Devotions

Jesus lived his life on earth wholly dependent on the heavenly Father. Our Savior did nothing and said nothing until he first consulted with his Father in glory. And he performed no miracles except those the Father instructed him to. He declared, “As My Father taught Me, I speak these things. And … the Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him” (John 8:28-29).

Christ makes it very clear that the practice of total dependence, always listening to his Father’s voice, was part of his daily walk. We see this in a scene from the Gospel of John where Jesus saw a crippled man lying near the pool of Bethesda. Jesus turned to the man and commanded him to pick up his bed and walk — and immediately the man was made whole and walked away healed.

The Jewish leaders were enraged because in their minds, Jesus had broken the Sabbath by healing the man. But Jesus answered, “I only did what my Father told me to do.” He explained, “The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does” (John 5:19-20).

Jesus stated very plainly, “My Father taught me everything I’m supposed to do.” Jesus, in his flesh, had to rely on a daily inner working of the Father’s voice to direct him. He had to hear his Father’s voice hour by hour, miracle by miracle, one day at a time.

How was Jesus able to hear the still, small voice of his Father? The Bible shows us it happened through prayer. Again and again, Jesus went to a solitary place to pray. He learned to hear the Father’s voice while on his knees.

I encourage you to spend time with Jesus in a secret place of prayer. Sit quietly in his presence and you will receive truth that only Christ can impart through his blessed Holy Spirit.

Jesus asked a question in Luke 18:8: “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” I have always wondered at this question. What could the Lord mean? As I look around at the Church today, I think no other generation has been more focused on faith than ours.

Everyone seems to be talking about faith; seminars and conferences on faith are held across the country; books on the subject line the shelves of Christian bookstores. We have faith preachers, faith teachers, faith movements, even faith churches. Yet, sadly, what most people consider faith today isn’t faith all and God will reject much of what is being called and practiced as faith. He simply won’t accept it. Why? Because it is corrupted faith.

Many preachers today totally humanize the topic of faith, describing it as if it exists only for personal gain or to meet self-needs. “If you can dream it, you can have it.” This is earthbound, materialistic, and rooted in this world.

My message to those who truly love Jesus and want to live by faith in a way that pleases him is this: All true faith is born out of intimacy with Christ. In fact, if your faith doesn’t come out of such intimacy, it isn’t faith at all in his sight.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony” (Hebrew 11:1-2).

Several people of faith are mentioned in Hebrews 11 and we find a common denominator in their lives. Each had a personal, intimate relationship with the Lord. We see Abel (11:4); Enoch (11:5); Noah (11:7); and Abraham (11:8). All these men died in faith — the world simply was not their home.

Does your heart yearn for a closer walk with the Lord? Is there a growing dissatisfaction within you with the things of this world? Then seek the Lord himself! Spend time in his presence and your faith will grow.

When the Lord touches someone and he is driven to his knees, he becomes intimate with Christ. He enters into a place of rest and begins to minister to Christ with new passion and a greater love.

This servant also becomes more aware of the coming Day of Judgment when he knows that God will ask him one great question: “How did you portray Christ to a lost world?”

This is the single criterion for how we will be judged on that day. It doesn’t matter if we have been shut in with God like Moses, received great revelations like Daniel, been sanctified like Paul, or preached boldly like Peter. Everyone will be judged by this single standard: how did your life express who Jesus is and what he is like?

One of the last messages Jesus spoke to his disciples before his crucifixion is contained in Matthew 25. Christ’s words gave them a new attitude of love and concern for the poor and this same message caused me to make changes in my life and ministry. That passage of Scripture is:

“Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me’” (Matthew 25:34-36).

Of course, no one can be saved by good works alone, but we will be judged by whether we live only for ourselves and shut our eyes to the needs of the poor and helpless. The Lord doesn’t expect you to do it all, but he expects you to be personally committed to hands-on involvement in at least one area of need. When you have a desire to obey his command, the Holy Spirit will show you the way.

We hear a lot about the favor of God these days, which is a good thing. Without the favor of the Lord, we would not be able to breathe, stand or find true life anywhere. Our loving, compassionate God looks to bless us with his amazing favor.

Sadly, today the teaching of God’s favor is being twisted by some. They use it as a means to gain material, physical and emotional blessings from God. That’s tragic — because it reduces the Lord to just another American commodity. They tell you to invest a little church attendance here, sow a bit of financial seed there, claim the power of your tongue to confess your way into the life you dream of, and — bingo! — you are favored.

But that is not God’s way. He cares for us much more than that. If we get everything we dream of, that’s not favor, that’s lust. True favor is not found in the blessing itself, it’s found in the One who does the blessing — our loving heavenly Father. Seeking him, not things, is the hunger that dwells in the core of every human heart. We were made to find our life in him.

God is jealous, in a righteous way: He will not allow himself to be used as a means of fulfilling our lusts and self-gain. He will destroy all the idols we set up in our hearts so that he alone stands as our greatest desire.

This doesn’t mean we should not want to see God’s blessings flow in our lives. Out of his loving grace and kindness, our Father delights to give good gifts to his children. Some leaders have twisted biblical doctrines in the so-called prosperity movement but that does not mean the idea of God’s favor should be thrown out. Rather, it should be rescued!

God loves to bless us because he is amazingly good. I encourage you to seek him first and watch how he pours out his favor on you. “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).

Satan lives in the past. He is the prince of what once was, the king of regret and guilt. He lives to keep us there, to remind us of what we have done and how horrible we have been. His mind is consumed by thoughts of past victories; of the times he caused us to sin, to stumble, to fall for his lies. Because in his heart he knows that the past is all he has.

When salvation comes, Satan’s hold is over and his only hope is to make us think we are still captive. He can no longer have our souls, but he can make us miserable and ineffective as God’s children.

Don’t let him do it. Don’t let him fill your mind with doubt and confusion, with thoughts of past sins — sins that God has chosen to forget. Sins that we need to forget before we can truly move forward.

It is not enough that we accept Jesus and ask for his forgiveness; we must also reject who we once were and completely embrace the new day — the day of our salvation. The day of a renewed heart, mind, and soul.

It is important to note that there is a huge difference between the masses who follow Christ and those few followers who live each day with a burning passion for Jesus! They have done more than accept salvation; they have embraced a completely new future. They have chosen to forgive themselves and look forward.

“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

Do not let Satan fill your mind with doubt and confusion, with thoughts of past sins — sins that God has chosen to forget. He gives you a new heart, one that has no past, only a bright and glorious future.

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.