Devotions

Paul says, “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Romans 8:15-16). 

The Holy Spirit assures us that God is our loving Father and that he feels no anger toward us though we have sinned and failed him so many times. Our well-deserved punishment was completely borne by Jesus on the cross. There is not one blot of transgression against us in his sight. As a loving Father, he will discipline his children, but not in a judicial way. His chastening is done in love for our good that we may become like Christ in every area of our lives.

During quiet times of fellowship, the Holy Spirit makes God’s love real, not just in our heads, but also in our hearts. When God’s Spirit is moving, we have rest and peace. We know we don’t have to strive for a personal righteousness of our own to gain acceptance before God. We are secure in what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross, and we can approach God boldly.

There are times, though, when we get out of sync with God — when we don’t have the kind of fellowship that he longs for and we need. During those moments, I am reminded of the church in Laodicea. Jesus told them, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me” (Revelation 3:20).

When Jesus requested to share a meal with them, he was speaking of his desire for fellowship with the Laodicean church. Imagine sitting down to dinner with our Lord — what an intimate and glorious evening that would be! Robert Murray M’Cheyne, a minister in the Church of Scotland in the first half of the nineteenth century, said, “A calm hour with God is worth a whole lifetime with man.”

We don’t have to imagine what that meal might be like. That kind of fellowship is available to us at any moment of any day through the Spirit. We only need to ask. 

^{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.}

Most people find it hard to accept that a loving God allows human suffering, but King David said his afflictions came from God’s hand: “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word … It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes” (Psalm 119:67, 71).

In so many words, David says, “I now know the Lord allowed my pain in order to heal me of all the dross and flesh in me. If he had not put his fear in my heart, I wouldn’t be here today. God knew what was in my heart, and he knew exactly how to get my attention.” What David says here is life-giving truth. He’s telling us, in essence, “If we don’t see the Lord working in our circumstances — if we don’t believe the steps of the righteous are ordered by his hand, including our dire situations — our faith will end up crashing and we’ll be shipwrecked.”

Picture a surgeon and his medical team as they prepare to operate on a patient with cancer. The surgeon knows that if the tumor is not removed, the patient will die. For that reason, he will use every measure to get the cancer out of the patient’s body, no matter the pain it causes. He knows his surgical work will bring deep hurt but it is necessary to preserve life.

The right response for God’s people in many afflictions is an inquiring heart. This is the heart that asks, “Lord, are you saying something to me in this? Have I been blinded to your voice?”

The Holy Spirit never fails to answer us. He may say, “This is a snare of Satan. Beware!” Or, without condemnation, he will reveal an area of compromise, saying, “Obey, and all will become clear.”

When God shows us what is in our hearts — the impatience, the besetting sin, the “small” but deadening compromises — these things become grievous to us in our time of affliction. It is why David prayed, “Let, I pray, Your merciful kindness be for my comfort, according to Your word to Your servant. Let Your tender mercies come to me, that I may live; for Your law is my delight” (Psalm 119:76-77).

No matter what you’re going through, God’s mercy is there for you. He isn’t out to condemn or punish you, but like any devoted father, he tells his children, “Let me help you through this and show you the depths of my love.”

“The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

Right now, Satan’s powers of darkness throughout the world are rejoicing. These demonic forces have infiltrated high places of human power: the media, political offices, high courts. It’s happening even in religious denominations.

All these demonic principalities have an agenda. They work to erode moral values and pull down the saving power of the gospel. It seems every institution, every agency is now infiltrated and dominated by these ungodly spiritual powers. Yet, we know how this war ends: at the cross, in the victory of Jesus Christ.

There definitely will be times of war — wars that will not involve the vast Body of Christ worldwide but will be private — battles and struggles known only to you. These are wars of the flesh and they bring a burden you can’t share with anyone. They are lonely wars, just about Jesus and you.

Too often as a Christian you may convince yourself that the right thing to do is to grit your teeth through your battles. But God doesn’t want you to put on a false front. He knows what you’re going through and he wants to share it with you.

When King David committed adultery and then fell into a private war of condemnation and regret, he didn’t try to fix things on his own. So what did he do? First, he cried out to the Lord: “Oh, Lord, help me quickly! I’m about to fall, so hurry and deliver me. Your Word promises that you’ll deliver me, so do it now” (see Psalm 70). 

Next, David made a decision: “Live or die, I will magnify the Lord in this battle.” “Let God be magnified” (Psalm 70:4). And he threw himself fully on the mercy of the Lord: “If I say, ‘My foot slips,’ Your mercy, O Lord, will hold me up … Your comforts delight my soul” (Psalm 94:18-19).  

Beloved, you can make this your testimony. Look at all your distresses, adversities, anxieties and temptations, and say in faith, “By God’s grace I will not go down.” And he will say to you, “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

“Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided. So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left” (Exodus 14:21-22).

This is one of the greatest manifestations of God in all of world history. No event recorded by humankind has ever matched this one as a picture of God’s glory. Try to imagine it: towering walls of water that grew higher by the minute, dividing a sea in two.

The Israelites crossed over on dry land to the other side. Once they were safely there, they turned back to see their Egyptian oppressors crushed by the towering waves crashing down on them. God had miraculously delivered his people to victory, and now they danced with joy and shouted with praise.

“Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord, and spoke, saying: ‘I will sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously! … The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation; He is my God and I will praise Him; my father’s God, and I will exalt Him’” (15:1-2).

So what followed for Israel? Unbelievably, three days after their incredible victory, they were utterly discouraged. They thirsted for water in the wilderness and God had led them to the pool at Marah. But the water was bitter! “Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter” (15:23). And as the people spat the water out of their mouths, their faith was shattered. In just three days’ time, they had gone from the greatest mountaintop victory of all time to the lowest valley of despair.

What was going on? At the Red Sea and at the pool of Marah, God was proving his people: “There He tested them” (15:25). Simply put, God was with his people in their spiritual high, yet he was with them just as much in their low time. They just had to keep following the Lord until they finally made it to the Promised Land.

God is telling you in your dry spells, “I want you to learn to move on in faith because I am leading you somewhere!” 

“Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down” (Isaiah 24:1, KJV). The prophet Isaiah warns us that in the last days God is going to “turn the world upside down.” According to this prophecy, sudden judgment is coming upon the earth, and it will change everything in a single hour. Within that short span, the whole world will witness fast-falling destruction upon a city and a nation, and the world will never be the same.

 “The city of confusion is broken down; every house is shut up, so that none may go in … In the city desolation is left, and the gate is stricken with destruction” (Isaiah 24:10,12). Isaiah prophesies that the city is under judgment and cast into confusion. Every house is shut up, with no one coming or going.   

What good can come of prophetic messages? Be reminded that Jesus warned Jerusalem of sudden devastation to come upon that city. It was going to be burned to the ground, with over a million people murdered. Christ explained his warning: “I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe” (John 14:29). He was saying, in essence, “When it happens, you’ll know there is a God who loves you and forewarned you.”

In days of prosperity, nobody wants to hear a message like Isaiah’s. But we cannot ignore it because it is here at our door. In such times, Paul says, when we have knowledge that sudden destruction is coming, we are not to tremble or sorrow as the world does. Instead, we are to comfort one another in faith, knowing that God rules over every aspect of our lives.

“Be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation” (1 Thessalonians 5:8). Paul instructs, “Arm yourself with faith build up your belief now, before the day comes. Learn your song, and you’ll be able to sing it in your fire.”

This is the hope of our most holy faith: our Lord causes a song to come out of the darkest of times. Start now to build up your holy faith in him and learn to praise his majesty quietly in your heart. When you sing your song, it will strengthen and encourage your brothers and sisters. And it will testify to the world: “Our Lord reigns over the flood!”