Devotional for the day

[Judy Harder]

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


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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]

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers   


Partakers of His Suffering
. . . but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings . . . -1 Peter 4:13

If you are going to be used by God, He will take you through a number of experiences that are not meant for you personally at all. They are designed to make you useful in His hands, and to enable you to understand what takes place in the lives of others. Because of this process, you will never be surprised by what comes your way. You say, "Oh, I can't deal with that person." Why can't you? God gave you sufficient opportunities to learn from Him about that problem; but you turned away, not heeding the lesson, because it seemed foolish to spend your time that way.

The sufferings of Christ were not those of ordinary people. He suffered "according to the will of God" (1 Peter 4:19), having a different point of view of suffering from ours. It is only through our relationship with Jesus Christ that we can understand what God is after in His dealings with us. When it comes to suffering, it is part of our Christian culture to want to know God's purpose beforehand. In the history of the Christian church, the tendency has been to avoid being identified with the sufferings of Jesus Christ. People have sought to carry out God's orders through a shortcut of their own. God's way is always the way of suffering- the way of the "long road home."

Are we partakers of Christ's sufferings? Are we prepared for God to stamp out our personal ambitions? Are we prepared for God to destroy our individual decisions by supernaturally transforming them? It will mean not knowing why God is taking us that way, because knowing would make us spiritually proud. We never realize at the time what God is putting us through- we go through it more or less without understanding. Then suddenly we come to a place of enlightenment, and realize- "God has strengthened me and I didn't even know it!"


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Respecting Your Boss

In Titus 2:9-10, Paul writes a very interesting and important command,

Exhort bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.

In our society, it is important to understand that this passage is giving us instructions as employers and employees.  And simply stated, as an employee, you are to be obedient to your boss.

One of the ways you do that is by not answering back.  It might be hard at times to hold your tongue, but you must.  It's not okay when you get to the water cooler to talk to the other employees like, "This idiot that we work for doesn't have a clue what's going on here."  I think that comes under the category of answering back.

And pilfering means stealing items of small value.  I remember this guy I knew in Oregon who did not like the place he worked.  In fact, he had a government job, and he would come home quite often with something he had stolen from his office.

Nearly every day he would rip off some small office supply like a stapler, or pens, or a hole punch.  While they were always things of small value, he would just keep stealing things.

The Bible says don't do that.  And you shouldn't steal time from your employer either by making personal phone calls during office hours.  Your employer is not paying you to take care of your business at the office.  That is stealing.

I believe that, as Christians, we ought to be the best employees in the world.  We should work so hard and bring such a good attitude into the workplace that we set the example to everyone with whom we work.

   --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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]

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers   


The Undetected Sacredness of Circumstances

We know that all things work together for good to those who 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 can't understand at all, but the Spirit of God understands. God brings you to places, among people, and into certain conditions to accomplish a definite purpose through the intercession of the Spirit in you. Never put yourself in front of your circumstances and say, "I'm going to be my own providence here; I will watch this closely, or protect myself from that." All your circumstances are in the hand of God, and therefore you don't ever have to think they are unnatural or unique. Your part in intercessory prayer is not to agonize over how to intercede, but to use the everyday circumstances and people God puts around you by His providence to bring them before His throne, and to allow the Spirit in you the opportunity to intercede for them. In this way God is going to touch the whole world with His saints.

Am I making the Holy Spirit's work difficult by being vague and unsure, or by trying to do His work for Him? I must do the human side of intercession- utilizing the circumstances in which I find myself and the people who surround me. I must keep my conscious life as a sacred place for the Holy Spirit. Then as I lift different ones to God through prayer, the Holy Spirit intercedes for them.

Your intercessions can never be mine, and my intercessions can never be yours, ". . . but the Spirit Himself makes intercession" in each of our lives (Romans 8:26). And without that intercession, the lives of others would be left in poverty and in ruin.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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]

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.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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]

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).


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
 

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers   


The Changed Life
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new -2 Corinthians 5:17

What understanding do you have of the salvation of your soul? The work of salvation means that in your real life things are dramatically changed. You no longer look at things in the same way. Your desires are new and the old things have lost their power to attract you. One of the tests for determining if the work of salvation in your life is genuine is- has God changed the things that really matter to you? If you still yearn for the old things, it is absurd to talk about being born from above- you are deceiving yourself. If you are born again, the Spirit of God makes the change very evident in your real life and thought. And when a crisis comes, you are the most amazed person on earth at the wonderful difference there is in you. There is no possibility of imagining that you did it. It is this complete and amazing change that is the very evidence that you are saved.

What difference has my salvation and sanctification made? For instance, can I stand in the light of 1 Corinthians 13 , or do I squirm and evade the issue? True salvation, worked out in me by the Holy Spirit, frees me completely. And as long as I "walk in the light as He is in the light" (1 John 1:7), God sees nothing to rebuke because His life is working itself into every detailed part of my being, not on the conscious level, but even deeper than my consciousness.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hebrews 1:1-8 reads,

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.  For to which of the angels did He ever say:  "You are My Son, Today I have begotten You"?  And again:  "I will be to Him a Father, And He shall be to Me a Son"?  But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says: "Let all the angels of God worship Him."  And of the angels He says: "Who makes His angels spirits And His ministers a flame of fire."  But to the Son He says:  "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom."

These eight verses tell us that Jesus is supreme, above any angel, because:

God speaks to us through His Son.
Jesus is the heir of all things.
God made all things through Jesus.
Jesus is the express image of God the Father.
He upholds all things with the word of His power.
He purged our sins.
Jesus is the Son of God, not a servant as are the angels.
He is worthy of our worship.
Jesus is God Himself.
That is the supremacy of Jesus!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reversing the Generational Curse

Scripture Reading:  Mark 5:32-43

Did you know that many problems people face are linked to choices their parents, grandparents and even "great-grandpa" made?  This may be a new way of thinking for you, and it is certainly not about placing blame.  Yet we need to know God's truth about generational curses and how to live free of their bondages.

A generational curse is passed down from one generation to another due to rebellion against God.  If your family line is marked by divorce, incest, poverty, anger or other ungodly patterns, you're most likely under a generational curse.  The Bible says that these curses are tied to choices.


Deuteronomy 30:19 says we can either choose life and blessing or death and cursing.


Freedom comes when we confess the ungodly patterns, ask God for forgiveness and then walk in obedience by consistently choosing His ways.


God bless

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers   


Faith or Experience?
. . . the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me -Galatians 2:20

We should battle through our moods, feelings, and emotions into absolute devotion to the Lord Jesus. We must break out of our own little world of experience into abandoned devotion to Him. Think who the New Testament says Jesus Christ is, and then think of the despicable meagerness of the miserable faith we exhibit by saying, "I haven't had this experience or that experience"! Think what faith in Jesus Christ claims and provides- He can present us faultless before the throne of God, inexpressibly pure, absolutely righteous, and profoundly justified. Stand in absolute adoring faith "in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God- and righteousness and sanctification and redemption . . ." (1 Corinthians 1:30). How dare we talk of making a sacrifice for the Son of God! We are saved from hell and total destruction, and then we talk about making sacrifices!

We must continually focus and firmly place our faith in Jesus Christ- not a "prayer meeting" Jesus Christ, or a "book" Jesus Christ, but the New Testament Jesus Christ, who is God Incarnate, and who ought to strike us dead at His feet. Our faith must be in the One from whom our salvation springs. Jesus Christ wants our absolute, unrestrained devotion to Himself. We can never experience Jesus Christ, or selfishly bind Him in the confines of our own hearts. Our faith must be built on strong determined confidence in Him.

It is because of our trusting in experience that we see the steadfast impatience of the Holy Spirit against unbelief. All of our fears are sinful, and we create our own fears by refusing to nourish ourselves in our faith. How can anyone who is identified with Jesus Christ suffer from doubt or fear! Our lives should be an absolute hymn of praise resulting from perfect, irrepressible, triumphant belief.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Rightful Place of Angels

In our day, angels have become a pretty big thing.  In fact, there are some fairly well-known personalities today talking about having their personal angel and needing to "contact your angel."

I believe in angels because the Bible clearly talks about them, but angels have a rightful place, which Paul addresses in Colossians 2:18-19,

Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.

Paul is telling us, "If you become so preoccupied with angels that you let go of the head, Jesus Christ, you are off the rails!"  In fact, if you are preoccupied with angels in such a way that it takes you away from Jesus Christ, I'm telling you, you are in error.  The body grows; the body is nourished; we get our life and direction from the head, Jesus Christ.

If God wants to have an angel intervene in my life, that is wonderful.  But I don't need to contact my angel because I have constant communion with the Son of God, who, as we learned yesterday, is superior to angels!

Jesus is the One who created the universe!  He is our Lord and our Savior.  He is the Vine, we are the branch.  We have communion with Him.  Why would we want to contact an angel when we can contact the Son of God whom angels fall down and worship!

Angels are under the lordship of Jesus.  That is their rightful place.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Faith And Our Feet

(Hebrews 11, Psalm 1)

Faith is not about how much you believe in what you believe. Faith is about believing that the One you believe in is believable. In fact, you can have all of the faith in the world that your SUV is going to take off and fly you to Canada cruising at 12,000 feet in the air. But that won't change the fact that you're still going to be stuck in traffic somewhere with all four wheels firmly on the ground.

Faith is about believing that the One you believe in is believable.

The way you find out if the one you believe in is believable is by knowing and experiencing Him.

It's like when a child climbs up on the back of her daddy for a piggyback ride. She doesn't get up there and start asking herself if he can hold her or if he is going to drop her. Instead, she immediately starts asking him, "Do you have me?" as she wiggles and adjusts her legs into place. 

By asking her daddy, "Do you have me?" she is affirming in her mind that the one she is putting her faith in is faithful. Because if he says, "Yes, I have you," and she rests up there only to discover that he really does have her, then the next time she climbs on for a piggy-back ride, the questions become fewer.

But until she first climbs up onto the back of her daddy, she can say all day long that she believes that he can hold her. Saying it a thousand times won't reduce the hesitation she feels when the offer to get up there is first extended. She will never get to the point where she can experience the full pleasure of his presence until she takes that first climb of faith to discover that he is faithful.

Faith experienced is faith that is real. It is an easy thing to say that you believe. It is an easy thing to feel like you believe. But faith is not situated in our feelings. Faith is situated in our feet. That's why the Bible calls it "walking by faith" rather than "feeling by faith."


God bless
 

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers   

Discovering Divine Design

As for me, being on the way, the Lord led me . . . -Genesis 24:27

We should be so one with God that we don't need to ask continually for guidance. Sanctification means that we are made the children of God. A child's life is normally obedient, until he chooses disobedience. But as soon as he chooses to disobey, an inherent inner conflict is produced. On the spiritual level, inner conflict is the warning of the Spirit of God. When He warns us in this way, we must stop at once and be renewed in the spirit of our mind to discern God's will (see Romans 12:2). If we are born again by the Spirit of God, our devotion to Him is hindered, or even stopped, by continually asking Him to guide us here and there. ". . . the Lord led me . . ." and on looking back we see the presence of an amazing design. If we are born of God we will see His guiding hand and give Him the credit.

We can all see God in exceptional things, but it requires the growth of spiritual discipline to see God in every detail. Never believe that the so-called random events of life are anything less than God's appointed order. Be ready to discover His divine designs anywhere and everywhere.

Beware of being obsessed with consistency to your own convictions instead of being devoted to God. If you are a saint and say, "I will never do this or that," in all probability this will be exactly what God will require of you. There was never a more inconsistent being on this earth than our Lord, but He was never inconsistent with His Father. The important consistency in a saint is not to a principle but to the divine life. It is the divine life that continually makes more and more discoveries about the divine mind. It is easier to be an excessive fanatic than it is to be consistently faithful, because God causes an amazing humbling of our religious conceit when we are faithful to Him.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Better Covenant

There are two verses for your reading today.  Hebrews 7:22, which says,

By so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.

And Hebrews 8:6, which tells us,

But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.

We have a better covenant; we have better promises.  And Jesus is the One who makes it sure.  He is the guarantee. He has personally pledged Himself to make it good.

As far as I am concerned, that takes away all reason for doubt, all reason for stressing out.  Jesus, Himself, is the pledge, the guarantee that this covenant we have called the New Testament will be good and will be fulfilled in our lives.

And He is not only the guarantee, He is the Mediator.  He is the go-between to what is truly a better covenant, established upon better promises.

Let's say your employer came to you and said, "We're going to give you a better contract.  While the old contract was good, we're going to give you one that's better.  This better contract will increase your hours, decrease your pay, eliminate your health and dental benefits, you will no longer get reimbursed for your mileage and your auto expenses, and you're going to have a shorter lunch break and no more Christmas bonuses."

Let me ask you, is that better?  No!  That is not better!  And I will never understand how people can say, "We know God healed people and worked miracles and intervened in people's lives under the Old Testament, but He doesn't anymore."

The covenant Christ bought and sealed in His blood is a better covenant, established upon better promises. Praise God!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luke 18:1-8, Psalm 2


One of the most important things that we can do as a Christian is to pray in line with our covenantal rights. But we often don't do this because we misunderstand what

prayer
is. Let me define prayer by first saying what prayer is not. Prayer is not simply talking to God. Prayer, rather, is asserting earthly permission for heavenly interference. Prayer is earth giving heaven authorization to intervene in the affairs of earth as heaven has previously stated that it would. That permission is granted based on your legal position and rights. That's why it is essential to study the Word of God and to know the rights that He has granted you through His Word.


If you are being held in bondage by an illegitimate force in your life, cry out to God. Pray to God for deliverance by appealing to Him based on your covenantal rights. There is a legal obligation that God has to respond to you based on the fact that you have a legitimate agreement with Him found in His Word. Go through the Scriptures and read everything that relates to your stronghold and pray it back to God.  When you do that, prayer is no longer just a spiritual exercise or something to check off of your "Christian List of Things To Do."

Rather, prayer becomes a legal meeting where you and God get together in agreement on the same covenantal arrangement. Prayer becomes an act of holding God accountable, in the right sense of the word, to what He holds Himself accountable: His Word.

)(
Holding God Accountable?   


God bless

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers   


"What Is That to You?"


Peter . . . said to Jesus, 'But Lord, what about this man?' Jesus said to him, '. . . what is that to you? You follow Me' -John 21:21-22
One of the hardest lessons to learn comes from our stubborn refusal to refrain from interfering in other people's lives. It takes a long time to realize the danger of being an amateur providence, that is, interfering with God's plan for others. You see someone suffering and say, "He will not suffer, and I will make sure that he doesn't." You put your hand right in front of God's permissive will to stop it, and then God says, "What is that to you?" Is there stagnation in your spiritual life? Don't allow it to continue, but get into God's presence and find out the reason for it. You will possibly find it is because you have been interfering in the life of another- proposing things you had no right to propose, or advising when you had no right to advise. When you do have to give advice to another person, God will advise through you with the direct understanding of His Spirit. Your part is to maintain the right relationship with God so that His discernment can come through you continually for the purpose of blessing someone else.

Most of us live only within the level of consciousness- consciously serving and consciously devoted to God. This shows immaturity and the fact that we're not yet living the real Christian life. Maturity is produced in the life of a child of God on the unconscious level, until we become so totally surrendered to God that we are not even aware of being used by Him. When we are consciously aware of being used as broken bread and poured-out wine, we have yet another level to reach- a level where all awareness of ourselves and of what God is doing through us is completely eliminated. A saint is never consciously a saint- a saint is consciously dependent on God.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
God Leads from Within

In our last devotional, we talked about the new covenant being better than the old covenant.  One reason is found in Hebrews 8:8-11 which says,

..."Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah-not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD.  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD:  I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them."

In the Old Testament, God had to lead His people externally.  When fleeing Egypt, God led them by night with a pillar of fire and by day with a pillar of cloud.  They did not intuitively know where God wanted them to go or what God wanted them to do.

But under the new covenant, God leads His people from within because He has now taken up residence within.  I believe that is why on the Day of Pentecost God chose to manifest the coming of the Holy Spirit in tongues of fire that sat upon each person individually.

God was saying that while under the old covenant, He led His people by a pillar of fire, and now He is coming to dwell and lead from the inside of each believer!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Pocketful of Miracles

(Exodus 14, Psalm 3)

A lot of what God wants to do in your life won't be done until you do what He has already revealed to you.

What He asks you to do isn't always all that huge, just like Moses' move at the Red Sea wasn't all that huge. All God was asking Moses to do was to hold out his stick. That's not that huge. If Moses would just hold out his stick, then God said that He would handle the rest. He would do all of the big stuff. He would open the Red Sea, harden Pharaoh's heart, make him go in after them, and close the Red Sea back up.

But to reveal the faith within us, God often asks us to do our little thing first. Hold out our sticks. Take that step. Make the move. Have the conversation. Quit the job to stay at home. Accept the job that He has shown. Stop the habit. Curb the tongue. Go to church. Go overseas. Whatever it is that He is revealing to you, God will often wait to do His big thing until you have done what He has asked you to do.

He does this because He wants us to see Him in a way we've never seen Him before. He wants us to experience Him in a way that we've never experienced Him before. He wants us to see the connection between our act of faith and His deliverance. He wants to be more than just a Cosmic-Santa Claus with a pocketful of miracles to throw down. God wants a relationship with you. He wants you to see Him up close and personal so He puts you in a situation where He is your only solution. Where it can't be fixed if He doesn't fix it. Where it can't be reversed if He doesn't reverse it. Where it can't be solved if He doesn't solve it. Because, God says, I've let you use all of the natural options available to you, and you are still stuck. Well then, when that happens, know that you are stuck with a purpose. Look to God.


God bless
 

[Judy Harder]

Daily Devotionals By Oswald Chambers   

Still Human!

. . . whatever you do, do all to the glory of God -1 Corinthians 10:31

In the Scriptures, the great miracle of the incarnation slips into the ordinary life of a child; the great miracle of the transfiguration fades into the demon-possessed valley below; the glory of the resurrection descends into a breakfast on the seashore. This is not an anticlimax, but a great revelation of God.

We have a tendency to look for wonder in our experience, and we mistake heroic actions for real heroes. It's one thing to go through a crisis grandly, yet quite another to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, and no one paying even the remotest attention to us. If we are not looking for halos, we at least want something that will make people say, "What a wonderful man of prayer he is!" or, "What a great woman of devotion she is!" If you are properly devoted to the Lord Jesus, you have reached the lofty height where no one would ever notice you personally. All that is noticed is the power of God coming through you all the time.

We want to be able to say, "Oh, I have had a wonderful call from God!" But to do even the most humbling tasks to the glory of God takes the Almighty God Incarnate working in us. To be utterly unnoticeable requires God's Spirit in us making us absolutely humanly His. The true test of a saint's life is not successfulness but faithfulness on the human level of life. We tend to set up success in Christian work as our purpose, but our purpose should be to display the glory of God in human life, to live a life "hidden with Christ in God" in our everyday human conditions (Colossians 3:3). Our human relationships are the very conditions in which the ideal life of God should be exhibited.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No More Remembrance

Today I want to point you to another reason the new covenant in Christ is better than the old covenant.  Hebrews 10:1-3, 15-17 tells us,

For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.  For then would they not have ceased to be offered?  For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.  But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year... But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD:  I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them," then He adds, "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."

Under the old covenant, God remembered the sin of Israel every year.  This meant that each year the priest would have to go into the Holy of Holies and offer the blood of an animal to cover the people's sins.

Under the new covenant, God does not remember.

Boy, am I glad that when I accepted Christ, my past was erased on God's ledger.  I had a pretty checkered past before I came to Christ.  But if today you enter my name in God's computer up in heaven...Bayless...past...push enter...push print...God's big printer prints out nothing but blank sheets.

Why?  He doesn't remember my sins anymore.  In fact, if you and I talk to Him about our past before we were saved, He says, "Sorry, it doesn't exist as far as I am concerned."

That is truly good news!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

God's Wild Ride

(1 John 1:1-4, Psalm 4)

When my wife, Lois, and I started dating, I came up with a strategy to encourage her to fall more in love with me. She was a lot in love with me from the beginning, but I wanted to increase that.

What I decided to do was to take her to the amusement park. Once we had wandered around the amusement park for a while, and had enjoyed some of the games and food, I coolly asked her if she wanted to ride the Wild Mouse. Lois had never been on the Wild Mouse ride before. But I had. I knew how wild the Wild Mouse really was. She didn't have any idea because it looked like an innocent ride.

I knew Lois' personality and that going on the Wild Mouse would be a tough situation for her. But I hadn't told her that. I had only mentioned that we should go on a nice ride together.

So we got on the Wild Mouse. The thing began to shoot out making it seem like our small car was going to fly right off of the edge of the track. Lois screamed. Then she scooted closer to me. Our car veered to the right and then shot out again making it seem like we were going to zoom straight out into mid-air. Lois screamed again. Then she scooted even more closely to me this time. By the end of the ride, Lois wasn't sitting far away from me at all. She was sitting as close as possible. That had been my plan.

I had wanted Lois to sit closer all along. The Wild Mouse accomplished that.

Sometimes God puts us on a wild ride. Life seems to be out of our control. At times, God allows these situations because He knows they will move us closer to Him and when we get closer to Him, we will discover that He is more than we ever imagined Him to be. 

God bless