: ‘That’s just nuts! Way to be instantly wrong!’ The nice lady had a smile all over her face: ‘My mother was a ballet dancer and I run a ballet school’ she said. 😶

Faith is not about getting it right or even understanding it — it comes from obedience. We have a huge book full of things to do! Our faith grows from our personal understanding and knowledge of His ways AS we obey and trust Him. Common sense is overrated – it will talk you out of trying. 

Here is another one: I made a keychain for the lovely public librarian who takes care of my library needs. The Holy Spirit said: “Give her the one with that large cross on it.” I argued with Him, because she had specifically, previously, politely told me she is an atheist. Do you know what He said when I queried it? “You never know what people will cling to, when life falls apart. It’s a reminder for her.” So far she has thanked me three times, in capital letters. 

Sometimes we don’t have a testimony because we won’t take a risk. Faith does stuff – it is not an observer. It steps out and acts. However there are times that it shuts up instead of being equally as rude as the other person is … in an argument. Faith gives a soft answer instead … and that is still doing something!  

Our Faith is not in our ability to access God. He is always accessible to us because of what Jesus Christ did. Our faith is in Who He says He is and what He said He did — in the book! We don’t go to Him just to find things we want to to fix, or even the things that we think we want. We go there to find Him, because His Presence is our prize. Not just what He will or won’t do for us. This means our faith is in Who He is … His character.  

We need to take the time to read the Bible, and prayerfully think about it, that’s how we learn His Ways. After that we ACT on it. So when I read: “do good to those who despitefully use you,” I don’t think – ‘I don’t have that problem with anyone GOD…” and dismiss that scripture….Instead I immediately ask Him: ‘Who is that in my life Lord?” I assume His word is right and I AM WRONG. I don’t excuse myself. Faith needs action, otherwise it is just tumbleweed blowing about in your brain! 👋🏻

P 2305 HE is our hope. Not our circumstances.

/ DVH

Exodus 33:12b,13a.”You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favour with me.’ If You are pleased with me, teach me Your ways so I may know You and continue to find favour with You.”

This is a fantastic prayer. We simply must put to one side any self-serving, ‘placing our order’ prayers like: “I’m praying for this,” or “You need to do this Lord,” or “could You please do this Lord?”  In favour of prayers like this one Moses prayed. Moses’ prayer puts Almighty God back in His rightful place – IN CHARGE. Remember …”Seek the kingdom first … then the stuff we need gets added.”

Human beings can struggle with biblical concepts. We love the idea, those concepts are exciting … it’s the practical everyday, minute by minute outworking of it that gets on top of us! Having our faith run our lives seems so extreme. Actually that very thought shows us how far we’ve drifted away from His plan. The kingdom life is a totally committed life. Think about your faith life like this … how would you cope if God changed your plans?

You see the reality of our new life is that “the Lord will have His way…” He wants to be with us and be a part of our lives. I cannot comprehend why people leave Him out. Why leave out the One Who made penguins, dragonflies, and platypuses?? People say things like, ‘why did God give me a brain if He didn’t want me to use it?’ He gave us a brain to use it in His service, and in our service for others. Not to swell up our own sense of self-importance.

We constantly need to refresh and remind ourselves as well as reinforce our personal desire to: “…proclaim the Name of the LORD; ascribe greatness to our God! “The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He.”  Deuteronomy 32:34. He is perfect and … we ain’t!! 

We cannot be trusted by ourselves to ‘do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.’ Sooner or later we will all start blaming and shouting at each other and that is followed by all sorts of division, plus a whole lot of … wandering vaguely off into la-la land. And I don’t mean Los Angeles! We need the Holy Spirit’s input in our everyday lives – HE IS OUR STABILISING FORCE.

Moses understood the fact that sooner or later, without the Holy Spirit’s guidance, people stumble off into a wilderness and then they will turn around and blame GOD – and their leaders – even though they consensually walked off! I know we’ve all been transformed, washed by Jesus’ blood, but …at the same time we still are, present tense, being transformed and daily being washed! 

Without the Holy Spirit’s input, human beings can easily get arrogant and lose the desire to change. People enjoy being comfortable and feeling safe. We only like the kind of ‘adventures’ we plan. Being a Christian takes enormous courage, personal motivation, loads of action, and the sort of flexibility that is always prepared and willing to make personal sacrifices and life-style changes. You know, very few people just walk away from Christ – they slide away – one seemingly innocent bad choice at a time.

The thief’s greatest ploy is to steal away our confidence in our Father’s trustworthiness, love for us, and His goodness. It is incredibly important that we stop majoring on the loss or gain of material things, and start to realise the incomparably true value of our faith. Our personal faith and our corporate faith mean so much to Christ – He gave His life to buy it back from the enemy. Jesus has given us an opportunity to develop HIS kind of faith – the stuff that brings heaven to earth. And MOSES knew all about that! That man had a wife, a job, a home, relatives that respected him, as well as kids – and God asked Moses to give all that normal stuff up and go and save a nation!

Our circumstances can change in a heartbeat when God is our hope. Following Jesus is not meant to be boring! He turned fishermen into Apostles. 👋🏻