Words of knowledge

P 3235 We give away what we have.

/ DVH

Now there’s a daunting thought!! Peter and John were off to a prayer meeting when a lame beggar asked for money. “When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” … … “Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”  Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk…” This story is in Acts 3:3,4,6-8a.

The thought that Peter knew what he had, blows my mind. ‘Lord, please help all of us to know what You have given us in these jars of clay!’ Amen. This kind of confidence in God’s investment in His children can motivate anyone into action. One of our major difficulties in the church at this moment, is we don’t know who we are. People who know who they are, have confidence, they do great exploits. 

Secondly, Peter knew what was really important for this man. It was healing, not money. I mean wow! I counted the gifts Peter used;  two words of knowledge, plus discernment, and healing. Plus let’s remember, that he and John were actually going somewhere else! Think about that. What would be your response if you saw a lame man begging at the side of the road, as you were going off to church? Yeah, I know, bring that up! Sadly I think we’ve turned into a people who gather info and form committees, rather than responding to need. Could it be because we doubt what He told us He has given us?

It was amazing in Acts. Nobody knew what was going to come next and God came to every meeting. He was their treasure. How He must have loved it!  But people also dropped dead when they lied to God. Someone else died because he spoke the truth and was stoned to death for it. One man, whose name we all know, was going about his business, finding Christians to kill, and God knocked him down, and blinded him. Then, the Lord very kindly revealed to him how truly blind he was. “Please Lord do that for us too!” Amen.

Have you ever asked yourself – what on earth has happened to us? Good. It’s good to ask questions. Even better to start with yourself, like —why aren’t I doing this? Then, we need to move past ‘me,’ to all of us, the church as a whole. But please remember, we can hide ourselves away from our own personal responsibility if we start out by blaming the church, or the pastor etc. In that state, we may never find the answer! But if I start with me, I’m pretty sure I will get plenty to go on with. I have so far!

We can always give away His kindness, mercy, joy, peace, faithfulness and goodness. Because He gives that to us every single day, “Resist revenge, and make sure that no one pays back evil in place of evil but always pursue doing what is beautiful to one another and to all the unbelievers.” 1 Thessalonians 5:15 TPT. 

Did you get that? Paul said PURSUE it.  It won’t fall on us … we will have to run after it. I want to do my best not to waste my time even thinking about revenge. Otherwise I will have no time or energy left to pursue giving other people beautiful things. The beautiful things we do should far outweigh any revenge etc. that we have or an attitude that someone has toward us. Meanwhile, sadly, we are way too smart in the church to call anything revenge—we call it “hurt feelings” instead. That sounds much better doesn’t it?

Except for one little thing the Lord Himself said ..“Then Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” Matthew 16:24-26. It is necessary to look at what is really at stake, if we decide to  give in to our hurt feelings — or vengeful attitudes. 

People who deliberately do mean-spirited things to us are the splinters in our new life in Him. Some of those splinters really are BIG ones. And we get stabbed purely because we have chosen to deny ourselves and follow Him. Some situations are little splinters that you can feel, but you can’t seem to get rid of  … and every now and then they poke you hard and hurt you again.  And some slivers remain invisible for virtually years, only to stab you in the heart at the least expected moment. One way or another we all pick up, and get stabbed by splinters.

The major difficulty we have is that we don’t yet fully understand Who lives inside us. The Person Who lives IN us is greater than any old splinter. Peter and John definitely KNEW what they had. They had been filled with the Holy Spirit and He brought a whole new way to think with Him. They didn’t form a prayer group, or phone around to find out what everyone else thought. They were both there on the spot, so Peter gave what he knew he had. That’s our issue right there…

We cannot give away what we do not think we have. It’s definitely time we did something about that. Bye. 👋

P 2732 God loves to love on people.

/ DVH

“He sends His rain on the just and unjust.”Matthew 5:45. This morning hubby and I were talking about the Lord and how kind He is, and all the things He did for so many people while we were away this time. Today I want to share some insight into what happens while we are out there. 

For many people in this country, we are their first contact with the Lord – most of them haven’t even been to Sunday School or Children’s church! So our population is vastly UN-churched. The good news is that this means that they have no preconceptions about God and what He is like. Hubby and I are blessed to be the people the Lord has asked to give them an opportunity to have their first spiritual encounter with Him. We’ve found He doesn’t want to barrage them with words, He just wants to love on them.

We are seed-sowers. But this morning I came to realise that we actually do more than that with His guidance. Sowing a seed can be impersonal, but like the Samaritan woman at the well, we’ve been used by Him to be the person who tells them: “…everything they ever did.” People are astonished when we appear to know stuff that we can’t know. We simply tell them that it is Jesus, and He sent us to tell them that He cares so much about them. Lucky us! There are no kudos for doing it BTW, we just follow His instructions. I have to say that we never know where this stuff will lead us, it is always a surprise to us too!

There are people who could be puzzled by the fact that we don’t go out there to EVANGELISE our fellow Aussies as they go about their lives – instead we just talk to them!! I capitalised that word ‘evangelise’ to give it emphasis. We simply go out there and do whatever He says to do. This means that we wait on Him, with our heart and hands open, and our ears and eyes, ready to go! Today I have chosen a young couple who hosted us on our journey this time to illustrate my point – I have given them other names for their privacy.

Sam and Jenny live in a small seaside community, you can get to the beach through a little grove of trees that they own. Hubby went to talk to them both, as the Lord led him. Before he toddled off, I felt to tell him to give them the gospel of John. I just need to say that that very rarely happens, hubby usually picks out the bibles. At the same time, the Lord indicated to him that he should take a picture he had painted just recently of an older man holding a tiny child’s hand. At this stage there was no indication that any of that was right, we just had to act in faith.And I felt we should give them a photo book of ours that is all about comfort. Off he went, and I stayed behind to pray.

Hubby loves to let people talk. He had told this couple we had presents for them, and during their conversation, Sam started to share that the place we were staying in, had been built for Jenny’s Dad. Her Dad had died very recently. Jenny began to share through her tears what the loss of her father meant to her. So hubby’s standing there with a book of comfort to give them, and a picture of an older man holding a child’s hand!! … It gets better…!! Hubby gave them the comfort book, more tears, then the picture, and both of them are openly crying because Jenny’s Dad had been like a father to Sam as well. 

Then he gave them both the gospel of John. Jenny gasped, and said “Look Sam! Look at the title.” It transpired that Jenny’s Dad’s name was … yeah … JOHN! More tears again. Hubby prayed for them both for the Lord to comfort them. Later on as we were leaving Sam asked us to stay on with them for FREE! Sadly, we couldn’t stay longer, the rest of our trip was already organised at that time, and we had many other places to go, but the man was so impacted by God, that was his response. 

I said all that to say that the Lord is reaching into the lives of the people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet in profound ways. Over and over again, this happens to us. We have so many stories over the past 20 years, just like this one! This time we spoke personally to 60 people in 15 days and each encounter was a God appointment. In the time we have been going out we have gathered so much proof that God wants LOVE to be the vehicle that He rides in, not fear.

I want to conclude my explanation by pointing out that this particular encounter started with 3 words of knowledge and a whole lot of His love, toward that couple …long before we ever got there, He simply needed our participation. Actually, we never ever know what is going to happen – that’s part of the fun. Let me tell you, anyone with ears to hear can have a word of knowledge!  The ones He has given us, have no lights, bells and whistles attached to them. The Lord is not big on show or titles. That stuff doesn’t seem to matter to Him at all. So if you are looking for titles or spiritual brownie points, we don’t have any!  

Someone once said to us that we should write a book about these encounters – we just laughed and said: “we don’t have time, we are too busy doing it!”  We simply follow His prompts and then the Lord does what He does best – HE LOVES ON PEOPLE. My advice to anyone who wants to live this way is to make Love your aim, not imparting information! In conclusion I just want to quietly remind you that —“the fields are white!” 👋

P 2340 Your voice is incredibly important.

/ DVH

Don’t settle for this world’s assessment of who you are and what you can and can’t do. Smith Wigglesworth was a plumber when Almighty God invaded his life. Peter and his cohorts were fishermen! This world we live in currently knows very little about God’s purposes – but we are blessed, we are already on a sure thing – we know HIM.

Sometimes, sadly, I actually think our world only knows just enough about Christianity to focus on our faults and sins, and I think that is our own fault. We blasted them about their sins taking them to hell for years. It’s no wonder we look bad from the outside. This verse from Ephesians 2:10 explains the reality of who we are now!

“We have become His poetry, a re-created people that will fulfil the destiny He has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfil it!” Ephesians 2:10 TPT

There are things in this life that will not get done if WE do not do them as the Holy Spirit leads us. You might want to read that sentence again just to make sure it sinks in. 🧐 

I have not been well educated, I left school right before I turned 14 to go and work in a bank. I sorted cheques for a living and left the bank to get married at 20. I had my first child at 22, and all 3 children were born by the time I was 27. I know I have no particular talent to commend me. 

I once went for singing lessons only to be told I should not waste my time or money. I can draw quite well, but I’m no artist. I can cook but I’m no chef… hmmm… you get it. There is nothing outstanding about me. My one comfort is this – this world has millions of people, just like me. I have discovered that being nobody has given me a platform and on it I can speak to others, who could easily be discouraged by this world’s assessment of them, too.

I have little education or experience and yet … I ran a street dance evangelism group, I’ve also produced a musical, and written 3 books and countless short stories. None of them published BTW, and none of it came from my natural talent! But I’ve watched people sob and get great comfort from reading something I wrote – and for me that’s wa-a-ay better than any publisher could guarantee, because what Jesus does – lasts!

I lack notable attributes, or even fantastic spiritual gifts… apart from knowing Jesus Christ personally for the past 50 years! I am not an evangelist, pastor, prophet or teacher etc. But I have prayed for people and they were healed yet I don’t have a gift of healing. I have had thousands of words of knowledge, but if the Holy Spirit doesn’t give them to me I too have nothing lasting to contribute. 

What I actually do have is the best gift of all and it was given to me when I was born again so I can take no credit for it. I’m crazy about the Lord, willing to take risks just because He asks me to, and I have a passion to see the Body of Christ – ordinary individuals like me, rise UP in the power and strength of His might. I would love to see the Body at large stop leaning on, and hiding behind other people’s fancy sparkly gifts and do great exploits themselves. So they can give Him glory for what He has done through their OWN little lives!

Today, I wrote all this with my trusty left index finger cos my other hand is in a splint and my broken right upper arm has a mind of its own. I wrote it to remind everyone reading this that with Christ any one of us is a majority. And together, all those little bits of His love we have to give away, are incredibly powerful. You and I might only hold one little piece of our Father’s fantastic jigsaw puzzle, but that piece is so totally needed. You are destined for great things, not because you are great, but because the Greatest One ever, lives inside you and He wants to come OUT. 

Being ordinary is not a crime – there are millions of people who qualify for that label, and God can use us to change this world and introduce people into His kingdom. Be like the triangle in a huge orchestra, you might only have one solitary note to play, but play it in faith, play it with all your mind, soul, heart and strength …to the glory of God! That music you can play is needed – someone will hear you, AND SEE HIM! Bye. 🤗 

So how do you find what you are here to do? Start deliberately loving everyone who comes across your path, with His selfless kind of love. Your part in His plan will make itself clear. 👋🏻