Witnesses

P 2143 He is always faithful – a testimony.

/ DVH

“I am convinced that my God will fully satisfy every need you have, for I have seen the abundant riches of glory revealed to me through Jesus Christ!” Philippians 4:19 TPT

Hubby and I have travelled all over this country in the past seventeen and a half years, mainly because Australia is an unreached people group! People may know about religion, but they haven’t met His love yet. In all that time we have given away, thousands of bibles, testimonies, bookmarks, calendars, children’s bibles, and short books – as well as – postcards, pens, photo books, pass-it-on cards, kid’s DVDs. Plus thousands of New Testaments, pamphlets, supermarket vouchers, boxes of chocolates … that list of stuff goes on and on.  We’d use a chicken if He told us too! 🤣 My point today is about seeing for ourselves how God has supplied our needs – and I don’t mean a new iphone! 

These things we have given away opened up opportunities for prayer, conversations and testimonies with dear Aussies who had never ever heard the Gospel before. The miracle was that we have not had to pay for any of these things, although many items were handmade so they took time. Father God provided for these “seeds” through many, many, many generous Christians – some of whom we have never ever met. It is simply incredible to watch what the Lord will do to provide for the things we do in His Name. Hubby and I are pensioners and we scrape by financially a lot – we don’t have spare money – so this is not a hobby. My desire today, is to give testimony about the glorious provision we have experienced. We have personally seen God do amazing things when we obeyed Him. The way to see a miracle is to step out of the comfort of safety, into the potential of risk.

The Lord has woken up strangers in the middle of the night and told them to send us money – using our names!  Money sometimes comes to us for our trips in small amounts, sometimes in larger ones. This means that the people who received these bibles etc. do not have to pay a cent. But many recipients have asked us if we wanted payment for what we gave them. We operate on the principle of “freely you have received, freely give..” So we said: “No, we need no payment thank you. There are people who care about you and your life, that is why we are here.”  And that becomes part of our testimony when we are talking to people-who-do-not-know-Him yet.

We’ve had many Aussies break down and cry because someone cared enough to come where they live and spend time with them, in out of the way places where tourists never go. Tough working men in blue singlets, work shorts and Akubra hats have brushed away tears. We all know just Who can do stuff like that easily – Jesus can! 🤗 This has meant that people who have never ever read a bible in their lives before, were reading it out loud as we were leaving. We’ve gone out of our way to speak to just one person, because the Lord said: “Go to that place for this person for Me please.” Several times we’ve had to turn around and go back in the middle of a lo-ng journey because we misheard Him, and we missed someone! That shows us how much individual people matter to Him. Walking with Him in faith like this is another way to get to know Him intimately.

I am talking about these things because we all need to stop and remember how incredibly faithful our God is. Hubby and I have come to know that He will supply our needs, because we’ve watched Him do it, over and over again. In the most extraordinary ways. Does He use these times to stretch our faith? YES! There were times when we had no money and He said: “Off you go…” So with shaking knees, off we went! The finances that time actually came in after we were on the road. We are just ordinary people but we’ve tasted and seen how good He is! We are off again in April, God willing. So why am I telling you this? Because sometimes Christians often want to feel faith first, or have proof first. But the Lord Jesus wants us to swing our legs over the side of the boat and step onto the water … in sheer obedience to what He said. 

Jesus told Peter to: “Come,” and that’s what that seasoned knowledgable fisherman did. He did the impossible on the Word of the Lord, and went against his personal instincts and walked toward Jesus. We know that Jesus rebuked Peter because he sank, the man was scared that he might have drowned. But the point was – he was the only man in twelve men who dared to even try. This world needs seeds sown in faith if we want to see a harvest. We always have to be prepared to be tested, and sometimes we will even fail;  because we are imperfect people following the PERFECT ONE. The thing is, time after time, even when we’ve missed it – we have personally watched the Lord redeem situations that seemed to be totally unredeemable. He’s a Redeemer by NATURE.

Is it a difficult way to live? Yes. You only have to look at Jesus’ own life to see how much opposition there is to the gospel. Despite many rumours to the contrary, He did not promise us an easy ride while we are serving Him in this life.(Matthew 5:10-12;  2 Corinthians 12:10; Acts 5:41; Acts 8:1-4 to name a few scriptures.) Instead He promised to be with us in every trouble. We cannot know what it is like to have the Lord deliver us, if we do not experience troubles! Our faith needs to be stretched, and it will not be stretched when we keep doing what we’ve always done. That scenario just leads into complacency. 

It is a wonderful thing to minister to each other in our churches, to build up the Body of Christ, please do it. But also don’t ever forget the responsibility we all have to be His witnesses. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”  Acts: 1:8. Ask the Holy Spirit to come with you to the supermarket, or your kid’s school, or your place of employment. He will inspire and empower all of us to step out in faith and sow seeds for a harvest. 👋🏻

P 2126 No loop-holes in His book.

/ DVH

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

One of the biggest and most important battles we face, daily, is the battle between our flesh and yielding to the Holy Spirit. The thing is, every single day, what will win – His way or ours? Do we give in to what makes us comfortable, or what HE wants?  When it comes right down to it, the flesh wants to ‘take it easy,’  But Jesus said this to His disciples at a crucial moment: ‘Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.“ (Matthew 26 41) We can actively strengthen our spirits and master our own flesh, with His help, so we can run well. He asked these eleven men to pray for Him while satan was tempting Him – a-n-d … they all fell asleep. Ho-hum! Nothing new under the sun!

I’m not sure any of us are as fit for this race as we might hope we are! It’s time to get ourselves out on the track and start jogging up and down, eyeballing what lies in front of us. Our aim is to be the best version of ourselves with His help! The Body of Christ is fighting against the habits and thoughts of a lifetime, while we are hopefully learning to lean on the Holy Spirit. He is the only Person jogging alongside us in this race, and He is so encouraging. If we fall down, He helps us up. If we get tired, He refreshes us through a word from His book. If we despair, He comforts us.  How blessed are we? 🙌

What Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 9 is that the moment we gave our lives to the Lord, we entered a stadium, just like an Olympic athlete. And everybody up in heaven is cheering for us to complete our individual races. Sadly, sometimes I think the body of Christ is sitting down on the track, catching up on reading Facebook, or Instagram, or their Twitter account and scrolling or swiping instead! Today, we have a new form of sleep, we are asleep, awake – and preoccupied with stuff that does not build up His kingdom. 

I’m starting to believe that the people in 3rd world countries are w-a-y better off than we are. They don’t have iPhones, or iPads, or whatever, to distract them. They are too busy dodging bullets and/or missiles and looking for food and water! I think we have way too much stuff around us in the West, that distracts us from the race, from day to day. And we are hiding ourselves from the things we don’t like or don’t want to change about us, using electronic devices. It is a mistake to forfeit the time we have been given on things that are not eternally beneficial.

The way to discover His will for each of our lives is described in Romans. Romans 12:2: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.”  When we start to think like He does, we begin our training for this race, and this helps us understand what He wants from each one of us. Sadly the church has become enamoured with piling up knowledge, instead of putting what we’ve learnt into learning how to run. We cannot afford to waste our running time, otherwise, instead of pressing on, we can be distracted into permanently opting out. Knowledge is not the same as running the race.

People are dying right now and they don’t have access to bible or a podcast. Who will tell them about a God Who died to give them a new life, filled with hope and purpose, no matter how brief their lives here may be? In most Christian homes today, parents have stopped sitting down with their kids teaching them about what God thinks and wants. Why? It is not popular – it is not fun. So where will the next generation of missionaries, preachers, teachers etc. come from? What have we taught the next generation of witnesses? We have inadvertently fostered the idea in our kids that this life is not mean to be difficult, so now they have learnt to avoid difficulties – instead of how to get through them with His help. I believe it is called safety-ism.

This life is not meant to be fun. But we while away the precious hours given to us by God, doing nothing but entertaining ourselves and earning a living – so we can buy better stuff. 😱 In this country, we have a shortage of nurses, doctors, policemen, ambulance drivers, teachers, farmers etc. Those jobs are hard work, difficult to do and definitely NOT fun. But our kids just want to be the best singer, or get on TV, or invent some gizmo that will make them rich and famous. What about serving one another? Do you have to ask your kids to help you, or do they pay attention to what is actually going on around them? 

I read a prophetic word a while ago that said that the next wave of evangelists, missionaries etc. is going to come out of Africa and poorer countries. These people know this life is not easy. They’ve learnt that the hard way, and they expect to have to die for what they believe. Food for thought. 👋🏻

P 2111 Yes YOU!

/ DVH


I read a lot, and listen to stuff on YouTube, so I’ve heard a number of people over the past few years talking about the fact that Christianity needs another big revival. I agree! We sure do. We’ve lost way too many precious people, plus there are some of His sheep that have wandered off, and now they are stuck in thorn bushes etc. Not to mention the great people out there in our world who have no idea at all about who Jesus actually is!

I love that people faithfully pray for revival, but today I have a challenge for everyone reading this blog. Do more than pray!! Put feet on your prayers. The way to grow, is to use and str-e-tch our faith, and we all need bigger stronger faith. It’s nearly 2023, so it seems to me that this is the time to grow and look for bigger challenges. 😳 I also want to say that we need to stick our hand up and volunteer, remember, the Lord gives us a choice. The next step to that is to watch out for His opportunities. People who need approval can find witnessing hard … self-consciousness gets in the way. That stuff is normal. It takes a lot of practice in this area to conquer fear. Covid carried off so many people who did not know that Jesus saved us from ourselves and nobody told them that this life is not all there is!  Right now this world seems to have no hope – Christ is the hope of the world!

You will have guessed by now, what my heart beats for, I want to see the Lord Jesus get the reward of His suffering in my own generation. However, the more I thought about this, inside my heart I could hear Him whispering to me: “YOU be the revival.” My first thought when He said that to me was: “Me?? I don’t have some super fantastic gift of teaching, or preaching, or healing or miracles. I’m older and disabled. I sit on a chair all day! What can I do?”

I have some really really good advice for you, never EVER tell Almighty God what He can or can’t do with you.NE-V-ER. Don’t eliminate yourself from the Great Commission on the grounds that you are busy working, or at school, maybe you have an office job, or you are a farmer, or you have to look after your babies etc. etc. After my conversation with Him, the Holy Spirit immediately reminded me that He once made two people out of dirt, and a donkey spoke for Him – so He laughs at our perceived limitations – remember, He is limit-less. Was MY face red! 😡 A whole lotta people in the Old Testament underestimated Him, read the book – see where that got them!

Feel free to underestimate yourself, but never ever underestimate what God can do with one single person.Think about Billy Graham or Reinhard Bonnke before you go down that plug hole. 😂 Meanwhile, don’t ask me what you can do – ask HIM! I asked that question once, fifteen years ago, and I’ve been making bookmarks, pocket calendars, coffee table books, DVDs ever since… a-n-d … loving it! I have never ever had this much fun in my whole life before. I highly recommend following the Holy Spirit, He is so fantastic to be with, and He has the best ideas.

Let’s look at this biblically. Andrew, Peter, James and John, they were simple fishermen. The Lord Jesus simply changed what they fished for! Maybe some of the other disciples were fishermen too, we are not told. But Matthew was a wealthy business man. Simon was a man of politics. Judas was a thief – however, he still went on the road with Jesus and saw all those miracles. Paul was a Pharisee, as well as a politician. Zacchaeus collected taxes. These were all ordinary working men who already had jobs before they met Him. BTW, ladies, don’t feel left out, there were women who supported what Jesus did, financially. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, whose husband was a politician, and Susanna are specifically mentioned in the bible.. Our God needs witnesses to His loving kindness. We are all called to be witnesses of what we’ve seen and what we know about the Lord personally.

Some people have a very specific, wonderful God-given gift, however – many of us don’t. But stop and think for a moment, what would happen if we were an ARMY of volunteers? Now that’s a whole other ballgame. What if we began to think like a functioning army of foot soldiers? Ordinary people who don’t think that all the work belongs to the generals! We’ve had enough great teaching to change our hearts over several life-times! We are ALL sent ones, so now is the time to rethink our lives and ask Him to help us find our place in the ranks. Ask Him: “What can I do to further Your kingdom here in my own little bit of this world, Lord?” 

Passion for Jesus simply comes from obeying what He told us: “Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority (all power of absolute rule) in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations [help the people to learn of Me, believe in Me, and obey My words], baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always [remaining with you perpetually—regardless of circumstance,and on every occasion], even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20. 👋🏻