Whisper

P 3224 Look at what God did …

/ DVH

… with another ceiling leak in the bedroom. I’m not big about talking about stuff that happens around us all the time, but this one was so incredible, I thought others might what to hear what the Lord has done, supernaturally.

Our bedroom roof leaked again somewhere else the night before last. It was a steady drip … Hilariously, it was right near a power outlet! So we had to call our roofing company once more. Despite being overwhelmed, because we did just pay a lot to have it fixed – we gave it all back to Jesus, again. The elder brother of the family of roofers was so kind, apologetic and responsive on the phone, and the next day at 11am, he turned up with his younger brother. The problem was fixed in no time and he is coming back in a week to apply another coat of waterproofing. 

Then the eldest son proceeded to share an incredibly lovely testimony about his father. The day after he had been at our house ago, he had suddenly developed sepsis.The older man’s gallbladder had a massive infection and he had gone jaundiced and collapsed. His heart apparently nearly stopped and he had high fevers and nearly died. He ended up in intensive care. He is still there, and is now critical, but more stable. 

Just to recap and put you in the picture… you may remember, this whole story started on the day when our roof was leaking like a waterfall in our bedroom. (P3209) A local family of roofers came to repair it. While they were here, I felt very strongly to make three bookmarks, with an eagle charm on them, for the father and his two adult sons. I also had a strong prophetic word for the father. 

I actually had to make the bookmarks from scratch, whilst the men were still on the roof! Hubby gave the word I had gotten from the Lord, to the father of the group, and spoke to all three of them. But the word that was given the father really hit him. It moved him so much he said he was going to put a picture of an eagle on his truck to remind him of what Jesus had said to him. The gift of the bookmark for himself and his sons, and the specific word really impacted all of them. 

However, many days later, in the semi conscious, near death state, he said he felt his spiritual body float upwards. All he could see was the eagle charm on the bookmark we had given him. He said he was looking down on himself as he floated upwards, and then Jesus Himself met him and said, “It’s not your time to come here yet, you still have things to do,” and then he floated back down into his body. 

This incredible vision has had a huge impact on him for these past few days, and all he could think or talk about was his powerful encounter with Jesus, us and the word God gave him about eagles. His son went on to say that it was hard to get his Dad to talk about anything else! Even though he was getting better, he was still quite seriously ill.  

The eldest son said his dad has been so impacted by this word that when he gets better he wants to come and fix our main roof for us, free of charge. (We won’t be doing that! What God gives is free!!) The point was, it had meant so much to the older man. We told his son that we will be praying for his Dad and he was very grateful. The father wants to talk to us when he gets out of the hospital.

I haven’t written down what the Lord told me to tell the father about here, because I regard those things as a private conversation between someone else and the Lord. Meanwhile —isn’t God amazing?!? All of this started with a leaking roof!  The result of a bad hail storm.

The first thing I want to say about this situation is that if God had not been teaching hubby and I to hand over burdens and problems — I would have been in such a state about the bedroom roof potentially falling in that I probably wouldn’t have heard the Lord when He spoke to me!  Plus we would not have known about any of this if the roof hadn’t leaked again. 

Secondly, the Lord didn’t shout! It was just a whisper. I sort of knew that the Word I was given was more for the father than his two adult sons, but I had no faith for anything else that followed. Like I have said before, it is amazing what the Lord will do with our obedience. It certainly has put a brand new slant on the scripture: “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” Matthew 11:28-29.

Lastly, I felt the Lord tell me this: “This is the purpose of prophetic words out in the market place. They are not sent to correct, they are sent for identification, direction and encouragement.” We have seen the Lord do amazing things with something that seemed so simple to us, and yet it meant everything to the hearer. 

We need to take whatever word He gives us and give it , whether the person is a Christian or not. Prophetic words are not the exclusive property of Christians.. I was just reminded of the parable of the wedding banquet, again, all the king told his servants to say was: “Come!”

I believe we are beginning a “come” season. This means we can invite others with whatever He tells us to say, they receive it, and then He does the rest. I hope this testimony has blessed you the way it blessed us. Bye. 👋

P 2948 Times of refreshing …

/ DVH

“God will continually revitalise you, implanting within you the passion to do what pleases Him.” Philippians 2:13 TPT. This is one of the enormous benefits of living a transparent life before the Lord and others. We can actually hear Him whisper. I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. Years ago, the Lord said this to me: “If you will hear Me for correction, you will hear Me for direction.”  (Proverbs 3:5; Psalm 32:8)

I have taken that to mean that if I am prepared to throw myself into reverse, and own my faults – to Him and to others – it will help my spiritual hearing. The trouble with this thought for many people is that they kind of argue with what they hear. EG: “Did I make that up?” Like our imagination is somehow bigger than God Himself!  And then they start to cancel out their faith with doubt. We have the bible so we already have what the Lord thinks – in a book – check it out in the book!  I also spend a lot of time capturing my thoughts like butterflies in a net!

To do what God says we will need to be prepared to look dumb to other people. Think about Gideon, Noah, Joshua, Moses, Abraham – these men did the strangest things on God’s orders! The secret to walking in faith is to put your faith in His goodness, and don’t take it back. However, don’t put your faith in accomplishing what He told you to do – the action — because that will get you stuck quicker than superglue. A whole lot of great people fell down that hole! Put your faith in WHO HE IS, in His incredible character, His reliability, His kindness, His faithfulness etc. WHO GOD IS is our plumb line. 

Nowadays when He tells me something I just do it. If I look like a goose, that’s even better, because I can use all the humility I can get! My faith is in His goodness, and if I get it wrong, then I know, from the book, that He is a Redeemer, He can redeem anything! I’ve also learnt, the hard way, that nobody knows what they will do when they are under pressure!  Pride has to go.

The Lord regularly speaks to me through His word, and He also speaks to me in my head…my thoughts. It is extremely tempting to think, whenever that happens, that “I made it up.” However, when we make the effort to know the book, we are learning to know what He likes and wants, and what He doesn’t – so we can walk away from sin and unbelief. I also find it easy to follow a Leader, like the pastor or my husband, my faith is in GOD in them, not them. When we get into judgment of what other people are doing, we are walking away from following Him, and we start “Ieaning on our own understanding.”

We can also be tempted to take a poll, by asking a lot of other people what they think about the fault God pointed out in our lives. Polls don’t work! Big clue in the words: “what God Himself said to us!” That’s a neon sign moment. We need to trust Him. Otherwise everything becomes about us – how we feel, what someone else did to us etc. etc.…As soon as our own judgment, or man-made systems come into play, we will lose His wisdom and insight. He will just quietly disappear.

Here’s a question … why didn’t God STOP Adam and Eve? Because He had already given them instructions. It was up to them to obey what He said! The Lord wants willing obedience, and obedience involves an action. Nobody is going to like this next thought, but one of the best ways to start learning to trust the Lord is with giving. Generosity opens spiritual doors. In our Western world money rules everything, and Christians embrace “tokenism.” We need God to be in charge, NOT money, or this world’s riches. 

The point I want to make today is that God doesn’t just want to revitalise us, and rewire our thinking, He wants to go one step further than those two great things and give us a passion TO DO what pleases Him! That does not fall on most of us, we will have to go after it … because our Bridegroom loves to be pursued. In my experience of the faith life so far, this means God will be continually praised;  someone else will be blessed;  and I will be too, because I saw Him do something extraordinary! So I pray regularly for eyes to see Him at work, because what He does in our lives is so undercover, and subtle, it can be easy to miss Him. 

When the Holy Spirit does something only He can take the credit for what happens…it is always so quietly extraordinary! He never once takes a bow. Boy do I want a heart like His! John 3:8 “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”I too want to be the person that remains unseen. Sigh. But there are still times when my flesh squawks worse than Peter’s chicken!! Time to die, again!

I love the Holy Spirit’s nature, He is so selfless, and unassuming. Nobody can refresh us like He can. One word from Him and the colour of our day is suddenly brighter, and the world is full of possibilities again. That thing we didn’t understand is now clear, and we understand what He wants better than we did two seconds ago. Enter into times of refreshing with the Lord – by practising obedience. You will get to know Him better. Bye.👋

P 2588 Can you tell me how I can hear God?

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It’s like the telephone or the internet. First you need a connection! Jesus talked about that in John chapter 3 – He told Nicodemus …“you must be born again.”  This is not necessarily a feeling – it isa spiritual transaction. To hear God all the time, you need to give your life to Him. BTW, this is not a try now and buy later system. When you jump in, and surrender to Jesus Christ, you are all in – you can’t just dangle your feet in and hope that will do! This place is a place of decision and complete surrender. That means I have given away my life, my hopes, my dreams to Him.

It is a serious place. This decision is not just about whether you will spend your life in heaven one day or not. It is about here and NOW, because when we’ve made this decision, we want to become God’s kids. Now, we bring heaven with us wherever we go.  This process is described in Galatians 2:20. NIV. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.” 

The minute I gave my life to Christ, for Him to use for His purposes, I died. However, I am not a zombie, nor am I subject to mind-control! Instead, I have been given power to control my own mind because of what Jesus Christ did for me. Sadly I can still choose to do and say dumb things, but now I live my life knowing Christ has already forgiven me – He will not give up on me.

Because of my decision to follow Him, His life has flooded my heart, soul, mind, and body, and I found the real reason I am here… Which is to serve Him, and you!  An eternal seed was planted within me when I made that decision. It is up to me to water, fertilise and care for that seed, otherwise I am just going to stay a teeny tiny fragile little plant who expects everyone else to look after them. However, I was born into God’s kingdom to grow and mature. I can’t blame my pastor if I don’t talk to Jesus, or read the bible or obey what God has told me to do in His book. Like the mustard seed Jesus talked about in Matthew 13:31-32. I’ve been designed to grow into a spiritual tree, that gives other people spiritual food, shade and shelter, in this life. 

From the moment I was born again, I was given spiritual ears to hear Him and spiritual eyes to see Him at work in my life, and in the lives of others. However, He does not necessarily talk to me through a booming voice, or angel visitation, He talks to me in the place where I have always talked to myself. Some people call that my conscience, or my thoughts – others might say: “He speaks into my heart.” Because this new kingdom we have entered is spiritual, we can be deceived if we don’t read the bible. The bible is the manufacturer’s handbook, so it tells us what spiritual people are, and what they do. Jesus’ life and death is our visual aid. He shows us what living a life of love toward Him and others looks like.

Because … the devil has been talking to you and I from the moment we first understood language– we know that satan also talks to us in the place where we think. he’s been lying to us and telling us God does not want us or care about us, because we are not special enough!  It is up to me to read the bible so I know for myself, what God says — then I can hear when satan tells me a lie. satan is pushy, loud, and mean. he twists things and tries to make us feel stupid, small and inadequate, because he uses the place where we self-talk, to play on our feelings and bring up old circumstances. satan will even use our rational thought processes against us.

We have been absorbing knowledge one way or another all of our lives, However, what we’ve absorbed from that knowledge does not have to be accurate. It can be influenced by who taught us, or our past experiences., and by the dumb things we’ve chosen to do or read, or the people we’ve hung around with. Not every thought that pops into my head is God speaking, and sometimes those thoughts that sound like me are my enemy. satan sounds like me because I am used to his whispering. Nevertheless, I must always take whatever I hear/think, and hold it up against what God says in His book.

The best thing anyone can do to prevent deception is to know, for themselves, what the Holy Spirit has said in the bible. We need to keep reminding ourselves that we are now God’s house:“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, Who is in you, Whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. 

We are meant to digest His book by reading it, and then we must obey — do what it says. That’s how the bible becomes part of us. It will change our minds and thinking. It will help us diagnose our own wrong thinking, as well revealing as satan’s whispers.We are in a war … we live in enemy territory.  Some of the worst wars often happen INSIDE our own heads! But sometimes we blame satan for stuff that is really us. Maybe we chose it, or we continued to participate in things that the bible says are not good for us. Everything we do in this life is about choices. As we start to mature, we will make better more informed choices. 

When you and I hear, whispered quietly inside our own thoughts, “I love you” ….that’s God speaking! satan doesn’t love anything. I urge you to pray for eyes to see the Lord at work in your own life, plus ears to hear Him, then check out what you hear with what it says in the bible. The bible is one of God’s ways of manifesting His steadfastness. 👋

P 2421 The saga of the queue.

/ DVH

“For even the Son of Man did not come expecting to be served by everyone, but to serve everyone, and to give His life as the ransom price for the salvation of many.”” Mark 10:45 TPT. BTW, we would be wise to remember that just because lightning doesn’t strike us from heaven – that does not mean that the Lord approves of what we are doing!! It’s not called MERCY for nothing.

It’s verses like this one that convict my heart. You see, I was caught in our car recently, waiting for a half an hour, in 33 degree heat. It happened twice. There were very complicated road works and we were waiting to be given a green light so we could move on. Sadly my response was best not repeated here! I got my crank on. I was hot, hungry and not feeling well … I totally forgot I was not my own, and it was Jesus’ time that was being wasted not mine. 🙄

Let’s just think about the above verse for a minute as it applies to me in that situation. In reflection I realised I was expecting to be treated differently by a bunch of hard-working roadwork guys  … just because I wasn’t well etc. Yeah, I totally lost any kind of realism in those thoughts eh?!? Like they would know what was happening to me while they were digging ditches! 

The thing is – if I want to follow Jesus I’m probably going to go down a whole lot of difficult uncomfortable roads … that may have endless troubles — plus road-works!  However, instead of getting cranky I actually had plenty of time to pray for the poor boiling hot road workers digging away in 33 degree heat!  Rats! I definitely missed that opportunity. 😶 So today I wanted to include something in my blog that cut me to the heart – because it needed to. I urge you to read this like Jesus is speaking to you personally, I did!

I Hear His Whisper … hold nothing back from Me…

“I want to be Lord over every part of your life—over your joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, goals and disappointments. I don’t want you to hold anything back. Beloved, come face-to-face with Me. Stand in My Presence and ask for my Spirit to reveal the areas that you haven’t fully surrendered to Me. It’s time for you to release control of those parts of your life that you’ve held on to.

Let the searching gaze of My Spirit into the secret caverns of your heart. There are situations and people that I will gently bring to your remembrance. It’s important that you don’t push such a thought back down but acknowledge it and bring it to me. 

Any pain, fear, trust issues, bad habits, wrong attitudes, or areas that you’re still holding tightly to must be given to Me. They are not yours to control. I love you, and I will lovingly correct you and draw you into the place of safety, where you can lay these things at My feet, once and for all. It’s time for you to rise to a new level of freedom.” Written by Brian Simmons and Gretchen Rodreguiz

Sometimes stuff simply ‘gets’ at us. And before we know it, we are reacting – without asking for any help, or Grace. And then we end up wondering where our peace went! That’s a good time to remember Jesus’ OCEAN OF GRACE and His MERCY FOUNTAIN.  We get there by way of repentance but we don’t have to go either place via the road of shame! I can’t apologise to those particular road workers, who had no clue I was cranky at them. But I can repent and ask for the Lord’s help to change. After praying I found a whole lot of stuff inside that I had no idea existed. Including pride and resentment, plus entitlement … because I’m often ill… poor me! I was reminded again, that my time is His time and He can spend it how He likes. 

Secondly my comfort – or not, is now in His hands. I repented and spoke a blessing over the men working so hard to make the roads safer for everyone, and revised my attitudes. Being ill and tired is no excuse. Actually I’m doing my best to give up excusing myself, it’s a waste of time. I want to go straight to: “What’s the problem here Lord please?” 

The thing I’ve noticed is that if I am being truly honest, I also must leave behind that sickly sweet little voice – that comes from inside ME. It’s definitely not the Lord! That voice is soooo sympathetic and it says things like: “That’s OK, you can’t help it, you have a lot to deal with.” You know, not every voice we hear is the devil. Sometimes it’s just OUR FLESH! Yikes! 

Like I’ve said before, deception comes from careless choices, and there is no other place for that junk but the cross! I want to close by saying it is worth reflecting on the fact that Jesus came to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many and He always had time for everybody – even when He was dying! So it’s no big deal if I’m asked to give a half an hour of my time, for a few hardworking road makers. 👋🏻