Sandra

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”- Matthew 16:24 Following Jesus; what exactly does that mean for our lives? At first, you will have to make some sacrifices. Look at Simon and his brother Andrew (Matthew 4:18–20). They left everything behind when Jesus called them to follow Him. James and his brother John, they to left their boat and father and followed Jesus. Their obedience to His call changed all the history! It will cost you something; either letting go of old patterns, a certain lifestyle, worldly pleasures, your feelings, your own future plans, or your opinion (deny yourself, Matthew 16:24). But they can also be relationships, people or even family members. This is what the Bible means by “dying to self” (Luke 9:23–24) and “taking up your cross” (Matthew 16:24).  I no longer live, but Christ lives in me……(Galatians 2:20). It is a process, and it is different for everyone. One will go faster than the other, or in a completely different way. Our walk with the Lord is different and very personal for everyone. Although this does not make the Gospel very tempting, following Jesus is still the best choice you can ever make in your life! You can know that when He asks you to give up something, it will always be for your own good. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11 Jesus stuff According to this society, you have to have everything in order according to the standards of the world. If you go against the flow, people will say you are out of your mind and try to get you “back in line”. But our God is not of this world, and His plans for you are far better than we could ever imagine or wish. We must break free from the old patterns and systems of this world and recognize that we are no longer of this world (John 15:19). We must learn not to look at the world system but at God’s system (Romans 12:2). We can only look ahead to a limited extent. We may all have plans in our heads for our future, dreams and wishes, but we must dare to let go of all that if He asks us to. Now that we have chosen Jesus, we belong to Him. People will say you’re going too far with this “Jesus stuff” (as I was once told). But Jesus Himself tells us that following Him will actually cause unrest and commotion. He did not come to bring peace (Matthew 10:34–39). That heavy cross That cross can be so heavy, and sometimes may look impossible to take up. I have personally experienced what it’s like to lift a heavy cross and leave something behind because God asked me to do so. It took me three years to finally understand what exactly God was asking of me regarding the relationship I had been in for over six years at that time, and that was to let go. It was not what He wanted for my future, in fact it was sinful. He was so patient with me and kept pointing out to me that it was not the right thing. Until finally there came a time when I really had no choice but to give in, and trust God. I experienced so strongly; it was Jesus, or that relationship because it was at the expense of my growth with God. As difficult as it was on the one hand, my choice for Jesus was very easy. I couldn’t take it anymore, I had tried and pulled on the relationship for years, there was never really peace in me but a continuously recurring feeling of unrest and dissatisfaction. At one point, God clearly showed me that the time had come to let go and move on. I had to take up that heavy cross and continue my journey with Him. Even though it was hard, He stood by my side. I left the relationship behind, pursued Him and immediately received a promise from Him, He had something much better for me in the future! This is the God we serve! He will never ask you to give up or sacrifice anything if He doesn’t have something better for you. He loves you and wants your happiness. Not only that, but He knows what is good for us much better than we think we know for ourselves. So what matters is that we trust Him, surrender to Him and dare to let go. Even though it hurts us at the time and even though His promise of better things is still far out of sight (2 Corinthians 5:7), have trust and faith in God. Yes and Amen! “How much do you trust me?” He asks you. I personally noticed that the thing I was most concerned about was the area where I trusted God the least. The world has taught us to read the “small print” under a contract carefully and never just sign anything; don’t just trust something you put your name to! But our God is always faithful, good and loving. He is always the same (Hebrews 13:8), and He will never lie to us (Numbers 23:19). What He promises you, you can insist on because it is the Truth. In principle, we do not have to read His contract; there is no disclaimer with Him, no “yes, but”. Just yes, and Amen! I always see a blank contract in front of me. Jesus sits across from me at the table and says, “Do you trust Me with your life?” and hands me a contract. I look and see that it is completely empty! Only a space at the bottom of the page for me to sign. “Yes Lord, I

It strikes me that there are so many people; fellow Christians, of all people, who continuously judge other brothers and sisters or ministries. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that is the assignment Jesus gave us; to condemn each other. Sure, everyone is allowed to have an opinion, but is it to the benefit of God’s Kingdom if we make everything public? Everything must be announced immediately on social media about how terribly bad this ministry or this person is and whether it is a false doctrine or not. I personally believe, it’s a good thing to keep each other alert, and warn against false teaching. The Bible often warns us about false prophets and heresy (Matthew 7:15, Matthew 24:4-5, Matthew 24:24, 2 Corinthians 11:4). Jesus also indicated that at the end of the age more and more false teachers would arise (Matthew 24:11), but should we do it this way? I often see entire witch hunts, people and ministries are publicly shamed. Is this the way? Or is it better to first silently bring your doubts about a pastor or ministry to God and ask Him for wisdom, insight and discernment before we blow things off the roof. How we deal with it is what counts. Mind you, we are ambassadors of God’s Kingdom, people pay attention to us and how we interact with each other and the world around us. We must consider how it appears to unbelieving people. We have a mission to share, and to show the love of Jesus for each other and the world around us. And by that I don’t mean that we have to be ‘yes marbles’, love is above all proclaiming the truth, but I do believe in gentleness and remaining in peace. We must realize, we were all sinners that have been saved by grace. Unfortunately, I have often heard from unbelieving people they find Christians ‘hypocritical’; “They gossip about each other but then go to church on Sundays.” They can’t reconcile that (neither can I by the way 😉). And can we blame them? Those thoughts and statements don’t come out of the blue. This does not draw people to God, but rather it repels people. I have seen it happen around me that people renounce their faith because of how Christians treat each other. We can expect these things from the media and the world, they do not know the love of God. They live in darkness, but we, children of God, should know better, right? The Holy Spirit lives inside us! /*! elementor – v3.21.0 – 08-05-2024 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} The Pharisees and Judases in our midst We must remember, Jesus Himself was also labeled as a false teacher, and how did He deal with the Pharisees and Judases in His midst? His life’s work, His mission, was not to expose false prophets. It strikes me that many Christians make it a true life’s work. Entire social media platforms are being set up to expose the ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing’. The “evidence” comes from media articles, short TikTok videos or short quotes. But it also strikes me that those who criticize the most have often not seen/read/visited anything at all about the person or ministry they accuse. We can only sincerely criticize when we have investigated this ourselves, right? With our Bible next to it, having listened to or attended several sermons and, above all, pray about it. We could cause real harm to our brothers and sisters or ministries, when we shout harmful things into the void without thorough research and prayer.  Remember; death and life are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). Words have power! The last time I checked the Bible, Jesus commanded us to go into the world, preach the good news of The Gospel and the Kingdom of God, lay hands on the sick, and cast out demons (Mark 16: 15-18). However, when I look around, I see that some brothers and sisters Bibles say: “expose ‘false teachers’, make fun of them, and post them on your Facebook page for the whole world to see.” I personally think it is quite serious and not Christian, especially when ministries and people are dragged through the mud regardless of whether it is correct or not. I think it is very important to keep each other alert and warn against false teachers, but let us be very careful with it. Let us take it in prayer and first discuss our findings behind closed doors with fellow brothers and sisters, consult our Bibles and consult God. James 1:19 teaches us to be quick to listen, but slow to speak. Sometimes Christians are diametrically opposed to each other and unity is hard to find. The Bible also teaches us; “The tree is known by its fruit” (Matthew 12:33). So it is not very complicated, look at what the person/ministry does; is Jesus preached and recognized as the Son of God who came to die on the cross? Do people come to faith? Are they baptized and baptized in the Holy Spirit? Are hands laid on the sick and healed, and demons cast out? These are primarily the broad and most important lines. Trying to keep people happy I personally think, there are many churches who are mainly busy with ‘petting heads’; hold a “feel-good Sunday services”. I think many churches have fallen asleep and therefore become powerless, and I think this has been happening for years; it has crept in, so this is what people are used to. As soon as ministries go radically for God’s Kingdom, as we read in Acts, followed by signs and wonders, that goes against the hairs of a lot of people; because they are not used to it anymore! But when the cat’s hairs are being stroked the wrong way, we should not start stroking along with the hair, but instead turn the cat around! So, don’t adjust your message

Jesus chose twelve outsiders that no one would ever have chosen, and changed the entire history of the world with them! They turned everything upside down (Acts 17:6)! I find it such a beautiful story, how Jesus chose His disciples. All people who would not have chosen the world to ‘win a war with’, but outsiders, not-quits, simple people or some even the dregs of society at that time. The people of that time must expected the Messiah, whom they had been waiting for hundreds of years, to arrive with a very impressive array of army commanders and soldiers. Men with prestige and fighting skills, kings or people with a lot of force. But the opposite happened! He chose the broken-hearted, normal, hard-working simple men. Because these normal men simply obeyed Jesus, and followed Him, history has completely changed, and they helped save humanity from destruction. They helped Jesus start His ministry, and therefore people’s lives are still being completely transformed to this day. Jesus looks at the heart, and of course He already knew who would obey and follow Him. That is why I find the Bible texts Ephesians 1:3-4 and Romans 8:29 so powerful! “I am very grateful to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For He has given us in Christ all the wonderful spiritual things that are in the heavenly places. For He chose us before He made the world. He wanted us to belong to Him and to be perfect in Him. He loves us very much.” – Ephesians 1:3-4 “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” – Romans 8:29 How special it is that the Creator of heaven and earth knew before the earth even existed who would love Him and be obedient to His calls! Paint the picture When I try to paint a picture in my imagination of how Jesus and the group traveled from place to place preaching the Word, I secretly laugh; Jesus in front, who also had the appearance of a normal man. Following Him closely are a group of people of all backgrounds and appearances. Big and small men, Matthew the tax collector, Simon the Zealot, fishermen and farmers. In addition to His twelve disciples, there were also some women who faithfully followed Him, including Mary of Magdala, the woman who did not have the best reputation and carried seven demons before she met Jesus (luke 8:1-2). When I think about this, it brings a smile to my face.  We now know how the story will go and how powerfully these men and women will be used by God, but imagine what it must have been like for the bystanders at that time. When you see such a group approaching where the Leader claims to be the Messiah, followed by a ‘ragtag group’, you must have scratched your head. I love it! Some of them were so different from each other that they were also diametrically opposed to each other. Look at Matthew and Simon the Zealot. Matthew, a Jewish tax collector who worked for the Romans and had in fact turned against his own people, and Simon who had joined an extremist movement, the Zealots, that opposed the Romans. And these two had to find a way to work together. The narrow road Following Jesus is not the easiest path, as His twelve disciples were the first of us to discover. Jesus already warned us (Matthew 7:13-14). By following Him, you place yourself directly on a narrow road and against the current of the world. In the eyes of the world you are strange, different, and they will not understand why you are doing these things. Well, get used to different, LOL. When I look at the twelve men and women who were the first in the world to follow Him, I personally get a lot of encouragement from that. Fortunately, I am blessed to live in a time and continent where I do not experience such persecution as the twelve, especially looking at how their lives ended, but we can certainly learn a lesson from it. It is not always easy and persecution can come in different ways. Do we still stand for our faith, the Truth and do we continue to hold on to Jesus? Are we willing to work together with our brothers and sisters? Can we look beyond each other’s origins or past? Even though we may have different ways of thinking, different backgrounds and interests. As long as we’re all pointing towards Jesus, it shouldn’t matter. He qualifies you Jesus does not look at where you come from or what you have done, how much money, status or prestige you have, personnel or power. He doesn’t choose the qualified, He qualifies the chosen! He knew before the foundation of the earth that He would call you, and that you would answer to His call (Ephesians 1:4-5). You don’t have to be afraid to think you’re not good enough, He makes you good enough. There is no reason to feel unworthy. He chose you for a reason, a plan, to use you as His instrument, and to proclaim His Kingdom. Keep walking on the narrow path, and take comfort; there are many of us! Be encouraged by the twelve special heroes of faith who came before us!

I have often thought and wondered, Lord, what is Your will for my life? During the first years of my walk with God, this question often occurred to me, but I was still far too busy with all kinds of other things in my life. I mainly lived with one foot in the world. At that point, God was mainly concerned with setting me free from all the things of the world and getting my focus completely on Him, and it was because of all those things that I hadn’t really gotten around to ask myself: What are my gifts and talents actually? Who exactly am I, and what do I like? /*! elementor – v3.21.0 – 30-04-2024 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} What exactly are my gifts and talents? October 2023 I ended up in a beautiful church. After a while, I noticed that I felt a little intimidated by the many talented brothers and sisters who were there and what wonderful things they were doing for the Lord. For a moment, I felt like a “not quite”. I really enjoyed seeing how these brothers and sisters are so talented, and how everything they do is a success. Wonderful! But I had a moment when it made me feel insecure, and I asked God, “What do You want me to do for You? What is Your will for my life? And what exactly are my gifts and talents? I also immediately knew that this insecurity was my flesh, and that is no longer who I am in the Spirit. So I took these uncertain thoughts captive and subordinated them to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).  I know who I am, and that is first and foremost a daughter of the Most High, so there is no room for uncertainty in my life. I started to “rethink,” as we say in the Netherlands. Look at things from a different angle. Instead of feeling intimidated by all the beautiful and talented brothers and sisters at church, I thought about using them as inspiration and not feeling insecure. My dear friend pointed out to me that it doesn’t matter whether you can do ‘big things’ for God or ‘just’ be a light at work or in your family. God places you exactly where He wants you and in His time. Everyone is valuable. Of course, I knew this in my heart, but it was nice that she encouraged me with this again. It didn’t take long before I received answers from God to my questions. Relax He showed me that one of my talents is writing and that I am creative, and soon this blog came into the world. It gives me great joy to write about God and to share this with you! Encouraging people by telling them about all my adventures with God is an enormous honor for me! I get to build people up, and I am reminded of it again and again through my own texts, how good God is in my life. But I received the best answer recently at college. There was a guest speaker from France present, and his testimony relates precisely to my questions: What is God’s will for my life? He told us that we didn’t have to do anything at all! We can just relax in His presence because ultimately His will for our lives is to have a relationship with Him, to have intimacy with Him, and to know Him! Everything else is secondary, and flows from there. We don’t have to do anything for God. Jesus says in Revelation 3:20:   “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in, and we will eat together, I with him and he with me.” That is the Lord’s desire and His purpose to make His home in our hearts and our lives. He wants to work with us on a relationship. The creation of all humanity came from God’s desire to be in relationship with us. Of course, we must be grateful for all the gifts and talents God has given us, and use them in a way that glorifies Him. But the core, the essence, is knowing Him. Everything else will flow from this after that. We can relax. Get to know Him, and His character. We don’t have to frantically look for what we can do for God. Because if we simply start building an intimate relationship with God, He will then automatically open the doors where He wants to take us and show us what our talents are, what our gifts are, and what He wants you to do with all those beautiful gifts and talents. We cannot do anything on our own. And when we try to force ourselves to start something, a project or a ministry, there is a very good chance that it will fail. Well, I can tell you, when I heard that, I relaxed a lot! And I also notice it with this blog. I never thought I would do this. Until God laid it on my heart. I then started praying about it and once it was clear to me that this was what God had put on my heart, and I started writing, it flowed. Grow in your relationship with Jesus If you are wondering what God’s will is for your life, or if you are also searching for what exactly your gifts and talents are, I would like to encourage you to initially build and grow in your relationship with Him. Discover who you are in Christ. Andrew Wommack, among others, shares many valuable lessons about our identity in Christ on YouTube. Build your relationship with the Lord. Take time for the Word and prayer, and God will show you with love what He has placed in you that you can use to help build and serve in His Kingdom. If you don’t know what it is yet,

It took me quite a bit of practice to’master’ the principles of fasting and prayer. I had heard many stories about how people had the most wonderful time with God during fasting, and I wanted to experience that too! The first time I fasted, I sacrificed my social media and television. That went well, but I couldn’t say that I saw God’s presence or breakthroughs. I read up on fasting and prayer, and also discovered that true Biblical fasting means depriving yourself of food. In our modern world, we have put our own spin on it by also adding social media fasting. But let’s be honest, during the time that Jesus physically walked the earth, He did not have a Facebook account that He deactivated for forty days. LOL /*! elementor – v3.21.0 – 30-04-2024 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} Fasting is a command of Jesus I also learned that fasting and praying was not an option but an assignment. Jesus assumes in Matthew 6:16, that we simply do that. He does not say here ‘if perhaps you are fasting’, but He clearly says ‘when you fast’, so He assumes that every Christian will do this. I really wanted to fast, but I just couldn’t do it. One time I lasted three days, but I didn’t pray, so it was more like a hunger strike. Then I gave up because of a headache. Another time it worked for five days, but again I didn’t take the extra time to seek God, and eventually I fell for the lie that it wouldn’t do anything and I gave up, and the only thing I experienced was frustration.  I didn’t understand it, but I was determined to try again. The following times I ‘failed’ because of attacks from the enemy, for which I was completely unprepared. The auxiliaries arrived! This had to be different! At the end of 2023, I saw a call from a large ministry here in the Netherlands, Frontrunners. They went to fast for twenty-one days in early January, and anyone who wanted to participate could join via a Whatsapp-group. I wouldn’t let myself be told that twice! Twenty-one days had been a goal for me all along, and I really liked the principle of giving the first twenty-one days of the new year to God. I registered and also received forms with some explanations and tools. This helped me enormously as extra support. In the end, almost seven hundred people joined the group, so that was very encouraging! Every day, the ministry posted a beautiful Bible verse or reflection. It helped me a lot to kind of know not to do it alone. I thought it was a little bit scary not to eat anything for twenty-one days, so I asked God for advice. After this I got on my heart to eat one meal a day, and that was dinner, after six p.m. Those meals were very frugal. I would only eat some vegetables and a lean piece of meat or fish. I didn’t take anything else during the day, just water, lemonade or tea. Not only that, but I had also prepared well in advance. I prayed, asked and thanked God for His guidance and His strength. Something I had not done before. Previously I stepped into it with both legs at the same time on my own judgment, and without first offering it up in prayer. But, this time I did things differently, and it worked! For the first time, I lasted twenty-one days! Halleluja! Cheese! The scheming seducer I have had a few slip-ups where I couldn’t control myself and had a few slices of cheese or a rice waffle. The enemy immediately accused me, and tried to get me to give up now that I had made a slip. But, I had mercy on myself. Said: “sorry Lord, this was a shame, I’ll just move on.” And then I just picked it up again.  The enemy wants us to fall and give up, but even though we may fall, you just get back up and keep going (Proverbs 24:15). God sees your heart, and He also knows that we are not perfect. He is already very pleased that we want to respond to his order. God is with you I did not notice much in terms of God’s presence or breakthroughs during the first eight days. Now that’s really not necessary; I’ve learned that too. I waited in the void for lightning bolts, landslides or angels from heaven, what a bummer. LOL Although with God everything is possible, the intention must be above all because we want to come humbly before God, and God will always respond to this. This does not necessarily have to be immediately during your fasting. Breakthroughs or answers can also come later. It is also not about whether we ‘feel’ God’s presence, He is with us anyway. I had missed the point the other times with that. Fasting also a great way to learn to crucify our flesh. Be prepared for the fight of your life against your flesh. It can be challenging quite a bit at first. You have always been at the service of your flesh, when it shouted, “Feed me!!!” you immediately jumped up to feed it. And now suddenly you demand that it listen to you.  So if you don’t respond now, it will scream louder and louder, and before the first day is over, it will probably scream out, “Help!! Feed me, I’m dying!!” The next day, it will scream even louder, “Feed me; I’m dying a slow death.” It will use all possible weapons to convince you of its impending death. But once you get to day three, you will notice that it is finally going to shut up LOL. This is what it means to die to your flesh; this will make you spiritually stronger, and your connection to God will become much more sensitive. Back to my twenty-one-day

If, like me, you have lived in the world for a very long time. A life far away from God, completely in darkness, and you later come to faith, you might feel ashamed of your past and the choices you made at the time. Although God fortunately no longer remembers our sins as far as the East is from the West (Psalm 103:12), we can sometimes want to put things from the past in a closet and never think or talk about them ever again. Safely, and far away from the eyes of other people.  I myself have been quite bothered by the things I have done or said and the choices I have made in the past that damaged others and myself, and I have found it difficult to let go. But God showed me, through His Word, that I am not that person anymore, and He certainly does not look at me that way! I had to renew my mind (Romans 12:2) about how He sees me. And that was a process that took quite some time! /*! elementor – v3.21.0 – 18-04-2024 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} Hope for the broken Last year, I was able to take a fantastic mission trip to Brazil with a wonderful ministry that campaigns, evangelizes, distributes food parcels and visits all kinds of addiction clinics to proclaim King Jesus everywhere! It was a wonderful time, and miracles happened all the time! Everywhere, we told our testimonies and how we were all brought out of darkness by God into the light! There was enormous encouragement for the people there; these were all people who were deep in the darkness, looking for a way out or a glimmer of hope. And we were allowed to show and tell; we are no different from you; we do not come here from a rich country with an attitude; “let us show how great we are”, and then fly back to our lives in the luxurious west. No, we are just like you. Broken women and men, with some of us from the most traumatic backgrounds. We had experienced loss, brokenness, grief, and trauma ourselves. But there is Someone!! “There is Someone who offers you a way out! Come and see! Come and hear from this Man!  His name is Jesus. Come and hear about Him, what He did for us, He will do for you!” We were allowed to express, the joy, and the Good News of The Gospel. It left a lasting impression. And that was it! That’s where I had the revelation: I don’t have to be ashamed of my past; with this, I can help and encourage others, and God is honored, and that is what it is ultimately all about. That He gets the honor He deserves.  Every time I was able to share my testimony in various clinics or orphanages, and share what God had done for me, I saw the hope in the eyes of the people there. And God works so beautifully, because my pain and wounds were healed by sharing and seeing that it also gives others hope, and I also saw things happening to them. When we think we are worth nothing, can’t do anything, or are ashamed of the things we have done. When people are happy to remind us of our past and the mistakes we made, God doesn’t care at all. He will eventually use everything for good! By simply telling our life stories and testimonies in Brazil, people came to faith, were baptized and were filled with the Holy Spirit. In the meanwhile, our wounds were also healed. I have often noticed that God works in a way that both are blessed, not only the recipient, and you will receive a word or a blessing next time, but both are built up, helped, and blessed. Child of the Most High Dear brother or sister, do not be ashamed of your past. Let God use what you’ve been through, for you’ll see that it’s precisely those things that you’ve been through and through your heartache and sorrow that God can use to win people for His kingdom and to help you get better.    “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” — Romans 8:28 What has been, has been, it is no longer who you are (2 Corinthians 5:17); start seeing yourself as you are now; A child of the Most High!

Not all of us will grow up in an environment filled with God’s love. In fact, I think most of us live completely in darkness before responding to God’s call. At least, when I look at myself, that has certainly been the case. For forty years, even. By the time I came to know God, old patterns and ways of thinking had already worn into my thoughts and habits. Miserable events had already left their mark. Ways of thinking about myself, old wounds and my view of the world. Of course, it makes sense that we all go through a lot of things in life, since we live in a broken world. Either way, we all face a lot of trauma and misery. We all have a backpack. We put up walls, an certain attitude or a mask, all for self-protection, and before you know it, you no longer even notice that you are doing it. It has become second nature to you. We put our skeletons in the closet, out of sight, out of mind, right? Or not… Clean up the mess We will never be able to clean up all the mess from the past on our own because sometimes we simply can no longer be aware of why we have certain patterns or actions. You can walk around with wounds in your soul for years without even realizing it, or maybe you are aware of it, but don’t know how to solve it. People turn to drugs, sex, alcohol or all kinds of other ways to numb the pain in their soul. We hop from relationship to relationship thinking we can fill certain holes in our souls. We kick at people or blame others, etc. People have these addictions and patterns out of pain. They do not show up out of thin air. Somewhere, something has happened that damaged their hearts. How do you break out of this when you may not even know what is bothering you or where your wounds come from? How do you get to the core, the root of the problem? All kinds of therapies are out there, and I won’t say they are all ineffective, but rather than hopping from therapy to therapy, treatment to treatment or from doctor to doctor why not go to THE Healer? Jesus, our Healer There is Someone who knows us better and knows best what we need and where our wounds come from. He knows better than anyone else how to heal this. I remember so well that God healed me from wounds that I thought had long been healed. Years had already passed, and I thought I had processed some things by now, but God showed me that was not the case. He showed me what had to be removed and cleaned up because it would cause blockages. He is interested in cleaning, organizing, and healing our hearts (Psalm 147:3). As with an invisible finger, He will place it on the sore spot. Not to break us or hurt us, but to point it out to us because you can’t acknowledge what you don’t know. “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” – Psalm 51:10 Sometimes certain things must first be demolished before they can be rebuilt. He does that, breaks us gracefully, in love, and then builds us up again, using His love and strenght as our new foundation to build on. God knows your heart. He made you. He knows you inside and out, even better than you know yourself. Not only that, but He knows what you need to heal. Ask Him to search your heart and show you what hidden pitfalls there are, as David also prayed: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” – Psalm 139: 23-24. We need to be healed; we cannot continue to walk as broken people because not only is it not good for ourselves, it is certainly not good for the people around us. We unknowingly damage others, and a downward spiral is born. Likewise, we need God’s love to set us free from this. I want to encourage you to let Him heal your wounds with His immeasurable love. He will help clean up all your traumas, wounds and messes, but you must give Him permission to do so because He will not force Himself to you. Give your heart to Him and let Him become the Healer of your soul.

Sometimes I think, how sad it is that there are so many people who don’t know Jesus. People who may have never heard His name, people who think He is not real or never existed, as if He were a fairy tale character. People who misuse His name for their own gain or even as a swear word. How sad it is because if everyone knew Who He really is, that He lives, that He still performs miracles, saves, heals and raises people up. Then everyone would be lining up to get to know Him. People’s lives continue to be changed by Him. His character is out of this world He is indescribably good, unfailingly faithful, infinitely patient and unconditionally loving. When you really know Him, you cannot understand why people don’t want to know Him. I am blessed with His presence in my life, and I follow Him with great devotion and, above all, out of great love for Him. Even though I have been walking with Him for about four years now, He still amazes me every day. I now know His character, but I am still often deeply impressed by how good He is. When I think of all those people who don’t know Him and even despise Him, I could cry because this is not what He deserves. He does not deserve to be rejected, ridiculed, ignored or portrayed as a myth. But unfortunately, it has been happening for thousands of years. And He Himself was all too aware of this (John 15:18-19). Yell His Name! “I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love.” – Hosea 11:4 Somewhere in a gray area of my brain, I can still remember what it is like not to know Him. I also used His Name as a swear word and did not want to know anything about Him for a long time. Trust me, I know what it’s like. Yet, His love has grabbed me, as God Himself says: He draws us to Himself with cords of love (Hosea 11:4). Now I no longer want to think about having to live a life without Him and doing everything on my own strength. Where was my mind all these years? I now know that there is an enemy who would love to keep us in that state of ignorance, passivity and hostility towards Him. Yet, now I understand all too well all those people, including myself, who want to share the love of Jesus with everyone who doesn’t know Him. I understand now why people want to share their happiness because knowing Him is not something you want to keep to yourself. Yell His Name!!! (Acts 1:8) is what you most want to do. Jesus freak All those people I used to see standing in the center of the city, proclaiming the Gospel, whom I then labeled as “Jesus freaks”, I now understand better than anyone. Because Oh boy! If you only knew Him!! No, we have not become “cuckoo” as we say in the Netherlands. We have not lost our minds, and we are also not indoctrinated or members of a cult. Jesus lives! He’s real! And He really wants to get to know you too! The reason you are reading this is certainly no coincidence! He is looking for you and has chosen you (John 15:16) now it is up to you to choose whether you want to get to know Him. He will not force Himself on you, but waits patiently for you to open your heart to Him and invite Him into your life (Revelation 3:20). It is a choice from within yourself and He wants you to choose Him from your own free will. But I guarantee you that it will be the best choice you ever made or will ever make in your life! He will not leave you untouched. Guaranteed you will fall in love with Him and He will completely change your life. He gives you a new heart and new desires. Jesus changes everything, and He makes everything new (Ezekiel 36:26, Revelation 21:5)! If you want to get to know Him, and invite Him into your life, open your heart, and say this to Him: “Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Come into my life. I acknowledge You as the Son of God, and I believe that You died on the cross for my sins and that You rose again on the third day. Forgive me for my sins,  I want to know You as Lord of my life and Savior of my soul. Thank you, Jesus!”. If you have declared this with your mouth, and if you really believe it in your heart, you are now saved (Romans10:9).  Now one more task remains. Find a local church or ministry where you can be baptized, that is extremely important. (Acts 2:38) (www.frontrunners.nl) Congratulations, dear brother or sister. Welcome to God’s Kingdom and welcome to His family!

Jesus is our Leader in everything (Heb. 12:2) and fortunately we do not have to do it all alone to become more like Him. Praise God that we have the Holy Spirit to help us. But sometimes we will have to roll up our sleeves ourselves. God’s promise is that He helps us and does everything in cooperation with us, not that He actually chews everything out for us and we sit back with everything. There are times when we have to do things ourselves. If we look at Jesus, His life was no different. He of course did things together with God, but He also had to make the decision to actually make time for God, and to maintain the relationship with the Father. Exactly as we (should) do, although unfortunately I also miss the mark from time to time. Jesus regularly took time out to spend in prayer and intimacy with the Father (Mark 1:35, Mark 6:46, Matthew 14:23, Luke 6:12, Luke 5:16, Luke 9:18). He often suddenly disappeared from the radar, and His disciples sometimes even lost Him. Of course, we know that in fear, just before His crucifixion, He also sought the Father in prayer (Luke 22:39-46). So Jesus sought moments every day to pray and maintain His relationship with God. Naturally, by the time His ministry began, and He was recognized and sought out by more and more people, He became increasingly busy. People began to see all the wonders and signs He was performing, and hordes of people flocked to Him. Yet, He took time for everyone and rejected no one. In addition to this busyness, He continued to make room to spend time with God. Of course, Jesus is special and supernatural in everything and I have no illusions of surpassing Him, but in some way this grates on my soul. If Jesus needed time with God and in prayer to function, how much more do we need it! /*! elementor – v3.20.0 – 26-03-2024 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} God in the waiting room I find that I am sometimes very busy with other things, or perhaps better said, I make myself busy. Days fly by, and before I know it, another week is over. We can easily fill our days with everyday worries. While in fact, they pale into insignificance when we compare them to our relationship with God. I’ll be honest, I sometimes put God in the waiting room of my life where He can take a seat until it’s His turn. What an arrogant attitude, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has to wait for me. Things can go well for a long time, only to become distracted again after a while. Of course, we also have to deal with an enemy who throws all kinds of things at our feet to distract us by, for example, “sprinkling sand in our eyes” just when you want to read the Bible, but as soon as you start scrolling on Instagram you are wide awake again. Just snoozing in bed, that Netflix episode, doing some quick housework, worrying, etc., that jerk can come up with all kinds of things to keep us away from time with God. But of course we can’t blame him for everything, let’s be honest. Let your brain work God has gifted us with a fantastic working brain, although you would think that in some people it might not work optimally 😉 LOL. But I assume yours works perfectly fine, just like mine does, by the way. Praise God. So in fact, I should be able to make better decisions about this, and yet there are still moments when I get caught up in the things of the day and suddenly realize that I haven’t taken time for God yet. Item on the agenda, literally, to change my attitude and start setting priorities. Ultimately, He must have the highest place in our lives, knowing when we do, things run smoother.  I also really notice that when I have made little or no time for God for days, things become more difficult. I try to do the things on my own and become exhausted. I need Him in everything I do, and even if I don’t do anything, I still need Him! At such moments, I can really experience a feeling of homesickness for Him. He knows our hearts Fortunately, thanks to the sacrifice of Jesus, we live under the new Covenant, and we can come back into His grace every time we mess up. This creates space to fall and get up again to continue our journey in His presence. He stands next to us to catch us and raise us up again. It is thanks to this grace that we can choose Him again every day, learn to make better choices and become more like Him. His grace is new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23) “They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Be merciful to yourself as God is merciful to us. He knows that we are just human and He knows our hearts. If we continue to seek Him with a sincere heart, there is nothing to worry about. Relax!

1 Corinthians 12:12-13 shows us that we all have our own task and assignment within the church, which in turn works together as one body: “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.”  1 Corinthians 12:12-13 I was able to experience exactly how that works in Brazil during the mission trip I took last year. We had already been in Brazil for a number of days and had already been able to do and experience beautiful things for God. One day we visited a wonderful organization set up by a Dutch pastor and his American wife.  Years ago, at the Lord’s behest, they started setting up an orphanage for teenage mothers, but they soon added teenage boys and teenage girls, an addiction clinic for men and also a church was built on the project. A beautiful project in a beautiful and relaxing location. While we were there, the group was split up. Some of us visited the boys, another group went to the teenage mothers and teenage girls, and the last group visited the addiction clinic for men. I personally went to the young mothers and teenage girls. It was a beautiful afternoon, and we were able to share the love of Jesus and testify about Him. In the evening a church service was held in the church on the project and everyone was of course welcome. Some of the teenagers went, but there was also a large proportion who did not knew Jesus yet and did not want to go to the church service. The girls who did go were looking forward to it. The most beautiful clothes were brought out, they took a shower and dressed up for their King! /*! elementor – v3.20.0 – 20-03-2024 */ .elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px} Without a fight, there is no victory The evening arrived, and we took a seat in the front row of the church with the entire group from the mission trip. Two women from our mission group had prepared a beautiful song, which they sang in Portuguese. Beautiful! A man from our group, and I had each prepared a sermon that we could recite. I had experienced so much struggle before I left on this mission. For months before the trip, the enemy continuously tried to prevent and discourage me to go, even on the day of departure. He had tried to undermine me in all kinds of ways, but in the end, I arrived on that cold January 19th, 2023, at Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands for my trip to Brazil. I was spiritualy, physically and emotionally completely exhausted from all the months of non stop attacks, but that did not stop me. Without a fight, there is no victory, right? Praise the Lord!! All those months of struggle had not been in vain, because I had used it in my sermon that evening in that little church.  All the Glory to King Jesus I was allowed to come forward and share what God had put on my heart about this, and it was translated into Portuguese. The church was packed. It was my first time speaking in front of such a large group of people, but in the power of the Lord, it went smoothly. Beforehand, I said to God, “Lord, if there is just one person I can reach with my testimony, that will be fantastic!” After me, the other man from the group delivered a powerful message with a core: the mission of Jesus and the importance of being baptized! For a moment, the enemy put a thought in my mind, that my message was insignificant compared to his beautiful and powerful message. But I quickly shook it off. It was a blessed evening. At the end of the service, the question arose: were there people in the room who did not know Jesus yet, but wanted to get to know Him? A number of people stood up, including this one man. People gave their lives to Jesus there, and it was beautiful. After the service, there was an opportunity to baptize in the pool next to the church. I walked outside and stood by the pool. The man who had just given his life to Jesus ran towards me, shouting “My angel, my angel” while waving at the interpreter for her to come over because he urgently wanted to tell me something. He was so grateful for what I had shared in my sermon, which was mainly about the amount of struggle we can experience if we want to take a step for God, but that we should not let the enemy steal and destroy what God wants us to have, because he has already been defeated! “Say NO to the devil” was the core of my message. What had completely passed me by was the fact that we, as a group, had worked together perfectly as one body that day, just as God wants! The man turned out to be a patient in the men’s addiction clinic on the project. That afternoon, he had listened to all the stories told in the clinic by the people from our mission group, but he was very skeptical. He thought it was all a strange story, all those stories about God, and he wondered if there was a God at all. So I heard afterward. Yet, there the little seed was sown in his heart. It made him come to the service, and that evening in the church he heard my sermon. This was so recognizable to him, and the enemy was unmasked! He decided on the spot to give his life to Jesus!! After that decision, he heard the sermon from the other man in our group and