Devotions

In the New Testament, the apostle Jude says, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt” (Jude 1:20-22, ESV). Jude is saying, “Be gracious toward people who are struggling with doubts.”

The enemy wants to use our doubts to shame us, but don’t be ashamed. Satan’s lies and shame will deter you from honestly seeking after the truth. There is a difference between a doubting, unbelieving heart and a seeking heart that searches after God and experiences doubts along the way. What is that difference? The doubting heart – one that adheres to an obstinate unbelief which challenges any kind of change – is the one that Jesus came to confront.

When God created the world, he brought order to chaos, but Jesus also brought chaos to order. He upended the false beliefs of people like the Pharisees who were entrenched in them. His message challenged centuries-old, man-made ideologies and doctrines that had lost sight of God. In contrast, the seeking heart is one we want to embrace.

During Paul’s second missionary journey, he and Silas preached to citizens of a city called Berea. The Bereans are remembered in part because of their response to the gospel message. They were effective doubters who applied a healthy skepticism to what they were taught. They compared the teachings of Paul and Silas with Old Testament scriptures and examined them. Because they had seeking hearts, they continued to thrive in their faith.

This is healthy spirituality. Whenever I preach or teach, I always love it when people who are truly listening say, "I need to challenge that assumption in a good way. I want to know more so I can better understand this.”

Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” Don’t let your doubts harden into unbelief. Instead, lift them up before God so he can use them to deepen your faith. May we always live with childlike honesty before God. He has promised to walk alongside us every step of the way and give us a spirit of discernment as we examine our doubts.

I think Leonard Ravenhill had the best definition of revival that I've heard. Ravenhill said this: “Revival is when God gets so sick and tired of being misrepresented that he shows up himself”, and I think that's what revival is.

Now we should delineate between revival and awakening. I think awakening is what happens when the Spirit moves in the world; revival is so much harder because it’s when God has to pry away what’s easy from his church.

What I see in revival is God is coming back to do something in his church first. I think it's when God comes back first to his church to make sure that it’s a place where there is a harvest and the seed can be thrown out from that good ground. He's doing something through both conviction and exposure. I think it is what we've seen happening interdenominationally. We see it happening all over.

When God comes back to his house and starts cleaning it up, it’s for a reason. It is disciplinary, but it is also preparation. When all of a sudden we have plastered across the news that there are atrocities happening within certain denominations and that certain high profile people have fallen into sin or been revealed in sinful lifestyles, my heart breaks for that. I grieve for those churches and the people who have been hurt in those situations.

That said, there's also something in me that thinks, “God, this is not just disciplinary. This is preparation because you want this church to be a place for people to come when you start bringing in a harvest of people.” This calls to mind Paul’s cry to the church. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:1-2, ESV).

I'll tell you what; seeing this, while it sometimes hurts my heart, also makes me excited when I think about what God is doing in the church today and what he’s preparing us for. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!

_{After pastoring an inner-city congregation in Detroit for thirty years, Pastor Tim served at Brooklyn Tabernacle in NYC for five years and pastored in Lafayette, Louisiana, for five years. He became Senior Pastor of Times Square Church in May of 2020.}

Jesus said that when the prodigal son came home, he was welcomed back into his father’s house. He received a new robe, ate at his father’s table and had full forgiveness. But that didn’t make him an angel.

On the contrary, I believe the prodigal’s father experienced a lot of problems with him before it was all over. However, the one thing this son had to know was that he was secure in his father’s love. He had to know his father would bear with him, work with him and love him.

That’s how our heavenly father is with us. He loved us before we were even born! Yet, we keep telling ourselves, “One of these days, I’m going to be so perfect and right before God that it will be easy for him to love me.”

No. He loved you when you were a sinner, a reprobate, an enemy to him. How much more does he love you now that you’re reconciled to him? God has already said to you, “I loved you when you were an alien to me, when you were in rebellion and sin. Will I not love you even more now that you have committed to sonship?”

We don’t rest confidently in his love as we should. The Lord says of himself that he is love. John wrote, “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:15-18 NKJV).

You cannot know God in fullness until you see Christ as God wants you to see him. Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9 NKJV). We must see Jesus, not as man teaches, but as the Spirit reveals him to us, as God wants us to see and know him.

There are many volumes in my library about Jesus, written by good men. Yet, I believe many of these men have never seen Jesus as God would have us see him. We are to get God’s vision and testimony of Christ, then we will know God as he desires to be known. Here is how I believe God wants us to see his Son: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning” (James 1:17).

Jesus was a gift! God wrapped all his resources up in Jesus, and “He gave His only begotten Son” (see John 3:16). Do you see Jesus as God’s perfect gift to you? Do you see him as all you need to live joyfully, victoriously, righteously, and full of peace and rest?

God gave Israel many wonderful gifts in the wilderness: A cloud to shelter them from the desert sun, fire at night to assure and lead them, water out of a rock, a branch to heal bitter waters and a brass serpent to heal the snake bitten. Yet all of these good things were only shadows.

Who was the rock from which water came? Who was the fire? The manna? The brass serpent? Everything God did for Israel was through Jesus Christ. That’s right—Jesus was every one of those gifts. “Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:1-4).

Today we have much more than the shadow. We have the actual substance, Christ himself! And he lives in us.

Most of us are still dumb creatures looking to the future for fulfillment. We think some future event or change in our circumstances will bring us peace and joy. We say, “Just wait; my day is coming. Somehow, someday, somewhere…I don’t know what is out there for me, but it will happen.” We are like children waiting for Christmas and counting the days.

David once wrote during a mournful, introspective season in his life that he felt the time was going too fast. He had accomplished so little, he thought. Everything at the time seemed to be in vain. “Surely every man walks about like a shadow; Surely they busy themselves in vain; he heaps up riches, and does not know who will gather them. And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you” (Psalm 39:6-7 NKJV). David was depressed, down. His present situation appeared so useless. Out of a perplexed heart, he cried out, “Lord, what am I waiting for?”

God spoke to me with this same question one day when I was walking alone in the hills of Pennsylvania. “David, what is it you’re waiting for? Why isn’t this the best day of your life? Why can’t you now be full and joyous? There is nothing out there that you don’t already have in Jesus.”

I ask you: What are you waiting for? “Oh, for Mr. or Ms. Right,” you may answer. You’re waiting for that godly person you think is going to rescue you from loneliness and fill your soul with unspeakable joy. Some are bored with their mates and waiting for them to go to glory because they’re looking for romance to come into their lives and drive away their emptiness. No! There is nothing out there that will change or save you from who and what you are already. If you think someone else is going to solve your loneliness problem, you’re badly mistaken. You must find deliverance, peace, hope and joy for yourself.

Jesus is the only one who can fill the void. Wake up and live!