Devotions

Abraham passed a great test of faith when, in obedience to God, he offered his son as a sacrifice. Yet, even more than his tested faith, Abraham was weaned from this earth—a fact proven when he offered up Isaac. He had faith that there was a purpose greater than the one he could see. Here was a man truly in the world but not of it, seeing his citizenship in another world.

Now consider what Hebrews says of Christ: “[He] suffered without the gate” (13:12). Jesus suffered as an outsider—always on the outside of formal religion, outside of accepted society. Yet Christ was also “outside” in the sense of having no place here on earth to even lay His head. In everything Jesus did, He always looked to heaven.

Like our Savior and our forefather Abraham, “Here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come” (13:14). We live and work on this earth, but we are aliens here; our true homeland is in the New Jerusalem. Thus, Hebrews urges, “Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach” (13:13). Until we also are “outside” the camp—outside this world’s lusts and materialism—we won’t be where our Bridegroom is.

I live in a nice home and drive a nice car. But I continually guard against such material things ever taking hold of my heart. The fact is, you can have a mighty faith and still not long for Christ. “Though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not [love], I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2).

Sadly, as I look around today, I see multitudes of believing Christians who have great faith, but have no longing to be with Jesus. Instead, they’ve set their eyes on the things of this world and how to obtain them. I find that such people don’t want to hear about focusing on heaven or being weaned from this world. To them, such a message means an interruption from the “good life” they enjoy here.

Thank God, He has a wonderful way of pushing us outside the gate. He tells us, in essence, “If I’m going to give My Son to you in marriage, there can be no other attraction in your life. I want to be sure you’re not lusting for something or someone other than Christ. Your most exciting dream, the deepest pull on your heart, has to be a desire to be with Christ.”

We all have a calling from the Lord. And at various stages of our lives, He has set before us a preordained plan we are to fulfill. Moreover, God promises that if we act in faith, trusting Him, He will bring that plan to fruition.

Yet, this isn’t always easy. As everyone who has walked with Jesus for any length of time knows, following His high calling means we’re going to encounter obstacles, the most common of which is the skeptic’s voice. As we seek to cross the Jordan into the Promised Land, we’ll hear every kind of voice telling us not to go. They murmur to us in very reasonable tones, “It’s just not going to happen. Let me explain why.”

Three types of skeptical voices appear in the life of every Christian:

First, there is an outward skeptic. This is a friend, acquaintance or family member who challenges what we believe we are to do to obey God.

There is also a demonic skeptic. This is the voice of the evil one, who seeks to derail us from our trust in the Lord.

Finally, there is an inner skeptic. This is the voice inside our own minds that raises every kind of argument against obeying what God has asked of us.

Joshua heard all three of these voices as God stirred him to lead Israel to cross over the Jordan River. The crossing held all the promise of God’s future glory for His people on earth. You can be sure there was no way they would make that crossing while hearing the shrill voices of skeptics trying to dissuade them.

Our God wants to obliterate every skeptical voice that would keep us from obeying His direction for His greater glory. Whenever He asks us to take a step of faith, He is leading us to “cross over” to a measure of trust in Him we’ve never had before.

“No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you” (Joshua 1:5, ESV).

The Bible describes Satan as the accuser of the brethren. In Revelation 12:10 we read that Satan “accused [believers] before our God day and night.” Whenever Satan is present in Scripture, someone is being accused. He is there in the form of a tempting snake in Genesis and we see Adam and Eve mutually accusing each other cruelly. The people murmured in the Old Testament, plagues devoured them, and the apostle warns: “These things happened for our teaching, our understanding. Do not murmur as they murmured and were destroyed by the destroyer” (see 1 Corinthians 10:10-11).

“We are not ignorant of his devices” (2 Corinthians 2.11). Peter “accused” the Lord, and Jesus answered him, “Get thee behind me, Satan, you don’t realize by what spirit you are speaking” (see Mark 8:33).This spirit of the accuser is real and terribly active in our world today. Husbands accuse wives, teenagers accuse their parents, nations and entire regions of the world are torn apart by one group, nationality, color or clan endlessly accusing and attacking the other. Believers and leaders blame pastors, and ministers complain one to another, “Today’s believers are not like they used to be.” That is the spirit of the accuser. However, you can choose a different life. You can cry out, “Father, fill me with faith with a revelation and the Spirit of the Advocate.”

The Bible teaches that “we have an advocate (a defender, and intercessor) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous and . . . He ever lives to make intercession in our favor” (see 1 John 2:1 and Hebrews 7:25).

We can also be filled with and live in and by a Spirit that prays, intercedes, stands with, loves and forgives. Each day we truly have a choice to make: division or destiny; resentment or restoration; breaking or building; to hurt or to heal; to be bitter or to bless; to release or to be reduced; pettiness or power; my agenda of advancement or His authority; the accuser or the Advocate!

Claude Houde is the lead pastor of Eglise Nouvelle Vie (New Life Church) in Montreal, Canada. Under his leadership New Life Church has grown from a handful of people to more than 3500 in a part of Canada with few successful Protestant churches.

Right now, God is at work preparing a new world—a new heaven and a new earth—for His people. And this new creation will comprise a New Jerusalem, including a home for Christ’s Bride. Isaiah saw this new world that God is creating, and the sight of it must have overwhelmed him. God says through the prophet, “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy” (Isaiah 65:17–18).

God is making a powerful statement here to the Bride of Christ. He’s saying, in effect, “In the midst of your present trial, fix this truth in your mind: the present world is not your home. Everything you see is going to pass away—earth, moon, sun and stars. I am creating a new world, where there are no fires, floods, devils, trials or afflictions.”

Do you get the message? Your trial is going to end, and your troubles will pass away. Therefore, focus your eyes on Christ, and set your affections on spending eternity with Him in the new world. According to Him, the world we toil in now, with all its pain and sorrow, will not be remembered when that day comes. It won’t even enter our minds!

Beloved, this tells me that the trial many are enduring right now isn’t testing—it’s training. We are being prepared for a world where there will be no more pain. And that world is going to be populated with brand-new bodies. Paul tells us the body that goes down into the grave won’t be the one that comes out of the grave. We’re going to have a brand-new body, one with the DNA of Christ Himself.

Abraham is an example of one who was focused on the world to come. The Bible says of him, “By faith he sojourned . . . as [an alien] in a strange country . . . for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:9–10).

The truth is, not all our trials are tests of faith. Often, the Lord is after something more when we’re in the furnace of affliction. Indeed, the closer you walk with Christ and the deeper your trials, the more He is working in you to accomplish something other than faith.

Yet, don’t misunderstand: whenever our faith wavers, tests of faith will come. We will never be completely beyond such testing. But here is another of God’s purposes in our trials: The Father is preparing a Bride for His Son.

He wants more from us in our trials than greater faith. This Bride is going to be tried severely, and her love for the Bridegroom will come through the fire. Her trust in Him will be refined through fires, floods and afflictions. Yet, these trials aren’t a matter of testing her love and devotion. Rather, they’re about refining a love that is already fully committed. Let me explain.

I believe many reading this message are fully committed to Christ. Jesus is the great love of your life, and your trust in Him is flourishing. Certainly, there still are times when that trust is tested. But God is looking for something else from you, something more. His preparation of the Bride requires that He do a supernatural work in you.

This Bride—Jesus’ chosen beloved—must be consumed with a longing to be with her Bridegroom. She has to be weaned from all other attractions. She must be obsessed by a desire to always be in His bodily presence. Paul refers to this longing when he writes of his own desire “to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

This was not a morbid fixation with death on Paul’s part. The apostle clearly lived a full, useful life, but he said, “Something in me yearns to be with the Lord, where He is. I long to be face-to-face with Him.” To make such a claim, Paul had to be completely weaned from this world and its attractions.