weapons

P 3340 Learn to fight …

/ DVH

…for what is yours by birthright! And remember, we don’t fight against flesh and blood. It’s not your spouse, or your parents, or your uncles and aunties – it’s the devil! 2 Corinthians 10:4-6 :“The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.”

And Ephesians 6: 1-18 says: “And that about wraps it up. God is strong, and He wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the devil throws your way. This is no weekend war that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the devil and all his angels.                                                                           Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare.” 

We are in a battle, day by day, whether we like it or not, and even earthly soldiers get battle fatigue. However, we have the power of God within us to make the difference, and we need to use His power to help ourselves thrive in His Ways, and for the benefit of others. We don’t just fight under adverse conditions – we learn to thrive. Many times in our lives together, hubby and I have commented it seems like it is one thing after another, and another.

You can get very weary from fighting things. Like battling to maintain a Godly-attitude with His help; or not reacting to the same thing happening for the 479th time! Let’s face it satan doesn’t fight fair. he will kick you and beat you when you are down. One of the best weapons against despair and disappointment is the realisation that Almighty God will not ever give up on us. There are things float through our minds: “Does God care about what is happening to me?” Those are the battles we must fight in our emotions, and minds — they can be overwhelming, and potentially, destructive.

Remind yourself that Jesus took every single sin and mistake we’ve made to the cross with Him. And our God is not a fair weather Friend! Now you and I are blameless in His sight – that’s what His Grace is all about. The truth is a weapon we can use when our minds are full of doubt, unbelief, and anger or disappointment with ourselves or others. We must stop! — and remember Who we belong to now. It’s a supernatural task, so it needs supernatural tactics, not just mind games. 

We can’t continue to quote the scripture without knowing the reality behind it. The reality comes from living this life eating His bread, daily, and reminding ourselves of His blood over our lives, daily. I am reminded of someone else who tried head knowledge in Acts 9:11-17: “Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are you… ?” Being known by our enemy means we are bothering him. Good! Someone famous once said this, I have no idea who it was – “Be the kind of Christian that the devil says every day – oh no! He/she is up again!!”

People can sometimes be defeated because they are not pointing their will toward what the Lord wants. Obedience is essential. If you feel you can’t obey, then point your will toward His will and ask for the Holy Spirit’s help. When God talks about truth, He means His truth, not just something that sounds like truth, but it is indulging me in self-pity – or making me feel justified in my sad sack attitude. I cannot BE justified outside of the blood of Jesus. He gave that to me, I didn’t earn it… I’m so grateful for His goodness!

When God says “renew your mind” He is not talking about parroting off some scripture or other, as a weapon against satanic attacks. Our own personal knowledge of His goodness, is a mighty weapon. I stand and face my fears, or other people’s accusations and misunderstandings  by saying: “This one thing I know — MY GOD IS GOOD.” Ergo, if it is not good, then it is not God! … BUT!! Please remember to check your heart first, and  make sure you are not blaming someone else simply because you don’t want to deal with yourself! Our beliefs are not second hand they are up close and personal. I dun fell down that hole many times! Sigh.

When it comes to battles I am like a three year old. I run to hide in my Father’s robes. I want to be that spectator in Psalm 91… I don’t even try to peek out to see what is going on. I let what He has already done do the work for me. Shape your life around the Lord, make Him the centre. Then we can’t be dragged about by the winds of change and impulses of whimsy. If you are under attack drag your heart back to thinking about how good He has been to you. Read the bible aloud!

Let’s choose to live this life, by finding out stuff from the bible for ourselves. I am no longer a child, if I need to know something, then I ask the Holy Spirit to help me find the answer. Then I go and dig around in His book. Learn to fight for what is your birthright by the way you live. I need to participate and feed myself daily, digesting what He said with actions. We can’t win with hot air, we need real weapons forged in our lives with the fire of His life in us. Bye. 👋

P 3290 Choose your weapons.

/ DVH

2 Corinthians 10:3-5  “For though we live in the world, WE DO NOT WAGE WAR AS THE WORLD DOES. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  This scripture always evokes the same thought in me, ‘so why on earth are WE acting like everyone else does?’ Like brother James says: “this ought not to be so…”

We quite simply can’t use this world’s weapons in our daily ongoing battles that we fight. Let’s always remember we aren’t fighting people – we are fighting those things, spiritual forces, that people have embraced to protect themselves and often they are deceived. BTW, this immediately makes me wonder why we think talking aboutstuff will fix it!  2 Corinthians tells us His Word is meant to demolish arguments and pretensions. We definitely need to know what that looks like. To me: it looks like knowing God is always good. Plus we live this life knowing our side WON … but sometimes, we have momentary afflictions. However, our Saviour and our Comforter will never leave us. 

We need DIVINE weapons. The armour of God, the fruit of the Spirit, plus His Wisdom and spiritual gifts to combat whatever comes at us. Let’s look at that statement for a minute  …  because our weapons are divine, then they are weapons from the Lord. So our next question is – what do they look like? Do some research in Ephesians 4&6, or 1 Corinthians 12&13, or Romans 12. But let’s start with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control those are Jesus’ kind of weapons. I recommend using them liberally under the Holy Spirit’s guidance. Start by showing the Lord you love Him … by LOVING AND OBEYING HIS WORD.

Here’s something that could raise your hair and your eyebrows! Almighty God used the weapon of His own Son’s obedient death, to defeat sin and death. We don’t use normal weapons, we don’t have to … HE WON! Hmmm. Those particular weapons don’t look like the stuff you buy in your local gun-shop. You will probably hardly ever see a bible lying side by side with a gun. Why not? Be-ca-use … Jesus said: “The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].” John 10:10. We simply can’t get to abundant life using carnal weapons! Those things diminish and destroy it. Carnal weapons are motivated by “look after me and mine.” Abundant life is motivated by “what did Jesus say?” 

Prayer is another one of God’s most potent weapons. It takes you and I out of the equation, and puts the Holy Spirit in charge. Ain’t nobody out there that wants to mess with Him! He made the world and everything in it!  Do that stuff at your own peril. The Spirit of God will love us and help us, until we feel so-oo-oo full, we will wonder why any of us went the wrong way in the first place! This is why Jesus said: “Love your enemies!”  He inhabits that kind of outwardly looking passion. Jesus has passionate eyes of fire in the book of Revelation.

Love will set captives free, and do even more things that we haven’t personally discovered, yet.  When it is carefully uncovered and digested, loving people is a revelation of Universal proportions and a weapon of mass destruction! It destroys the work of the evil one. If we try to use our own love, we will probably run out fairly quickly and come up short. But God’s love is endless. It is shameless in its passion. It smashes any stronghold of unbelief, fear, mortification, spite, anger etc. and restores and heals everything it touches. This is why love is the best weapon ever – it simply can’t be defeated. You can stuff love into a tomb, and 3 days later it will come bursting out, destroying every one of your theories and theologies!                                                                     

We need to cultivate love in even the smallest things, because it doesn’t come naturally to us. We are far more used to self-preservation. We often end up using our tongues like swords and knives and cut people up into little bits because they have somehow threatened us “…These things, my brothers, should not be this way [for we have a moral obligation to speak in a manner that reflects our fear of God and profound respect for His precepts]. James 3:10 sure has a handle on humanity and the way it thinks and acts!

Let’s choose our weapons carefully – we can’t possibly live this new life well, unless the Holy Spirit helps us. He is pure love in action. And He can love both sides!  We need His weapons that cut people free, not maim them.  I think we should always start by applying love first. When love is uppermost, there is no room for hatred.   Learning to love others transforms our minds. Bye 👋

P 3059 Up close and personal!

/ DVH

“Your hand-to-hand combat is not with human beings, but with the highest principalities and authorities operating in rebellion under the heavenly realms. For they are a powerful class of demon-gods and evil spirits that hold this dark world in bondage.” Ephesians 6:12 TPT. 

Ignoring our enemy may well be one of Christianity’s biggest mistakes so far. But I totally believe in the Lord’s great all-encompassing goodness. I know He is raising up a generation of believers who will face all of our enemies, unashamed, and fearless. The way we can enter this brave band of brothers, is to practice fighting the good fight in our own little lives, every single day. Up close and personal! I pray all the time for His Grace to be abundant upon me because I’ve lived long enough to know that I need it!

Lately it seems the Lord is stretching my patience, while He is perfecting me and transforming me …Sigh. So there is a big l-o-n-g space between whatever bad event just happened in my life – to finally being able to see the Lord’s outcome. I will always need a big dollop of His hope daily to cope. Here’s a freebie …put your hope in Jesus, not in the Answer. Sometimes we don’t actually know what is good for us. My faith can be feeble and self-serving, and without His help, impatience will jump up and down on the inside of me – demanding my attention.

I battle with a sense of overall tiredness daily. It’s the kind of tiredness that makes you want to sleep for a week and hope that everything will be fixed when you wake up! I sort of understand the whole deal with the Israelites when they left Egypt and wandered around in the wilderness. I don’t like to live my life feeling uncomfortable either! The solution is easy – instead of waiting for my circumstances to change I need to give the whole thing to Jesus and walk away, leaving it with Him. And refuse to pick it up again..

God is good ALL the time. I simply need to cultivate my spiritual eyes and ears and make what He wants my priority. The problem is not with Him. It’s me!! There are days when I realise there is much more of the world inside me than I’ve comprehended so far. You know some days I also understand the Israelites longing for the leeks and garlic of Egypt, even when Manna fell out of the sky every day. It seems to me that there’s not that many ways you can cook Manna over an open fire! Boiled? Scrambled? toasted? I have a limited diet but manna porridge every day for forty years seems hard to bear. That problem is not with what I am eating – it is with what I am thinking!

The bible says in Galatians 2:20:“I have been crucified with Christ [that is, in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith [by adhering to, relying on, and completely trusting] in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” I love the bible so much,.it shows me clearly there is no way forward without sticking to, leaning on, and totally surrendering to Jesus. ‘By faith’ means He is now my reference point, not the awful circumstances, or my feelings, but Jesus.

I love the bit in Galatians that says: “in the body.” My ability to conquer what’s going on in my head is already inside me – it came in when He came in! Salvation is not just something that happens only once. I am saved from all kinds of sin every single blooming minute of every day! Especially when icky thoughts float through my educated-idiot-box if I am irritable. That thing says stuff inside my head to the person who is annoying me: “If I give in to you, I am letting you win and there is no way you should win … because I don’t trust you!” Look at me, thoughts of reconciliation flowing about like a river! Hah! Fighting with YOU will not help ME overcome!!

That’s what this verse from Ephesians 6:12 is about. It is reminding us …“The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty to the pulling down of strongholds.” 2 Corinthians 10:4. The war we fight daily, sometimes minute by minute, has nothing whatsoever to do with guns, spears, swords, or nuclear weapons – but it has everything to do with my own private thoughts … by the time that junk comes out of my mouth, I’m sunk!

If I let irritation with you pull up a chair in my private thoughts … then … all by myself, I can personally conjure up why you said what you said, and what you meant by it!   You did get the whole “conjure up” vibe right? I mean that junk floating about is not valid. It shows me that somebody else has been whispering to me:  “They said that because of this – and they mean this because of that!” That’s like one step away from necromancy and that stuff is bad news according to the bible. Saul lost his kingdom and his life to that sort of Chinese whispers because God did not answer the man according to his timetable. 

All of this fight is internal, and most definitely up close and personal! However, yielding my will to His, when I am in the middle of it, changes everything. When I choose to daily learn to give up quickly, and lay my life down for His sake, not yours …then He can make whatever He wants to make, out of it – and it is always good! Bye 🤗 

P 3047 Let this sink in.

/ DVH

“Yahweh is my best Friend and my Shepherd. I always have more than enough. He offers a resting place for me in His luxurious love. His tracks take me to an oasis of peace near the quiet brook of bliss. That’s where He restores and revives my life. He opens before me the right path and leads me along in His footsteps of righteousness so that I can bring honour to His Name. 

Even when Your path takes me through the valley of deepest darkness, fear will never conquer me, for you already have! Your authority is my strength and my peace. The comfort of Your love takes away my fear. I’ll never be lonely, for You are near. You become my delicious feast even when my enemies dare to fight. 

You anoint me with the fragrance of Your Holy Spirit; You give me all I can drink of You until my cup overflows. So why would I fear the future? Only goodness and tender love pursue me all the days of my life. Then afterward, when my life is through, I’ll return to Your glorious presence to be forever with You!” Psalms 23:1-6 TPT. 

Here’s a thought — how about you sit yourself down with a big mug of tea or coffee and let this beautiful Psalm soak into the places in your heart and mind where you feel exhausted, beaten up, or maybe, not good enough! Our place of rest is always in His love. Like the needle on a compass always points to north, our hearts need to return to HE LOVES ME. Do that. Sit there, breathe, and say to yourself slowly:: ‘Jesus You love me.’ Don’t get sidetracked into what you have or have not done right recently. Start with Him loving YOU – and then, thank Him for it. 

The God of the Universe knows our names. He calls each one of us by name. I have relatives who probably can’t remember who I am – but Almighty God knows me, inside and out! Why? He chose too! If that doesn’t make you want to jump up and down — then take a breath and stop and think about it. Our God is a personal, engaged Father, Who is never too busy for His kids – He knows exactly where we are and what is happening to us.

On we go…There is no place in this Psalm that talks about Jesus bopping me on the head because I’ve been a disobedient sheep. Yes, He has a rod and a staff – but He has that to thump anything that comes at me trying to destroy me. That’s what our Saviour is like! Loving, loyal and … there for us. There are times I can almost hear the Holy Spirit cheering away when I am wrangling with some situation or other, and He’s calling out: “That’s it, you’ll get there … keep going!” That’s what ‘for me’ means to me – He is on my side, cheering me on.. 

Just recently I mentioned that my nearly 98 year old mother is dying. Hubby read this Psalm to her the other day. Why? Because everybody needs to know that God is not mad at them. They need to know that He loves them dearly – all the time, that’s why. We are aiming at passing on His love to her, while she is launching her tiny little broken ship off into the incredible deep waters of HIS ENDLESS LOVE. I want her to see that His love is so deep, so wide, and far, far greater than any other love a human being ever hoped for or imagined. 

There are people who might become afraid of the part of the Psalm that reminds us that we will walk through a dark valley. But the best place to focus our thoughts is on the fact that He is there with us. Instead of bursting your boiler fighting fear – concentrate on the truth! In order to fully understand any lie we are believing — we need to study the truth, not the lie. You might like to think on that …

Being loved so faithfully by SomeOne so amazing needs to be our specific focus. When we live this way, the whole bible truly becomes Good News, not just a book filled with instructions. People need good news! “God is not mad at humanity, SomeBody Else took the punishment for all of us” — that truth is far more than just good news. It is FANTASTIC NEWS … especially when this life keeps pushing and poking at us.

If you or I were in a car that has spun out of control, the best news we could ever have is that the person driving the car is an expert. The Person Who is helping us with this life is our Resident Expert! Don’t send Him away because you think you want to choose some dumb temporal thing that won’t matter in the light of eternity. Instead, call out for help.

Our Shepherd is with us to comfort and help us. His rod and staff whacks our enemies but those weapons comfort us. Jesus looks after His sheep. He stands between us and our enemies, joyfully, willingly – every second of every minute, of every single day of our lives.

We don’t actually belong in this world anymore, because we’ve been born into another kingdom. We belong to Him, and He will come to get each one of us when this life is over. I want to leave you with this last scripture: “Let your character [your moral essence, your inner nature] be free from the love of money [shun greed—be financially ethical], being content with what you have; for He has said, “I will never [under any circumstances] desert you [nor give you up nor leave you without support, nor will I in any degree leave you helpless], nor will I forsake or let you down or relax My hold on you [assuredly not]!” Hebrews 13:5.

Our God does not lie —the Lord Jesus IS my Shepherd, every single day. Let this sink in – as He was with Moses and Joshua and Abraham – so He is with us. Bye. 🐑 Baa!

P 2825 We are weapons that are forged in the fires of adversity …

/ DVH

Many Christians like to think that we are doing our best when we just meander along, picking up this new thought and putting down that old one — hopefully teaching our own kids … but probably not very worried about other people. We pray, and then we secretly blame God if He doesn’t send us revival! Be your own revival. To be a Christian is to be a true revolutionary! These passionate individuals see hatred as an opportunity to love others!  Meanwhile. loving and caring for those that hate you, is contrary to what humans want to do – of course it’s radical! 

In most countries today there are not many practising Christians. And by practising, I don’t mean going to church week by week. I think we’ve been reduced to a remnant – how else can we explain the excesses of the West in the face of the total deprivation everywhere else?! We’ve learnt over years of inactivity to pay lip-service to things that need our total devotion. When Jesus said: “Follow Me” – He wasn’t talking about a parade!  

Christianity is not designed to be a religion. Jesus is the way we live and breathe and learn to love others – even the ones that wish we were dead. We cannot call ourselves Christians, if we have not learnt to OVERCOME — things like our own penchant for sin, our greed for the things of this world, as well as our own personal trials and tribulations. We must learn to handle bad times the same way as good ones looking to Jesus Who is the Author and Finisher of our faith.

It seems to be that what we believe has not affected the entirety of our lives. Instead we plaster over the things that need to be purged, including those personal attitudes that Christ Himself preached against. Sadly, when we water down what we believe for our own benefit and convenience, we are watering down the power of God at the same time! We need to remember, we are either on fire, or the fire is slowly dying, or it has gone out! A tiny bit of Christianity that makes us feel safe will not do, we must be completely immersed in the things of God. And what we say has to be exhibited by our lifestyles. His love always becomes incredibly real in the fire of adversity.

We’ve been reborn to take what this world thinks, and stand it on its head. We don’t just saunter along smiling at everybody, waving cheerfully, holding a banner for Jesus and putting up cute pictures of scriptures over our sink! What we believe needs to be lived out – day by day by day. We are His living bibles, to be read by everyone else around us, we are not just nice polite people! Instead, Christians live real lives filled with real problems, and a lot of those problems are totally insurmountable without God’s help … so we are learning how to utterly RELY upon Him.

Our faith is nothing without the power and Presence of God. All we have to offer others presently, is pie in the sky when they die. God cares so much more about all of His kids, than the trite things we present to others. He is not an absent God Who benignly, and absent-mindedly smiles down on His sometimes AWOL, naughty children. That is insulting to the Holy Spirit, Who is ever-present. He longs to be our ever-present help in time of need, not the spare tyre on the back of yet another brand new vehicle! Instead of working ourselves up into a lather trying to demonstrate His power – we need to daily die to self and demonstrate HIS LOVE instead.

I think the reason people aren’t coming to Jesus is because our ideas of witnessing have made Him seem weak. We present Him as a baby, or God on a cross unable to come down. Or even SomeOne Who can be contained by a church building!  WE ARE HIS ALTAR – our hearts are His home. Our contribution to this world is that we know the God of all Hope! We need to talk about Who He is. He’s the Almighty, ever-present, always holy, always with us, Father. The God Who knows everything about each one us. Who freely gave us His own Son to pay for humanity’s wilful sinfulness.

We must not be afraid when the fire around us, and in us, heats up, and life becomes unbearable. That’s when the truly great weapons of war are forged … IN THE HEAT OF THE FIRE. He promised to be with us when we walk through the flames. (Isaiah) The biggest enemy we face, is not the other guy – it’s us – as we lead lukewarm lives at the cost of someone else coming to know Christ. God’s Love cries out daily to be demonstrated.“But God demonstrated His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8. 

It’s time to do more than idly talking about Him when the subject comes up. It’s time we showed our enemies His love, like they are our best friends. We need to stop using prayer for release or an escape vehicle, and pray for the Grace and courage to walk through the flames – untouched. ‘We are weapons of His warfare, and those weapons are not carnal but mighty to the pulling down of strongholds.’ 2 Corinthians 10:4. People are dying every single day and they have no knowledge that this life is not all there is. 

We have to become His swords, forged in the fires of adversity, so we can cut off other people’s chains and set them free, like Jesus did. Bye.🔥

P 2754 A most valuable tool.

/ DVH

One of the most useful tools in my interpersonal toolbox is the one that says: “my response is my responsibility.”  I have found it can be much too easy to blame the way I am responding, or reacting, onto someone else’s actions. Maybe someone ticks me off, and instead of doing something (prayerfully) about it, I let it go because I am busy and I don’t have time to poke about in my feelings, or sort out your not-so-nice attitude toward me. What’s inside me, that has been stored up – so to speak, and it will eventually come out … usually at another person!

Unfortunately that kind of neglect buries any difficulties – it does not clear them up. Buried things have a tendency to rot away and stink! The next time you do something that ticks me off, I will have a less tolerant attitude toward your actions. If you keep on bumping into my ever increasing irritation, eventually – I could feel justified to snipe back at you. However, there is no ownership in those actions. I have unrealistically, farmed out my responsibility for my emotions onto you, because I am expecting you to pull up your socks and stop ticking me off! 

The only person in charge of the way I respond is ME! I would be far better off handing my irritation over to the Lord, and asking Him to help me with it, instead of stuffing it down inside me … making it a time bomb waiting to go off. I don’t have to say anything to you unless He says I should… I simply talk to Him and ask Him to adjust my inner ‘dial’ so that I am not so sensitive to the argy bargy stuff that happens in this life. I ask Him for more love and less impatience, and could He please show me what is actually going on inside me?

Babies are a perfect example of uncontrolled emotions. They cry and crank, mainly because they don’t have any language for how they feel. So someone comes and picks them up to soothe them. We have a society full of people who do not know how to handle their own emotions and soothe themselves. They keep waiting for someone else to do it, or they will throw blame everywhere. These people shrug off their own responsibility to manage their anger, rage, whinging, weeping, irritation and plonk it onto the people who are annoying them. It might be the wife and kids, it could be the government, or a neighbour, but I can guarantee that if you ask them, it  will always be someone else’s fault they are angry, full of rage, or sad etc. It will never be their fault. 

This life has bad things in it. People do truly dreadful things to each other and they are not only not sorry – they’ve let the aforementioned storm inside them build up to gigantic uncontrollable levels. We need to learn, with God’s help – how to manage our own responses and reactions. 

Repentance and ownership of my own flaws and faults must be like breathing. The bible clearly tells us that we don’t have to feel bad, or even less than somebody else;   because we know Jesus died for ALL our sins. And I’m not better than them either. I am not perfect myself, and, despite my feelings, I am not as excessively fragile as I think.

God put a fighter in all of us – we are designed for transformation, so we will have to fight our own human inclination to retaliate. I need to use His weapons of warfare. Those weapons I choose will transform my inner life so that it is not a litany of other people’s faults playing over and over and over again. That’s why I read the Bible, I am looking for Him, plus my own sin, not yours!

Today I want to look at those two men who were crucified right alongside Jesus. One man was bitter, the other became bigger. That second man was also suffering but he made hard choices at an incredibly difficult time. BTW, they both deserved their punishment.  

Luke 23:32, 33: “Two others, both criminals, were led out to be executed with Him. When they came to a place called The Skull  they nailed Him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified—one on His right and one on His left… … 39-42 “One of the criminals hanging beside Him scoffed, “So You’re the Messiah, are You? Prove it by saving Yourself—and us, too, while You’re at it!” But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into your Kingdom.”

Ownership of our own faults is imperative to becoming a mature Christian. We must transform our self-talk by digesting the bible. Instead of dismissing ourselves as innocent, we need to remind ourselves that there is nothing that happens to us that is not Father-filtered. We need to ask for more FAITH to overcome our human inclinations. 1 Corinthians 13 is not a dream … it is a reality, ready to enter our lives, if we live prepared to press in and value the tools He has given us. If I truly want to be free I will deal with ME. Bye 👋

P 2583 True salvation.

/ DVH

“Embrace the power of salvation’s full deliverance, like a helmet to protect your thoughts from lies. And take the mighty razor-sharp Spirit-sword of the spoken word of God. Pray passionately in the Spirit, as you constantly intercede with every form of prayer at all times. Pray the blessings of God upon all His believers.” Ephesians 6:17-18 TPT.

This way of life we have chosen can be difficult! We will have to press in and learn to thrive in all kinds of hardships. And to grow spiritually in times of rampant prosperity as well as deep poverty — to find joy in the midst of our mourning. And at the same time we will give constant praise to our God, while this world goes on its spiteful, murderous way. Our success in any of these issues probably won’t ever be seen. But Jesus sees.

What we lay aside, in prayer, love, kindness and sacrifice, for His sake, may not ever be recognised where we live every day. If we choose to live like Christ lived, we will need to learn to love, live and … even die for the people who hurt us, and despitefully use us. Even though some of them may actively pray for our demise and pain — we continue to reverently pray that they will only meet unconditional love, from Him and us! True salvation is more than a prayer – it can and should change the way we live.

Those things that are mentioned in the above scripture from Ephesians are our fighting tools!  They just don’t look like fighting tools. Nothing about this life we have chosen, looks like we thought it would. People we’ve known for years will betray us, and then blame us for their obvious blatant betrayal! You can’t fight that kind of stuff singing “Kumbaya!” We need weapons … and our weapons are not of this world. But they will pull down strongholds that have been established for centuries, as we set our faces towards honouring Him – living for Him.

If we really want to defeat our enemy, we need to live this life we have, fully saved. What does that mean? It means that no matter what happens … how many bugs, snakes, marauding, deceitful, angry, bad people, hit the windshield of our existence … we know that we know that we know, that our God is loyal and He will never, no NEVER leave us or forsake us. HE.MEANS.US.GOOD.  And now we live our lives, believing HE means us good!  “What can man do to me?” This is what knowing the Word of God means. It is not just regurgitation – it’s part of who we are now.

Jesus died to give us a place in our Father’s heart. It is a safe place. We live there protected purely by the fact that it cost the Lord everything He had to buy us that place! We know that Jesus Christ held nothing back. He left it all there at Calvary. And now what He bought for us, is ours. The only response we can give to that kind of sacrifice demands that we stop living by appearances, and start living by faith, in the Son of God Who died to save US from sin, this world, our enemy and ourselves! When His salvation fits our heads like a steel helmet … nothing can get through that sucker, because nobody can tell us that our Heavenly Father isn’t with us and He doesn’t love us. 

We are protected by the fact that – even if you kill me, I will still love you!! Jesus did it first. He was betrayed, deserted, lied about, falsely imprisoned, accused and murdered. HE KNOWS! And right now He is at His Father’s right hand praying for us. He also knows our weaknesses, that’s why we can rely upon His strength. When we feel like an elastic band that is about to break, just roll all that stuff off onto Him … and leave it there. Do all you can and then STAND.

Because of His death, Christ has provided us with a way to escape …“God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Look, taking the sword of the Spirit isn’t just memorising what the bible said and spouting it off at the devil. It is the assurance inside us that what His book says is true! God’s word is not a magic charm or incantation … it’s the truth. The real truth about mankind and this world. We need to know that, and the way we find out that it is true is to stand on it. Looking at His Word from a sidebar and wondering if it will hold us up, is not faith! Jesus Christ DIED standing on God’s word believing that He would be resurrected!  

We must understand that there are bigger priorities than our comfort – His kingdom must come. And you and I are charged with the responsibility of bringing that kingdom with us wherever we go. No matter who we speak to!  It’s a way to live, not just a get-out-of-jail-free card. True salvation delivers us from a wasted life, into a way of life that reflects God’s kingdom, here and now. When His word changes us we will know that we are saved. 👋

P 2560 We are in a war and we must learn to fight.

/ DVH

2 Samuel 2: 1-7, 8-9. 12-17 plus 3:1. “So “David went up there with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel.David also took the men who were with him, each with his family, and they settled in Hebron and its towns Then the men of Judah came to Hebron, and there they anointed David king over the tribe of Judah. … … …

Abner son of Ner, together with the men of Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, left Mahanaim and went to Gibeon. Joab son of Zeruiah and David’s men went out and met them at the pool of Gibeon. One group sat down on one side of the pool and one group on the other side.Then Abner said to Joab, “Let’s have some of the young men get up and fight hand to hand in front of us. “All right, let them do it,” Joab said… …

So they stood up and were counted off—twelve men for Benjamin and Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, and twelve for David. Then each man grabbed his opponent by the head and thrust his dagger into his opponent’s side, and they fell down together…The battle that day was very fierce, and Abner and the Israelites were defeated by David’s men. … …

3:1 The war between the house of Saul and the house of David lasted a long time. David grew stronger and stronger, while the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker.”

Saul and David had a ‘history’ which consisted of King Saul trying at every opportunity to kill David. At one stage this king even took David’s wife, Michal, Saul’s own daughter! … and gave her to someone else to marry! satan does not fight fair either! I personally see these battles between Saul and David as a parallel to the battle we fight every single day, between the flesh and the spirit. David only ever did this jealous King good, because His ultimate loyalty was to the Ways of God and Saul was the anointed king..That’s also the way the Spirit of God works for us – He only does us good. No matter how things look – He wants to bless us.

In this life, thanks to everything Jesus did for us — just like David, we’ve already won. Our Hero, our mighty Warrior Jesus Christ, fought for us and won. And one day He will fight the last battle and dispose of that enemy forever. But even though we know that Jesus has already won on mankind’s behalf, yet we are still destined to have to fight for what is ours while we are here, because our enemy refuses to let go of this battle. Just like Saul – he will cheat and fight ’til the end.

However we can daily defeat our enemy by the way we choose to live!  We are the peace bringers and peace-keepers. We are called to rout out the enemy’s damage in people’s lives and usher in God’s kingdom – by the way we treat others. Our weapons aren’t ordinary – they operate in the Holy Spirit’s power. They are the Word of God plus our humility, yieldedness to the Lord, and Love is our greatest weapon of all! Even when our enemy tries to take us out – the key to winning is being prepared to die for Jesus’ sake. However, if or when we do not choose to enter the battlefield, we will still be battered and bashed by this life’s sorrows and suffering, and our flesh will lose every battle by default!

Sometimes the enemy’s strongholds are inside us – which means we must choose to fight our natural inclinations to be snarky and nasty and grab at things by force or manipulation. We do this by asking the Holy Spirit to help us. The devil will also twist our perceptions and our emotions to trick us into fighting over the things that don’t matter eternally. That means we will waste our energy and get weary in the battle. Our flesh will always be at war with the Spirit, because the Spirit has a much higher aim … to glorify God … Dying daily is the only way to learn to fight and WIN.

It is interesting to note that David had been selected as King, by God Himself – but not everyone in the kingdom accepted God’s edict. A whole lot of people still followed Saul! Which is why popularity is never our aim! This story shows me that there are many people who are not discerning. Spiritual discernment is one of the treasures I talked about yesterday, it keeps us from falling into sin’s snares. However, at the same time, any difficulties in our day-to-day lives need to be used as opportunities to be transformed in our POV, attitudes and actions with the Lord’s guidance and help. We should never ever forget that we are in a war, and let the stuff that rushes at us, take us by surprise, and change our aims. Our aim is not comfort – it is Christ proclaimed – we are to bring His kingdom here, now.

Sometimes I think that the Body of Christ is like a bunch of small children at a Bazaar. They run from this shiny new thing, to another tasty thing …without any thought at all. They chase after easy answers that will give them what they think they want. Immediate gratification. We are in a war, we MUST learn to fight. Even our own flesh only wants what it can see. However, the Spirit wants what only God can see, so we can see it too! Now that’s a good place to praise God! 🙌 

P 2461 The bible is often contradictory.

/ DVH

Much of what His book says, is contradictory, or even contrary to our own instincts. Things like … Gain your life by losing it. Love people who hate you. Seek things that you can’t see or feel, and you’ll get what you need. A-n-d for one guy… get rid of nearly all your army and go fight someone else’s much much bigger army with lights and trumpets!…Or you could become whale chum as a taxi service  I mean … really!!! Moses once talked to a shrub and it changed his known world! Here’s the last one that seems odd …serve to lead.

The bible says: “What happiness comes to you when you feel your spiritual poverty! For yours is the realm of heaven’s kingdom.” Matthew 5:3 TPT. See? This guy thinks being spiritually poor is the best thing ever. Either his brain fell out or he is onto something. I think he’s onto something. God’s WAYS are always about RISK and they include our freely-made choices. Nothing about following Jesus will be easy — we will all have to die-to-self to carry those things out.

For a long time, Christianity has been about been acquiring of information. I’m going to start out by saying… I think bible school is great because knowing the bible well is the best tool we can ever have. I urge you to do it – we cannot fight the enemy without faith, and weapons. And the weapons in His book are not carnal they are mighty to the pulling down of strongholds! Actually, I think the bible will save your life if you use it the way it was designed to be used! BUT, the real point is… it was written to show us that without God — man can’t do anything. Yeah, well, that kind of cramps our super-spiritual super-star style. (Try saying that 10 times quickly.)

Hubby read me this bible verse from the Passion Translation, yesterday – “It felt like we had a death sentence written upon our hearts, and we still feel it to this day. It has taught us to lose all faith in ourselves and to place all of our trust in the God Who raises the dead.” 2 Corinthians 1:9 TPT. That kind of stuff can seem a bit loopy to someone who has studied and worked very hard to realise their full potential. However, this verse suggests that living life according to what human beings know and learn, can be a waste of time. But it seems to me that experience has taught this man something. 

Personally, some of the best stuff I’ve ever learnt has come from experience. Like Paul, I have also despaired of life a number of times. I’ve also wondered if I was really a Christian so many times I can’t count them! The Christian life is not for the faint-hearted- thank God it doesn’t rely on our faith, it relies on Him. Jesus once had a brilliant conversation with a man who knew all the right answers. We probably would have made him into a pastor or a deacon, but that man walked away from following the Lord!

Continually read this book for yourself. I advise each one of us to stop looking for human heroes to follow, or pattern yourself on … and instead …look for people just like you. People who didn’t cope and made mistakes. Some of those mistakes were so huge we are still dealing with the results today. Yet Almighty God had a plan for each of their lives. The thing is — the REAL hero of God’s book is … wait for it … GOD. Funny thing that. Who’d have thunk it?

I have been ill for most of my life and that means that I have had to continually reinvent the way I live with His help. Nearly dying numerous times will do that to you. I’ve learnt that His way not only works – it will blow your mind! His way is difficult, challenging and … life-changing.

I consider myself totally blessed because everything that has happened to me so far has led me to the place where I KNOW I literally can’t do a thing without Him! That’s not just a pretty saying to me, my life depends on it. Yet I have no idea what the Lord is going to do next! Life is one big surprise filled to the brim with more challenges than I can count. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord will deliver them out of them all.”  I can say Amen to that!!

“YOUR mission, should you choose to accept it “ 😂 … will totally blow your mind. Our own human resources are limited, but HIS, are limitless. And He has made His limitless resources available to us! Each one of us will have to rely upon Him in ways we have never ever even dreamed about. My advice is to stop trying to get everything right and start following His instructions in the book. Start with the Be-attitudes and work from there. Paul, Peter, and John also have heaps of great instructions… not to mention my good friend James! 

The bible is filled with people who obeyed, and they got it wrong and … God rescued them.  It is a contradictory book – filled with things that should never work … but they do … Remember, Almighty God planned stuff in advance for each one of us to do – if we don’t do it, then it won’t get done. 👋🏻

P 2399 Forgiveness and obedience are our best weapons of choice.

/ DVH

Forgiving others and obeying the Lord’s wishes has become our life’s work. Those two things go together. So much so, that when He shows us something as we read the bible we need to immediately ask Him: “What would You like me to do about that Lord?” And then we go and do it – using our choice not our feelings.

Initially, when the Holy Spirit checked me about stuff I was doing that wasn’t good, I didn’t like it very much. He said things like: “You have resented this person’s influence in your life, you need to start appreciating them.” That meant I had to practice taking my stray thoughts captive, and at the same time I had to stick my hand over my mouth instead of bad-mouthing someone I was mad at. Sadly, I am still not always successful at that… 

But the first thing I learnt about myself because of His instruction – was this: I had been using my thoughts and my words as a pressure valve! Anger and resentment built up inward pressure that I needed to deal with. After all your mouth is right there and it works and everything (!) and so I often used my words to cope with bad things that happened, or perceived slights and injuries caused by someone else. After a while I realised I had a really big lists of stuff (aughts) against other people (any). Bad plan BTW, keep your forgiveness lists short. “And when ye stand praying, forgive if ye have aught against any, that your Father also who is in Heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” Mark 11:25 ASV.

This is how it plays out:  let’s say you can’t stand your Uncle B. Maybe Uncle B was kind of not nice to be around. Every time you saw him as a kid you wanted to run away, or you hoped your parents would rescue you, but they were too busy socialising instead. Now, because you are an adult, when you see Uncle B. you can run for the hills, or you can even avoid family gatherings, because he is going to be there. Maybe you want to protect your kids. You don’t want them to feel like you did around him.

Here is what I have learnt. Forgiveness is harder to find for old wounds – you are going to need lots of God’s GRACE to do it. Perhaps you are also angry with your parents for not protecting you, a-n-d … you probably wouldn’t pass Uncle B. a fire extinguisher if he was on fire 🔥 … so that would be something else you need to work on. You are stuck with not only your need to forgive others, but your own past childish judgment. 

Unless you make a start by forgiving your parents for their neglect, you can easily slip into assessing what they did. It is unfortunately easy to judge our parents retrospectively and vow that we will never do that stuff to our kids! It’s a no-brainer that you will also need to forgive Uncle Bob, BTW. And you are definitely going to need help with that!! Here’s my first point. We cannot do lasting spiritual transactions, without the Holy Spirit – He knows every single detail and how to get us free. We have to start with God’s Grace and guidance to navigate past any mine-fields. (Mind-fields.)

I can’t tell you exactly what to do because every situation needing forgiveness is different … but I urge you not to postpone or avoid forgiving someone as a way to defend yourself. Neither should you avoid repentance just because it seems the other person won’t change. We cannot hinge our transformation on someone else’s behaviour! That supposed knowledge of their sin is a snare sent to trip you up. Ask for His Grace, and keep right on asking while you continue to follow Jesus. Keep praying: “I want to do what You said Lord, and I need help.” 

Unconfessed sin and a lack of repentance is a place for satan to stand in our lives. satan is a legalist, and he will use it against us – he will distract us with things that are of no consequence – while we are ignoring the thing that is tripping us up! Instead we need the Lord’s Grace and His way through. We cannot live the Christian life and experience victory if we don’t make the practice of obeying the bible a living breathing part of our lives – instead of just a using it as reference book.  

Forgiving someone does not mean we are giving them permission to continue to abuse us. Rather forgiveness is a statement, an intentional declaration, that we know that God has a bigger plan. Romans 8:28 says: “And we know [with great confidence] that God [Who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose.”

His plan and His purpose is to lovingly transform us. Sometimes He will rescue us, and sometimes He wants us to act in faith, like Jesus did. I have observed as I have followed Him and embraced His purposes, that His plans for my good blow my mind. I would never have understood those plans, if I hadn’t decided to die to the way I think, obey what He said, and let Him be Lord.  

Here is my last thought for today – our God does not speak to us contrary to His word – His word is immutable – it will not change over time. Choosing to forgive, plus knowing the Word of God and choosing to obey it, is our best defence weapon. 👋🏻