Works

P 2920 Faith only.

/ DVH

“My beloved brothers and sisters, the passionate desire of my heart and constant prayer to God is for my fellow Israelites to experience salvation. For I know that although they are deeply devoted to God, they are unenlightened.And since they’ve ignored the righteousness God gives, wanting instead to be acceptable to God because of their own works, they’ve refused to submit to God’s faith-righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law. And because of Him, God has transferred His perfect righteousness to all who believe.”Romans 10:1-4 TPT

It is, unfortunately, a difficulty we all face, we can be deeply devoted to Jesus and still be living under the law and works. It is sadly quite easy to switch over from faith to works and not know you have done it. Engaging with works means you can almost immediately see something for your efforts, and it also gives us, as human beings, validation, because we want to take part in whatever the Lord is doing.

Engaging in works also means we can dismiss ‘spiritual-things’ as done for the day  — like when we tick off, prayer, bible reading and church. Actually that simply means we did what we ought to do. But is that all there is? Are we listening to, and paying attention to whatever the Lord is saying as we go through our day? Did we obey? Can we hear Him over this life’s cacophony of activities?? Have we wandered off into our own understanding?

Here’s an illustration from my life. When hubby and I go on the road, people financially support us, so we want to have results to show for the money they’ve generously donated. It becomes really easy to start counting things. Things like: we’ve had this many great conversations, or given away that many bibles, and bookmarks. It’s a very real temptation to try to account for spending other people’s money, whether they ask you about it, or not.

And to be utterly truthful, it is also a temptation to exaggerate what goes on out here … because sometimes, there ain’t nuthin’ happening here! Results don’t matter bupkis to the Lord. He simply loves to go on our journeys with us –  to work, or school, or on the road talking to people – that’s what matters to Him.

Jesus’ death paid the entire price for our sinful nature, and now we can talk to Him and we know we will be heard. Those are the things that need to matter more than anything else, to us too, if we want to walk with Him in the righteousness He died to give us. Enlightenment comes from trusting in what He did at Calvary, using our FAITH,  nothing more, nothing less. Automatic responses reduce Almighty God to a chore, a task, or yet another thing we need to remember. When all He wants is for us to be obedient to His ongoing instructions. As we keep acting in faith, He can and will correct and direct our course. He’s just that gracious.

Our minute by minute attitudes, are a whole other ballgame – those things are under our own personal control. That’s the place we learn to yield. We will all wrestle with walking in faith, because it is so much easier to dot the ‘i’s and cross the ’t’s and get validity from our actions and intentions instead. However, a truly authentic life rests on Him, and what He did, not on our actions. We are validated because what He did for us validated us! So on the road, we rest in the fact that He told us to do what we are doing, whether we see anything or not.  And sometimes, despite our best efforts … it’s …OR NOT! 

In that situation, hubby and I remind ourselves that planting seeds is a slow business. You gotta wait to see whether what you planted pops up after a while, plus harvest time can be a little while coming!! Even the disciples travelled all over the known world to spread the Gospel of God’s kingdom – and as they did it, they lived by faith, they were trusting Him to guide them.

At one time, Jesus Himself walked about 70kms, up and down tall mountains, for about 5 hours. He was going from one place to another. In this process the Lord met a Samaritan lady. Just in case you forgot, Jews don’t like Samaritans very much, but at the other end of the Lord’s enormous trek, HE FOUND A HARVEST. A whole bunch of Samaritans got saved. Whether the Lord knew what was going to happen or not, He perfectly illustrated what we have seen out here on the road. Unforeseen things happen! Stuff you could not possibly have planned.

Sadly, all of us can easily get lost in the every day ordinary things that need to be done. If you have a family then plenty of boring repetitive stuff daily has to happen. How do you do that kind of stuff in faith? I can only speak for myself – I GIVE UP a lot. When I find myself planning and using my own ideas, I repent and go back to trusting Him. Repentance is not just about moving away from sin – we also need to repent when we go back into works again. This truth has been the biggest blessing to us as we travel all over this country. We’ve put aside what we can do, and made it our priority to follow Him. We want His Presence more than we want results.

Continual enlightenment comes as we walk in what He already has done for us – it flows from our surrender, not from our own efforts. That’s what Paul is saying here. We don’t want our own righteousness, or our works, or our cleverly thought out activities – instead we want to live under, and give away to others the righteousness Jesus Himself totally paid for – for all of us. He voluntarily did what He did, to cover, direct, and comfort us. Every single bit of our lives needs to be lived in faith — waking, sleeping, walking, doing the washing up, servicing the car, playing with our kids…not legalistically … instead we simply include HIM in all things. 

 And if, or when, we run out of instructions, then we need to prayerfully go back to His book. Bye👋

P 2722 Our attitude to making mistakes, matters.

/ DVH

Galatians 2:11-16: “When Cephas (Peter) came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.

When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.”

These verses show us a number of things. The primary one I want to speak about today, is that this is an example of the way we can sort things out with another believer. Paul spotted Peter’s hypocrisy and said so. He didn’t give into social pressure, instead he called out what he saw, when he saw it. What I understand from that action is — because we love each other, we need to watch each other’s backs, so that none of us miss out on fulfilling our heavenly calling. The thing that matters in what Paul did wasn’t confrontation, it was loving concern for this fledgling church.

The issue Paul mentioned is an important issue. Grace or works?? Unfortunately Peter, the Apostle — fell down the hole of agreeing with something that was not the gospel, because of FEAR. We must note when we read this that Peter was not challenged by anyone of the people who were already around him, instead … he was actually leading others astray. The real subject was not theology – it was GRACE. Was Grace going to lead them?

Sometimes, instead of just accepting the norm, in the name of not being divisive, it becomes necessary to challenge it. This must be done in a true spirit of humility and for God’s glory — not just to elevate or manipulate.The key is that you do it to protect someone else’s back, not because you think you are smarter, more right, or more spiritual than they are. I put those verses here today because they are the kind of verses we can easily read and think … yeah yeah yeah, Peter got it wrong… yada yada yada … meh …Paul is showing us how to deal with error.

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Meanwhile, there is no truth to the rumour that if I do nothing I can’t make mistakes. Doing nothing IS a mistake, unless the Holy Spirit is guiding you. Mistakes aren’t the enemy, fear is, and sometimes fear of making a mistake is an even bigger enemy!  Peter’s personal enemy was often FEAR too. That stuff showed up once in a boat as the disciples were crossing Lake Galilee in a storm. Peter dared to believe he could do what Jesus was doing. He went really well, walking on the water … until the circumstances distracted him and he sank! (There were other instances as well, but I have no room here!)

However, the Holy Spirit transformed this man of God at Pentecost into someone who seized the day, wherever he was. It totally looked like fear had been defeated, but then popped its ugly head up again in today’s story. Fear is like that. It goes away and comes back wearing another hat! This time fear looked like being non-partisan. This stuff often runs many people’s lives and they don’t even know it is happening, because they don’t admit it or recognise it – even to themselves. It will not kill us to be wrong!… Actually it can help us to die to self. We cannot follow Jesus and not die to self. 

We need to realise that dying to self is a lifestyle, not something we visit and walk past. Much later on in his life, Peter says this in 1 Peter 4:8“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”This is the real point. It is not about messing up, it is about the kind of faith that gets up and goes on!. We need to stop hoping that everyone else will make an exception for me in my sad, sorry little life, and man up and start choosing to changing ME! Almighty God’s power has not been weakened by the evil things that have previously happened to us. Read the book!

Peter is someone who I really appreciate. There are times when he has a big mouth and blurts out stuff better left unsaid. We know He made mistakes because he made public mistakes. One of the blessings of Peter’s life for me, is that it was obvious he was not perfect. Paul’s lesson impacts every single one of us. When we leave God’s Love behind, we leave Grace behind. Our attitude to mistakes will rule us if we let it. But let’s always remember that LOVE WILL RULE US FAR MORE EFFECTIVELY.  Bye👋

P 2606 Look for hidden gems.

/ DVH

‘With this in mind, we constantly pray that our God will empower you to live worthy of all that He has invited you to experience. And we pray that by His power all the pleasures of goodness and all works inspired by faith would fill you completely.” 2 Thessalonians 1:11 TPT. Now that’s a prayer! Amen.

I don’t know what you do when you read prayers like this, but the first thing I do is pray them for myself! I need all the help I can get – especially when it comes to leading a life worthy of Christ’s sacrifice for me. 🤯 I know that Paul prayed this prayer for his church family in Thessaloniki but the miracle is – we can participate in that prayer today because it’s’ in the book! It’s a hidden gem that will help increase our passion for Christ and His calling on our lives. I personalise prayers from the bible all the time.

Paul prays here for all of us to be empowered to the point that we fulfil our destiny in Christ. BIG prayer. HUGE. He is also praying from an established place. He says “with this in mind” –  that means he’s not ‘hope’ praying, he’s praying using his established faith in God’s goodness and ability, to ask for the answer. He has something in his mind as he prays for us  … a place that he knows well, because he lives there. There is nothing more inspiring than the passion that has personal knowledge of the circumstances.

But let’s look at what he is not praying for – he’s not praying for us to have happy lives, plenty of money, safe places to live, and an easy life!! Instead, Paul’s praying for a worthy life for each one of us. Amen!  He wants us to have increased experiences with God’s goodness so that we are inspired into more faith. Here’s another version of the same verse … (NIV)“With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling, and that by His power He may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.”

I like that one too! To start with it puts Almighty God firmly in charge of my transformation. That does not mean I sit back on my hands and do nothing – it means I tap into His power and begin to do whatever He asks me to do, using my faith. I’ve been assured, by reading verses like this one, that this power has already been made available to me! This power is the power to be transformed and it activates, as I develop a passion to know Him and want to be like Him.

It also means whatever I do, I respond with my own faith.The great thing about this verse is it is not a wish prayer. It is healthy to put our faith in the One Who started this new life for us in the first place! You and I have nothing to contribute here but our obedience and our love for Him, plus our utter gratefulness for all He has done for us. I’ve found that I need to pursue my desire to be like Jesus. He died to give me that total transformation. That is what I call passion. 

Passion should not be reduced to simply singing worship songs loudly etc. Passion is a driving life-force not just a momentary thing. In this world’s thought processes, ‘passion’ comes and goes so quickly — we have lost its meaning. Some people fall in love and then just as quickly, fall out of it. That fact alone tells me that human beings know absolutely nothing about passion or love. I like what one person said about that subject. ‘Anything you can fall into you can fall out of!’ I call that very powerful feeling this world acknowledges … LUST. Passion is not a feeling, it is a directional life-force that pulls us along. 

Today, people can get ‘passionate’ about rebuilding cars, or sport, or movies etc. But passion is more than feelings, it is a strong devotion to something outside ourselves. Actually, I think that passion turned inwards, is called narcissism! We can become so devoted to self-preservation, recognition and popularity, that other people and their needs disappear. However, the best place for passion to be born and maintained is through the Spirit of the Living God Himself – He is the Author of the kind of passion that does not fade – it increases. 

Our passion to know Him and be transformed motivates forward movement in our faith. It is way more than a feeling that pulls us to our knees at an altar — it is the driving force that stands firm in the heat of strong temptation. It is as alive and well when we are all alone at 3.00am, as it is in church. Passion is a hidden gem. It inspires increased intentional devotion, and a life laid down for His sake. 👋

P 2530 Reverence, respect and esteem.

/ DVH

Further to what I wrote yesterday, I began to pray and think about the elder son in the parable of the prodigal son. His attitude was less than fabulous about all this restoration stuff for his brother. Maybe he was glad the young man left in the first place! It seems to me he was obsessed with works, and he was angry that his brother had not pulled his weight. He was also resentful because he had to make up the difference, while Junior wafted about doing whatever he liked. So he spat his dummy out about what happened, and his Dad copped it. He definitely found an attitude in there amongst all that co-operation!

Luke 15:25-31 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.  But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours…”

How easy it is sometimes to be the older brother! Particularly when another son is such a whimsical character.  I must say in my life I have been the prodigal, so other people being restored doesn’t actually phase me, I get delighted instead…. A-n-d …that was when the Lord said!!!  … … “Oh really??? So when someone has acted badly toward a person you love, and they choose to forgive them, you don’t get snippy about it?”  At that moment I chose to plead the 5th amendment, and I’m not even American! Yes, I repented. 

Righteo. I can see I’m both guys in that parable. Then the Lord said this: “There are THREE people in that story. What about the father, do you also identify with the father?” O-k-a-ay. On reflection, it seems I can identify with all three characters in this story Lord!  Yikes. This story is a lot more complicated than I originally thought. But as I thought more about it, I found I can also identify with the prodigal’s father, because I too have had one kid that decided it didn’t like me and they went afar off. I am quite familiar with that pain. 

That was when I realised that – knowing the pain, and identifying the sin in my own life — are two different things! Boy did I get mad at the kid that left! I’ve also wandered out to the gate, when I could bear it, and looked up the road, but in the end I nearly gave up. I had to learn we can’t stop reaching out to difficult people in our lives, just because they don’t like us. That’s simply avoiding rejection. But the bible says: Love believes all things, it hopes all things … so we now have the greater mandate — restoration. 

He is right of course, I have totally had bad thoughts, plus words out loud, toward others who seem to get away with blue murder. That’s called jealousy … if you are interested. 🙄 The prodigal in this parable was careless and dismissive of his role in other people’s lives and he did not value what he already had, and what his father generously gave him. But, alternately the older brother was obsessed with what other people were or weren’t doing, and whether what he did was being recognised. 

Meanwhile their dear father loved both of these two young men, despite their shortcomings. In my own life I have found that one person’s sin can uncover a whole lot of things that were already there in a number of people – but they were not seen. And sometimes sin provides an opportunity for revelation for everybody!  However, God’s love remains the same. He is faithful and true at all times. 

I didn’t write these last two blogs to condemn anyone, because I know personally that God’s Grace absolutely covers all our sin. Instead my thoughts each time, were centred on not taking His Grace for granted. Like the prodigal did. Or striving to earn it, like the older brother! Which ever role we qualify for, we will always need God’s Grace. However, I can rejoice that there is not one word of condemnation on either young man. Our God is so amazing – He goes straight to restoration. We need to remember that our God is a God of reconciliation and restoration. So if we want to be like Him we must learn His Ways of reconciliation and restoration! It ain’t rocket science.

We need to allow the Lord to move us past the immaturity of our past, into the same way of thinking and doing that Jesus occupied. We are now eternally, gratefully, His. ‘My Beloved is mine and I am His and His banner over me is love.’ This is to be our focus now – and if we fall on our heads, then the Holy Spirit is here to help us. If we do not reverence, esteem and remain grateful for His Grace, that lack can lead us astray. Let’s remember the Israelites, they immediately forgot what Almighty God had done for them, and went off chasing other gods. 👋

P 2501 Keep in step with the Holy Spirit.

/ DVH

There is one sort-of-kind-of good thing about making mistakes – it is a great leveller. I can’t look down on you, you can’t look down on me, be-cau-se … we are actually in the same boat!  “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to ALL who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and ALL are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”Romans 3:22-24. I am utterly crazy about that word ‘ALL.’ 🥳 I don’t have to compare myself with you, I simply need to pour my love and energies into walking with the One Who saved me. What we have now, praise you Jesus … is the fellowship – the friendship of the Holy Spirit to help us. Don’t leave home without HIM!

Every single human being is included by that little word “all.” The idea is not to waste your energy over what you have done wrong – repent, and then repair – and then go on to focus on walking with Him, by staying in the light. When you wake up, ask Him to walk with you today. Ask Him to check you if you wander out of His light. Our God loves our obedience. Personally, I have observed He is so sweet and kind, He loves it even when we try – failure is not the issue – continuity is. Even when you are falling asleep at the end of the day – repent and repair, and then embrace Him.

I think the Christian life is hardest for perfectionists. When you give these dear people a list of stuff they could or should do or be, or even not be, they drive themselves batty trying to hit the mark every single time. And they beat themselves up when they don’t. I wanna grab them by the shoulders, and say: “Mate, where’s your faith? Just stay in the light. Confess your sin, let Him wash you and stay in the light of the Holy Spirit. He’s perfect – YOU ain’t …”  Striving produces either defeat or pride.

There are works that James mentions in chapter 2 of his book. These kinds of works begin and end in faith – not our own effort. So we ask ourselves, what we are focussing on right now? If the only thing we are focussing on is getting things right, then we’ve missed the point. Our focus is to be on following the Holy Spirit everywhere, prayerfully discerning what Jesus wants. Living this life with an unreachably high standard cannot eliminate us from God’s love – it will just make our lives appallingly hard – and then we will give up on ourselves, and walking with Him, too soon.

Surrendering to Him is the key. When I live this life surrendered to His will, I give up my will and place it under the direction of SomeOne else – Jesus Christ! He proved how much He loved me when He died in my place. At the same time I am believing, despite my circumstances, that the Person I have surrendered everything to – is trustworthy. That’s the daily battle we fight. DO WE TRUST HIM to do what He said He will do?“Without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please Him …” we need to stop hoping faith will fall on us, or God will give us a sign, and simply act on our faith. Faith will give what we do substance.

Because Jesus has already been punished for my sins I do not have to be afraid of being wrong. Our Lord is a Redeemer – He works miracles with very little!  He can take 5 fish and 2 little loaves of bread and feed thousands.   Instead I want the Holy Spirit to make His word personal to me, while I am reading it. That’s why I talk so much about reading the bible. We need to have the Word of God flowing in and out of our lives. To do that, it needs to be present in our minds and hearts. The Holy Spirit will use His word to check us when we move away from what He wants.

Finally, I want to remind you that this is what Father God says in the book about any flaws in us. ““You are altogether beautiful, my love;there is no flaw in you.“- Song of Solomon 4:7. That’s what we look like now, because of the blood of Jesus over our lives. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:8–9. Well there’s a hallelujah!

OH, if we would only let go of our preconceived, or even badly taught notions, that our God is limited by who we are and what we do, and use our energy to learn to walk with the Holy Spirit instead!  The bible says: “Ah Lord God! Behold, Thou hast made the heaven and the earth by Thy great power and outstretched arm; and there is nothing too hard for Thee.” Did you get that? Nothing!!  You and I are not too hard for God – He has already dealt with our sin. 

Meanwhile comparing ourselves with ourselves, and others, is a waste of time.  Let the Word of God live in you, by acting on it. And remember our destiny is to keep in step with the Holy Spirit! 👋🏻

P 2450 God’s free love gift helps us live differently.

/ DVH

“For by grace you have been saved by faith. NOTHING YOU DID COULD EVER EARN this salvation, for it was the love gift from God that brought us to Christ! So no one will ever be able to boast, for salvation is never a reward for good works or human striving.” Ephesians 2:8-9 TPT.  “Are you so foolish and senseless? Having begun [your new life by faith] with the Spirit, are you now being perfected and reaching spiritual maturity by the flesh [that is, by your own works and efforts to keep the Law]?” Galatians 3:3.

Works occur when we forget that everything we have, was given to us for free, and everything we need has already been provided. There is a cultivated subtle state of mind that whispers to us: “You’d better watch out, God is getting very sick of your mistakes. You’d better try harder, or He will give up on you.” That kind of thinking is the beginning of toddling off into trying to please the Lord. That’s the moment we are presuming we know what He wants from us. All of that whispery stuff in our heads is untrue BTW, when the Lord looks at each one of us, He sees His beloved child and He’s a good GOOD Father. 

However, if we want to live in the Light like Jesus did, then we need to expose our hearts, minds and emotions to the Light! Read the book … and ask for His help to show you what He wants you to do, and then start doing it. You can get clues along the way from other people as well as from the Holy Spirit. But if we are hurting people, and we don’t care — then somewhere or other we have missed the Holy Spirit. “I don’t care” means we are hardening our hearts. A hardened heart is more difficult to deal with. Meanwhile, we need to rely upon Him to help us to not provoke other people, on purpose, or by accident. The Holy Spirit knows more about relationships than all of mankind will ever forget!

There is no shortcut for any of this stuff, however, it is error to let guilt motivate us into the things of God. The things we do and say need to be born of the Spirit not our rational minds. Or even worse, the kind of guilt that says we are not good Christians if we do not do this or that, or such and such. Guilt must not motivate us into doing the things we know are right – doing those things for that reason will not bear God’s good fruit. Instead, if we have been motivated by guilt, then repent and ask the Lord what He wants us to do about it.

Throwing our hands in the air and staying the same is not the answer either. When we do that we are telling the Holy Spirit that we don’t need Him, and we don’t need His help. There is NO FAITH exercised when we stay the same! The point of this new life is that it is a faith life. This life we lead daily is meant to be a challenge because we are now relying upon Him to lead, guide and teach us His Ways, and sadly, we are very used to our own ways. Plus we’ve practiced making up reasons for why OUR way is the best way, while we were at it.

However, just because we prayed: “Dear Lord, please change me here, or there,” and nothing happened immediately … that is not a licence to assume it’s all good and we can walk away! We need to continually read the bible for revelation to help us to find out where we are acting in opposition to the way He does things and then we start taking faith steps. Sometimes the Lord gives me an answer I just didn’t get, or see, or even want to see! So I ask my hubby to pray and look for me. It humbles me – that’s all good … and hubby can see stuff I can’t. More good!

Always ask the Holy Spirit for His help. He is here for US. The bible reminds us if we ask for His help, the Father will not give us a stone – He will send the Holy Spirit to help us. Believe Him! Then, wait for further instructions. Using our faith to obey Him and seek His guidance, gives the Holy Spirit the right and the room to guide us.  

Remember, double-minded people can’t get anything from the Lord because they are too busy going: ‘Will I, or won’t I? Is that what He wants or not?’ Repent, and put that double-minded stuff down immediately and wait on Him instead. When it comes to the things of God we are dealing with a Person – not a system. Waiting is part of God’s Ways. He doesn’t just go for any old time because … His timing is perfect.

But we must never wait to forgive people – that is a given and it is not a debatable matter. No matter how many times we need do it – practising forgiveness of others who treat us badly – even though it hurts – will not kill us. It will soften our hearts and make them tender toward the Lord and others. Then, when we are dealing with someone else’s humanity we can have compassion.

There is nothing we can ever to do earn His love, it’s all free and that love is already in our bank account. Releasing that love to others is where we pay the cost. 👋🏻

P 2423 The outworking of faith is seeable.

/ DVH

Faith has evidence of its existence. Without any evidential faith we cannot please Almighty God! This means that there are appropriate actions that match the stuff coming out of our mouths. Christianity is not just a theory, or a set of really tough rules – it is a living, breathing, ongoing, active, growing, moving, productive thing. As we live our lives our faith stretches us. Daily.

Telling others we have faith, without being able to provide evidence in our own lives, is like telling people you are an astronaut because you’ve carefully studied the subject and you’ve been to NASA, plus you’ve studied it and know everything about it! 

Knowing and doing are two entirely different things. We can talk about, or discuss our faith until our faces are blue, but the truth is … real faith often makes no sense at all until it is acted on, and then the understanding comes afterward. Ask Gideon, or Mary, or Abraham, or Hosea! Our Heavenly Father does not operate like we do, instead we can be quite poor reflections of Who He is. We often misunderstand His directives as a substitute for a strong spiritual life. Rules are not faith – it took the Israelites only 40 days to break the ten commandments!  Agreement is not faith. The devil agrees there is a God!  

“And without faith living within us it would be impossible to please God. For we come to God in faith knowing that He is real and that He rewards the faith of those who passionately seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6 TPT. Faith has to be alive. It is not about last week, last month, last year – or even about when I gave my life to Christ, way back when. Or whether I go to church every week. Faith is about God and me – to-geth-er! DOING STUFF outside of church.  

Here are some uncomfortable questions regarding that point. If I was suddenly struck dumb how would someone who was watching me know that I have faith? What evidence would they have? Many people go to church but they don’t have active faith. Maybe they have HOPE – and sadly, sometimes, they have fear and/or religion. Ask yourself: “What does my faith DO that can be seen by others?”“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the EVIDENCE of things not yet seen.” Hebrews 11:1. 

Faith steps out – that’s why it is called evidence. First of all notice the ‘NOW’ in the scripture pictured above. Faith is always now … not yesterday. This does not mean we must spend our lives standing on a street corner witnessing. But it does mean that our faith is always active in our lives changing us. If people cannot see an ongoing change in our behaviour toward others, or our personhood being transformed, we need to ask ourselves, do we have faith that is alive? One of the best ways to activate inactive faith is to talk about Jesus to someone-who-doesn’t-know-Him-yet.

Changing the habits and selfishness of a lifetime takes faith. This means we will end up wrangling with ourselves every single day because we are longing to be transformed. Even though we also use our faith in His ability to transform us to maintain what we believe – Christianity is actually not performance based. What would be the point? SomeBody Else did everything necessary to include us!! More questions: Is Jesus the first Person we go to when we can’t manage? Do we actively rely upon Him, and do things His way? Our faith is activated every time we ask Him to help us obey and then act.

Faith has substance. It is not the result of airy-fairy wishy-washy theories. The actions of faith result in transformation, for you, and me, as well as for the people around us. Maybe that grumpy family member keeps behaving badly because we keep having the same response! Faith will produce something seeable. James 2:26 tells us that “faith without works is dead.” Faith does stuff. It may also talk … but it definitely does stuff!! It feeds the hungry, preaches the gospel, witnesses to others, helps the homeless, and ministers to the broken. Faith lives this life dead to self and lives for Jesus’ sake now.

However, faith is not just about the things we don’t, or won’t do. If someone refuses to cheat on their spouse, or asks for help for a foul temper, or stops spending money like it grows on a tree, that takes faith. But faith doesn’t just abstain from evil — it is a productive thing. It is not about the absence of bad things – faith introduces the provable presence of the goodness of the living God.

When I went looking for a picture for today’s blog, I easily found the verse I wanted. This verse had all these pretty pictures with flowers and scenery. I rejected them! I chose the picture above, because the man in that picture is putting his faith into action. He knows all about gravity – but his desire to move on motivates him into action. Faith is prepared to take risks, because it has seen personal evidence that God is in charge and it stakes its life on that. 🤗

“But the love of God will be perfected within the one who obeys God’s Word. We can be sure that we’ve truly come to live in intimacy with God, not just by saying, “I am intimate with God,” but by walking in the footsteps of Jesus.”

1 John 2:5-6 TPT

P 2347 It’s His work in us and for us.

/ DVH

“God will continually revitalise you, implanting within you the passion to do what pleases Him.” Philippians 2:13 TPT. 

OR “…for it is God Who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil His good purpose.” NIV. 

OR “ For it is [not your strength, but it is] God Who is effectively at work in you, both to will and to work [that is, strengthening, energising, and creating in you the longing and the ability to fulfil your purpose] for His good pleasure.” AMP.

I’ve put three different versions of the same scripture, above. Sometimes doing that helps give dimension to what the Lord has said. I chose this particular scripture because it is so clear what our Father’s heart is like toward us all. He has a destiny for each of us to fulfil and we are going to love it. His Grace is currently loose in our lives in ways we can’t even imagine, He will not take His plans for us back, because His WORD is utterly dependable.

This whole process is something He has invested in – with His own dear Son’s life. So much so that those people already living with Him in heaven, are cheering all of us down here, on! There is no concern about us failing up there, because they are alive in the Presence of the Almighty One Who never has, and never will – fail!  We need to be constantly reminded that our missteps and deliberate dumb choices can’t take us away from the Lord’s Eternal plans. The way through our trials, difficulties, hardships and troubles is to keep choosing what He wants.

Sometimes we can misread God’s favour toward us, and start to run ahead, announcing this and declaring that. But the Lord’s work is not confined to our ideas about Who He is and how He should do things. He is sovereign. However our generous Father makes room for our willing enthusiastic input, with mistakes or not, and we can totally rely upon, and look forward to being guided by Him. Our part is to enter into freely working with HIM and keep His purposes uppermost in our hearts. Even if there are times when we do not or cannot join in, our God will take every single circumstance, every instance of failure, every highlight, and work all of them together for our ultimate good. And … THAT’S WHAT LOVE LOOKS LIKE!

It is also clear that when Jesus comes into our lives, He refreshes, restores and energises us into faith, so that we end up wanting to do whatever it is Father God designed us us to do. He has an overall plan. As we walk in His Grace, embracing what grace does for us, in us, and how it changes us, we are transformed. He does all this work for each one of us. We may not always immediately understand what He is doing, but our first choice after choosing Christ as our Lord and Saviour, is to let go of our own plans! His plan will give us a hope and a future, plus His design is absolutely perfect for every single person… This is how His will becomes as close to us as our heartbeat. 

We don’t even have to drum up enthusiasm or energy, His very Presence in our lives will do that for us. Once we get a glimpse of what He will do with our obedience, disobedience or disregard for what He wants from us fades away. This is how we learn to willingly follow Him anywhere. Our demonstrated, visible new life in Christ, begins as we decide to be obedient to what He says, in every circumstance. I want to focus on the thought that SomeOne so much greater than we can ever be, is so interested in our free-will and joyful participation and co-operation. I think He deserves our eternal loyalty. Being with us, walking with us daily, gives Him so much pleasure! 

Imagine this with me. You have a child and you watch over them lovingly from babyhood. Children grow, and as they become an adult, they make their own choices. The thing is, you love this child so dearly you cannot imagine your life without them in it. So you want them to choose to come and work, and live with you, but you do not want to force them. You want them to want to do these things themselves. Because being with you, and living and working alongside you, has become their only pleasure. You hope your adult offspring will want to enjoy this new life you have provided simply because they are in love with Who you are.

As you can see, in my made-up scenario, control and manipulation are taken right out of the picture. This kind of parenting ushers in freedom for the kid! Our God is this kind of Father. We are free to be wrong, misled, and/or disobedient, yet His love will not be withdrawn … because His Love is no longer reliant on our behaviour. Our Heavenly Father took care of that too — He fulfilled both sides of a heaven-sent agreement/covenant between Himself and man by willingly taking both sides and fulfilling each side perfectly. 

His SON’S death released so much Grace there is no need for any human being to go to hell. We are now, as recipients of this Grace destined to live in that Grace, and give it away — freely — the same way we received it. Sin is not our problem anymore – His Grace surrounds us, and empowers us to choose to live differently. His aim is for us to understand that a God Who is prepared to go to these lengths …  C A N  B E  T R U S T E D.

It is His work IN us, and through us that gives Him glory. 👋🏻

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 2288 HIS righteousness.

/ DVH

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and HIS righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33. Going after, and relying upon our own righteousness is a waste of our time, plus this life we have been given – which is why works will never get us anywhere. Our works need to come from faith, from the Holy Spirit’s leading, not from our own hopes, dreams, or clever ideas. GOD IS LOOKING FOR OUR FAITH IN HIS ABILITY TO LEAD US through this life – minute by minute. Just like He led Abraham a-n-d … everyone else in His book!

Jesus Christ suffered and died to give us HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, His position before His Father. This blessing freely belongs to all of us but we can too easily ignore this incredible sacrificial gift by living what I call a divided life. A divided life views this life we have now, as our time – it only looks at what the Lord wants for us, for our own gain, not HIS. A person living this way has not fully comprehended the value and cost of what we’ve been given.  

Our Heavenly Father now views us the same way He viewed His Precious Son. But we can eliminate ourselves from this faith walk by using our own understanding, and not taking the time we’ve been given to treasure and go after what He has told us we are here to do. Our God dearly wants to protect us from many, many difficulties – but … not all of the blows this life throws at us. Some things are permitted, they prune things from our lives that are irrelevant, to shape us into His Son’s likeness. 

“He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”  John 15:2. We must get it fixed firmly in our minds and hearts ‘that His Ways are not our ways.’ Expecting God’s ways to make sense to our finite minds is simply unrealistic. Without the Holy Spirit’s revelation and enlightenment, human beings can fall prey to disobedience, pride and gathering knowledge. Human beings like systems. ‘If I do this, then that happens…’ 

If we think about those words carefully, we can see that ‘I’ am still in charge. HE wants to be in charge of every single thing in our lives because He has a plan for our good, for each one of us. But when we go through this life with our preconceived ideas – plus the things we have embraced because we have been taught them – and leave out relationship, we can’t step into the place Jesus Christ died to give us. 

Righteousness is a position we can readily occupy with God. It’s ours. Christ gave it to us with all that He did on mankind’s behalf.  When we occupy this position, striving goes out the window and true relationship comes in! Jesus modelled this way to live for us in His life and ministry. All He cared about was doing His Father’s will.  There was no room for any other earthly agenda. Every single time something came up to drag Him away from His God-appointed purpose He rebuked it!  You can check it out for yourself. 

His purity of purpose within His relationship with His Father was essential – BUT! all of this happened under a huge banner of love … not works, or even destiny. Jesus Christ loved His Father, and us, so much, He did what He did in joyous anticipation of our restoration to our Heavenly Father and our total redemption.  IT WAS HIS SOLE PASSION! When we read the bible with that in mind, it ceases to be a book of mere instructions and becomes a living thing. Deftly shaping us all into a bride worthy of our Saviour King. The Word of God cuts away anything that spoils our growth and fruit production. 

We have been tricked too many times by our own appetites. and needs. into living this new life that we were giv-en – in a half-hearted fashion. I believe our greatest mistake is to put ambition for God’s ways and ushering in His kingdom, ahead of our own passionate response to our beloved bridegroom.  Nothing substitutes for that. We must not put aside our eternal destiny for immediate gratification! Christ gave us HIS robes of righteousness for us to wear here and now. We wear them by faith, in purity, embracing our earthly lives as a gift to be sown into His purposes.

Isaiah 61:10ESV “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks Himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” 🙌