Will

P 2559 WE ARE ALL IN THE WILL.

/ DVH

“I am contending for you that your hearts will be wrapped in the comfort of heaven and woven together into love’s fabric. This will give you access to all the riches of God as you experience the revelation of God’s great mystery—Christ. For our spiritual wealth is in Him, like hidden treasure waiting to be discovered—heaven’s wisdom and endless riches of revelation knowledge.” Colossians 2:2-3 TPT.

It is good when we read scriptures and look carefully at the order that things are written in.. Paul is praying for us .. that AS our hearts are so wrapped up in the comforting thought that heaven is our home, and we decide to allow His Love to bind and weave us together — then we begin to get access to everything Christ died to give us! Did you see that? … I am reading the Lord’s Will! It is utterly fascinating that the word Testament means WILL. The bible has an Old Will and new Will! Ya might want to think on that! 🤔 Our Lord did not just buy us salvation – He LEFT us treasures! As a matter of fact He left us a whole lotta things … things that are so precious and priceless it should leave us breathless just thinking about them.

The main difficulty between us reading about, or collecting all of that incredible inheritance … which BTW already belongs to us  … is that we often become way too attached to what we have here. And we will need to give up one thing in order to access the other. We can waste the allotted time He has given to each of us right here, right now … or live in our inheritance today. This means that His kingdom will come, here and now – in us and then through us! Our Heavenly Father is way-out-of-our-imagination rich in heavenly things – things that are incredibly powerful when they are used and spent for the benefit of mankind.

Meanwhile. let’s briefly use our imaginations … here’s a fantasy scenario.’ A couple of years ago you suddenly found out that some trillionaire decided to leave you all of his wealth, including all his assets. Boy are you incredibly excited and you make sure you turn up to hear the reading of the will. But all you can think about is that your benefactor has the latest Ferrari, and what is more it’s bright red! Red cars always go faster, it’s a proven fact. 🏎️ So you listen, oh so patiently, to the lo-o-ng list of assets that have been left to you. Including the pots of money without number, but the truth is you are actually just listening for the word Ferrari! So you take the bit that you dearly want and then you leave.’ 

Going to church is, quite simply us reading Jesus’ will – week after week!  And so, BTW, is reading the bible!  And the good news is this …you and I, we qualify for ev-ery-thing!! 🤔 However when the mythical will in my fantasy scene is read, it would be a mistake to grab the keys and jump into that new Ferrari and off you go – never to return! That means you never go back and find out what else you’ve been given – because your sole focus is on that red car. So all those incredible riches are still sitting there, waiting for their rightful owner.

This is what salvation looks like to most Christians → Jesus saved us! Hallelujah! Amen! But He saved us from something FOR SOMETHING. If we just sit down and settle for salvation, and forget to take the time to find out what else the Lord Jesus died to give us – what He has left us, we are not reading all of the will. There are glorious God-designed and God-given riches that are available to us right now. We just need to find them and fight for them. Some of those gifts are PEOPLE!!  All of these things are far more incredibly valuable than we can ever understand. It isn’t until we discover them and start to use them, that we discover their true worth.

Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 13 …We all know what that says! Here’s an example of just one of those riches that I want to mention. JOY is God’s own happiness supernaturally spilled over into our hearts. Ya might want to think on that one! All of those spiritual traits mentioned in chapter 13 are supernatural — and we will have to fight with our own old nature, our enemy and life’s circumstances to claim them. But it is definitely worth the fight. Look! … We can go into a fierce battle with a pocket knife and a pop-gun, but we have more chance of winning if we take other people with us and an arsenal! Time for more thinking here …

Over to Colossians 3:12-14: “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”  See? We don’t even wear the same CLOTHES anymore!

These sometimes seemingly impossible Graces are part of the very same inheritance as salvation. So is every bit of revelation He has given to us! Christ Jesus didn’t die simply to save us – He died to transform us. But the Lord Jesus is a gentleman and He will not make us do anything. We have a choice. We can fight for our inheritance, our promised land or settle for the Ferrari! Our God is, beyond-our-wildest-imagination-and-dreams rich in things that are for right here, right now, yet they are priceless and eternal. And HE LOVES to share. 💕 Fight the urge to settle for less and go after the whole of your inheritance. We are ALL in that will! 👋

P 2525 Go after more!

/ DVH

Be self-motivated. Jesus Christ surrendered His will and His life for us, and now we voluntarily surrender our life —- the only life we have been given, to Him. We cannot afford to compartmentalise the Lord of all glory, into a designated time, place and space! The bible says: He is our all in all. We have the power to make that word, that God Himself spoke —- flesh… By doing it. Devotion to Christ is not an over-the-top concept – it is the reason we were saved!

“Be imitators of God in everything you do, for then you will represent your Father as His beloved sons and daughters. And continue to walk surrendered to the extravagant love of Christ, for He surrendered His life as a sacrifice for us. His great love for us was pleasing to God, like an aroma of adoration—a sweet healing fragrance.” Ephesians 5:1-2 TPT. 

This verse is telling us how we can please God, and smell good to Him. Forget Chanel, or Yves St. Laurent … death-to-self smells good to God. His only Son sacrificed His life, to give US life, and that pleased the Father. ‘Our lives are no longer our own, we’ve been bought with a price – paid for with a preciousness that is out of this world.’ Our own personal response to that incredible gift and invitation, matters.

After that we step through the door of deliberate obedience, into the world of the Holy Spirit. Those of us who may have been StarWars fans will know that famous line Yoda spoke. “Do or don’t do. There is no try.” Isn’t it amazing how the rocks cry out sometimes? There is no “try” in dying to self. We choose, we don’t try.  “We (deliberately) set our minds on the things above …” Colossians 3:2. In Christianity, there is no try. The thing is, it is way too easy to bail out of ‘trying’ when it gets too hard. We need to trust God with everything we have, because He gave us everything He had.

In the Old Testament smelling good to God included slaughtering and burning dead sheep, or a bull, a goat, or a turtledove. In my opinion, blood smells terrible. It has an ugly tinny metallic smell – ugh! Death smells even worse! Imagine the flies!! This was not a quiet gentle scene, with angel singing, and a holy hush! And yet our God loved it. “It is a burnt offering, a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.” Ephesians 5:17.

His own precious Son, hanging, dying a terrible, painful death was pleasing to Him – Almighty God looks through pain to the holy results. We simply must stop making a God after our own image by deciding that of course He will like what I like! He is not there to please US – we are here to choose to please HIM. 

And the real truth is, we still sometimes don’t know what He likes, because we are still learning. His book, the bible, keeps unfolding itself before our very eyes day after day after day!  That’s why Jesus said “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.” Matthew 5:6. We all need to go to church hungry and thirsty for more of God. 

Many people in our churches are now sitting back in their seats, arms folded, double-daring the poor pastor to say something they haven’t already heard! It is almost like they think God is lucky that they came there at all! Hebrews 2:1 says: “For this reason [that is, because of God’s final revelation in His Son Jesus and because of Jesus’ superiority to the angels] we must pay much closer attention than ever to the things that we have heard, so that we do not [in any way] drift away from truth.” My advice is to pray that we will always listen with our hearts open, even if we have heard some things before … maybe the pastor is not preaching new stuff because we are not doing what he has already taught us! Let’s selah that thought…

These pastors preach to inspire us to greater things. Their desire is to see us grow up into Christ Jesus’ likeness. Otherwise they are simply running a spiritual day-care centre. Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. With spiritual babies yelling play with me, feed me, make me feel important! No wonder these wonderful people, who are gifts from God Himself, can get fed up and quit the ministry! Yet Sunday after Sunday it can be so easy to thank this person for their sermon:  and still go home and kick the cat, yell at our spouse, and chastise our kids. And we kid ourselves that Jesus understands how hard it is to be us! 

We all need to mature. And maturation takes more than attending church meetings, bible studies, prayer meetings. It takes SELF-WATERING, plus the cultivated curiosity to get to know all three of the Trinity better. They are not just our ‘Suppliers’ of answers to prayer, or even wise life information. We have been saved to interact with the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. 

The Christian life is more than going to church Sunday by Sunday – it is a way to live. If we only ATE once a week we would rapidly starve. Most Christians are malnourished with some of the most brilliant meals in the world, right at their finger tips. We must grow up into the fullness of Christ. We will never realise our dreams for more, sitting about hoping it is going to fall on us! …  It is time to go after MORE.  👋🏻 Jeremiah 15:16.

P 2427 Forget needing a sandwich!

/ DVH

“Then the disciples began to insist that Jesus eat some of the food they brought back with them, saying, “Teacher, you must eat something.” But Jesus told them, “I have eaten a meal you don’t know about.” Puzzled by this, the disciples began to discuss it among themselves, “Did someone already bring Him food?” To clarify, Jesus spoke up and said, “My food is to do the will of Him Who sent Me and bring it to completion.”” John 4:31-34 TPT

Now there’s a tasty lunch: ‘My FOOD is to do the will of Him Who sent Me!’ Hubby sent me this scripture yesterday … after reading it himself. We sometimes do that. We like to swap any scriptures that grab us. This one, plus what hubby said he saw in it, blew my socks off! Meanwhile … I don’t actually wear 🧦 (… just saying is all.) 

Here’s what hubby said to me: “What if ‘doing what He says’ is the very thing that is meant to sustain our lives today? NOW?” As you can see, I thought what he said was incredibly important… Meanwhile … I’m still thinking on it … that’s a really big mind-blowing thought! Sometimes the Lord just has to shift our gears and turn us in another direction to reveal Himself further. Like C.S. Lewis said: “Higher up and further in!”  PS … isn’t it interesting that this revelation came after I talked about … ‘MORE Lord,’ yesterday? 😶

However, my immediate response was this: ‘I’m sure I couldn’t say that!’ It was the word ‘sustain’ that grabbed me by the throat. Then I came up with questions. What does sustain mean? What actually refreshes me so much it is like food to me? Is doing what God wants my primary mission? I love to obey Him when He prompts me to do something, and it blows my mind and heart to watch Him at work … but … sadly no – at this stage I don’t think I could say it is food and drink to me. Because food and drink, like Jesus said, sustain life.

Jesus Christ never had to ‘try to be spiritual.’ As it says, at that particular moment, He was simply hungry. You know, I don’t think the Lord ever shifted His focus from God’s will the whole time He was on earth! Jesus was never distracted by this life. And at that moment, when He was talking to that lady at the well, that fed Him in a way that blows my mind. He was so specific later on when He talked to His disciples. He called that simple interaction, food. He wasn’t even obsessed at all, as we often are, with getting another soul into the kingdom! Jesus didn’t do that. He didn’t have altar calls, or a show of hands. He let the truth loose to speak for itself. 

Imagine walking through this life, with all its twists and turns, so full of the life and love of God, when things bump into you – you spill that life and love everywhere. “Do me like that please Lord!” Amen!

Back to my point. What the Lord said to His disciples wasn’t a metaphor either! Jesus meant real food. He was energised and satisfied in His flesh by something He did in the Spirit. Doesn’t that just blow your mind? What a wonderful consequence to doing the will of God … We know that He walked minute by minute with the Holy Spirit, wherever He went. They flowed together to please the Father and impact mankind. 🤯 !

You know, when I look at some of the marvellous saints who have gone home before me, I stand rebuked by their strong faith and purpose. I can see there were many who have since died, who were definitely sustained in this life by what they did in faith. Their lives were lived in pure dedication to making His Name famous. People with hearts like the Moravians. Who left homes and families behind in this life to serve Christ in the darkest places on the earth. They had such devotion to Him. The very thought of those actions is astonishing to our hedonistic society – Jesus is more of a hobby, than a lifestyle. 

When I look at the Christian world around me I see many people who want to make a profit, as well as – making His Name famous and His will known. In my opinion, because we are the people who follow and want to serve Jesus Christ, we would be so much better off to be FED by what the Lord asks us to do – before we ever go on to those … “other things that He said would be added unto us!”

Instead we can easily end up living this life expecting Him to serve us, and as a consequence, sometimes we are disappointed when the outworking of our faith doesn’t meet our expectations. So here’s my conclusion, and it turned out to be an outrageous pun. At the very least – that verse is FOOD for thought! Bye. 👋🏻

P 2405 Without God it’s impossible!

/ DVH

““I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You’ll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind.” Luke 6:35 MSG.

Yup! Loving our enemies is impossible without the Holy Spirit’s assistance … His help. BUT, at the same time, we need to remember, the Holy Spirit knows the way through anything. Time and time again hubby and I have watched the Lord get us out of some disaster, scrape or hard time. Some of the time that stuff was absolutely our fault – we went the wrong way, said something stupid, or missed an opportunity. Some of it was just life! It happens!! We have learnt through personal experience, that the Lord can turn anything around. Some things might take longer than others, but we both know He will do it.

“…a man’s worst enemies will be right in his own home!” Matthew 10:36. Are you cheered up yet? Me neither. ☹️ However the truth of that remark has not escaped me. Even our families and friends won’t always get the way you and I are choosing to live. Many times I have had a family member tell me in a caring way: “You don’t have to be that serious about what you believe.” My inward response is … in a pig’s-eye I don’t!  Anything less than that kind of commitment and I will end up like that Simon and Garfunkel song …”Slip sliding away…”

So here’s a more comprehensive version of the above scripture from the Message bible: “Don’t think I’ve come to make life cozy. I’ve come to cut—make a sharp knife-cut between son and father, daughter and mother, bride and mother-in-law—cut through these cozy domestic arrangements and free you for God. Well-meaning family members can be your worst enemies. If you prefer father or mother over Me, you don’t deserve Me. If you prefer son or daughter over Me, you don’t deserve Me.”Yeah that one is definitely a down-a-later.  My first and only warning about that version is this — don’t even start looking for the people in your family who may turn out to be your enemies. In this case … ignorance is bliss! 

So how does this stuff track out? How do we know how to handle things? Family members may say they want this or that for your own good. But under that lovely phrase is a clue that they too, have an agenda. They think if you become a missionary to Afghanistan some bad guy is gunna get you, and if that happens it will cause everyone pain… including them. Even Christ’s family members opposed Him and made it harder for Him to do God’s will …EG His mother and His brothers …read the book!

The following remark is an awful thing, but it is totally true, we don’t know what we don’t know about ourselves, and others — until we are tested. Meanwhile our family/enemies may not want to kill us, maybe they just want to control us … for our own good. Sadly the spirit of control will take us immediately out of the realm of faith. Our God will not share His servants with anyone.

Now back to the meat of my subject, love your enemies. I rejoice that the Lord has given us this kind of stuff to do because it is impossible. The natural thing to do with someone who doesn’t like you… is avoid them! However, everything is possible with Him. So right away, when this happens we have an opportunity to grow our faith. But first you need to ask Him for His guidance, read the book, then listen to His prompting and after that you literally follow the prompts.

BTW I’ve noticed that a selfless attitude won’t fall on us – we have to submit to the Lord, then the enemy will flee. Unlike the Israelites with their enemy encounters, our enemies rarely have armour on or rush at us, so they are more likely to sneak up on us. 

Personally I just think it is best to treat everyone the same. Love them all. That works for me! Sorting out people into categories and picking out which one hates me sounds like a very negative pastime. So I think doing good to those who despitefully use us can be applied across the board. In my experience sooner or later even the people we love appear to be enemies temporarily! It’s the response bit that matters, not identifying the wrong-uns. That road leads to judgment.

We are responsible for our own reactions, and at the same time that means we need to acknowledge when we are utterly wrong and out of God’s order, and repent and repair wherever we can. We need His help because without His help loving our enemies is impossible. 👋🏻 

P 2400 We are not powerless – we can choose.

/ DVH

We need to accept the reality that as God’s family, we have power. JESUS GAVE IT TO US. Luke 10:19: “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” 

We have the power to choose to obey and work together with the Holy Spirit. That cannot be taken away from us, but it can be voluntarily surrendered if it is unknown, or under-appreciated.  satan can’t make US do anything – but he can tempt us in any area where we are weak … areas in our hearts and minds that are still unredeemed. 

This is why we need to deliberately pay attention to our spiritual lives. Our physical, emotional and mental lives will take over otherwise. Most of the time we do not fully comprehend that the power we have, means we can actually say NO to the devil, or even to the Lord Himself. I don’t recommend the latter but we can! Our God will not force us, but ,,, He may allow circumstances to persuade us to revise our decision. Remember Jonah??  

When we add the power of God, to the power of choice – human beings become unstoppable. I want to be clear about that. You or I might have prayed a prayer for someone to be saved, and so far that hasn’t happened. Even if we die – that prayer is still out there. Almighty God values our prayers. Jesus showed us that, when He prayed for Christians to be One. That particular prayer is awaiting its tipping point — it hasn’t happened yet, but that does not mean it won’t! “There is a TIME for every purpose under heaven …”  Ecclesiastes 3:1. 

I personally don’t think that our prayers have an expiry date, but sometimes the content needs to be checked with the Lord, first. Our problem is that it is unfortunately too easy to think that when something goes unanswered after a longish period of time, it won’t be answered at all. In the bible, we see people negotiating with the Lord. Maybe some things need negotiation!  When we pray something in agreement with the Holy Spirit, together with God’s Word, it cannot fail – because our voice is joined to His. 

Sadly, for years we’ve applied this scripture or that scripture as leverage to get what we want —for things that were about gain, to make our lives better. I honestly don’t think that things, no matter how important they seem at the time, matter. Because things don’t last. Human beings, however, last forever! We are eternal beings.  Even when I give to benefit others, I am entering into His eternal principles. But if I only want to gain things for my own comfort in this life, then my prayer is simply to satisfying my desire for temporal things. 

The enemy of our souls has hooked us into caring more about temporal things than we do about eternal things. The result has been great disappointment and disillusionment for many. However the transformation of a human heart from selfishness, strife, anger, lying, cheating, and disloyalty etc. IS, in itself, a miracle. What we allow God to change in us, in our lifetime – is a glimpse of eternity to come, here and now. That is how we become carriers of His glory and partakers of His nature. Rom. 6:11-14; Gal. 5:16,25.

We are not powerless in the Lord’s process of redemption in our lives. But change does not come by osmosis either. It happens as a co-operative. We obey His will, His way, and as we do that, He transforms us. We can still wilfully choose to be bad tempered, and sometimes it has nothing whatsoever to do with anyone else!  Although there are some people who delight in creating what I call opportunities for us to fall into! 

The way to be strong in the Lord, is to learn to resist temptation. The bible calls it ‘overcoming’ and it tells us to “…flee from temptation…”  Unfortunately if we walk too slowly away, then we can also sort of kind of stroll back again! And in those moments we start assessing how bad could those things really be? And then at other times we dive in where angels fear to tread. These temptations are things that we already know will bring only a temporary thrill or satisfaction. Our aim is to walk with Him – so that’s where our focus needs to be.

We are not powerless – we can choose, because we are a powerful people.“(God’s) divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” 2 Peter 1:3 NIV. 👋🏻 

P 2382 Faith needs to shape how we look at things.

/ DVH

A renewed mind creates an environment for faith to be activated. But even so, we still need to go past renewing our minds — into acting on God-given revelations. Because our mind is not the source of faith – the bible alive within us and coming out of us, IRL, is!  We need a faith revolution. We need people who take every word that comes out of God’s mouth, seriously. Let’s start whatever we do, with the book!

Our God’s idea of faith needs to shape everything, even how we see any disasters in our lives.  Sometimes all we want is trouble fixed and everything AOK and sorted, so we can get on with what we really want to do! Did I say that out loud?? 😳 Most things we’ve believed in the past were validated by the way we read His book. We actively went looking for verses to prove our point, because we wanted life to be easy. So we found lots of verses that suited our theology, tied them all together and went with them.

Sadly we were reading the book to get stuff and be happy and stay happy! Instead of letting it teach us how to follow Jesus. For a number of years we rattled off ‘positive verses’ at each other and we went right round the ‘hard’ ones about dying to self. Unfortunately, so many Christians believers fell down this plug hole. We quoted things to and at each other, and waved those things at our Heavenly Father when we wanted something. That came under the heading — “God loves me and He wants me to be happy!” And off we sailed, into the sunset, waving these verses around, like some sort of good luck charm.

From now on, we need to look deeper into the book and digest what is in there! Jesus Christ’s life led Him to a Cross – but many of us think that we don’t have to follow Him there, because He already did all that for us. Really?? The bible is way bigger than our thoughts of gain. Meanwhile, did you know that in God’s way of thinking more than two things can be true all at once?? So here’s another different thought  — Jesus died to give us the power to live the same sort of life He lived. Sac-ri-fi-cial-ly. He died to give us the power to live for Him, doing whatever He did to tell others the good news. He lived with total dedication to God’s will, laying aside the charm and comfort of this life so that others could hear about God’s plan. That sure sounds like a cross to me!

Jesus consistently talked about the sort of faith that had difficult kinds of actions to go with it – stuff like forgiveness. Read the book! In the Beatitudes it says: ‘If your brother offends you … go to your brother.’ ‘Leave your gift at the altar and … go to your brother.’ You know as a younger Christian attending a lively church … I could never figure out why the road to church was not busy with people being reconciled. 

The same people who believed that God could do anything that they needed Him to do, didn’t seem to believe that reconciliation was important. Instead they simply avoided anyone who annoyed them. Or, as a last resort, they left that church. Here’s a fun fact – reconciliation is TOP of the Lord’s list. Christ started that list by what He did. He was an example for us. If we want to live a life of faith then FAITH needs to run the life we live. Not just agreement. The devil agrees with the bible! Check out James 2:19. 

If we take one or two, or even four verses that we like the sound of, and paste them over our lives, we are missing the biblical wider picture. That’s why we need to do more than read. We need to act on these things – practise them!. Let’s be careful of presenting one thing, or even a group of like-minded things as the only answer… when they are merely AN answer – one of many! Our God cannot be summed up in human words – He’s God. Our only response is to fall on our faces and obey Him. 

It is time to get rid of the selective weeds we’ve taken on board, the sort that can strangle true faith and total dedication to His will. Great verses taken out of context become a weed. If you don’t believe me then read Matthew 4:1-11, and watch with your own eyes … satan is trying to plant weeds in Christ’s heart, in the temptation in the wilderness!  

There is nothing like working with Jesus, doing things His way, to experience Him. Here’s a verse to pray over: “The people who love their God will be strong and do great exploits.”  Daniel 11:32. That verse is not just a suggestion – it’s a statement of fact! Daniel sure knew all about great exploits and his were very costly. Our faith shapes how we see things, so let’s look hard at what we think we believe and get rid of any weeds – and start reading and doing the hard bits to renew our minds. 👋🏻

“ …My old identity has been co-crucified with Christ and no longer lives. And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the Anointed One lives His life through me—we live in union as one! My new life is empowered by the faith of the Son of God Who loves me so much that He gave Himself for me, dispensing His life into mine!”Galatians 2:19-20 TPT

P 2359 Psalm 3.

/ DVH

King David’s song when he was forced to flee from Absalom, his own son: “Lord, I have so many enemies, so many who are against me. Listen to how they whisper their slander against me, saying: “Look! He’s hopeless! Even God can’t save him from this!”  Pause in His Presence. But in the depths of my heart I truly know that You, Yahweh, have become my Shield; You take me and surround me with Yourself. Your glory covers me continually. You lift high my head. I have cried out to You, Yahweh, from Your holy presence You send me a Father’s help. Pause in His presence

So now I’ll lie down and sleep like a baby—then I’ll awake in safety, for You surround me with Your glory. Even though ten thousand dark powers prowl around me. I won’t be afraid. Rise up and help me, Yahweh! Come and save me, God! For You will slap them in the face, breaking the power of their words to harm me. FOR THE LORD ALONE IS MY SAVIOUR. What a feast of favour and bliss He gives His people! Pause in His presence.”

Some times the people we love dearly, the ones who are our family, can do the most damage. It doesn’t even have to be what they say – neglect and abandonment can devastate us. The first point I want to make today is that this kind of scenario is not a walk in the park. We can’t just click our heels and the bad bits will go away. These things severely test us and often challenge our belief systems.They test our resolve to follow Him no matter what happens. 

Some things are a choice, but when it comes to family, those things are the places where we find we are most vulnerable. Family is about history. They knew you when. You knew them from birth…. That kind of history tears at our hearts like very little else, and betrayal from those who are meant to protect and care for us brings deep wounds. My advice is this;  start this process with healing, not rebuking or blaming your self. Ask the Lord Himself to be your Father and help you with the places that are bleeding inside from all that betrayal you feel. 

Don’t make excuses for them, and don’t make excuses for you either. It is what it is. David’s son was trying to kill him to take the throne. It wasn’t a whoopsie, or an error of judgment, it was a deliberate act of betrayal for Absalom’s gain. If you read the story, (2 Samuel 13-37 -15-12), Absalom went about whispering in other people’s ears, trying to turn the people’s loyalty away from David. That is not a mistake, it is deliberate SIN. In Absalom’s case it was jealousy and pride. He was beautiful and popular and he knew it and then pride took over.

Sometimes our family member/s are not simply making a mistake, they have joined their allegiances with destruction. They may call it correction, or caring for you, but because you are maintaining some degree of freedom or other they do not have, they will try to stop you anyway they can. Jesus Himself said this about families in Matthew 10:36 –“Don’t think I’ve come to make life cozy. I’ve come to cut—make a sharp knife-cut between son and father, daughter and mother, bride and mother-in-law—cut through these cozy domestic arrangements and free you for God. Well-meaning family members can be your worst enemies. If you prefer father or mother over Me, you don’t deserve Me. If you prefer son or daughter over Me, you don’t deserve Me.”

Look, if Jesus Himself talked about it, then difficulties like this aren’t totally unexpected. My only advice is grieve for your loss and ask the Lord to heal your heart with His Grace and Love, and then, immediately go on to choosing forgiveness. Some family members will turn around, and others will see your forgiving heart as something that can be used against you. Then you will need grace, grace and more grace. Don’t leave home without it, because Grace can do the impossible. 

Don’t just content yourself with forgiving out of some kind of familial loyalty – ask and keep on asking for His Grace to truly forgive. INSIST. Meanwhile difficulties like this can take time to heal, so keep on believing God is helping you – and don’t quit. Take your focus off the family member/s that are persecuting you, and deliberately give those people as an act of your will, to Jesus. And then keep on doing that each time they come up in your mind – eventually Jesus in you will win.

At the same time it is good to go on into blessing these folks until you find you really mean it. It’s all a process and an extremely hard one at that. Your job is to watch over your heart and leave the work to the Holy Spirit. Let’s give thanks that we have a Parent Who never stops loving us, and He is totally devoted to the restoration of families. 👋🏻

P 2355 Meekness is not weakness.

/ DVH

I believe the body of Christ has yet to discover the true value of meekness. The One Who rules the world and also made it, was led away by wicked, jealous men and yet He said nothing. He also said nothing when they beat Him mercilessly, and shoved a cruel crown of thorns into His head. He even gave His hands to the men who nailed them to the cross. God’s will was more important to the Lord than His own, even when it involved torture.

These things are Christ’s life illustrations, they show us we need the Holy Spirit’s help all the time, because He knows the way through whatever this life throws at us. There will always be a temptation to retaliate strongly to injustice and cruelty. And … there are also times we respond passively, underhandedly, by trying to control things. That’s not meekness. A meek person accepts God’s will and His timing – no matter the personal cost.  

The word MEEK means “quiet, gentle, and easily imposed on. It is a companion to submission and having a submissive heart.” Bad things are going to happen to all of us, we can’t avoid them, but to have a heart like Christ has, that means everything to a meek person. Bill Mounce, who is a biblical Greek expert, defines the Greek word praus – translated meek or gentle – as: “the positive moral quality of dealing with people in a kind manner, with humility and consideration.”

At the same time meekness doesn’t see someone else’s sins, mainly because it isn’t even looking for them! The whole purpose of this grace is to find out what the King wants, and do that! Anything else is white noise. A meek person will deal with themselves no matter what the other guy is up to, because they take what Jesus said personally, so they remain humble and always available for change. 

Meekness starts and is perfected in our relationship with the Lord, first of all. Accepting His will for my life helps me accept whatever He does with yours. Our God totally believes in each one of us because He sees us one of us through the filter of the cross, but we must not abuse that filter for our own purposes. Instead a meek person is grateful – that Jesus would stoop so low to make us acceptable – that provokes submission, and service to others in them. 

I decided that this would be a good time to say that meekness is a fruit of the Spirit!! In the bible in 1 Corinthians 13 it is called “long-suffering.” In today’s society meekness is the total opposite of what we are being taught is … our rights!!  We discard this particular Grace at our own peril.  When meekness is rejected as weakness people become narcissistic. They say thing like: “My rights and needs must be met so I will take them by force if necessary!” A person Who is meek is more likely to care about your rights than their own.

However meek people are not passive people, they have simply made a decision that walking with the Holy Spirit is more important than anything else – including their so-called rights. A submissive meek heart can be cultivated under the Holy Spirit’s guidance, leading and correction. “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble.” 1 Peter 5:5.

There are times we can mistakenly think that those niggly little seemingly incidental, unimportant disobedient things we do, have gone away. But in reality they’ve actually turned us inch by inch away from the path He’s put in front of us UNTIL WE CAN NO LONGER SEE THAT PATH AT ALL. It is up to us to keep our relationship trimmed, full of oil and ready to ‘go” when the bridegroom calls for us. Meekness lies down that pathway of clarity, humility and obedience. Independence is a luxury we simply cannot afford. We need Him and we need each other.

Jesus Himself said – in the Beatitudes: Matthew 5:5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Meek people have great faith. They believe that life can be changed by utterly surrendering to the King, because they have learnt there is NOTHING this King cannot do with totally submitted yielded vessels.  👋🏻

P 2336 Spiritual stretching exercises.

/ DVH

We dare not ‘play’ at following Jesus, because our lack of spiritual focus will make us vulnerable to the enemy’s wiles. It seems to me that simply agreeing with biblical principles needs to stop and we must apply ourselves to consciously start living them out – with His help. Seriously, our lack of total commitment is nailing one of our beautiful feet to the floor. And round and round we go, debating this and ignoring that …because: ..’that doesn’t apply to me. The bible is an old book and I don’t have to take everything in it that seriously… blah blah blah.’  

Really? I am amazed that people think like that. Have we never heard of such a thing as a BLIND SPOT? I know I have them all over the place. They are things I formed opinions about when I was younger, and those things suited me so I kept them. They were “nice” theology – but they fell short of God’s bigger picture. His bigger picture always includes changing ME … and none of us are exempt from that kind of change. By change, I mean total transformation. Living devoted lives of happy obedience.

Moses, who was pretty ancient at the time, missed out on a blessing because he disobeyed God. He did not go into the Promised land because he banged on a rock twice instead of once like God told him to. The Lord expected obedience from this man. And there is no point saying he was Moses and I am not, ‘because God is no respecter of persons.’ That boat simply will not float. The Lord expected obedience from the Israelites too. It seems to me that obedience is extremely important to Almighty God.!

“From everyone to whom much has been given,  much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.”  Luke 12:48b. When is the last time we saw that saying embroidered on a wall hanging or written in fancy letters somewhere?! Moses could have blamed old age … but he didn’t. He respected the Lord’s response to his disobedience and accepted Almighty God’s edict. He was given much so much was required.. For Moses that meant after dealing with all those impossible people – he missed out! Obedience is part of total surrender. 

Total surrender is actually not an optional extra, it is a way of life! We are currently in a war for the hearts and minds of men, women, and children, everywhere – all the people who live around us. Compromise is not in it. Look at Daniel from the book that has his name on it, he stood up when King Nebuchadnezzar said: “bow down.” Or how about Ruth who decided to follow Naomi home and found a whole new life. Or David who took one look at a giant and said: “not on my watch you don’t pal!” Compromise is the enemy of total surrender. It tolerates ‘ifs’ and ‘buts.’

I have found hands down, total surrender to be the best thing I ever did – apart from giving my life to Him in the first place!  That is kind of the same thing really, but nobody told me that at the time! I remind myself of this surrender every single day. The reason we sometimes struggle with God’s will is because we have one foot in the kingdom and the other in this world. The result is a form of double-mindedness and confusion. Jesus said: “No man can serve two masters…”

Total surrender means whatever problem I have is now His problem, because I no longer have an agenda. He promised me He will order my steps, Psalm 37:23-24, and even if I fall over or mess up – HE HOLDS ME UP. I know it sounds over the top but that is actually the safest place to live. I’ve learnt to trust Him, no matter what happens. He’s in charge and He’s Almighty God so He can take care of it. Then I do whatever He tells me to do, and then … I leave it all alone. And sometimes I cope, and sometimes I don’t – any pressure from outside seems to be my nemesis. 

If I panic or start to worry over things, I repent and go back to leaving everything with Him. It’s not rocket science. If I start meddling or trying to fix things on my own, then I repent, etc. Perhaps it is my age, but simple works best for me. It is the same with prayer, I ask, then I do whatever He says and then I just leave it. 

Total surrender stretches you, because we’ve all been running our own lives for quite a while. But it is worth it –  because when we trust the Lord to look after us, and the things that matter to us, we are opening our hearts up to His Way to live. That’s when the adventure really begins. It is scary and wonderful …all at the same time, and it’s the best spiritual stretching exercise there is! Bye 👋🏻

P 2248 Make a commitment to obey.

/ DVH

Here are some things I’ve learnt over the years that have helped me with growing fruit, that lasts. My first bit of advice is that we need to do what He says. It will not help us to make excuses for ourselves, just do it anyway. And here’s the oddest thing like … ever! 🤪 The Holy Spirit’s fruit grows when we are not looking, and it grows from our deliberately chosen and carried out, obedience. This has taught me that we are not saved to be blessed … although we definitely are!  Instead we are saved to be a blessing.

“I just want to obey all You ask of me. So teach me, Lord, for You are my God. Your gracious Spirit is all I need, so lead me on good paths that are pleasing to You, my One and only God!” Psalms 143:10.

When I first became a Christian I was one of those people that other ‘“normal” Christians avoided. I was just too enthusiastic. To be fair, it was a quiet little denominational church, and I was kind of a culture shock. Well, 50 years later I can say – “I think I’m worse, now!” Ha! Ha! … And I’m not sorry either. Growth is essential, even if we all have to learn the hard way sometimes, and growth means changing. Some things have taken me years to learn. I’d purpose in my heart not to make that mistake again, and then fall down the same hole, because my own feelings and previous hurts sucked me in.

Learning to forgive over and over again is difficult. Some people just keep re-offending, no matter how often you ask them to ‘please, stop!’ No wonder Jesus said we must forgive others even if our brother offends us 490 times in a day! Sadly, some people seem to have perfected the offending others skill, into an art form. Over time I’ve learnt that the people around me probably won’t change when I need them to, instead I needed to change my response to their sin. I’m definitely going to need the Holy Spirit’s help to do that!

For years the Lord taught me that obedience is better than sacrifice, so I learnt to obey whatever He asked me to do, whenever He told me to do it. Sometimes when I did those faith things for Him, I looked like a goose … but most of the time, I saw HIM in action. Boy watching God work after you’ve given Him room, is incredibly addictive … in a good way. 😊 You can’t wait to obey again, trust me!!  Meanwhile looking like a goose is kind of good for excessive pride – win-win! 

However, I still had no victory over some negative stuff from my childhood. I’d go up the front and get prayed for, and a few days later all my good will had worn off and I would go back down the hole again. What helped me in the end was my commitment to obedience. Whenever the Holy Spirit told me to go and help somebody, I did that immediately. But until the Lord revealed His Ways to me, I did not understand that changing my character happens the same way. 

I kept asking Him to do it for me. I think I expected that I would just wake up one day different, and it would all be easy. I knew He wanted to help me with these things, it says so in the book! But I failed to realise that I had to step out in faith and do the exact thing I thought and felt I couldn’t do – just because He had said it, and that’s also in the book. Instead, I had to learn to monitor myself – one conversation, one thought, one interaction at a time. I needed to say NO to my grumpy impulses born from all that pain, and ask Him to heal me. Our hearts are born to bear fruit – but His fruit cannot grow in an angry broken heart. The fruit of the Spirit needs a new soft heart toward others to grow so I had to learn to let Him soften my heart toward the people who continually hurt me.

Saying no to our natural impulses in the heat of a moment, begins the process of growing the fruit of self-control. Self-control grows out of that obedience, as His acceptance of us takes over our thinking. Proverbs says: “He who guards his mouth preserves his life, But he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction.” And James 3:2 also taught me a secret. He said this: “We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check…”  

I discovered that mastering my inner pain was dependant on my choices to obey what He said, in the book. He taught me that obedience counts. Not just to do this or that good work He prepared for me before I was ever born – it also helps me overcome my failings. This way of life has been my constant learning curve ever since. When I do what He says, I do well and experience victory – when I don’t I fall down a hole and feel sorry for myself … and get up and go again! 

The same obedience that I use to do His will, can form my character, one chosen step at a time. 👋🏻