Devotions

Once I met a man who is a pastor in Laos under a harsh Communist regime. His church is underground, and he’s been put in jail for being a believer. In that country, almost 90 percent of the time when you get put in jail, you never come home. That’s how dangerous it is.

As a pastor in America, I might have more people download my sermons and I might have more opportunities to preach in different churches, but that man far outweighs anything I’ve ever had in terms of his knowledge, revelation and relationship with God because he stood strong in the forging of that fire of suffering and difficulty.

Oftentimes, here in America where we’re not under that same weight of persecution, church becomes so easy and light and fluffy, and our practical theology becomes comfortable and easy. If we’re not careful, materialism and comfort come in and take us away from that radical, true devotion. It moves us away from the fire of faith, from being on fire for God.

In his letter to Timothy, Paul speaks of one particular man who drifted away from the Lord because of difficulty. “Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry” (2 Timothy 4:9-11, ESV). The end of Colossians mentions Demas, and Paul’s letter to Philemon includes a greeting from Demas who is called Paul’s fellow-worker. Here, however, he said Demas had forsaken him.  

In other words, this man loved the things of this world and didn’t want to sacrifice, suffer and deal with hardship as a part of being a radical follower of Christ. So he left.

Whether you’re in good times like we are in America or you’re at that place where Paul’s warning that difficult times are coming on the face of the Earth is becoming a reality, we are not excluded from this warning against the allure of the world. No matter what, we would be on guard, diligent, faithful, on our knees, looking to the Word of God. The Lord is asking us to be on fire for him, no matter what times we’re in, even if we’re in good seasons and everything’s peaceful.

We must not allow ourselves to be compromised when things are easy so that we will not give up when things are difficult.

As parents, let us remember that it is first and foremost in our home that our children will receive the most meaningful teachings of their lives by seeing us live, manage and resolve our conflicts and also by observing the way we act with each other.

One of the great issues in our pursuit of unity within our families is our ability to handle conflict. Too often, families find themselves at one of two extremes.

• • Those who flee all forms of conflict and perpetually live in the unspoken, mistakenly believing that approaching a problem shows a lack of love.

• • Those who get bogged down in forceful conflict with blame and hurtful words, systematically amplifying even lesser problems without respite or the prospect of hope and resolution.

The apostle Paul is very direct in dealing with this complex and sometimes tense subject of conflict management. We must no longer be children, but we must learn to speak the truth with love in order to grow. So the question the Spirit asks you is this: “Have I grown? Have I progressed in my ability to be calm and to resolve conflicts since I began walking with God? Have I made progress in my capacity to forgive?”

If the question of how you handle conflict were asked of your spouse and children, what would they say about you? "Daddy has a hot temper… Mom often criticizes others..."

Or would they say, “My husband, my wife, my father, my mother are not perfect, but I have seen them make progress through the years. They do not return evil for evil; they find and bring about peace. The sun does not set on their anger. They don't allow grudges to take root in themselves”?

We must no longer be immature children. We must no longer lie to get out of having to deal with problems. We must learn to grow in every aspect of our lives. As scripture says, “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Ephesians 4:14-15).

Dear believers, let us love our families and one another by learning how to graciously and lovingly speak the truth.

^{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.}

Paul was often harassed by demonic powers. In one particular case, he was preaching on the isle of Paphos when demons attempted to interfere: “Now when they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus, who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. This man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But…the sorcerer…withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith” (Acts 13:6-8, NKJV).

This was the devil standing up against Paul, but the Holy Ghost welled up inside of the apostle. “Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, ‘O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.’

“And immediately a dark mist fell on him [Bar-Jesus], and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord” (Acts 13:9-12).

It is not enough to be grieved by the attempts of Satan to harass you. When you take authority and command devils to flee, Satan will come at you with everything in his arsenal.

Another case of this in Paul’s life was after he had cast the demons out of the possessed girl in Acts 16:16–18. Satan enflamed the crowd against Paul and Silas, and suddenly they were in a terrible crisis. The city magistrates had them whipped and cast into prison. If we are to walk in the Spirit, we must believe God for supernatural deliverance from every bondage of Satan. That is exactly what Paul did, and God answered. “Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed” (Acts 16:26).

Satan will try to bring upon you the most dreadful temptation or trial you have ever faced. He wants you to get bogged down in guilt, condemnation or self-examination. Dear saint, you have to arise in the full power of the Spirit. Trust God, and he will take care of your deliverance.

Paul wrote to the early church, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16, NKJV). This command to walk in the Spirit is given to all, not just a few super-saints. Here are three steps for how you can obtain this walk.

1. You must go after this walk with everything in you. If you are saved, the Holy Spirit has already been given to you. Now ask him to take over and surrender to him. Ask him to be your guide and friend. As the gospels command, “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Luke 11:9).

You have to determine in your heart that you want him to lead you. Moses, speaking of the latter days, said about God, “You will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 4:29).

2. Focus on hearing the Spirit, and get your eyes off your trouble and temptation. Paul and Silas would have wallowed in fear and depression if they had focused on their troubles. Instead, they focused on God, praising and worshiping him. Most of the time when we go to prayer, we focus on past failures. We replay our defeats time after time, saying, “Oh, how far up the road I could be if I hadn’t failed God and messed up in my past.”

Forget everything in your past! It’s all under the blood. Don’t fret about the future either because only the Lord knows what’s ahead.

3. Give a good deal of quality time to communion with the Holy Spirit. He will not speak to anyone who is in a hurry. Wait patiently. Seek the Lord and minister praises to him. Take authority over every other voice that whispers thoughts to you. Believe that the Spirit is greater than these and that he will not let you be deceived or blinded. As scripture boldly states, “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

Focus on the Holy Spirit with your whole mind and heart, and you will find victory over sin and otherworldly peace.

The Father loves you; it is at this point that multitudes of believers fail God. They are willing to be convicted of sin and failure over and over again, but they will not allow the Holy Ghost to flood them with the love of the Father.

The legalist loves to live under conviction. He has never understood the love of God or allowed the Holy Spirit to minister that love to his soul.

Isaiah was writing to a stubborn people of God whom he says “went on backsliding in the way of his heart” (Isaiah 57:17). Despite this, Isaiah described God, saying, “As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem” (Isaiah 66:13, NKJV).

The prophet Isaiah took one of the highest images possible among men, that of a mother’s love for her child, and shows us something of the love that our Father has for us. One mother in our church takes a whole day to visit her son in an upstate prison. She gets on a bus and rides for hours just to see him for a short while. Such a mother will look across at her son in that drab uniform and see the agony in his eyes, and each trip she will die a little more inside, but she never quits on him. He is still her son.

I have taught that the righteous person, the true lover of Jesus, loves reproof. He learns to welcome having the Holy Spirit expose his hidden areas of sin and unbelief because the more he deals with sin, the happier and freer he becomes. However, the attitude I see in many Christians is “Keep on judging me, Lord. Convict me, rebuke me!” This is not the same thing as true conviction.

For example, I see this in many responses to my newsletter messages. When I write a message that thunders with judgment, I get overwhelmingly approving responses. When I share about the sweetness and love of Jesus, I receive letters saying, “You’re not preaching the truth anymore.” It is as though these people are saying, “If you’re not reproving, what you’re saying can’t be the gospel.” Such believers have never entered into the great love-mission of the Holy Spirit.

This is an area where you must learn to walk in the Spirit and not by feelings.