Devotions

The world today no longer accepts a belief system rooted in tradition and complacency, that is, “doing church” the way we’ve always done it. The next generation will either see the power of God working in their lives in real, tangible ways, or they’ll have no use for our message and no interest in following our Savior.

The days of stale denominations filled with lukewarm believers are over. The ones that aren’t already dead and buried soon will be. I feel sorry that they will never experience the joy of reaching the world for Jesus and seeing what he could do through and in them as a church body if they would only open up and allow him.

But I’m not discouraged, because I’ve seen the future of the body of Christ, and it’s an exciting one. God is doing a work today in the hearts of young people that is as real and dynamic as any revival in recorded history. Every day my ministry takes me into the lives of inner-city kids, the most unreachable souls in our society. These kids are as hard and angry and lost as any group on earth. Yet our message is getting through to them. The walls are coming down. They are coming to Christ in great numbers, and when they do, their newfound faith is genuine and life-changing.

Many of these kids become our most powerful and effective evangelists. The Holy Spirit burns within them like a furnace, a raging holy fire in their souls, just waiting to explode upon the world. God is loosing his Spirit on these kids in magnificent ways and they’re turning their worlds upside down.

What would happen if every believer in this country caught that kind of passion and vision? What if we allowed God’s Spirit to release his power in our lives as he has in the lives of these kids? If we did so, the world would never be the same! 

Nicky Cruz, internationally known evangelist and prolific author, turned to Jesus Christ from a life of violence and crime after meeting David Wilkerson in New York City in 1958. The story of his dramatic conversion was told first in The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson and then later in his own best-selling book Run, Baby, Run.

If you think you are too ordinary to be used by God, listen carefully: God is not going to do his last-days work through big-name evangelists or pastors. They alone will not be able to handle the great moving of his Spirit. God is going to need every homemaker, teenager, elderly person and all who love him to carry out his mighty work.

This end-time army is going to be made up of Christians who have been weaned from “bread alone.” God said through Moses, “Man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3).

Bread stands for all natural, material things necessary for this life: food, shelter, clothes, labor, wages. In other words, those earthly things we need that are not evil in themselves.

Multitudes of Christians live only for the things of this life. Their lives are wrapped up in their job, their house, paying the bills. All their prayers are focused only on their needs — they are living on bread alone.

God is raising up a people who are focused on his will for this midnight hour! They want to be ready and prepared in heart because God is poised to release his great, final outpouring!  

John the Baptist went forth “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17). Paul spoke of being “prepared for every good work” (2 Timothy 2:21). And Samuel told Israel that God would do a new thing for them if they would “prepare [their] hearts for the Lord, and serve Him only” (1 Samuel 7:3).

When God pours out his Holy Spirit on the world, people who do not know him will be desperate to find someone to help them. When God sees you are ready, he will bring great opportunities your way and you will see his glory come alive in you in this final hour! 

A man once told me, “After I give ten percent of my income to God, I do whatever I please with the rest. And I expect God to bless me as he promised — because I tithed.”

My experience has shown that if a person is grudging with his giving, he will also be grudging with his time, his energy and his work for the Lord. But I want to tell you, if you are stingy with God, he will be stingy with you. By that, I mean that you are cutting yourself off from God’s blessing by your actions and your attitude.

Our attitude should be, “How much of myself can I give to my Lord?” Our joy should be in how much we can give, not in how much we can keep for ourselves.

We read in the Word, “There is one who scatters, yet increases more; and there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty. The generous soul will be made rich” (Proverbs 11:24-25). The fact is, the more strength and energy you spend for God, the more he will pour back into you. 

The apostle Paul experienced every emotion and trial that we experience, yet through it all he had a revelation of the resources available to him. When he was overwhelmed, his faith laid hold of all he needed to bring him through with victory! He drew on the resources of his heavenly Father and rebounded again and again with new faith and new strength to go on.

In making the commitment to give yourself wholeheartedly to the work of God, you are putting yourself in a position of being blessed. If you are thinking about giving up, I encourage you to stay in the battle, for it is in the heat of warfare that God comes to you generously, showering you with his resources and strength. Only those who are involved in the battle receive his great provision!

The words you speak reflect what is in your heart! “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34).

Whenever I said something naughty as a child, my mother washed out my mouth with soap. But it wasn’t my mouth that needed cleansing, it was my heart. You see, your tongue speaks only what is in your heart. Jesus said that loose, careless, evil talk can come only from an evil, unclean heart.

As believers, we have not yet taken seriously what our Lord has said about taming our tongues. He has made it a heart issue — a matter of life and death. Not only does your careless tongue discount all your supposed spirituality, it also makes you face the indisputable fact that your heart is unclean, defiled.

If you engage in gossip, unkind remarks, criticism, lying, filthy language, angry outbursts, you can be certain that something in your heart has not been dealt with by the Holy Spirit. Jesus gives this matter serious thought when he says, “If you are careless with your tongue — quarreling, complaining, murmuring, tattling — you have a serious heart problem and it goes very deep.”

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure bring forth evil things” (Matthew 12:35).

No minister or Christian is exempt from this warning of the Lord. Jesus says to check your heart and find out why you still speak carelessly. Do not be casual about the words you speak. When the Holy Spirit convicts you of something you have said, I urge you to repent and then allow him to turn your negative words into blessing. Cursing and blessing cannot proceed out of the same mouth (see James 3:10).

The secret to getting victory over your tongue is knowing him! Draw close to his presence and let him reveal what is in your heart.

God never intended for us, as his children, to be spiritual paupers, poor in the things of the Lord. On the contrary, he wants us to be his bountiful servants who enjoy a revelation of all the great provisions he has prepared for us!

“But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.’ But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).

Paul is telling us, “Our forefathers could not begin to comprehend all the great provisions God prepared. It never entered into their imagination. But there is no reason for us to be blind about these things, to go about not knowing what is ours. Our eyes must see, our ears must hear, it must enter into our hearts and minds. Because we are the people for whom God has prepared it all and the Holy Spirit has revealed it to us!”

“Now we have received ... the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. ... But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God ... because they are spiritually discerned” (2:12 and 14).

The Bible says we are to seek him for the revelation of his great provision but I believe most Christians have not honestly faced the power of these promises. We have read them many times, but they are simply dead letters to us. We need to cry out, “Lord, reveal to me what you have prepared, so I can claim them for your glory.”

Do not be easily discouraged or weary in well-doing. Spend time with your Father and let his promises penetrate your heart, filling you with faith and hope!