Body

Devotions

The Great Healer and Lord

Gary Wilkerson

A minister friend of mine went to go visit his brother; now his brother suffers from some mental illnesses and chemical imbalances and lives in a little trailer park. My friend was knocking on the door of his trailer, and his brother opened the door and started shooting at my friend. Two of the bullets passed within inches of his head.

My friend Nicky Cruz has told in his testimony how his mother would call him the son of Satan and punch him in the face, often until his eyes were swollen shut. She would lock him in a closet after that, sometimes for days. It got so bad that by the time he was 9 years old, he tried to hang himself. Now God is using Nicky to preach the gospel all over the world, but he knows what it means to grow up with great pain.  

Many of us may not have ever had an experience like my friends’, but we have a history of difficulty. This is the kind of world we live in with violence, hardship, suffering, strife between family members. Some of you have had a father or mother say, “You’re worthless.” Perhaps we experience haunting pulls from addictions or feel the weight of sexual sins. There’s the broken feeling of severe loneliness. Perhaps there’s people we love deeply who are in a crisis, and there’s nothing we can really do to help lift them out of their suffering, but it hurts us to watch them walk through their pain.

You and I need help. We need somebody stronger than us. We need a power outside of us. We need a savior and deliverer. We need Jesus.

The Bible gives us this promise: “When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all” (Psalm 34:17-19, ESV).

Jesus has reconciled our relationship with God. He’s the healer of our marriage and our children. He is the remedy for loneliness, for addiction and sin. He will relieve the pains of our hearts. He is the repairer of broken families. He is the restorer of lost hopes and dreams. 

The Living Word of God

Jim Cymbala

When I was a teenager, I was in a church with a pastor who had a sense of humor. He once said, “I want everybody here to lift a shout if you’re happy to be in God’s house!” Of course, everyone is shouting, “Amen.” Next, he said, “I want everybody to turn to the second chapter of Hezekiah. We’re going to look into God’s Word today. How many are there?” 

About 15 people raised their hands. “Yeah, I’ve got it! Second chapter of Hezekiah.” Then the pastor said, “What do you mean? There is no book of Hezekiah.”  

We can get into such a rut. We can let our disciples become so rote. I’m telling you, every time you open the Word of God, you have to pray, “Oh Lord. Speak to me from your Word.” Otherwise, you’ll just flip through the Bible, thinking, “I know that verse. I know what that means.” We don’t know it, though. There are new depths God wants to show us, so let’s treat the scriptures like God’s sacred and living words.  

In Peter’s second letter to the church, he warned people to remember the judgment of the world, how everything around us is going away. After he said all that, he added, “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God…” (2 Peter 3:11-12, ESV).

Holy means separated and pure, unlike the contamination around you. Godly means devoted. The first priority for us is Jesus, and every day means walking with him. His values, goals and will are what we follow. We ought to live this way with holy and godly lives as we wait for Christ to return. 

Right now it seems like it’s man’s day. The day belongs to politics and Hollywood, and they’re mocking God. He is patient, waiting for people to repent and turn to him. Meanwhile, we return to his living Word. We remind ourselves with intention of what it means to be holy and godly. 

Jim Cymbala began the Brooklyn Tabernacle with less than twenty members in a small, rundown building in a difficult part of the city. A native of Brooklyn, he is a longtime friend of both David and Gary Wilkerson.

Taking Up the Towel

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

In a famous passage in John 13, Jesus took a towel and a basin and washed the feet of his disciples. He told them “If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you” (John 13:14-15, NKJV).

Some devout Christians have taken this verse literally. They have made it their custom to have “foot washing” services. This is commendable, yet if it remains only a ritual, the true meaning of foot washing has been lost.

After Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, he put his garment back on, sat down and asked them, “Do you know what I have just done to you?” In other words, “Do you understand the spiritual significance of foot washing?”

I believe the Lord’s question is for us today as well. Do we understand the depths of what he did in washing the disciples’ feet? Indeed, something very powerful and profound was taking place; Christ was teaching his church one of its most important lessons.

Jesus was not instituting an ordinance to be carried on throughout the church ages, such as communion or water baptism. If so, he would have instituted it at the beginning of the disciples’ training. He would have submitted to a foot washing himself, as he had done with water baptism. I believe Jesus was giving us an example of the kind of physical manifestation he desires most, that of “taking up the towel.”

I believe that if we understand what Jesus did in washing his disciples’ feet, we will understand the concepts of service and submission. You see, serving one another in love and submitting to one another in godly fear mean much more than taking orders or being accountable to a higher authority. Rather, these glorious truths are unlocked only in the context of “taking up the towel.”

Precious Jewels

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

Listen to this prophesy from Isaiah.
“O you afflicted one,
Tossed with tempest, and not comforted,
Behold, I will lay your stones with colorful gems,
And lay your foundations with sapphires.
I will make your pinnacles of rubies,
Your gates of crystal,
And all your walls of precious stones.
All your children shall be taught by the Lord,
And great shall be the peace of your children.
In righteousness you shall be established;
You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear;
And from terror, for it shall not come near you”
(Isaiah 54:11-14, NKJV).

What an amazing prophecy. The “colorful gems” mentioned in verse 11 are jewels. If you know much about jewels, you know that a diamond was once a piece of coal that has been worked on for years by the elements. God’s Word is telling us, “Your afflictions are meant to change you into something beautiful, something precious to me.”

The “pinnacles [windows] of rubies [agates]” mentioned here are a type of quartz made transparent by fire. The windows aspect has to do with eyes or vision. God is saying that trusting him through your afflictions will give you clear vision and discernment. It will allow you to see into the unseen with crystal clarity.

Many scholars believe the phrase “gates of crystal” reads more accurately as “gates of pearl.” Pearls are formed from a grain of sand in the belly of an oyster. The grain grates and irritates the oyster until the animal injected fluid around it, and it becomes a pearl. Think of all the irritating friction in your life. What is God doing? He is making a pearl. Every pearl is a memento of suffering. 

I believe Isaiah is talking about the beauty of Jesus Christ in this passage. In other words, when affliction is allowed to accomplish its work, it brings about a people who shine forth the beauty of Christ’s character. It makes us more and more like Jesus.

Your Deliverance Is at Hand

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

God had given Moses and Israel ironclad promises of deliverance, so Moses went to the people with the good news. He performed signs for them, and scripture says they believed. “Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses. Then he did signs in the sight of the people. So the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that he had looked on their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped” (Exodus 4:29-31, NKJV).

It was a time of hope and rejoicing. Everyone cried, “Hallelujah! We are finally free. God has heard our cry, and our bondage is over. Praise to him!”

What happened next? Things only got worse. Israel’s bondage became absolutely unbearable. They were given no straw for making bricks, and they endured heavy beatings from their taskmasters. Pharaoh raged at Israel’s leaders, “Get out of my sight. Back to work.”

Moses could not believe this terrible turn of events. He cried out, “Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Why is it you have sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have you delivered your people at all” (Exodus 5:22-23).

You must understand that the devil knew Israel’s deliverance was right at the door, so do you think he was going to sit by and not make one last attempt to wear out God’s people? The worsening of Israel’s condition wasn’t God’s doing. Rather, it was Satan rushing about madly, hurrying his work before the hour of deliverance came.

Likewise, whenever the devil sees you driven to your knees, he knows your deliverance is at hand, and he is not going to sit by in those final moments before victory comes. Instead, he will intensify your temptations. He will enflame people against you and send lying spirits to falsely accuse you. He will lie to you that God has taken his Holy Spirit from you, that you are paying for past sins. He will try to flood you with all kinds of guilt and condemnation.

If you are praying but things are only getting worse, start rejoicing because your deliverance is at hand!