Devotions

Jezreel was a city that excelled in warfare because of its vast fleet of chariots. Chariots represent the strength of man and signify the power to speed ahead with great agility and power.  

We have a “chariot lifestyle” today — one of comfort and ease where all our needs are provided. And if we want to do something, we just go ahead and do it.

The chariot lifestyle can have great appeal to Christians with its standards of success — material wealth, security, comfort. But the true servant of God does not seek these things primarily; instead, he seeks to obey his Master’s voice and pursue the concerns of His kingdom. This follower learns early in his faith walk that by pursuing the Lord first, “all these things (food, clothing, shelter) will be added to him” (Matthew 6:33).  

Elijah knew better than to look to the world’s resources. Imagine the scene as he addressed King Ahab, perched high in his brilliant chariot, towering over the lowly prophet. Yes, Elijah spoke boldly to Ahab, “Prepare your chariot and go down” (1 Kings 18:44, ESV). But next we read, “The hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he gathered up his garment and ran before Ahab to . . . Jezreel” (verse 46). God’s man outran a chariot over a distance of many miles! How did Elijah accomplish this? The phrase “gathered up his garment” means that he prepared himself for the race.

When Peter says to “gird up the loins of your mind” in 1 Peter 1:13, he is saying that we need to prepare ourselves for the contest by reinforcing our belief and trust in the Lord. And the apostle Paul used running a race as a picture of our Christian life. In his final epistle, he said, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).

We, too, can run with strength and win the prize if we properly prepare for the race. 

Many of us want more of God but not to the point of being ridiculed. Our Western minds think, “I will serve the Lord, but I will remain in control.” But that is not how the Church began. The Church began with Spirit-controlled Christians who yielded themselves to God. That’s radical, yes, but that’s the way the Lord did it.

Some might say, “Yeah, but we’ve improved upon that New Testament style of Christianity.” If so, I want to see the spiritual fruit our improvements have produced. People may have mocked those first, “unsophisticated” Christians, but thousands got saved in the first four chapters of Acts. The Word of God was treasured. The churches were filled with sacrificial love. A holy excitement pervaded the atmosphere. Have we really improved upon that?

In Acts 2, while the disciples gathered in one place, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in languages they didn’t know. I don’t want to debate speaking in tongues, but I want to point out that when the Spirit came upon them, they immediately began to do something they could not do naturally. “When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: ‘Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?’” (Acts 2:6-8).

The disciples were speaking in actual languages they did not know. They were doing something that could have no other explanation than that God was the source. An undeniable expression of Spirit-controlled living is that we will be lifted above the limitations of mere natural talents and abilities.

The irony of Spirit-filled living is that we have to give up power in order to gain a greater power. How many times have you had trouble doing something, so you just tried harder? Have you ever tried harder to have the self-discipline to read your Bible more or pray longer? To love an unlovely person? To be bold when you felt afraid? How did that work out for you?

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. 

If you don’t deal with your doubts, you will be given over to a spirit of grumbling. You will live that way and die that way because your doubts cannot simply be suppressed. They must be pulled up by the roots!

Just three days after Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, they encountered a new test. They had been singing, shaking their tambourines and testifying to the power and strength of a mighty God. They were boasting that He was leading and protecting them — and then they arrived at Marah, which means “waters of bitterness.”

This was an example of how God just keeps allowing us to encounter crisis after crisis until we finally get the lesson He is trying to teach us. If we keep refusing to learn it, a time comes when He gives us over to our own bitterness. “And they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. . . . And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?” (Exodus 15:22, 24).

On Sunday they were having a great time — singing, dancing, praising! But by Wednesday they were in trouble; another crisis, and they were falling apart. How could they lose their confidence so quickly? Because they had never had any! They had never had that foundation truly built under them. 

So again they failed the test. They had learned absolutely nothing from their previous crises and again they missed an opportunity to shine forth the greatness of their God. They even began to take His goodness for granted. They had no food, so He sent them manna from heaven. He dropped quails out of the sky, piling them up outside the camp three feet high. But not a word of thanksgiving was heard. Instead, the people turned to greed and hoarded up all that God gave them. And then Israel became stiff-necked!

What a shame it is to go from crisis to crisis and learn nothing in the process. It carries with it a curse and you will be given over to a spirit of murmuring. 

“Ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord” (James 1:6-7).

Many Christians sit in the house of God and murmur and complain, as if God doesn’t hear them. But God does hear our murmurings — accusations that He does not care for us, insinuations that He has let us down.

God warned me not to give voice to nagging doubts and fear — not to my wife or friends or colleagues. He said to take those doubts to Him and ask Him to heal my unbelief.

Israel spent forty years in turmoil and there was a lot of backbiting, complaining, jealousy and bitterness. What a miserable existence the Israelites led while still claiming to be the children of God.

You must come to a place where you learn to trust Him. When you do this, you will have dealt a deathblow to all doubt, fear and unbelief.

Where do you start? First, look right into the mirror of God’s Word! Consider your actions over the last thirty days: Have you been complaining? You may answer, “Well, I’ve complained a little but I haven’t complained against God.” Oh, yes, you have! No matter who heard your complaints, they were all directed at God.

Everywhere I turn in the Bible, I read, “Trust Me and I’ll see you through! Just commit your ways to Me.” What does that require? Simply that you stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. You may ask, “But what if nothing happens?” That response alone reveals doubt and fear.

Dearly beloved, turn to God and tell Him that you choose to trust Him and wait for His victory. Let God make you a testimony to the world, a witness to His faithfulness. Love Him with all your heart right now and give Him all your problems, all your faith, and all your trust. 

“They that carried us away required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” (Psalm 137:3-4).

The people of God were in the hardest place of their lifetime and as they were carried away, their captors required a song of them. Yet, all they felt was depression, despair and hopelessness.

Multitudes of Christians are in the same position today, trapped in adverse circumstances. As the devil comes at you with an old temptation, you may be on the edge of giving up, thinking, “I can’t make it. I’ve prayed and cried but this old bondage is going to haunt me forever.”

When Israel fell into Babylonian bondage, their captors implored, “Sing for us! Play for us! We’ve heard all about you and what your God did for you, so show us your joy in Him.”

If this demand was made in mockery, I believe it also was a pitiful plea. The gods of the Babylonians had left them empty and without hope. But the songs of the Israelites had made an impact on them. “The God of these people can open a sea; His fire comes down from heaven; He stands against their enemies. There must be something to this God of theirs.”

People who can rejoice and keep their faith in the darkest of hours are a real testimony to others who have the same struggles. Others take notice of believers who testify, “God, I believe You, no matter what is happening in my life.”

The world is shouting to us, “We are not impressed by the Red Sea opening or the blind receiving sight or the lame being healed. No! The miracle we want to see is your faith in the darkest hour of your life. You face hopeless situations with a smile of joy, singing praises to God. That is what speaks to us.”