Yields

P 3432 Let’s pay attention to who He says I am. 

/ DVH

“Nor to give importance to or occupy themselves with legends (fables, myths) and endless genealogies, which foster and promote useless speculations and questionings rather than acceptance IN FAITH of GOD’S administration and the divine training that is in faith in that leaning of the entire human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence)—Whereas the object and purpose of our instruction and charge is love, which springs from a pure heart and a good (clear) conscience and sincere (unfeigned) faith.“ 

1 Timothy 1:4&5: Let’s look at this bit: “…the divine training that is in faith in that leaning of the entire human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence).” Love comes out of allowing God to train us in Christ’s Ways using our circumstances and we respond with our faith. Now let’s ask one of those pesky questions: what, or who do I lean on when life gets uncertain and unstable?

Today I want to encourage you to think about leaning your entire human personality on Him and, at the same time, aim toward trusting and having confidence in His Way of doing things. Leaning on Him means if He moves we fall over! This can be one of those great things that stays a theory. In our minds, we say: “Yes Lord!!” But when He asks us to actually ‘do good to those who despitefully use us’ … well, that’s a whole other ballgame. All that we are must lean on Him!

At the same time we can easily have a skewed opinion of what it looks like to be in ministry. We don’t have to be on a platform to be used – His grace works anywhere! But whatever we do, we need to have His fruit bursting out of it. His fruit is the proof that we are learning to love with His love – not just what we think. There needs to be an accompanying harvest to those theories in our lives. 

This is how faith expresses itself. Theories don’t change lives, actions do. I’ve been in places and situations that looked impossible, but Jesus saved us and helped us to get out. I’m not saying I liked it when that stuff happened, I’m saying that bad things give us opportunities to stand still and watch Father God do what He does best – love everyone, all at once! I’ve had to learn it is OK to be a person who doesn’t know everything. I know I can’t do anything in my own strength, it never goes the way I planned it – I found that out by figuratively falling on my head.

For instance:  the possibility of me learning to weight-lift, or run, skip, hop, kayak, or bicycle in a 100 kms marathon is now remote. Even suggesting that I jump out of a perfectly good aircraft (why would you!) — is well beyond my scope these days. That’s not laziness, btw, that’s just disability, age and a certain amount of respect for gravity! I watch people older than I am do these things and I don’t feel bad. I think: ‘I am stretching myself in a whole other direction … spiritually.‘ Trust me, that is just as intense and difficult as the physical stuff.

If I am going to train for something, then I want to train myself to walk in holiness and righteousness before the Lord. I already know anyone can have access to these things because Jesus gave us HIS righteousness etc – BUT! … those things can be easier said than done. Which is why we need to use our faith, especially as we live in everyday land! He really did give me these things and I need to act accordingly. If you are going to aim at something, aim high … … but I’m still not going to leap out of a plane, parachute or not!!

Here’s another verse. Hold onto your hat! “For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems sad and painful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness [right standing with God and a lifestyle and attitude that seeks conformity to God’s will and purpose].” Hebrews 12:11. This is how we get righteousness, holiness, and conformity to what He wants. God’s love, the fruit of the Spirit, etc. these things have already been given to us. Done deal! Now we need to walk with Him and submit to the discipline those things will bring into our lives. Think of those things as being like my parcel at the post office. It’s already here within reach, all I need to do is go and claim it using my faith that the PO hasn’t lied to me. 

The Lord’s kind of discipline teaches us His Ways. We can read about those things in the book, but sooner or later we have to respond to them. That’s the discipline part. We pray, and then we do the very thing that seems alien to us. Sometimes it can even seem ill-advised! We turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile, love those who won’t ever love us back, and obediently follow Jesus, and the path He took before us. Here’s a little clue that will help us on our journey. When we do things His Way, we leave our ways behind.  

We are not all the same. Your idea of love might not look like my idea of love, which can lead to conflict between us. Try asking your spouse or your kid what their idea of love looks like – it’s mind-blowing. But HIS LOVE is the standard, not mine or yours. Let’s aim at loving others with His Love. The bible clearly tells me what that love looks like in 1 Corinthians 13. And Colossians 3:14-17 tells me what I need to put on, in order to wear it. However, I have to start with my faith! It takes a great deal of faith to shut-up when you want to shred the person who is attacking you.

Let’s choose what Jesus bought for us at Calvary, and put those seemingly impossible qualities on, using our faith to do it. I step into WHO HE SAYS I AM. Final thought: How am I going to move mountains if I cannot change my behaviour and let Him transform my character? I need the Holy Spirit’s help! By the way, when the bible says trained by discipline, it isn’t a suggestion. Bye 👋. 

P 2299 God’s authority is transferable.

/ DVH

This is not a popular subject in today’s independently-minded society. Instead of authority being transferred, and cultivated, it is grasped at and treated like a weapon for control. It is only when we yield control that we find out it does not matter … God’s will does … Most people aren’t having a problem with submission – their problem is Lordship.

Let’s look at the Roman Centurion incident “…just say the word, and my servant will be healed.  For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, He was amazed and said to those following Him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith…” Matthew 8:8-10.

The first thing I want to mention is that Jesus saw that the Centurion understood how faith works. Christ saw what this soldier said and did … as faith. Many people are so afraid of being controlled by others they have limited comprehension of the safety of submission. They have not been taught about its benefits – instead they have been made subject to a perversion of this truth. 

This illustration explains that first of all, authority is transferrable, and secondly, when you are submitted to God using your faith, you can’t be controlled by men. We can only be controlled by others, when we are not fully surrendered to Christ. NOBODY CAN CONTROL YOU IF YOU ARE DEAD – spoiler alert …you no longer CARE! Ya might want to stew on that one for a while! 🧐

This Roman soldier was a man under authority, and he understood authority and how it works. He willingly and respectfully surrendered his own authority in favour of Christ’s greater authority. He was actually spiritually aware. He could have ordered Christ to come with him, as a Roman soldier he had all the power in that world available to him, but he recognised there was a greater authority present. 

God’s authority is not something to be snatched at, or about bossing people around. It doesn’t work by yelling the loudest, or making a better point. When we put ourselves under authority we are choosing to be totally submitted to Christ. Submission is not something Christ talked about to keep unruly, power-hungry, dissatisfied followers under control. It is a chain of command. We gotta stop thinking we have to control other people’s behaviour with threats and doctrinal points and start dying to self, serving others and put the Holy Spirit in charge of what happens to US. 

So … wives do not submit to their husbands because they have to, they submit using their faith. And children obey their parents exercising their faith. It’s a choice freely made. Remember, Jesus Himself chose the cross – HE LET humanity torture and kill Him because He believed in His Father’s greater good.  He understood submission is powerful.

Almighty God has given us people who have delegated authority. His AUTHORITY.  The point to be concentrated on here is not who’s got the ‘power’, but ‘are we walking by faith?’ Submission is about faith not power. It’s about delegated authority — look at this interchange between Pilate and Christ. “Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me at all if it had not been given to you from above.. “ 

Power comes from total submission. That person in charge, the one who has delegated authority, does not have to know everything, and be able to dot all the ‘i’s’, cross all the ’T’s’, for us to submit to them. As a matter of fact, I have submitted to people in faith and I knew they had no clue about the things that were important to me, but I wasn’t submitting to them, I was submitting to the chain of command, which always goes back to Christ. 

I could quite honestly care less whether the person in charge understands what end game I might have in mind, because I gave all my end games to Jesus. I don’t have any kind of agenda either because I gave those to Christ too! My faith is in Christ’s ability to go round the numpty in the middle, and bring about what He wants. 

Authority is totally transferable when we don’t try to steal or snatch it, or usurp it, or batter it away from someone else who has already been given it by God. Food for thought. 👋🏻