Devotional for the day

[Judy Harder]

October 27, 2011

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     
 
The Method of Missions
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations . . . -Matthew 28:19


Jesus Christ did not say, "Go and save souls" (the salvation of souls is the supernatural work of God), but He said, "Go . . . make disciples of all the nations . . . ." Yet you cannot make disciples unless you are a disciple yourself. When the disciples returned from their first mission, they were filled with joy because even the demons were subject to them. But Jesus said, in effect, "Don't rejoice in successful service- the great secret of joy is that you have the right relationship with Me" (see Luke 10:17-20). The missionary's great essential is remaining true to the call of God, and realizing that his one and only purpose is to disciple men and women to Jesus. Remember that there is a passion for souls that does not come from God, but from our desire to make converts to our point of view.

The challenge to the missionary does not come from the fact that people are difficult to bring to salvation, that backsliders are difficult to reclaim, or that there is a barrier of callous indifference. No, the challenge comes from the perspective of the missionary's own personal relationship with Jesus Christ- "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" (Matthew 9:28). Our Lord unwaveringly asks us that question, and it confronts us in every individual situation we encounter. The one great challenge to us is- do I know my risen Lord? Do I know the power of His indwelling Spirit? Am I wise enough in God's sight, but foolish enough according to the wisdom of the world, to trust in what Jesus Christ has said? Or am I abandoning the great supernatural position of limitless confidence in Christ Jesus, which is really God's only call for a missionary? If I follow any other method, I depart altogether from the methods prescribed by our Lord- "All authority has been given to Me . . . . Gotherefore. . ." (Matthew 28:18-19).
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The Blessing of God's Spiritual Influence


Let me point you to 2 Samuel 21:1-3,


Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David inquired of the LORD.  And the LORD answered, "It is because of Saul and his bloodthirsty house, because he killed the Gibeonites."  So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them.  Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; the children of Israel had sworn protection to them, but Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah.  Therefore David said to the Gibeonites, "What shall I do for you?  And with what shall I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of the LORD?"

But here is the point.  It says, David inquired of the Lord, and the Lord answered him.

If there is a drought in your life, ask God why.  God will talk to you.  Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice."  If you in earnestness will seek God and ask Him why, God will speak to you.

Be willing to take responsibility for whatever He shows you.  There just may be something in the past that needs to be corrected.

Just ask. Then act on what He reveals.

There was a famine in the land because there had been no rain for three years.  So David inquired of the Lord, and God spoke to him.  If you read to the end of the story, you see the rain finally did fall, the drought was broken, and the famine was over. Perhaps today you are honestly doing all you know to do, but it seems like you are in this season of drought.  God's blessing has seemingly dried up in your life.

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The Importance of Prayer
Scripture Reading: Philippians 4:4-7; Colossians 4:2-6 

Most people are fascinated by magic tricks, which are simply fantastic illusions.  What God is able to do and anything He purposes to accomplish in His Kingdom are never illusions.  And how He answers our prayers is no illusion.  When God's people commit to faithful prayer, the world will see God's power.

To pray powerfully and effectively, we must first deal with sin in our lives.  We must turn and flee from sin, understanding that as God responds to our cries, people will give Him greater glory.

We must pray expectantly, knowing that God will ultimately change us.  Isaiah 65:24 says, "... before [you] call, I will answer ..."  God gave us prayer to connect us with His plan for our lives to make an impact on all creation!

God bless

[Judy Harder]

October 28, 2011

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     
 
Justification by Faith
If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life -Romans 5:10

I am not saved by believing- I simply realize I am saved by believing. And it is not repentance that saves me- repentance is only the sign that I realize what God has done through Christ Jesus. The danger here is putting the emphasis on the effect, instead of on the cause. Is it my obedience, consecration, and dedication that make me right with God? It is never that! I am made right with God because, prior to all of that, Christ died. When I turn to God and by belief accept what God reveals, the miraculous atonement by the Cross of Christ instantly places me into a right relationship with God. And as a result of the supernatural miracle of God's grace I stand justified, not because I am sorry for my sin, or because I have repented, but because of what Jesus has done. The Spirit of God brings justification with a shattering, radiant light, and I know that I am saved, even though I don't know how it was accomplished.

The salvation that comes from God is not based on human logic, but on the sacrificial death of Jesus. We can be born again solely because of the atonement of our Lord. Sinful men and women can be changed into new creations, not through their repentance or their belief, but through the wonderful work of God in Christ Jesus which preceded all of our experience (see 2 Corinthians 5:17-19). The unconquerable safety of justification and sanctification is God Himself. We do not have to accomplish these things ourselves- they have been accomplished through the atonement of the Cross of Christ. The supernatural becomes natural to us through the miracle of God, and there is the realization of what Jesus Christ has already done- "It is finished!" (John 19:30).
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Praying for the Rain
For the past week we have been seeking to understand what causes a spiritual drought, and then how we can break that drought if indeed we are in one.

Here is what I want you to understand.  Even if you earnestly seek God and repent of sin in your life, or you shift your focus and say, "God, I'm putting Your house first, and I'm going to put other people before myself,"  or perhaps God leads you to do something of a personal nature, you still need to pray for the rain.

Do not just assume God's blessing will automatically fall.  You still need to ask for it.  Zechariah 10:1 teaches us this truth,


Ask the LORD for rain In the time of the latter rain.  The LORD will make flashing clouds; He will give them showers of rain, grass in the field for everyone.


I used to read that and wonder, "God, I don't understand.  If it is the time of the latter rain, if it is rainy season, why ask for rain?  Won't it just fall automatically?"  If it is rainy season, why pray for rain?"

Because you cannot assume that it is automatically going to fall.

In James 5:17-18 there is a story about Elijah from 1 Kings 18.  James gives us the very, very, very short version.  But it tells us something significant,


Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.  And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.


What caused the rain to stop?  His prayer.  What caused the rain to fall again?  His prayer.

Ask God today for the blessing of His rain in your life!

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A Lesson About Faith

Scripture Reading: Hebrews 12:7-11 

Have you ever taken a stress test to evaluate your heart's health?  One component of the stress test monitors your heart while you walk on a sloped treadmill at a fast pace.  It's not easy, but you keep going to get an accurate reading of your heart's strengths and weaknesses.

God has stress tests.  They're called trials, and through them God evaluates how well you've learned the lessons of life.  The prophet Elijah passed the tests on several occasions.  Once he had to help a widow and her son survive a famine.  The next test was the boy's death.  The widow's faith was shaken, but Elijah's faith remained firm.

Through that faith, God saved the boy.  That day the widow and her son receive a valuable lesson: In your trials, remember God's truths.  In spite of your circumstances, you can prevail!


God bless

[Judy Harder]

October 31, 2011

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     
 
The Trial of Faith
If you have faith as a mustard seed . . . nothing will be impossible for you -Matthew 17:20


We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith, and it may be so in the initial stages. But we do not earn anything through faith- faith brings us into the right relationship with God and gives Him His opportunity to work. Yet God frequently has to knock the bottom out of your experience as His saint to get you in direct contact with Himself. God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of emotional enjoyment of His blessings. The beginning of your life of faith was very narrow and intense, centered around a small amount of experience that had as much emotion as faith in it, and it was full of light and sweetness. Then God withdrew His conscious blessings to teach you to "walk by faith" (2 Corinthians 5:7). And you are worth much more to Him now than you were in your days of conscious delight with your thrilling testimony.

Faith by its very nature must be tested and tried. And the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God's character must be proven as trustworthy in our own minds. Faith being worked out into reality must experience times of unbroken isolation. Never confuse the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life, because a great deal of what we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive. Faith, as the Bible teaches it, is faith in God coming against everything that contradicts Him- a faith that says, "I will remain true to God's character whatever He may do." The highest and the greatest expression of faith in the whole Bible is- "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" (Job 13:15).

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Obey and Honor

Over the next few devotionals, I want to focus on three areas I believe are critical for you and me to ensure we are obedient.

The first is found in Ephesians 6:1-3.  This first category of obedience has to do with family, something God teaches very specifically in His Word.  It says,


Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.  "Honor your father and mother," which is the first commandment with promise:  "that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth."


As long as a child is under his parents' roof and under his parents' direct authority, he needs to obey.  But throughout your entire life you need to honor your parents.

One time I had a dear lady come to me after a service when I preached on this command and say, "Pastor, I just have to tell you.  I just felt I needed to make things right with my dad.  I went home that night and called him and said, 'Dad, you need to forgive me because I've been bitter against you for all these years.  I'm sorry, and I want you to know that I forgive you for all the past.'"

Then she said, "Pastor, you need to understand, I've had a migraine headache for 15 years, 24 hours a day.  I take piles of medication.  I go to bed with a migraine, and I wake up with one, but the morning after I made things right with my dad, I woke up, and I had no headache."  And she started to cry.

I am telling you, this promise is full of power!  It is better to obey and honor your parents!

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Stand Firm on the Word

Scripture Reading: 1 John 2:15-17 

When most people hear the word idolatry, they think of pagans worshiping statues and assume, "That's one subject that can't apply to me."  Oh, yes it can.

You don't have to keep a carved, wooden tiki idol in your backyard to be an idolater.  You don't have to visit a Buddhist shrine.  Any time you worship the thing God created as a god, that's idolatry.

We can get so caught up in the things of this world - jobs, money, people, material things - that we forget our purpose here on earth. We should live in the world but not of the world.  Spend some time analyzing your walk with the Lord.  Are there things that you are placing above your relationship with God?  Ask Him to reveal things in your life that are being placed above God.


God bless
 

[Judy Harder]

November 1, 2011


Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     
 
"You Are Not Your Own"
Do you not know that . . . you are not your own? -1 Corinthians 6:19


There is no such thing as a private life, or a place to hide in this world, for a man or woman who is intimately aware of and shares in the sufferings of Jesus Christ. God divides the private life of His saints and makes it a highway for the world on one hand and for Himself on the other. No human being can stand that unless he is identified with Jesus Christ. We are not sanctified for ourselves. We are called into intimacy with the gospel, and things happen that appear to have nothing to do with us. But God is getting us into fellowship with Himself. Let Him have His way. If you refuse, you will be of no value to God in His redemptive work in the world, but will be a hindrance and a stumbling block.

The first thing God does is get us grounded on strong reality and truth. He does this until our cares for ourselves individually have been brought into submission to His way for the purpose of His redemption. Why shouldn't we experience heartbreak? Through those doorways God is opening up ways of fellowship with His Son. Most of us collapse at the first grip of pain. We sit down at the door of God's purpose and enter a slow death through self-pity. And all the so-called Christian sympathy of others helps us to our deathbed. But God will not. He comes with the grip of the pierced hand of His Son, as if to say, "Enter into fellowship with Me; arise and shine." If God can accomplish His purposes in this world through a broken heart, then why not thank Him for breaking yours?
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Obedience in Marriage
Ephesians 5:22-24 gives an important area of obedience.  While this is not popular in our society today, it is biblical, but is also often misunderstood. 


Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.  For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.  Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. It is important to make clear that before God there is an absolute equality between men and women, between husbands and wives.  In fact, this passage does not say, "Women submit to men."  It is purely a domestic situation.


Even with that understanding, the Bible says that husbands and wives are heirs together of the grace of life.  There is an equality before God between men and women and husband and wife.

What this passage teaches is that God has set up a system of authority in the home that needs to be followed, if it is going to be well with us.  In fact, this is even a military term.  To submit or to obey means to put yourself in rank under.

Friend, we are in a spiritual warfare, and there are spiritual forces that have been unleashed against homes and against marriages that would love to tear marriages apart. 

God has designed a way for the home to function, and that is for the man to take the responsibility of leadership and for the wife to come under that authority.  When a husband truly loves his wife, and cares for her like Christ does the church, and the wife respects her husband, things will be well in the home.  That couple and that family will be magnets for the blessings of God.
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Make God Your Reference Point

Scripture Reading: Romans 8:28-33 

God has assigned every believer a divine reason for being, including you.  Your purpose is to fulfill God's purpose.  And if you are not fulfilling His purpose, it's just another day gone by, filled with everything but real meaning. You will be floating around with no destination when you're disconnected from the purposes of God.

You cannot discover your purpose until God is your reference point.

I encourage you to pray, "Help me to grasp what it means to have a life of purpose, meaning and destiny and not to meander and waste another day on things that really don't matter."

God bless

[Judy Harder]

November 2, 2011

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     
 
Obedience or Independence?
If you love Me, keep My commandments -John 14:15


Our Lord never insists on obedience. He stresses very definitely what we ought to do, but He never forces us to do it. We have to obey Him out of a oneness of spirit with Him. That is why whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He prefaced it with an "If," meaning, "You do not need to do this unless you desire to do so." "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself . . ." (Luke 9:23). In other words, "To be My disciple, let him give up his right to himself to Me." Our Lord is not talking about our eternal position, but about our being of value to Him in this life here and now. That is why He sounds so stern (see Luke 14:26). Never try to make sense from these words by separating them from the One who spoke them.

The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear. If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself. Jesus Christ will not force me to obey Him, but I must. And as soon as I obey Him, I fulfill my spiritual destiny. My personal life may be crowded with small, petty happenings, altogether insignificant. But if I obey Jesus Christ in the seemingly random circumstances of life, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God. Then, when I stand face to face with God, I will discover that through my obedience thousands were blessed. When God's redemption brings a human soul to the point of obedience, it always produces. If I obey Jesus Christ, the redemption of God will flow through me to the lives of others, because behind the deed of obedience is the reality of Almighty God.
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An Enemy to Your Enemies

Exodus 23:20-22 says,

"Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.  Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him.  But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries."

Israel's success in possessing the promised land lay in their obedience.  The same is true for us as we endeavor to possess the things promised to us by God.

I like the thought of God being an enemy to my enemies and an adversary to my adversaries, but that hinges on obedience as well.

The difficult thing about obeying God is that it always requires faith.  He asks us to do things that sometimes make no sense.  Other times He demands that we face seemingly impossible situations armed with nothing but His Word.

But He is faithful.  He keeps His promises.  And He can be absolutely trusted-in everything and with everything.

So today if you are desiring to enter some aspect of your "promised land", or if you are faced with difficult or seemingly insurmountable obstacles, listen for His voice, search His Word for instructions, and then obey.

He will be an enemy to your enemies, and you will possess the promises.


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Accomplish Your Life's Mission

Scripture Reading: Hebrews 12:1-3 

"I have glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work that You have given Me to do" Jesus told His heavenly Father.

If you died tomorrow, could you say the same?  Could you say, "I have glorified You on earth with the work You sent me here to do"? 



You might say, "But that's Jesus talking."  Remember, Paul said the same thing as Christ.  Paul wrote that he had fought a good fight.  He kept the faith and finished his course.  Until this becomes your passion, you are wasting your life from an eternal perspective.



As the old saying goes, "Teach me, Lord, to number my days.  Only one life will soon be past; only what's done for Christ will last."  It is now time for you to accomplish the work that God sent you here to do.


God bless
 

[Judy Harder]

November 3, 2011

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     

A Bondservant of Jesus

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me . . . -Galatians 2:20


These words mean the breaking and collapse of my independence brought about by my own hands, and the surrendering of my life to the supremacy of the Lord Jesus. No one can do this for me, I must do it myself. God may bring me up to this point three hundred and sixty-five times a year, but He cannot push me through it. It means breaking the hard outer layer of my individual independence from God, and the liberating of myself and my nature into oneness with Him; not following my own ideas, but choosing absolute loyalty to Jesus. Once I am at that point, there is no possibility of misunderstanding. Very few of us know anything about loyalty to Christ or understand what He meant when He said, ". . . for My sake" (Matthew 5:11). That is what makes a strong saint.

Has that breaking of my independence come? All the rest is religious fraud. The one point to decide is- will I give up? Will I surrender to Jesus Christ, placing no conditions whatsoever as to how the brokenness will come? I must be broken from my own understanding of myself. When I reach that point, immediately the reality of the supernatural identification with Jesus Christ takes place. And the witness of the Spirit of God is unmistakable- "I have been crucified with Christ . . . ."

The passion of Christianity comes from deliberately signing away my own rights and becoming a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Until I do that, I will not begin to be a saint.

One student a year who hears God's call would be sufficient for God to have called the Bible Training College into existence. This college has no value as an organization, not even academically. Its sole value for existence is for God to help Himself to lives. Will we allow Him to help Himself to us, or are we more concerned with our own ideas of what we are going to be?
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Obeying Civil Authority

In Romans 13:1-3, the apostle Paul gives us some clear instruction on how we are to relate to our civil authorities,

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities.  For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.  Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.  For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil.  Do you want to be unafraid of the authority?  Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.

I remember the days before I was saved.  If I saw a police car when looking in my rearview mirror, I was struck with instant paranoia.  There was a good reason for my fear.

At that time in my life, I would have gotten in a lot of trouble if I had been pulled over.  I was constantly high on drugs and alcohol, and there were rarely times I was completely sober.

Thank God I have been saved!  Today if I look in my rearview mirror and I see a police car, I may slow down a little bit; but I am not gripped with this feeling of paranoia because I live within the parameters of the laws of the land.  And if I do break a law, it is going to be out of ignorance and not out of willful rebellion.

If you live your life in fear of civil authority, it is time to check out why.  If you search your heart and find that you are not subject to the laws of the land as you should be, I encourage you to make that change today.

You will be able to live your life without fear, and honor God in the process.

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Impacting the World for God

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 49:5-6 

In business, companies talk frequently about market share.  They all want a 100 percent share of the market.  But how do they accomplish this? Competition is a major hurdle.

God has the same issue.  A multitude of idols are competing with Him for a share of the market, and God wants a monopoly ... a 100 percent market share.  He says, "Let all the people praise Me."   

If everybody is praising the one true God, nobody else has any share of the market.  That's what God is after for Himself, and that is why we are here.  We are here to help God persuade the folks who are purchasing at the wrong market to go to the right market.  We are here to help God meet His 100 percent.

God bless

[Judy Harder]

November 4, 2011

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     

The Authority of Truth
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you -James 4:8


It is essential that you give people the opportunity to act on the truth of God. The responsibility must be left with the individual- you cannot act for him. It must be his own deliberate act, but the evangelical message should always lead him to action. Refusing to act leaves a person paralyzed, exactly where he was previously. But once he acts, he is never the same. It is the apparent folly of the truth that stands in the way of hundreds who have been convicted by the Spirit of God. Once I press myself into action, I immediately begin to live. Anything less is merely existing. The moments I truly live are the moments when I act with my entire will.

When a truth of God is brought home to your soul, never allow it to pass without acting on it internally in your will, not necessarily externally in your physical life. Record it with ink and with blood- work it into your life. The weakest saint who transacts business with Jesus Christ is liberated the second he acts and God's almighty power is available on his behalf. We come up to the truth of God, confess we are wrong, but go back again. Then we approach it again and turn back, until we finally learn we have no business going back. When we are confronted with such a word of truth from our redeeming Lord, we must move directly to transact business with Him. "Come to Me . . ." (Matthew 11:28). His word come means "to act." Yet the last thing we want to do is come. But everyone who does come knows that, at that very moment, the supernatural power of the life of God invades him. The dominating power of the world, the flesh, and the devil is now paralyzed; not by your act, but because your act has joined you to God and tapped you in to His redemptive power.
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Pay Your Taxes!

Yesterday we learned from Romans 13:1-3 that we need to submit ourselves to the laws of the land if we want to live lives free from fear.  I want to focus your attention today on the remainder of that passage, Romans 13:4-7,

For he is God's minister to you for good.  But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.  Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience' sake.  For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing.  Render therefore to all their due:  taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

What I want to address today is the need to pay our taxes with honesty, not trying to dodge our responsibility.  It is a critical part of obeying the laws of the land as we discussed yesterday.

While I do not like working hard and in the end sending a large portion of every dollar to support the government, it is the right thing to do.  I am absolutely amazed when I learn of Christians who try to dodge their responsibility to pay taxes.

Friend, you must be honest and pay your taxes.  Certainly take advantage of all that the law allows, and do not pay more than you need to, but don't hide anything.  You need to make sure you do this because when you do, you are being obedient to God.

And there are always blessings tied to obedience-even if it is obeying God by paying your taxes!
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Take Your Ambassadorship Seriously

Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

People can't refrain from talking about the things they are passionate about.  Paul says that by knowing the fear of God - a healthy respect for who He is - we persuade men.  He says the love of Christ controls us. 

When we are passionate about Jesus and His love for us, we won't be able to stop ourselves from sharing that with others, and through our testimony, they will see God's glory.  If we go day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, without representing God, we cannot be passionate about Him, we cannot "go unto all the world" as Christ commanded us.   


God has called each one of His children to be ambassadors for His Kingdom with the goal of winning folks over.  We must fuel our passion for Him, so we can effectively call people out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light.


God bless
 

[Judy Harder]

November 7, 2011

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     

The Undetected Sacredness Of Circumstances
All things work together for good to them that love God. - Romans 8:28

The circumstances of a saint's life are ordained of God. In the life of a saint there is no such thing as chance. God by His providence brings you into circumstances that you cannot understand at all, but the Spirit of God understands. God is bringing you into places and among people and into conditions in order that the intercession of the Spirit in you may take a particular line. Never put your hand in front of the circumstances and say - I am going to be my own providence here, I must watch this, and guard that. All your circumstances are in the hand of God, therefore never think it strange concerning the circumstances you are in. Your part in intercessory prayer is not to enter into the agony of intercession, but to utilize the common-sense circumstances God puts you in, and the common-sense people He puts you amongst by His providence, to bring them before God's throne and give the Spirit in you a chance to intercede for them. In this way God is going to sweep the whole world with His saints.

Am I making the Holy Spirit's work difficult by being indefinite, or by trying to do His work for Him? I must do the human side of intercession, and the human side is the circumstances I am in and the people I am in contact with. I have to keep my conscious life as a shrine of the Holy Ghost, then as I bring the different ones before God, the Holy Spirit makes intercession for them.

Your intercessions can never be mine, and my intercessions can never be yours, but the Holy Ghost makes intercession in our particular lives, without which intercession someone will be impoverished.
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Are You a "Convenient Christian"?

Some Christians are "convenient Christians."  These are believers who seek to obey God, but only when it is convenient.

It is like the men and women of Israel who came to the prophet Jeremiah one day to see if it was God's desire for them to go to Egypt.  You find their story in Jeremiah 42-43.

After they asked Jeremiah to ask God on their behalf, they said (Jeremiah 42:6),

"Whether it is pleasing or displeasing, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we send you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God."

Now that sounds pretty good.  These folks seem like they have it together spiritually and truly desire to obey God.

But just a few verses later, when Jeremiah tells them, "This is the word of the Lord:  Don't go into Egypt.  Stay here," they respond this way (Jeremiah 43:2),

"You speak falsely!  The LORD our God has not sent you to say, 'Do not go to Egypt to dwell there.'"

Some people's posture is, "God, I'm going to do anything you say...as long as it agrees with my viewpoint."  Some will say, "Lord, I'm going to be obedient and give an offering...but I'm not giving ten percent of my income.  You can forget that because I just don't see it that way."

Or, "God, I'm going to do whatever You say, but I'm not going to forgive so-and-so because what they did to me is just unforgivable."

Friend, we can't pick and choose.  It has to be, "God, I am going to do whatever You say.  I'm going to do it whether it rubs the cat's fur the wrong way, whether it plows my field crossways...pleasing, displeasing, I'm going to obey."

Do not be a "convenient Christian."

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Reversing the Addiction Curse

Scripture Reading: Romans 8:1-8 

A POW is a prisoner of war, someone who has been captured and held under an enemy's control.  Many Christians are POWs - prisoners of a spiritual war.  They're trapped by situations most commonly called "addictions," which the Bible refers to as "strongholds."

Drugs, alcohol, co-dependency, sexual promiscuity and other strongholds make a person feel trapped with seemingly no way out.  But there is hope. In 2 Corinthians 10:1-6, Paul offers a formula for a breakthrough: Fix the fortress.  Put "speculations, knowledge and thoughts" under God's domain.  In other words, start with your mind.

Meditate on these Scriptures and feed your spirit with the truth of God's Word: You belong to God.  Don't allow the enemy, the "father of lies," to hold you prisoner any longer.  We are not our addictions or strongholds; we are blood-bought, totally forgiven children of the Living God!   

God bless
 

[Judy Harder]

November 8, 2011


Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     

The Unrivaled Power of Prayer
We do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered -Romans 8:26


We realize that we are energized by the Holy Spirit for prayer; and we know what it is to pray in accordance with the Spirit; but we don't often realize that the Holy Spirit Himself prays prayers in us which we cannot utter ourselves. When we are born again of God and are indwelt by the Spirit of God, He expresses for us the unutterable.

"He," the Holy Spirit in you, "makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God" (Romans 8:27). And God searches your heart, not to know what your conscious prayers are, but to find out what the prayer of the Holy Spirit is.

The Spirit of God uses the nature of the believer as a temple in which to offer His prayers of intercession. ". . . your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit . . ." (1 Corinthians 6:19). When Jesus Christ cleansed the temple, ". . . He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple" (Mark 11:16). The Spirit of God will not allow you to use your body for your own convenience. Jesus ruthlessly cast out everyone who bought and sold in the temple, and said, "My house shall be called a house of prayer . . . . But you have made it a 'den of thieves' " (Mark 11:17).

Have we come to realize that our "body is the temple of the Holy Spirit"? If so, we must be careful to keep it undefiled for Him. We have to remember that our conscious life, even though only a small part of our total person, is to be regarded by us as a "temple of the Holy Spirit." He will be responsible for the unconscious part which we don't know, but we must pay careful attention to and guard the conscious part for which we are responsible.
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Opening the Door to Calamity

In 1 Kings 13:21-25, God provides us with quite an unusual story,

And he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, "Thus says the LORD:  'Because you have disobeyed the word of the LORD, and have not kept the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you, but you came back, ate bread, and drank water in the place of which the LORD said to you, "Eat no bread and drink no water," your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.'"  So it was, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, the prophet whom he had brought back.  When he was gone, a lion met him on the road and killed him.  And his corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey stood by it.  The lion also stood by the corpse.  And there, men passed by and saw the corpse thrown on the road, and the lion standing by the corpse.  Then they went and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.

Notice that the lion did something very unnatural.  The guy disobeyed, the lion killed him, but the lion didn't go after the donkey.  The donkey didn't run away, but the lion didn't try to kill the donkey, nor did it drag the guy off to eat him.

And to top it all off, now people start to walk by.  Look, people do not walk by wild lions!  But here they are:  the donkey, the lion, the dead guy, and people are walking by.

What is God up to here?  He is giving a snapshot, something He wants indelibly burned into their understanding:  Disobedience opens the door to calamity.

If you choose to disobey God, know you have opened your life to calamity!

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Reversing the Financial Curse

Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 8:11-18 

Do you ever feel that, despite all the work you are putting into your life, job, family and other relationships, you aren't experiencing the productivity that you should?  You want God's blessings, yet you just don't seem able to get ahead.

God implores every believer to take the tithe challenge!  Faithfully giving a tenth of your earnings to the church shows God you are a good steward of what He has entrusted into your care, that you are grateful for everything He has provided and finally that you trust Him.

Too many people are living in a sea of debt.  God wants to reverse the financial curse in your life and bless you.  But you must plant a seed first before God can rain down His blessings on it.

   
God bless
 

[Judy Harder]

November 9, 2011

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers     

Sacred Service
I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ . . . -Colossians 1:24


The Christian worker has to be a sacred "go-between." He must be so closely identified with his Lord and the reality of His redemption that Christ can continually bring His creating life through him. I am not referring to the strength of one individual's personality being superimposed on another, but the real presence of Christ coming through every aspect of the worker's life. When we preach the historical facts of the life and death of our Lord as they are conveyed in the New Testament, our words are made sacred. God uses these words, on the basis of His redemption, to create something in those who listen which otherwise could never have been created. If we simply preach the effects of redemption in the human life instead of the revealed, divine truth regarding Jesus Himself, the result is not new birth in those who listen. The result is a refined religious lifestyle, and the Spirit of God cannot witness to it because such preaching is in a realm other than His. We must make sure that we are living in such harmony with God that as we proclaim His truth He can create in others those things which He alone can do.

When we say, "What a wonderful personality, what a fascinating person, and what wonderful insight!" then what opportunity does the gospel of God have through all of that? It cannot get through, because the attraction is to the messenger and not the message. If a person attracts through his personality, that becomes his appeal. If, however, he is identified with the Lord Himself, then the appeal becomes what Jesus Christ can do. The danger is to glory in men, yet Jesus says we are to lift up only Him (see John 12:32).
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The Cost of Disobedience

In our last devotional, we read the story from 1 Kings 13 about the lion that killed the prophet for his disobedience.  We learned how that story illustrates for us the importance of obedience, and how disobedience opens the door to calamity in our lives.

1 Peter 5:8 tells us,

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.           

I believe God wants you to get a snapshot of that lion in 1 Kings 13 imprinted in your mind.  He wants you to understand that if you willfully disobey God, your adversary, the devil, is not going to just be roaring at you.  Like that lion, he is going to be putting a paw on you.

Frankly, I don't know about you, but I don't want his paw on my finances, on my family, on my health, or on anything else.  I don't want him sinking his teeth into my marriage.  But disobedience opens the door to that.

James 4:7 says,

Therefore submit to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

You see, you have been given authority in your life over the devil.  This verse makes it clear-you can resist him.  But your authority in Christ as a believer only operates as you have submitted yourself to God's authority through obedience.

If you are disobedient in areas of your life, knowingly disobedient, your authority in Christ will not work.

So here is the question:  Today are you being willfully disobedient to God in any area of your life?  If so, confess and repent.  Otherwise you can be sure the devil will get a paw on your life.

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Reversing the Physical Curse

Scripture Reading: Mark 5:32-43 

We have all seen the effects of physical problems - diabetes, heart disease, sleeping disorders and cancer - in our lives or at least in the lives of those we love.  We know that these things are not God's perfect will for our lives.  In John 10:10 (NIV), Jesus says, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." Jesus wants us to enjoy a long, healthy life ... not just exist.   

It's important to understand that physical problems can be tied to spiritual issues from past generations.  These "issues" are called generational curses.  The only real solution is to pray and then obey.


Just recognizing the problem and praying about it is not enough.  We need to act on what God is telling us to do.  Many times, He prompts us to do things that are different and maybe even strange.  But it's not strange to Him.  God wants to heal our bodies, but the results depend on our obedience to His voice and His Word.

 
God bless