Yield

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 2912 Great bible advice.

/ DVH

“Surrender your anxiety. Be still and realize that I am God. I am God above all the nations, and I am exalted throughout the whole earth.”Psalms 46:10 TPT. Well this verse in the Passion version gives us a lot to think about! I love the order in it. First we voluntarily give up anxiety, and then after we’ve surrendered everything, we are to be still and remember Who He is, and all He has done. I’m a fan of clear instructions, they make this life easier. BTW it doesn’t say you will feel differently! The bible is full of those kinds of faith things – it endlessly blesses me.

Living this way actually provides us with opportunities to plant, water and fertilise the fruit of the Spirit. Self-control, for instance. We need that particular fruit badly today. In our homes, in our relationships, in our countries  – we ALL need this fruit. The fruit of self-control actually germinates through recognising opportunities, and following His instructions, pray, and then application. It’s what I call an obedience fruit. It is like love, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness, more fruit that begin to develop in the heat of obedience.

Self-control is actually more than just not saying or doing stuff, it is resting in what Jesus did so thoroughly we allow God to bring His peace in the place of worry and anxiety.  Hand everything over to Him, piece by untenable piece. And then, make a decision and take the time to be still, and simply think about what HE is like …what Jesus did for us. 

There are so many things the Holy Spirit does, and most of the time, we don’t even see Him working. When things go crazy inside our hearts and minds, and outside in the world around us, we need His perspective.

“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”2 Corinthians 4:17-18.

When I am upset and anxious, I read a Psalm. I need to say at this juncture that I’ve found reading great chunks of the bible just causes further confusion and angst for me. However, music helps me too. But I try to spend time reflecting on Who He is and what He has done for all of us. I’ve learnt you can’t BAM the truth into place, but you can settle your heart, so you can YIELD and He can put His beauty in there. It is a battle, not a walk in the park! Battles like these don’t make us sinful – they show us our weaknesses and our need for His comfort.

Jesus is speaking in these verses in Luke to His disciples about the turbulent times ahead of them: “But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of My Name.  And so you will bear testimony to Me. But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.” Luke 20:12-15.

Even in extreme circumstances, we are exhorted not to worry! Imagine that … easily said … not easily done! It is a fight against our own carefully cultivated instincts and it takes practice and trust. It can seem weird when you just let go. Strangely, worry can make us feel like we are doing something – if we can just find the right answer! That’s a lie. We can’t add one minute to our lives with worry and anxiety.  

Instead of having to give their testimonies in hard places – those men mentioned in Luke are going to be imprisoned. Kings and governors, are going to demand an explanation for what they believe and the One they serve. And the Lord virtually says to them: ‘Don’t worry about it! I’ll be there!! I promised to be with you so I will be there! I’ll tell you what to say and when to say it. What you say will be so amazing and full of wisdom your enemies won’t be able to say a thing.’ Imagine the fruit on that path. And we think our lives are hard. 

I’m comforted by the fact that Jesus once said this:  “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, unless you repent [that is, change your inner self—your old way of thinking, live changed lives] and become like children [trusting, humble, and forgiving], you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:3. AMP.

Children trust and that is to be our response too. Let go, and look up at Jesus, and let Him take care of it. Do what you can see, plus the things He tells you to and then …let go.Unfortunately in these moments, the voice of personal experience is very loud and it can be a huge distraction. We need to become humble enough to lay our own personal experiences to one side, and believe the bible is truer than what we’ve known and experienced. 

We have to deliberately throw off our old ways of thinking and make a decision that Jesus is able to do what He said He will do, and He will do it for ME! Now the winds of chance, challenge and change cannot blow us around any more. Instead we are gently blown, by the Spirit of the Living God, onto His pathways. We learn His ways, and we start to experience Him for ourselves. 

The bible offers us all kinds of good advice, when it is treated with reverence, and applied into our lives. It shifts our focus off the things of this earth and pulls us into seeing what is happening in His kingdom. The things we cannot see. Bye. 👋

P 2899 Never give up, never surrender!

/ DVH

One of my all-time favourite movies is “Galaxy Quest.” My title today is one of the lines in it. This phrase inspired me  because the disciples often seemed to give up at the drop of a hat. Hubby and I were talking about them and the continual spirit of stupid they seemed to prefer to live under, recorded in the gospels! Even though Jesus was right there… like … they could see HIM! Those disciples remind me a little of those bobble-headed dogs that people have in the rear window of a car. They nod their heads up and down all the time, but they aren’t really saying ‘yes,’ – movement and momentum got them instead!

Picture this, the disciples are in a boat, (Matthew 8:23-27) and the wind and the waves are threatening to sink it, but Jesus has fallen sound asleep up the back of the boat with His head on a cushion. He’s tired. Let’s take a second to think about what He had already done in that day. He actively taught His disciples, as well as the crowds who had come to hear Him speak. He healed many others, including lepers. Like I said – He’s tired! And the disciples climb all over each other in total panic to wake Him up! Then they wail and whine at Him and say: “Don’t you care if we are going to drown?” 

I mean, Jesus is in that boat too, right? If they are correct, then everybody is going to drown not just them! It seems that these men still had not grasped what He had given them. Let’s be clear, panic can easily set in for all of us, but I’m not talking about what you or I might say out loud, I’m also talking about the miscellaneous rubbish that rolls about inside our heads when we shift our gaze OFF Him … and onto some problem or other! Bad move. Our focus matters. We simply cannot afford to forget Who our Father in heaven IS.

I can’t count the times when I have said, inwardly — and, sigh, sometimes even out loud: “Oh God, don’t You care that I am not coping?”  Like how I feel should be HIS number one priority!? The bible says this: “Do not yield to fear, for I am always near. Never turn your gaze from Me, for I am your faithful God. I will infuse you with my strength and help you in every situation. I will hold you firmly with My victorious right hand.’” Isaiah 41:10 TPT. Yield, BTW means I’ve given in to fear and I am flap-doodling about.. But it also says that if I can’t see Him, guess who turned their head?? … Not the Holy Spirit!! We are under His gaze 24/7. 

How about another time when the Lord is teaching the disciples to forgive over and over and over and over again … and: “The apostles came up and said to the Master, “Give us more faith.” (Luke 17:5). Boy that last line made me chuckle.  Basically, what the disciples are saying is: “We want to do it! And we would do it if we just had more faith Lord!” Hah! Like somehow their faith or lack thereof is HIS FAULT. What a miserable excuse for them to make. Remember, the boat story above in Matthew? But Jesus said to them: “Where is YOUR faith?” He expected them to have faith in Him, and what He had already taught them. Those guys had private personal lessons.

Faith is personal. God gave each one of us a measure of faith and sometimes I think we feel and act like He short-changed us. Maybe what we actually think in hard times is that He hasn’t given us enough for something this big! Our faith is not like fairy dust, which can blow away in the winds of bad circumstances, and melt in the heat of tribulation — it is a real gift given to us straight from God’s throne in heaven!

ps: That faith is the same faith we received when we said ‘yes’ to Jesus in the first place. We all have it, it is what causes us to read the bible, pray, fellowship with others, and go to church. Faith is not a feeling, it is a choice we act on! If I have feelings then I have evidence! BUT!! …“…faith is the substance of things hoped for, the EVIDENCE of things NOT SEEN.'”Faith has no evidence but the cross.

It is designed to grow. It will grow quickly if we use it! But if we park it on a shelf and only drag it out when the sky falls in on us, we can easily find our faith is not as big as we hoped it was! That was the problem for the disciples, they weren’t using the opportunities He gave them to stretch and strengthen their faith. When things got hard, I think they kind of figured that Jesus would fix it. But the Lord knew He had to eventually leave them, so embracing that tactic was not going to be a viable solution. Remember, He sent them out in twos to practice their faith! And when the Lord saw their faith was in the results, He rebuked them. 

They were His servants, they served Him. Being a servant is simple, you obey whatever it is you are told! You know, some truths are more weighty than others. The fact that one day we will all die and leave everything we know and love behind us is true. But there is a bigger truth, our salvation. It will sustain us through that end-of-life process. If one day I prayed for someone for a headache and they still have that headache, that is not proof that my faith does not work- it means it needs more using and stretching!  My faith is in what He said, not in what I can see.

Jesus will never leave us, EVER. Just because we can’t always see anything, that doesn’t make how we feel true. It probably means we need to crucify our flesh and move on over into the Spirit. We need to have more faith in His goodness, than we do in our circumstances! Never give up – never surrender! Bye. 👋

P 2885 Grace is our teacher.

/ DVH

“God’s marvellous grace has manifested in Person, bringing salvation for everyone. This same grace teaches us how to live each day as we turn our backs on ungodliness and indulgent lifestyles, and it equips us to live self-controlled, upright, godly lives in this present age.” Titus 2:11-12 TPT.

I don’t know about you, but I was almost glad to leave school behind me. I never did seem to fit in there. I certainly wasn’t clever enough for the smart people, plus I was born with two left feet, and two vastly uncoordinated arms …so that eliminated the sporty ones. And I wasn’t creative enough for the arty ones. Not to mention the fact that our resident Queen Bee thought I was some kind of a joke, and she laughed every time I walked by.

Then, in my early twenties, Jesus saved me. It was unexpected, and totally undeserved. And a whole new way of life opened up in front of me. He accepted who I was. My life to this point, has had its ups and downs, like yours, but I can say with total assurance that our God has used everything, good and bad, and He worked every single bit of it together for my good according to His purposes  … and I ain’t just whistling ‘Dixie.’ (Cos I can’t whistle either!) 

In Romans 8:28 it says:“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” This is a reality in my life, I’ve experienced it over and over again…  God really does know how to take our muddled-up lives, deliberate sins, errors in judgment, stinky rotten attitudes and weave them all together, and then somehow(?) He uses those things to reveal His incredible love toward us. All because Jesus perfectly pleased our Father, then our Lord picked up our sins which were bigger-than-any-nation’s national debt — an enormous bill, and stamped PAID IN FULL on it – just before He left.

God’s love for us is so much greater than we can imagine. Which is why I ramble on so much about being honest about our sins – we need to be reminded, and alerted to the benefits of His Grace. Grace not only teaches us how utterly broken we are, it shows us how much we need Him. If we were to ask our Heavenly Father to show us the results of our sin, I think He would point to Jesus’ broken, bloodied body on that tree, and then … Jesus will smile at us, and say these incredible words:  “You. Were. Worth. It. All.” That thought cracks me up every single time.

This is what repentance is for – we need to be constantly restored into the realisation that Grace was free but it was also costly. Grace is not a rule or a formality, it is an acknowledgment that Jesus Christ is God’s standard and we’ve failed. We need His help, all the time. The above verse from Titus explains His Grace doesn’t just save us, His Grace is now our teacher. Grace teaches us about the enormity of God’s totally undeserved Love for us. Let’s not let those lessons fly over the top of our heads, because we are too busy to learn, or too proud to change our ways.

The Lord has asked us to forgive others, whether they deserve it or not. That kind of unilateral, unconditional forgiveness, has a personal cost, so it reminds us how much it cost Jesus to forgive US!  The payment Christ chose to make for us, was far far more than we can ever understand this side of heaven — it totally outweighed our debts, their debts, anyone’s debts! Grace teaches us, firsthand, that we owe Him our lives.

As we live this life acknowledging what we’ve been given, we will be reminded how incredible the gift is! It is no small thing. What Jesus did for us, can make our lives into a wonderful testimony to His Grace. Let’s surrender and yield to His will and learn to be obedient. Our refusal to change, slows up this process. Like many parents say to their teenagers as they go out of the door every day — we need to “Make good choices!”

Human beings can see love as rampant permissiveness – God’s love is not like that! His Love wants the very best for the one it loves, and if that involves sacrifice or even hardship, then so be it. If it involves difficult circumstances, that is OK too. He won’t cause those things, but He will use them. The trouble is we do our best to avoid, or pray our way out of hard things, rather than face them with Him. I’m not saying we shouldn’t pray, by the way, I am saying that the very best response is not to head for the nearest exit, but to ask the Lord: “What would You like me to learn here?” We need to let His Grace teach us.

His Grace defines ungodliness to us, just like a strong  microscope reveals hidden germs. Most people like to go for the obvious, but the Lord focuses on far more than that. He will show us why we do what we do — and then He will heal that why! And while His Grace is teaching us, He provides us with a safe place to stand, right next to Him.  When we understand the power of Grace, then we can begin to comprehend what we’ve received for free. We benefit when we let His Grace in our lives teach us gratefulness. Bye. 👋

P 2881 This is the battle.

/ DVH

“So fight with faith for the winner’s prize! Lay your hands upon eternal life, to which you were called and about which you made the good confession before the multitude of witnesses!” 1 Timothy 6:12 TPT

Entering into eternal life here and now, is not just a one time event. It is an ongoing process that is designed to saturate every single part of our lives, so that we progressively become like Christ, while we are still in this world! It is very important that this thought becomes the way we see everything. Some not good things we choose to do are one off actions, but other things are entrenched in us as part of the way we think and conduct ourselves. The more we become saturated by His life in us, and through us, the easier it is to identify the stuff that is the wrong way to think. God Himself has the best Way to think no matter what we are going through!

He is so incredibly good to us while we are learning to yield every area of our lives to Him, His patience with us is far beyond our imagination. It is far greater than any of our experiences have been with other people! Sometimes people’s attitudes and responses may be harsh, so it is extremely important that we know what the bible says. I can’t stress that enough! This is why we let Him and His Word have the last say on our lives, over our personal responses to hardship and trouble. However, to do that we have to be honest with ourselves, and with others.

We have Christ’s example from the bible that show us what His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control look like! Read the Gospels, follow the Lord Jesus around, you will see that fruit all over His life! God’s kindness etc. is not indulgent or self-serving, it is something steadfast that we can stand on. This means we can identify the things that come to attack us, simply by knowing what real Love looks like. At the same time, we must remember that we are not in a popularity context, and that means that there are times we can end up at odds with someone else – because their learning curves and ours may not match. Grace needs to prevail.

Things like this, are not just tests, or trials. They are opportunities to learn God’s ways. We learn how to hide from the storm, in Him, when there is an actual storm in our lives blasting away. His transformatory ways are often learnt right in the middle of situations we would much rather avoid! As we understand and remember this, it becomes part of our way of looking at this world. Difficult circumstances are not sent by Him, but they are used by the Lord to teach us His Ways of thinking, doing and being. They teach us our limitations. Plus our often unknown weaknesses, and they present us with situations where we can practice relinquishment, by leaving stuff with Him. 

It takes humility to let go of our own solutions, defence mechanisms etc. and trust the Lord to take care of us and the people, or the things that we love. And humility is often learnt, firsthand, when we submit to others – especially people we don’t like! That’s what not leaning on your own understanding means. Experience with His Ways will grow us up in the things that last! We learn trust by trusting Him when everything around us screams “Panic!”

Jesus Christ was man-handled roughly even before those Roman Soldiers beat Him mercilessly. He was verbally abused and He did nothing. He knows what silence in the face of lies looks like and what it costs us when we do it. This was a grown man in His prime – He could easily have fought back! Instead, He humbly submitted to those evil circumstances that battered and beat Him, when He paid for our sins. And now He can identify perfectly with US!

When people come at us with untruths against our character, we have SomeOne who knows how hard these things are and He knows how to get through them without defending ourselves. Jesus was not stoic about what happened to Him — He was GRACE personified. He fought the battle before He ever got into that courtyard, where evil people questioned and beat Him. He knows how to get through things.

This voluntary submission to Him is our daily battle. We choose it. Because of what Jesus has already done for us, we will always have the power to enter into His rest, and lean on His understanding. Bye. 👋

P 2837 What we do with what God tells us daily, matters.

/ DVH

I know that many people, past and present, have had a great deal to say about this parable, I personally love the clarification the Lord Himself gave, which comes directly after it in Matthew 13:1-9:

“He (Jesus) taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.” Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

Almighty God gives us seed to sow from His Word – hopefully… daily!! His book is a fantastic source of life-giving seeds. We need to take those seeds He has personally given to us, and share them with others. That seed that His Spirit kisses, especially for us, has His life in it. Its power lies in the fact that God revealed His truth to us.

It may have been something someone said when they were preaching, and it struck us in the heart like an arrow finds the target. Or it may have been something that stood out as we were reading the bible. It could even be when we were talking to the Lord and suddenly a scripture fell down from our thinking and meditating —- where we had hidden it while we were renewing our minds – and it sank down deep inside us, into our heart where growth can begin. Wherever or however it happened, that fresh seed is now ripe for planting. It can produce a crop.

The seeds of His Word that we sow into our lives – as we daily read the bible and act on it — can behave exactly like this parable describes. Sadly some seed doesn’t even make it past 2 seconds of thought, because it has fallen upon a well worn pathway of previous knowledge, and so it is whisked away by the birds of the air … those thoughts and words that are constantly flying past us, because of everything we are exposed to in a single day. It is so easy to think: “I know that already.” Now we have a seed immediately stolen by pride.

Also in our daily bible readings, if we take the time to treasure His voice, we can sometimes discover “rocky places” in our hearts. They are not like the well-worn pathways that we barely notice, these are hard places that we try to skim over and ignore with thoughts like this: ‘The truth is, I don’t think I have to change, I think the other person should.’ The scorching heat of that bad attitude kills off the power of His precious seed, and it is killed off by negligence. Always remember that true forgiveness doesn’t keep accounts, be-ca-use … hallelujah!!… fortunately for us, Jesus doesn’t keep them either.

“The thorny ground” seeds are the places in our hearts we haven’t bothered to weed and keep watch over our wrong thinking. ‘Weeds of unbelief, or discontent or disappointment’ have flourished there. What we haven’t realised is that, spiritually speaking, any one rotten attitude can take over our thinking. So the possibility of a harvest from any seeds that are sown into the weed-filled patch, is negated. These spiritual seeds won’t receive their share of nourishment from any water and good soil, because the weeds of our wrong thinking are crowding them out, and soon the whole plant of His word, becomes sterile and unproductive.

Now let’s look at “good soil,” the stuff we are to cultivate and watch over in our hearts. Good soil not only gladly receives the seed of God’s Word;  as we act on it, that seed begins to flourish, and grow into a healthy plant. The increase in our seed production, is always up to the Lord, our part is to cultivate the soil of our hearts with humility and love. And take the time to prayerfully water and feed these His seeds with tears of repentance, and acts of sacrifice as the healthy plants begin to grow. Now we have seeds that will bear fruit and can be harvested.

As you can see, there are four different results from exactly the same seed. The seed does not change, but how it is received does. Even if we sometimes feel unsure about what we think the Lord is saying – it is our responsibility to watch over His seed and act on it accordingly. What we do with what God tells us daily, matters. How we receive it matters. Preparing our hearts to be open to change and transformation matters. A huge harvest can come from our dedication and our willingness to yield to His Ways, even to the death. Bye.  👋“They triumphed over him (satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” Revelation 12:11.

P 2802 Don’t live like an orphan.

/ DVH

You know, orphans have to find their own way, they have to do everything for themselves. They do not belong to anyone. They have no family, no family to support them and back them up. You and I, we are no longer orphans!… Not only were we re-born into God’s family … then … God Himself adopted us. We must learn to make Him welcome in our hearts!“But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the right [the authority, the privilege] to become children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name—…” John 1:12. 

First of all, being adopted by God is a wonderful privilege, it is not a right – and secondly, that privilege becomes ours AS we choose to receive Him. BTW, that word ‘become’ stands out like a sore thumb to me. Christians have not arrived anywhere … yet. While we are still here on this earth, we are becoming …! We are learning His ways, that’s why we read the book. We have entered a life-long process of transformation. We daily walk with the Holy Spirit because we want to look like our Older Brother Jesus. At the same time it is no small thing to be eligible to use His Name – that’s part of our adoptive inheritance. His Name has authority here on earth, as well as in heaven.

Ephesians 1:5 says:“He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will.” Our adoption was always God’s plan. He let humanity have its head … and look where that landed us! Then He personally provided a perfect way back to Him. Almighty God has a plan for each of our lives. He’s a good good Father. He demonstrated how much He loves humanity when He sent His only One-of-a-kind Son here to live, and die, among us. Father God’s plans are always so much better than ours, but human beings have a cultivated, internal independence that often refuses to yield.

God will not take us over – He simply wants help each one of us reach our full potential – just like any good father would. A son or a daughter is an heir – whether they were adopted, or born into a family. The mistake we have made in modern Christianity is to think that being born again, plus being adopted, means that we can have whatever we want. He wants voluntarily yielded vessels for His kingdom. You know, our precious Father is not a despot running a conglomerate, handing out favours to a special few.  He is our ever-loving ever-living Heavenly Father. The One Who made heaven and earth, Who is worthy of praise and glory and honour – every single earth-bound day of our little lives. He gave everything for all.

In the absence of our Father’s Presence on this earth … as His kids, His heirs – we have been delegated to act like He would.  A true son or daughter represents His Father. So we are here to serve, like Jesus served. Even if we LEAD other people, we are still serving. Jesus wasn’t showing off His power when He healed people, delivered them, or raised the dead. Even when He multiplied food, He did that because… “…the people were hungry and they would not have made it home without food!”Jesus is an illustration of how much the Father loves us and cares about our lives.

The Lord disapproved of religious people because they misled others — often for their own benefit. You and I are here on this earth, right here, right now, to pour out His Love on others. Because we are no longer orphans we have a confidence that can willingly share. This is the love that we received when He adopted us. We need to tell others that they can be adopted too. Our whole aim is to love and serve people the way He loved and served us. There are no bright stars in His kingdom – most of us are NOT automatically relegated to be minions! The only star in His kingdom is Christ!

This means the way we treat each other matters: “But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is taking his time in coming,’ and begins to beat the servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk,..” AMPC. We dare not mistreat any of the people Christ died to save! Before Christ came and negated the power of sin, we were powerless to change our self-centred behaviour. Now, because of everything He did and said, we have been given the power to live this life differently. That’s what faith does, it chooses to respect its freedom by laying down its life for others.

There are human beings all over this earth who do not know that they have been set free from sin and death, and they are living their lives as orphans – struggling and straining to make the best of their time here. Cheating, stealing, hurting others to gain things.  (BTW, FYI, death is a door … not an ending! Jesus showed us that.) Most orphans have to learn to fend for themselves. But in a family, one member looks after another. Jesus loves us because we are His family. How many Christians have been fooled into living like they have no inheritance? HE is our inheritance. All that He did and is.

Don’t live your life like an orphan, there is more to this life than having enough money, power, position etc. We have been given His power to usher in change, simply by choosing to love other people into His kingdom. SELAH. 🤔

P 2793 Learn to value peace above everything else …

/ DVH

…including toilet paper!More on that in a minute! … Peace can become quite elusive in this world today. My best advice to help maintain your peace is to make every effort to get along with others. I’ve learnt over the years that our emotions and wrong thinking can led us onto a slippery path where tempers flare and little things drive us insane. The bible tells us to “pursue peace.” We will have to run after it, it rarely falls on you, and it will take some pretty specific choices to avoid quarrelling. Loving others despite their behaviour, can stop any reciprocal attitudes. My rule of thumb to disengage from crankiness is this – what would love do? Then say something nice instead. 

Here’s a laugh… back when Covid was ruining everyone’s world. In my country there was absolutely no toilet paper in our supermarkets. It was all over the news. People were panic buying toilet paper … rolls and rolls. Why? I dunno! 😳 They tore about like demented loons chasing toilet paper. Peace went out of the window! Obviously some people can’t live without it. How hilarious! When I was a kid, our toilet paper consisted of torn up newspapers hanging on a hook. It totally blows my mind that at the same time in my history, fish and chips came wrapped up in newspaper too! 

The thing to remember, in times of unrest – the Lord’s peace often seems elusive and it doesn’t seem to make any sense. We want to defend ourselves. I am talking about internal peace – external peace is another story. That takes humility and a willingness to forgive. Our world around us can be exploding and/or falling apart and yet when we have His peace, we are internally, supernaturally removed from whatever is going on. We become spectators, not participants. (Psalm 91) So we can totally see what’s is going on, but we’re watching things happen from the outside. We cannot afford to leave that place of His peace to participate with the bad stuff – because we will lose what the Lord has given us.

Peace disappears, slowly … one bad decision at a time. We give it away when we start using our minds and emotions to analyse trouble or other people’s actions. That’s when we begin to participate. It helps to remember that dead people have no rights! If we talk, talk, talk about how I feel about this or that, or I choose to have an opinion on why someone else is behaving the way they are – I am giving away my God-given right to live in HIS PEACE in those moments of agitation, I become enmeshed within the perceived problem.  Even if I allow myself to become secretly angry with someone else’s behaviour, I will slowly lose His peace. We need to learn to value peace more than self-expression.

God’s kingdom is a PEACEFUL KINGDOM. There are no enemies there. No battles to fight. It’s a real place where everybody’s aim is to glorify the Trinity! We can also be faced with the same choices to overcome that Jesus had in Matthew 4:1-11. The Lord used the scriptures against our enemy. We too have the power to overcome sin, the world and the devil, the same way He did, but we need to choose to allow the Holy Spirit to show us the Way He wants to do it. There were times when Christ was silent in the face of His accusers. The value of saying nothing is often greatly underestimated. At the same time, the Holy Spirit will hand us the scriptures, (the sword) we need to fight with – we just need to calm down enough to hear Him. Spectators do not participate, they WATCH.

God’s peace is not fragile, it is robust when it is established, but it needs to be treasured and respected.  It was given to us for free, because of what Christ did for us. When Jesus suffered for our sins He became our new identity. He shows us the way to cultivate this peace in the following scripture. ““I leave the gift of peace with you—My peace. Not the kind of fragile peace given by the world, but My perfect peace.Don’t yield to fear or be troubled in your hearts—instead, be courageous!” John 14:27 TPT. 

Fear, anger, and worry will always come knocking in times of trouble, but we don’t have to answer the door, we can use our courage to fight those things off. And refuse entry to our hearts and minds through the enemy’s ghastly thoughts, painted scenarios and hideous suggestions. Our enemy is always there, like he was when Christ was tempted – he will hand us the next nasty line to throw at the other person. There is no winning in a war –  even the guy fighting with you has an eternal soul. At the same time, we need to remind ourselves, through bible verses —who we really are. We simply tell the enemy that we are not going to accept his nonsense – God’s in charge here! 

The way to keep His peace with us all the time, is to die daily to what suits us, and live for Jesus. He will help us but we must ask, and in some stressful moments we may need to keep on asking, because God stretches our faith. However, the Lord is never demanding – so if a demanding thought comes into your mind it is not Him. Jesus is kind, gentle and lowly in His heart, He simply wants to help us, the same way He was helped when His life seemed so bleak.  He sent us the Holy Spirit so we can learn to live with His peace prevailing. We need to learn to value that peace. Bye 👋

“You are always and dearly loved by God! So robe yourself with virtues of God, since you have been divinely chosen to be holy. Be merciful as you endeavour to understand others, and be compassionate, showing kindness toward all. Be gentle and humble, unoffendable in your patience with others.” Colossians 3:12 TPT

P 2765 Jesus just wants you.

/ DVH

 “A thief has only one thing in mind—he wants to steal, slaughter, and destroy. But I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect —life in its fullness until you overflow!”John 10:10 TPT. Let’s LET Him decide what abundant life looks like for you.

We can get stuck on verses like this one, especially when we think we already know what an abundant life should look like! Unfortunately this means we are trusting in our own understanding not in the Lord’s guidance. No matter what our situation is, whether it is good or bad, we need to ask Him for His input. Otherwise if a disaster falls on us suddenly, we can end up judging God’s integrity by what has happened. But the bible says:“The rain falls on the just and the unjust.” We can only see in part, Almighty God sees the whole picture and … He has a plan. Trusting in God’s goodness and faithfulness is an essential part of the Christian life.

This world has been making so much noise and fuss lately that without His help and daily input – I think it is difficult to see anything clearly. Opinions fly about like butterflies in the spring! The thing to cling to in any sort of trouble is His goodness and faithfulness. “He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.” Psalm 91:4. He said it, we believe it – that’s the end of it!   

The Lord disciplines and teaches us His ways for a reason – He wants us to be SAFE no matter what is going on – and He values our faith. So we humble ourselves before Him, and wait for Him to speak to us. Things may not always look that great from our end while we are in the middle of this process — but we need to learn to resist the devil, and that means he has to leave!

Because it was good enough for Jesus to follow the Holy Spirit then it is good enough for us too. He will tell us what to do: “This the enemy – fight it.’ OR … “This is My will for you, just keep on walking. We are not there yet.” Almighty God has His Way of doing things, and we need to learn to yield to His processes – instead of trying to avoid them. He is refining us. Let’s not be fair weather friends — let’s choose to grow into being a faithful fiancé! The Holy Spirit knows how to prepare Jesus’ Bride. We don’t. We just like an easy life!

Isaiah said this sad edict about God’s kids: 5:12b”…but they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord, no respect for the work of His hands.” It is foolish, BTW, to read these words as if they only apply to the Jewish people, instead, ask the Lord – ‘do I do that?’  Read the bible like He is talking to you, even if you don’t understand what it says, or why He is saying it! He is a faithful God and He is looking for a faithful people. That means in good times or bad, we keep on seeking Him. 

It says in Proverbs 3:6: ”In all your ways know and acknowledge and recognize Him, And He will make your paths straight and smooth [removing obstacles that block your way].” Instead of ticking boxes when we read, or perhaps excusing ourselves, instead ask the Lord: “Where am I not acknowledging YOU?” The bible contains diagnostic tools that only work when we apply them to ourselves. Be humble – ask questions. Wait for Him to talk to you, before you excuse yourself. I have fallen down the ‘excuses’ hole many times, and then I started to see that I was dodging the Holy Spirit’s conviction! We are not right in our selves, we are MADE right in Jesus. God’s love includes correction.

Humility is a strange thing – it is much more than just self-effacement. It is an attitude of our hearts. My bible says that ‘our hearts can be deceitfully wicked above all else’ and I’ve caught mine out loads of times protecting itself. If you aren’t like that, I urge you to start thanking the Lord and don’t stop. What a gift you have been given! Humility begins when we realise what we are not, and we begin to see everything HE IS. In the face of His true holiness, that pious stuff we make up to look spiritual, crumbles instantly.

To be Holy we need to deliberately stay under the blood of Jesus. That means respecting and obeying God is …IN;  but rebellion against His will is …OUT.  Wishing you could whack someone around their ear-hole is … OUT. Secretly looking at others lustfully is OUT. You can make up your own list, but the point is, we may fool our friends, rabbits and relations but we can’t fool Him. 

Jesus Himself gives us the most wonderful key to overcoming all sorts of things in the Beatitudes. “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3. Recognise you are poor! Then live poor, and be needy. Need His help and instruction. We do not have to know everything. We are HIS. We gave our lives away – which means we don’t have them anymore!  Now we get to work alongside Him, and watch Him do stuff. Jesus just wants YOU. Bye. 🥰

P 2758 Perspective.

/ DVH

Sometimes the bible jumps right out at me and wallops me ‘round the ear-hole. Those modern language versions mean I can’t hide behind the thought:  ‘what the heck does that mean? Oh! Never mind, I’ll get to it later.’ So hang onto your socks because this next verse is a doozy. “Keep in mind that we who belong to Jesus Christ have already experienced crucifixion. For everything connected with our self-life was put to death on the cross and crucified with Messiah.” Galatians 5:24 TPT.

Did ya get that? You might want to read it again. Yeah. It really does say that. You and I, we are already DEAD. My selfishness;  my inability to care about how you feel;  if I am rude, uncaring and unkind to you;  all that may seem to be alive – but in His Kingdom reality — it’s already dead. My choice to yield to His will makes the difference. Now, I can bring His kingdom into this world, using my faith and my choices. How do you like them onions?!

There are all kinds of attitudes, actions, lifestyles, and supposed realities in this world, that we can choose to live in —  ‘the wide and extremely varied world view where anything goes and we don’t much care about what happens to anyone else.’ The ‘I am never going to have enough ideology,’ or the ‘I’m stuck! I cannot possibly change who I am because this is who I am’ theory. And then there is living in His kingdom, here and now, where we live for Jesus no matter what it costs and LOVE RULES.

In His kingdom we are no longer susceptible to sin’s power. Jesus sent us SomeOne to help us – the Person He sent to help us overcome our penchant for sin – made the world. He can certainly lead us out of sin! It’s the Holy Spirit, BTW! He is Christ with us now. We can choose to obey God. We can choose to love, to care, to engage, to die for others  – He gave us the power to choose to die to our own selfishness. Because of what Jesus did for us – we have been given a choice – we can live His way, our own way, or this world’s way. But Christ’s way is the only WAY that brings eternity down here. “On earth as it is in heaven …”

However, there is also a default place we can live… and sometimes I think most of us end up living there. That’s the place where we really want to please Jesus, but we know we are falling short and making mistakes over and over again. We try and we try, then we fail, and with each failure comes more condemnation. The answer to this problem is at the beginning of this scripture. ‘We are already dead.’ Living this life dead involves exercising our faith. We choose to believe the bible! We live our lives now, like the way we use to live is gone. It’s in the past because of what Jesus did for us.

Like I said, our choices can work by default. When we don’t choose the Lord’s Ways, and we give in to whatever stupid thing we feel we simply must do… that default position means we are allowing satan to drag us around. he can torment us and lie to us that God won’t love us anymore and we are a hopeless case. But when we read the bible, we eat the kind of food that gives us spiritual strength to manage whatever stuff comes at us in a day. We remind ourselves that our debt has already been paid, as we worship the Lord, and we live our lives gratefully serving Him.

When we start out trying to make Godly/kingdom choices, our responses might be weak and wobbly and a bit on the pathetic side. Why? Because this is a new way to live and we aren’t used to asking Him to help us. The person we were before is used to being in charge, but now we are living in and for His kingdom. Let’s be clear, in His kingdom we own our sins and confess our faults, and we repent and deliberately repair things. 

The moment we chose to follow Jesus we give up our right to choose where we live, where we go, who we marry, what we have and what we don’t. We died. Dead men have no rights!  Every self-centred thought and action on our behalf went on that cross, it all landed on Christ. He bore the weight of it all. Enormous things and small ones. He willingly gave that incredible gift of God’s forgiveness, to mankind. Now our part is to give ourselves to Him, every single day, living the way He has chosen for us. 

We have given up the right to live like the people around us. However, we don’t serve Him as slaves – that is people who have to live this way to please Him. What Jesus already did for us pleased Father God! Now we serve Him voluntarily. He died voluntarily and we choose to die to our old lives – voluntarily. Here’s another scripture to chew on: “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If you truly want to follow Me, you should at once completely reject and disown your own life. And you must be willing to share My cross and experience it as your own, as you continually surrender to My ways.” Matthew 16:24 TPT.

Following Jesus Christ isn’t about making this life better –  it is about whether I am willing to die to what I want in my life, every single day. Jesus has already paid for our sins – our sins are no longer the problem. The problem is the kingdom we are choosing to live in. That’s called perspective. Bye. 👋