wisdom

P 2394 Releasing His Grace.

/ DVH

Forgiving someone is simply the starting place for the process of releasing Grace into a sinful atmosphere. We ask the Lord for His Grace, and then we release that God-given Grace toward the person who has sinned against us or offended us. This is a deliberate act, using our faith. Most of the time we probably won’t feel like doing it immediately – but immediately is definitely the best time! 

However, I’ve found that the memory of whatever happened to me, can come up again and again. So I need to release His Grace again. I don’t have to forgive again, I just need to release more Grace toward that person. We step into the flow of the Holy Spirit and, living with His Grace toward us, we don’t step out again. Grace is like air, it comes in and goes out.

When we go to the cross and confess our sin of judgment or whatever, and repent, we are reminding ourselves that the cross of Christ is our source of endless eternal Grace. No matter how hard I try, I cannot forgive someone who sins against me, in my mind, or even my feelings. I need to use faith to do it. I ask the Lord for His help and then I deliberately pray and release that person from my judgment. I know I personally have a tendency to steer clear of people who hurt me. That’s not GRACE … it’s avoidance. BTW, the more you hold resentments against others the more skilled you will become at finding fault in them.

Now if I think about a bad thing that has happened, EG …’they did this, but I didn’t deserve it’…and ruminate over what happened, then I can easily rehearse myself back into the same state that I started in – or even worse. Instead I must go back to the cross, and Him ask for His Grace, and repent for digging up someone else’s sin. This needs to be a daily habit, because some bad attitudes sneak up on all of us, and we end up 200 kms down the wrong road without even noticing it! We need to acknowledge other people’s sins, then forgive them, and start releasing Grace every time we think of them.

We have been saved to be His GRACE dispensers. That’s what healing is – God’s Grace toward the sick. It’s what wisdom is, it’s what the power of God IS. We embrace the companionship of the Holy Spirit and cherish Him by our obedience. Grace is God’s unmerited favour over our lives, and His people can release that power toward others by forgiving someone else who doesn’t deserve it. Jesus set that example. But we cannot manufacture this stuff without humbling ourselves and admitting our need of it, first. Grace is heaven’s currency.

Transformation occurs when we walk in, and value His Grace for us, and through us. Instead of making our own needs our priority. If we choose not to participate in the flow of His Grace we are actually holding other people captive, because God gave us the power to release them into His hands. (John 20:23)… That power is designed to flow through us. We become acquainted with the power of the Holy Spirit when we live this way – we can’t, or won’t live this way of ourselves, but when He is in charge, we can.

Personally, I can’t live the life I currently have, without utterly relying upon the Holy Spirit and His Grace. Most people I know don’t think about stuff the same way I do. We simply do not gather information the same way. God’s way of Grace is the great undergirding that brings us all together. Outside of His Grace I know that I am probably going to get clunked upside the head by someone, or something or other, and spend a week trying to simply stand up again so I can keep on walking with Jesus. I’ll probably tread on someone else as well! And, if I am not paying attention to what matters, I will fall right out of Grace into judgment. Then judgment picks up resentment and that leads to bitterness.

The good news is Christ overpaid our debt so we have a limitless supply of Grace. What do I mean by that? Let’s start with the obvious. I don’t mean that we can do whatever we like, and live however we want to, ignoring God’s wishes and His instructions in the bible! That is treating God’s costly Grace, disrespectfully and irreverently. We have more than enough Grace to give away, not to horde or misuse for our own agendas, pettiness or deliberate sin.

His Grace received into my life is the beginning of a production line. It produces the kingdom of God in me, and releases His kingdom toward you.  It facilitates a better relationship between me and God, and me and you! Grace washes us both clean, so we can live God-conscious lives instead of sin-conscious ones. Part of the function of this Grace production line is that it becomes the new way we live, as we practise it. We automatically release it to others, and that Grace flowing into and out of our lives, continually washes us. It is much harder to be proud when you know that without His Grace you are sunk! 

Finally, Grace produces gratefulness. It is an equaliser. Everybody needs it. It will produce the kingdom of God in our lives, if we choose to live and walk in it and work with it. Here’s a huge clue that might help you, so you can step into the flow of God’s Grace – if you roll your eyes, or grind your teeth when you see someone – you need His Grace to help you. Releasing undeserved Grace to others gives us balance, we know full well, at any minute we will need it too! 👋🏻

Romans 12:18: “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”

P 2387 God calls us His riches.

/ DVH

“I pray that the Father of glory, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, would impart to you the riches of the Spirit of wisdom and the Spirit of revelation to know Him through your deepening intimacy with Him. I pray that the light of God will illuminate the eyes of your imagination, flooding you with light, until you experience the full revelation of the hope of His calling —that is, the wealth of God’s glorious inheritances that He finds IN US,His holy ones! I pray that you will continually experience the immeasurable greatness of God’s power made available to you through faith. Then your lives will be an advertisement of this immense power as it works through you! This is the mighty power that was released when God raised Christ from the dead and exalted Him to the place of highest honour and supreme authority in the heavenly realm!” Ephesians 1:17-20.

Did you know that because the Lord has all of us in His family, He considers Himself wealthy? He doesn’t care if you and I are fat, skinny, short, tall, good looking, extremely spiritual, or not. The bible says He counts US as His wealth. Now that’s something worth thinking on isn’t it? It shows us His heart toward us. I’ve prayed that God would illuminate the eyes of my heart for myself for years, because I know how easy it is to be distracted by this world and become as thick as a plank to the deep things of God. But everything we have ever needed or wanted we will find in Him.

We human beings concentrate on what we will gain from Him loving us, but we need to pause and look hard at what He says HE has gained, because that information is a sliver of insight into His Ways – Who He is. His incredible generosity. Before we were ever His adopted children, He looked at us with love and saw every single bit of our true potential in Him and He claimed US as His inheritance. Father God sees Himself as rich simply because we are His family. I find that astonishing! Especially because I know many people have been rejected and reviled by their earthly family. 

Today, the things we think make us as human beings rich, are mostly material things. In the Western world we accumulate ‘stuff’ a lot – it makes us look quite wealthy. Perhaps we are monetarily rich, but spiritually poor because our worth is measured by accumulation and achievements. But our God has chosen to love us simply because we are His family. If you and I are looking for acceptance, incredible acceptance flows freely from His throne.🙌

Paul is praying here in Ephesians for all of us, that we would understand what we have that was freely given to us. Sad to say, human beings can get so stuck in the things we are not – that we forget the most important thing of all. We are His and, it is only by His Grace that we know it. He chose us. Our worth is not in money, but in the fact that SomeOne so incredible – dearly and tenderly loves us. We have His love, and grace upon us … that very fact will take us into eternity. We’re loved and cherished by the One Who made the world, then He went further than that and saved us … then He went even further than that and He owned us … He claims us as His relatives. His kids. How amazing is that?

I think that realising and appreciating what we have already been given helps keep us content in a discontented world. Discontent rumbles around this world daily … my team won, your team lost. That guy got a promotion, I didn’t. That kid got great marks, I didn’t. Maybe this is why so many people have gotten into huge debt. Discontentment with the norm grabbed them and they want to escape it and prove to themselves they are special.

We are special because we are special in His eyes and that doesn’t change. Father God hates sin, not the man He made. We are made valuable by the fact that the God of all the Universe loves us. The value of the price He paid, is an indication of the depth of the love He has for us. When Jesus Christ died as a MAN, He gave us all worth.  

My point is this: fancy all of us working so hard to get something we already have! All of mankind is made in His image. You and I were His idea! I believe this is why the eyes of our hearts need to be DAILY enlightened. When we get saved, we are incredibly grateful for it … but then, for some reason, we do not park there. We move on. All I want to say today is – go back to the place where you first understood His salvation and stay there. We must have an appreciation for His sacrifice, not with our heads but with our hearts.

There is a part of us that needs to continually gaze at God’s love hanging on that cross for the world to see – and not stop doing it. It is a good thing to relive our gratitude for what He has given us, every single day, and enjoy our new found love in Him as it grows. It is in the light of the cross, where our real place in this world and the next is made clear. We don’t have to be special to this world’s eyes, we are God’s riches because we are the saved ones. “Oh, what manner of love the Father gives that we may be called the sons of God!”  We are His chosen riches and I pray we all know how very rich we are because of all He did for us.. Bye 👋🏻. 

P 2386 Headlines from today are in the book. “Children will lead.”

/ DVH

Isaiah 3:1-7 “The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, is emptying Jerusalem and Judah Of all the basic necessities, plain bread and water to begin with.He’s withdrawing police and protection, judges and courts, pastors and teachers, captains and generals, doctors and nurses, and, yes, even the repairmen and jacks-of-all-trades. He says, “I’ll put little kids in charge of the city. Schoolboys and schoolgirls will order everyone around. People will be at each other’s throats, stabbing one another in the back: Neighbour against neighbour, young against old, the no-account against the well-respected. One brother will grab another and say, ‘You look like you’ve got a head on your shoulders. Do something! Get us out of this mess. And he’ll say, ‘Me? Not me! I don’t have a clue. Don’t put me in charge of anything.’”

The Lord gave me one sentence this morning, and that’s the title of today’s blog. I looked up the phrase and found about a billion verses about how to be nice to kids, but I couldn’t find this particular one He put on my heart. However, I have learnt to persevere, plus hubby prayed for me, so I found it. Yay Isaiah! And if, per chance you think that I picked this version on purpose you would be right … but it says the same thing in all the versions. You would do well to go back and read it again because it reads like the newspaper and TV headlines.

I was gobsmacked. I tried to highlight any bits that spoke to me, and I simply couldn’t … all of it was relevant in today’s world. Scary huh?? This is what the Lord said to me: “My heart is grieving and bleeding for your kids.” BTW that’s not just your kids or my kids or even our grandkids – He means the kids that are out there right now, on our streets terrorising our neighbourhoods. We helped put them into those greedy grasping authority-defying attitudes when we refused to discipline them. We got “enlightened” … and decided our kids didn’t need smacking because the little darlings were basically good.

Maybe because you and I went to church and we drew our own kids in a little closer and hid them under the umbrella of ‘God’s kids’ and prayed and prayed for them, scared silly of what might happen to them. You know we can get so busy trying to protect our kids – that we forget about all the other kids who are now running riot in our streets!  BUT … “There is no fear in love …!!!”  Ya might want to think about that one.

Then Big Brother came along and threatened us with child abuse and told us he would throw us in jail if we didn’t stop smacking them. So we let fear rule – and these kids … who don’t know how to control themselves, were loose – doing what comes naturally all over the place. We’ve forgotten who the ruler of this world is! he grabbed them and dragged them down. Those kids are our future. Think on this, satan could not have offered Jesus any kingdom if the other guy did not already own them. We live in enemy territory – that’s why it is a bad idea to make ourselves at home here!

The bible has many helpful hints on parenting. “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)“Do not withhold correction from a child, For if you beat him with a rod, he will not die. You shall beat him with a rod, And deliver his soul from hell.” Proverbs 23:13-14 “Parents, don’t provoke your children in a way that ends up discouraging them.”’ (Colossians 3:21)

BTW, disciplining in anger is a really bad idea. Both the child and the parent need a time out – the parent needs to work on patience and the child needs boundaries. A child needs to learn that it cannot allow self-expression to rule the family. Being part of something bigger and Godly, is protection not oppression, it is Grace. How you and the Lord work that out for each child is between you and Him.

I don’t think I will be part of the generation who will solve this serious problem with angry children raging about doing others great harm. But we can pray, because we know our Heavenly Father loves those kids. He put judgment on Jesus, and just because they don’t know that fact, that does not change the reality. We need to treat them like kids who need guidance and instruction and teach them His kind of love. And pray that He will save them from themselves.

We must pray for God to raise up people who will personally pray and love them in spite of their anger and selfishness as well as reach out to them. We must not cede our responsibilities to the state, because the state’s answers are not Godly. The state does the immediate, it rarely thinks long-term – they neither ask for, nor walk in His wisdom. God has a way for these kids to go so they won’t depart from it.  We simply need His wisdom, His way and the saints need to pray.

Let’s start asking the Holy Spirit how He wants us to reach out to other people’s kids in our area. We need God-given strategies. The Holy Spirit knows the way through anything! GOD LOVES THOSE KIDS, and, right now, in this world, WE are His hands and feet. Bye.  👋🏻 🦶🏻

P 2384 Single-mindedness.

/ DVH

I was awake at 3.00am the other day, thinking about Joshua. What an incredible man! Later, as I read about him, I discovered he is often featured as a great example of how to be a leader. Actually, I’m not interested in that angle – I’m pretty sure loads of other people have covered that better than I can – I only have 10 paragraphs or less! Today I’m interested in Joshua as a person who loved God. He’s a great example of someone who decided to follow the Lord, no matter where it led him. 

I want to talk about him because he was incredibly singleminded. That’s a quality we can all use! Some people might call that dedicated. The first thing I asked myself was why did Joshua remain behind in the tent of meeting when Moses left? Here’s what I think, I think this man fell in love with God Himself, after spending so much time in His Presence. This attitude is not something that can be taught, nor can it be enforced. But Joshua shows us that living a life dedicated to the Lord, and valuing His Presence above everything else, is a real, valid, productive way to live. 

It is way too easy today, to think that living a life devoted to our Lord Jesus is a bit too hard. There are just so many forces about trying to drag us away, so it almost seems like ” … it is kind of OK… to just do your best and live as good a life as you can.” Just so long as we go to church, read our bible and pray, then surely that’s OK? Personally, I think that we have an extraordinary God Who deserves our best and I really like the way Joshua thought, and lived. Soaking in God’s Presence produced so much wisdom in this man. It made him humble, reverent and teachable and strong in the Lord. You can read about him here – Exodus 17, 24, 32, 33; Numbers, Deuteronomy, the book of Joshua.

In Joshua’s time he was surrounded by people who preferred EASE. It seems to me that the Israelites expected God to prove Himself by spoon-feeding them whatever they wanted, to win them over. They had been in captivity for hundreds of years, and although their captivity was evil, murderous and dire – it actually actively taught them to be HELPLESS. Does that sound at all familiar??? This God-chosen nation kind of proves, that you can take a man out of Egypt, but getting Egypt out of a man is a whole other ballgame! 

Let’s just kind of pause and look at the words – God-chosen first of all. Yes, God chose us first, yes we are now HIS people, but as you can see from the stories of Exodus, Deuteronomy and Numbers etc. being chosen does not give us a licence to live this life however we want. Being chosen has responsibilities. We do people a grave disservice if we teach them that following Jesus is an all-you-can-eat-or-want buffet! Joshua made some very hard choices and decisions in his life. However, I think deliberately choosing to live in God’s Presence gave this man the tenacity, wisdom and the character he needed. Personally I don’t think these skills can be taught, I think they come as a result of a carefully cultivated relationship with Him. They produce devotion, dedication and single-mindedness. 

The thing is, it is easy to think that leaders are meant to be better Christians than we are. We expect so much from them, while we excuse our own lackadaisical attitudes as “it’s really tough to live in the real world.” (It seems that Joshua also had a family – yet he put God first.  Our first responsibility is to Jesus, and if that isn’t our POV, then what are we teaching our families? When I was a child my mum had an expression, when I hung around a door, often listening in to the grownups. “Come in if you are going to, or go out if you are not – but don’t hover.”  Sadly, today, we seem to have a plethora of drones … people who hover… but never seem to engage.

To me, Joshua is the epitome of “seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you!” He sought God’s wisdom and His ways by spending time with Him. In my opinion, you and I can do that through prayer, reading the bible and our obedience to what the Lord said. The interesting thing about those three things is that nobody else can do them for you. Even though teaching, exhortation, or experiences can make you and I want to apply ourselves. I want to offer up a thought that may be a bit offensive to some – postponement of application is actually saying NO! 

There is only one answer to the call of God on each of our lives: “…here I am Lord send me.”  The bible shows us that people like Joshua did that, they lived singleminded lives and they found a whole new way to live. 👋🏻

1 Corinthians 10:11-13: “The things that happened to those people are examples. They were written down to teach us, because we live in a time when all these things of the past have reached their goal. If you think you are strong, you should be careful not to fall.”

P 2378 Forget about winning lotto …!

/ DVH

… most Christians have incredible riches they have never even accessed. We have a Saviour. 🙌  He is the perfect substitute for our sins, He gave us His righteousness, so now we have His kind of access to our Heavenly Father’s attention. Now we give Him back our lives for His purposes. Our Heavenly Father has given us so many incredible things, including spiritual gifts to bless others. We have a book filled to the brim with stories about other people who dared to walk with God, despite their fears … so we can see for ourselves what God did in them and through them. Our God is not far away, but near to those who seek Him … and Jesus made seeking Him possible.

Our Saviour, died to give us healing, wisdom, strength, patience, kindness, goodness, etc. every single day. We are a blessed people! He provides for our needs, He comforts us with His comfort which knows no boundaries – including race, creed, and theology. He doesn’t judge us, but looks at us with understanding, kindness, mercy and grace through human eyes. Almost everything ever recorded about Christ is about Him gladly interacting with people! Because of Jesus – we are the people who are blessed to know what Father God, His Love and His kingdom are like. That’s what makes us rich. We don’t have to guess, or hope, or imagine – we have a BOOK full of His thoughts!

The next time someone says to you, what does Almighty God look like? You can tell them – HE LOOKS LIKE JESUS CHRIST.  Point the people who don’t-know-Him-yet to the gospels in the bible. Tell them to look at how Christ treats human beings – that’s what the Father is like. This is why hubby and I give away the four Gospels. The bible is a large daunting book to someone who doesn’t-know-Him-yet, and a lot of the language used is old-fashioned and unclear. Plus it’s a really BIG book! We want others to experience the Lord’s heart toward mankind. Then they can see Jesus in the gospels, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, teaching them God’s ways, talking to people, answering questions.

In those gospels we see Christ is single-minded – everything He says is to explain His Heavenly Father and how His Kingdom works – in terms that ordinary people can understand. He shows people how to relate to God. He talks to farmers, fishermen, religious people, homemakers, and children. He talked to everyone with the same purpose, He wanted to reveal and clarify His Father’s love. The Father’s love is the greatest treasure this world has ever seen – and Christ came here to illustrate it, in and through His flesh. People do not know about this treasure, they think the bible is all about rules that they can’t keep … BUT the bible is a fantastic spiritual gift for everyone.     

However before ordinary people can understand the death and resurrection of Christ, they need to know that ‘love looks like something’; so we believe in helping others, praying with them and for them, as well as telling them in person how much God loves them. We don’t care what they believe, our desire is for them to experience the love of God first-hand, through us!  Now, as Christians WE have also become His treasure. It is our job to feed the hungry, heal the sin-sick souls to follow Him. We encourage the down-hearted, show the lost the way home and tell people this life can have incredible meaning. 

Righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Spirit – all these things are intangible, but totally heaven-sent riches. We are blessed to be a blessing and that blessing is not about earthly gain – it is about giving away heart happiness and contentment in spite of difficult circumstances. As well as His love which is like a spring of never-ending water. Human beings must stop thinking that blessings from God are about God being in a heavenly service industry. Prayer is not a way to place your order! It is privileged communication with the God of the universe. He provides for us, just like He provided for Adam and Eve in the garden, but our relationship with Him is about FAR more than provision.

Lastly, everywhere Christians go, we get to wear HIS ROBE. That robe is about humility. We lay our lives down for others because He laid His life down for us. You don’t get any richer in this life than that, no matter what a lotto jackpot is worth. Some of the richest, most blessed people I know, hardly have two beans to rub together. And if you happen to be hungry they will throw the only beans they have into a pot to feed you! Now that’s really rich! Bye. 😊

P 2362 Practical issues – Walking like Jesus …

/ DVH

The bible uses both practical and pictorial language, so it can be hard to go beyond the metaphorical and find the practical outworking. But this is why we are exhorted to study the bible. Today we are looking at: “Walk in the light as He is in the light.” 1 John 1:7.


When I’m reading the bible I say out loud … ‘What the heck does that mean??’ Or … here’s one of my favourites … “Why is that there?!” Let’s be clear, there is no audible voice from heaven that explains stuff like that to me, but often another verse pops into my head, and when I take the time to look it up, I’ve found that now I’m looking at everything from a totally different angle.

If we want to take what the Lord says out of the theory area, where we nod and agree, and go on to to change our ways with His help, then we will need to get further wisdom. That’s where the study to be an approved workman part comes in. You study so you can do what it says – that’s what workmen do! Here’s today’s 2nd verse. Jesus says this same thing quite a bit, and it varies each time – so when you study the subject of Jesus being light you will start to see the many-sided wisdom of God. 

In the Passion Translation: John 8:12  it says: “Jesus once again addressed them: “I am the world’s Light. No one who follows Me stumbles around in the darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in.” So when I read that I think:  ‘I have kind of stumbled over whatever I am meant to DO about this verse.’  So I repent, on the spot. It’s obviously me with the problem and a lack of interest, or …I’ve somehow wandered away from walking with Him be-cau-se . … ‘HE provides plenty of light to walk in …!’ If we take the scripture as a fixed point it changes the way we read it – make the bible your absolute!

At this point I need to say that I am rarely interested in yesterday’s bread –  I love fresh bread. And I want fresh bread from His word every single day. So I go after it. I may chew on stuff all day waiting for His light to illuminate me – but He and I know that I want to change, to be transformed – so I am more than willing to renew my mind and change my behaviour, with His help. The bible promises us daily bread, we just gotta ask for it. (Check out the Lord’s prayer.)

Here’s some of the stuff I realised while I was doing that about these two verses. Following Jesus means I am walking in the same light He had. He thought studying the bible (the Torah) was important. The Lord Jesus always had way more light than everyone around Him. I can see that because, when He talked about scriptures He didn’t just see instructions – He saw His Father’s heart and revealed it.  So here’s another great question to ask the Holy Spirit when reading the bible. ‘What do you want to say to ME, Lord?’  “What do you want to show me about my Father’s heart toward me and others?’ 

I know that our Father wants to protect us from stumbling. It says so over and over again in the book. In all those verses about walking, living, and staying in the light He is showing me a way I can live underneath that protection. There is more than I will ever need in His light, so, if I follow Jesus, consciously – not in a haphazard way, I am choosing to stay in His light. This means I need to hone my focus and let what Jesus already said be a light to me, a lamp underneath my feet. I need to fix my attention on it by walking it out.

If I don’t know what to do or say in a given situation I need to stop and ask Him: ‘What would YOU do Lord?’  I must put aside my own natural wisdom and the conventional wisdom of our day, and seek His kingdom first. I am asking the Lord for His light –  so His wisdom probably may not appeal to me.  EG: I would much rather have somebody else come to me and ask for forgiveness, than I would like going to you and asking for yours! That attitude means that Jesus and I are not on the same page, and we need to be if I am to walk in the light AS He is the light! Somebody is standing in the wrong spot – and it isn’t Jesus!  

However! I also know a great short-cut!! Ask yourself: “Is this LOVE? Am I hoping all things, believing all things, being patient and kind etc?” So long as I don’t fudge my answer to make ME feel good – this short cut works. Love doesn’t ask what is that other guy doing – instead it asks what the heck am I doing?? And it doesn’t excuse itself either – it doesn’t have to my ‘self’ knows that I have a Saviour.

When I think like this world does I am leaving HIS light behind and wandering off into the dark imaginings of my own mind. BUT …!!! Because I have His book, I don’t have to lack LIGHT – I just have to be humble enough to ask for His help and ACT on what He says. 👋🏻

P 2345 This is crucial.

/ DVH

“So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.” Romans 8:6 NLT. Now here is another fantastic clarification of that verse.

“Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life.Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what He is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored.” Romans 8:5-8 MSG

We’ve not been left to muddle along on our own. Our wonderful Heavenly Father has given us the Holy Spirit to help us through this maze we call life! Therefore it is an enormous tragedy to ignore;  or be afraid of;  or misunderstand the Holy Spirit’s purpose in our lives! He is here for us in the same way He was there for Jesus. He is not merely about speaking in tongues. NOW — HE’S GOD WITH US! Inside. Make Him welcome.

We need to give up our ideas that this goes like this and that goes like that because our parents or spiritual mentors, or our forefathers always did things this way. When we do that we are making unconscious choices – and we leave His incredible variety behind. Ephesians 3:10 “His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms,..” Lemme put that another way, if you go on doing what they all did just because they did it – then you are not walking with the ONE WHO MAKES ALL THINGS NEW! HE’S STILL TALKING – giving fresh revelation of His purposes from the book. 

Tradition sets us in cement – we need to keep hitting the ‘refresh’ button. That kind of listening takes time and, sadly, we all have somewhere else we gotta be. But when we live that way we are treating Almighty God, the One we are living for, like a sandwich. We squish Him in between breakfast or lunch because we don’t have all day! Totally forgetting that: ‘He numbers our days’ and “our times are in HIS hands.” Without focus, tasks will overtake us.

SELF is the sneakiest cleverest thing. It has a million reasons for thinking what IT thinks is right, and if you ask it – self will trot out hundreds of those reasons … and they all sound reason-able! It is all about what we focus on. With some people it is patently obvious what they are thinking about. Me, myself and I!  But for others selfishness is not as easy to discern.

PEOPLE are NOT accessories to our life! As human beings we have a tendency to divide our lives up into bits. This bit is ministry, that bit is family time, leisure, sleep, stuff like that. But God wants IN on all our lives, so when we love our spouse, parents, kids … as He leads us, we are still engaged in ministry and living for Jesus at the same time. Read the book! Jesus didn’t have an off button – even when He woke up suddenly from sleeping!

Self never wants to wait for its turn – when self is in charge it is always its turn! This is why we need God as the centre of our focus at all times. HE is now our reference point. Being loving, and doing what my spouse wants to do when I kinda hate doing that – IS dying to self! Realistically speaking, that’s when the Holy Spirit becomes our resting place, our motivator, the Person we defer to. It is not just about reading the bible because we have to … its about digesting the bible so well we end up being the bible to everyone around us. 

There is no way on God’s green earth anyone can do that, live that way — without supernatural help! The wonderful thing about living selflessly, as He leads you, is this: the  stuff you need, that you have laid aside for His sake, is often added unto us as we walk along. My very last suggestion is this, when you are in doubt about your own motivation – and I often am! … Ask yourself this – cui bono? That’s latin for “who benefits?” Boy does that sort out my motivation quickly. The Holy Spirit’s input is crucial – don’t tune Him out. 👋🏻

P 2335 Some light-hearted suggestions for difficult people.

/ DVH

The ones you never seem deal with well, but can’t avoid, I mean? I’d say shoot ‘em … but I’m pretty sure God won’t like that! AND YES, I’M JOKING … well, sort of anyway. 😳 Just keeping it real here, folks. There are some people in my life I like a whole lot better …when they are far FAR away!

We all have people who can’t, or don’t, or maybe they even don’t want to, understand us. Some of those people  it seems, go out of their way to deliberately misunderstand us. Now if you only have one or two prickly people in your collection …count yourself blessed.

I have, BTW, met people who cheerfully tell me that they don’t struggle with anyone, because they l-o-v-e 💕everyone … really?! Well, I struggle with them, because I want to shout liar liar pants on fire at them! Why would Jesus talk so much about forgiving people, if it is so easy? So, then I repent, calm down and add those people to my list of human beings I just don’t get.. Sadly there’s a few people on that list too!

The bible tells us we will have trials, and sometimes those trials are people!  If we are lucky they move, or we move, and we don’t have to see them anymore. This means that we can join the ever rapidly growing list of people who don’t hate anyone. How cool is that? When people you don’t get on with move, it makes it that much harder to be reconciled. Now you gotta add travelling in as well!!  Meanwhile its hard to hate people you can’t remember … so do yourself a favour and don’t try!

And then I found this scripture – more’s the pity!: “Be free from pride-filled opinions, for they will only harm your cherished unity. Don’t allow self-promotion to hide in your hearts, but in authentic humility put others first and view others as more important than yourselves.” Philippians 2:3 TPT. So now I have to have yet another list, beside the list of people I do my best to try to avoid. I call this third list, scriptures I try to avoid. Howzat working for you babe! Not much. 

God loves to bring these people up with me, especially at a time when I’m feeling pretty good about myself, because I’ve been talking to someone else about Him. A-N-D … that scenario would be the ‘pride-filled opinions’ bit in that verse that I am starting to HATE. Well. Goodie. You’d think I would get a day-pass after all that free advertising for Him, but no… He and I are gunna look at it.

Right about now, that person I hoped was gone forever from my thoughts, is floating up from my subconscious and … looking at me. You know it would be so much easier to continue my you-are-not-a-person-I-really-like campaign if this difficult person looked grumpy. But that’s not gunna happen either, be-cau-se, something else is going on. 

Then the Holy Spirit says these perfect words … ‘What are WE going to do about this one?’ Conviction hits me between the eyes. Couldn’t you just love Him for those words alone? I sure do. That’s when I remember that Jesus totally identified with me, without sinning. That means HE KNOWS THE WAY THROUGH THIS. Now it’s up to me to follow the Holy Spirit’s prompts. I know He knows how to restore things for me, I just need to trust Him. I can be sure He will help me because Jesus is heaven’s answer to sin, works, and total restoration. 

I said all that stuff to say this – pretending we are OK, and making believe that the people who bother us don’t really bother us – all that guff is a waste of time and energy. It is better to be honest with ourselves and the Lord. So don’t just tell your spouse or a friend, how much this person drives you nuts …tell Jesus. Let’s trust His wisdom, His kindness, and lean on HIS understanding. 

Confessing our faults opens the doors of our hearts and minds to real renewal and a fresh start. God can give us a fresh perspective on those people we don’t understand or like. Jesus will provide all that for us from the book.There is no such thing as a vacuum spiritually, we either actively pursue the Lord, or our enemy will keep handing us loads of  reasons to stay mad. And those dumb people who drive us crazy will continue to compound the felony in our eyes.

Difficult people are a fact of life … the sooner we face ourselves, the sooner we will embrace change and usher in restoration. IT’S OUR JOB – we are the Grace-spreaders of this world.  👋🏻

P 2331 Hard times do not mean that God has left us.

/ DVH

Boy, is that sometimes a faith statement!! Hard times however, do st-re-t-ch us, and that is definitely no fun. Growth of any kind is hard work. I remind myself that His Grace is enough. It is astonishing what you can see if you stop focussing on the difficulty and focus on His Grace instead. After my recent accident, my broken humerus has had to grow enough bone to reattach itself to the head of the bone. Imagine that. What an amazing thing, I am literally growing new bone as I type this! At my age!!

I have not been given any medicine or specific treatment to help this healing. Rather I’ve been engaged in physical therapy to teach my muscles they may not lie down and hope for the best. Instead (!) they have to get stronger and support these broken bones. The human body is a miraculous thing, our God gave it all sorts of healing skills. My body, is currently working on healing itself in secret places. Thank you for your prayers, we are so grateful.

Now to my point today, we can become so used to, and adept at, hiding from and avoiding any sort of pain… that we do it without thinking and it eventually that becomes an unconscious lifestyle. There is much more to this life than a defensive posture.Do yourself a favour – take risks – really LIVE! We have His book, filled with stories about other people just like us — how they coped … and how they didn’t. That helps us change our mind and think like Jesus does, and boy, do we need to keep reading it. 

There are also some kinds of pain that are totally unavoidable.  Sigh. These things crash into our lives without our permission, and then they explode. Some things are sent to sidetrack us from our God-given mission and distract us from His purposes. Human beings have very limited energy when they are suffering, but we can use that limited energy to distract ourselves away from the pain. Then we are avoiding transformation, in favour of hiding.

I urge anyone reading this to deliberately ask the Holy Spirit for His help, healing, protection, wisdom and strength when trouble and suffering overtakes you. We don’t have to fix these things, after all they ‘happened’ to us — we just need to deliberately turn our faces to the One Who made us — and stay in that place of need and surrender. For ordinary suffering human beings that is not a fun place to sit! We want action, we want the pain to stop or go away. 

In these times it is incredibly tempting to think that: ‘God doesn’t care about me, or the the stuff that is important to me, and the people I care about,’  simply because things don’t always instantly turn around. Doubt about His love for us can cling to the walls of our heart like a climbing rampant weed and it tries to strangle our faith that He is ALWAYS good and He ALWAYS loves us.These times are opportunities to stand steady, and hold fast to God’s incredible goodness, whether we can see it… or not.

1 Peter 4:12-19 “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed…

… If you suffer, it should not be as a not murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. … …” So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.”

Suffering is not a sign of God’s disfavour, it is simply the result of living in a fallen world, surrounded by imperfect, susceptible human beings and their sometimes corrupt systems. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says: “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”  He hasn’t left us alone to suffer with our anguished thoughts. It’s simply time to do what it the book says.

In times of trial, sorrow and suffering we need to immerse ourselves in His Grace. Let His Grace be your hiding place. at the same time, be forgiving and generous with each other, sharing that Grace that God has given us. Always remembering that hard times are never convenient — they often turn up when we are already worn down by life. If our response utterly depended on us, then we may not be able to come up with the exact desirable attitude … but we know the One Who understands human suffering. The Lord Jesus will not condemn us for being weary in the fight. Cling to Him like a limpet on a rock. 

Hold fast to whatever you can see that is good – you will come through this. Almighty God is totally committed to your victory. He has not left us alone because He promised He would never do that. Keep watching out for what HE IS DOING. Feed your heart on that. 🙏

P 2324 Embrace whatever He is doing.

/ DVH

Anybody my age will tell you that God is not currently doing stuff the way He did it before. “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19. Time and time again I have heard this scripture used over the past 50 years to fulfil various agendas.  Eventually I came to a conclusion of my own …

…God is ALWAYS doing a new thing. You might want to sit and think about that one. 🧐 And what’s more, He thinks so differently than we do, we need to be regularly exhorted to even catch a glimpse of what He is doing. Lemme tell you what I have noticed … individuals, church groups, denominations … love to take what is already in the bible to prove that what they think and what they are doing … is right. They use the bible to justify their actions and activities. Maybe we need to ask ourselves what is more important – being right, looking good, or following Christ.

I think we do these kind of things because we want to be saved … plus … comfortable. We start well –  but if we are not alert then the things that thrust us forward will turn into a lullaby. Instead we will find a nice spiritual little groove and sit in it. The biggest problem with that attitude is that it precludes change. And the Christian life is predicated on change and development. So getting comfy is not in it!

1 Corinthians 3:18 “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”Change is part of our mandate from God Himself. You can call it transformation if that floats your boat, but predictability is not our friend. Growth is. Spiritual development is normal … and by that I mean we need less and less fame and publicity … and more servant-hearted humility. We are here to make HIS NAME FAMOUS not ours. 

Sadly, because hubby and I have travelled around so much we have discovered a whole generation who do not have a clue about Who Jesus Christ is – they barely even know His Name … except perhaps as an expletive. Shame on us! We have failed in our primary mandate to go and make disciples. Not FANS, BTW. Fans are whimsical and fickle.

Today the Good News lies dormant behind our programs. The ones that are formulated to encourage people into giving their lives to Christ, just so we can soothe our consciences with numbers. Conversely, we have so many ‘getting-ready-to-go-to-spread-the-gospel-programs it takes an army to train people … but few actually GO.

We have cast aside the devotion and wisdom and service of so many saints who have gone home before us… in favour of marketing. We’ve totally forgotten how much Almighty God can do with just twelve devoted men! We have been saved to be changed, and we have been saved to serve Him and others. Its a done deal, accessed by active faith.

If even one fifth off this current world’s Christian population took Matthew 28:19-2 seriously: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” … imagine the result! Instead we’ve taught people that laying down their lives for the One Who died for them is an optional extra, only for those people who have a ‘calling.’ The rest of us can enjoy this life, go to church, tithe if we can afford it, and expect Almighty God to keep “adding all these things unto us!”

No wonder the world does not take us seriously, we don’t seem to take ourselves seriously. Love, of the die-for-others-kind, has taken a back seat to marketing. Here’s a huge clue for any church builders out there … Jesus Christ had no trouble attracting a crowd – the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him. If you want to see people truly repent then carry His Presence. Conviction will fall like rain. 👋🏻

 I pray …“That according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”Amen.