“Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.” —PSALM 37:4

Many people have a misunderstanding of the above verse. It is not if we delight ourselves in the Lord, He will give us what we desire, but rather the desires themselves will be implanted in our hearts by God. As we delight ourselves in the Lord, His interests become our interests and His desires become our desires. The very desire, the will is God-given.

When we ask God to show us His will, we often want Him to give us a road map, but what He is more likely to give us is a compass. We do not need to know all the twists and turns along the way, but we need to know the direction. In Acts 26:19, Paul makes the statement to King Agrippa, “I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven”, which puts him in a long line of men and women who began with the end in mind. They had listened as God revealed His plan and purpose, and lived with this insight tucked away, pursuing the vision, but awaiting His timing for it to be fully brought to fruition.

Paul did not have any advanced knowledge of the details of his life, but only the compass bearing that was set by the Lord Jesus on the Damascus Road, which continued to be the governing principle of his vocation. He was not motivated by a desire to travel, or an ambition to establish a network of churches. His obligation derived from his vision, expressed in his sense of purpose and destiny. He was not a driven man so much as a drawn man, drawn by the power of a God-given desire for which he relentlessly gave his time and energy.

The journey had been long and lonely, the road steep and hard, but Paul had run the road Jesus Christ had set him on and he was satisfied. He writes to Timothy, “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day” (2 Timothy 4:6-8).

The clear vision of what Paul’s future would consist of is not unique in Scripture. Many leading characters – Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Mary and Joseph all started with the end in mind… a God-given desire will always be for the benefit of others and involves a much deeper significance to us than what is obvious to anyone else.

I ask, Lord, that You place your desires in my heart and that they become a force within me that accomplishes your purpose for me. Thank You, Lord. 

What is my most prevalent God- given desire?

“For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery – but I am talking about Christ and the church.” —EPHESIANS 5:31-32

Marriage involves deeply knowing each other and that is a beautiful thing, but it takes time. Genesis 4:1 of the NIV says, “Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain.” The King James Version says, “Adam knew Eve, his wife and she conceived and bore Cain.” The KJV points to an important idea in its translation. The Hebrew word for “knew” is ‘yada’, and the Hebrew definition of ‘yada’ is, “To know properly, to experience, to discover, to give, to have, to take, to be privy to and to be sure of.” This is the marriage Adam and Eve shared; a beautiful oneness of heart and soul. 

How do we come by this today? What is the mystery that lies behind a loving marriage that lasts until death do us part? Paul writes, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:25-27). The key in these verses is that the activity of the Holy Spirit within us is the source that brings us into that beautiful oneness of heart and soul. 

Jesus Christ’s relationship with His church is the role model. That means “husbands give to your wives.” If we do not see this as the big picture, then the gender roles become distorted and stretched. When reading verses such as Ephesians 5:24 which says, “Wives should submit to their husbands in everything,” we will have a mistaken interpretation if it is not understood in its context. The umbrella statement under which Paul writes this is, “Submit to one another out of reverence to Christ” (Ephesians 5:21). Paul is not only talking about marriage, but about family and business in which there needs to be two-way submission in these relationships. 

The headship of Christ to His church and the headship of a husband to his wife is the source of life to her. The husband gives himself up to her and presents her radiant and blameless. This, says Paul, is the relationship Christ has to His church. The assumption of Paul’s writing about marriage is that the initiative lies with the husband to set a good environment in which his wife is responsive. 

There is no hierarchy in marriage. It is an equal partnership, built on the hard times as well as the good. Throughout it all, we give of ourselves, seeking the well-being of each other, and in the giving is the receiving.

Dear Lord, I pray for all married couples to share the common bond of your indwelling Spirit to enrich and deepen their lives together. Thank You, Lord. 

Am I setting my spouse’s needs ahead of mine?

“The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife.” —1 CORINTHIANS 7:4 

Marriage brings us into a more intense proximity to another human being than any other relationship. There are layers upon layers that make us up, some of which we have not yet discovered, and it is often in marriage these layers become exposed.

One of the great myths about marriage is that it is a consumer relationship. In other words, it is about getting what I want and what I need. We marry for love, companionship, sexual satisfaction, children, a sense of identity and belonging. These are needs, desires and aspirations that are legitimate, but if our marriage is founded on “consumer” interest it will last only as long as our needs are met.

There are two conflicting ideas about marriage. One is that marriage is everything, but the idea that marriage is necessary to a fulfilled life is also a myth. Jesus was the most fulfilled man as God intended man to be; the most complete in Himself. The Apostle Paul was a single man and he extols the virtues of singleness. It is wonderful that someone loves us and wants to spend the rest of their life with us, but it is not necessary to a fulfilled life. 

The other extreme is those who say marriage is merely a piece of paper. Do I need a licence to be sexually intimate with my partner? How is that going to make a difference? The problem with this is that the sexual relationship cannot be detached from the real relationship where husband and wife not only belong to each other, but it is a union of heart and soul. Sex was not designed as an appetite to be satisfied, but to give expression to the deep intimacy of the soul. When that is broken, the sexual relationship may be functional, but it will simply be a mechanical process that will leave us empty. 

We cannot come into marriage expecting all our needs to be met. The best preparation for marriage is in learning to be complete as a single person. That is not to become coldly self-sufficient, but learning to be self-sufficient in a wholesome way in order that we may give to our marriage partners. Marriage is not a consumer relationship, but a covenant relationship. A consumer attitude says, “You are here for me,” but a covenant attitude says, “I am here for you.” This is a beautiful picture of the relationship Jesus has with His church, and is God’s intention of what marriage should be. It is sticking together, working through the hard times and reaping the wonderful reward of looking back over the years, enjoying a marriage that has been built on both the pain and the joys.

Dear Lord, help me to keep the same love and commitment in my marriage as You have for your church. Thank You, Lord.

Is my marriage more a covenant relationship or consumer relationship?

“We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.” —ROMANS 12:6

After Paul’s sight was restored in Damascus, it cannot be said of him that he sat around, hoping for some kind of spiritual gifting from God to suddenly pop up and help him. He took immediate action and began preaching in the synagogues. In 1 Corinthians 14:1, he tells us to “eagerly desire spiritual gifts.” 

Spiritual gifts are those skills and abilities God gives to His people to enable His church to fulfill its task. And the task is the same as it was for Paul – to reach our world for Christ. We first accomplish that by bringing our lives under the authority of Jesus, allowing Him to take our weaknesses as well as strengths, and corporately, through the body of Christ, work towards fulfilling His will and purpose on earth.

When Paul says, “Eagerly desire spiritual gifts,” the underlying meaning is to eagerly desire to serve others. We are to actively seek our gifts by becoming busy and getting involved. Whether it is on the front lines or behind the scenes, it is being there and doing humbly and faithfully whatever it is God has given us to do. In the process, we will discover where God has gifted us because we will feel energized and motivated by what we are doing, as well as encouraged by discerning men and women of God who begin to recognize God’s enabling in us. We need not feel intimidated or reluctant because the Holy Spirit is our empowering and spiritual gifts are often discovered by taking risks.

The New Testament lists 22 spiritual gifts in all; among them healing, prophecy and teaching, but it is not a comprehensive list. There are other spiritual gifts in widespread use today such as music, writing, technology and counselling that are recognized as an important and valid gifting from God for His church. Many of us also have natural gifts which God may prosper to further His agenda. The best time to be developing spiritual gifts is early in our Christian faith otherwise we risk picking up bad habits and perhaps become complacent, especially concerning activities we think do not involve us. 

We mature in our faith as we engage and serve. God has uniquely gifted every Christian but we do not have the right to insist on any particular gift. God gives as He wills and every role is needed in order for the church to function well. Paul said to Timothy, “I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you” (2 Timothy 1:6). We do this by actively getting involved and God takes care of the rest.

Dear Lord, I am grateful for the spiritual gifting of many people and pray that your gifting of me will be used to its fullest potential in conjunction with others. 

How has God gifted me and am I using that to the benefit of others?

“The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’”—1 CORINTHIANS 12:21

The Apostle Paul describes the church as being the body of Christ. Christ is the Head and every true Christian is a member of His body. Paul makes two basic statements we need to appreciate about the body of Christ. Firstly, we are all different as we have varying abilities and separate functions. Secondly, we are interdependent on one another.

“There are different kinds of gifts,” Paul says, “but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work” (1 Corinthians 12:4-6). Paul illustrates this by stating the foot should not say, “Because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body” and the ear should not say, “Because I am not an eye I do not belong to the body.” The body is made up of many different parts. God engineered it that way and made every part important for its own use. Similarly, Paul is stating that there are many different roles and gifts God has ordained within His body, the church, and every role is important. 

Though it is true that some roles may have a higher profile than others, it is not true to conclude they are more significant. Jesus Christ is not working only through individuals, but His church as a corporate body. Individuals make up the church, but it is the body of Christ we have been baptized into by the Holy Spirit, and it is as one body Christ works; each member interdependent on one another. There can be no such thing as a “lone ranger” in the work of God.

There are Christians who may think themselves to be inferior to other Christians, perhaps because they have the silent, nondescript roles, while others, filling a more prominent role, are inclined to think themselves more important. Neither is true. We cannot make the mistake of concluding that one work of God pays bigger rewards on the Day of Judgment than another. In fact, Paul writes, “On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that are less honourable we treat with special honour” (1 Corinthians 12:22-23).

As Christians, we are the channels God uses for His work in this world. He is the One who initiates, carries out and completes the work. God is committed to His agenda, and when we are committed to Him, 1 Thessalonians 5:24 says, “The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.” Interdependence makes for a fruitful church!

Dear Lord Jesus, help me to become a more fruitful worker in your church, and show me where and how I would best contribute. Thank You, Lord. 

Am I working interdependently with others in the work of Christ?

“I know that nothing good lives in me, that is in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” —ROMANS 7:18

Paul held little hope of any intrinsic improvement of the human heart. In the above verse, he laments to the Romans that nothing good lives in him; that is in his sinful nature. This is not a statement of what used to be before he came to know Christ, but of what he continues to be for the rest of his life.

The term ‘sinful nature’ is a translation of just one word in the original Greek – the word ‘flesh’. ‘Sinful nature’ is an Augustinian term, coined in the fifth century and has served as a useful description. The word ‘flesh’, however, when it occurs in this context, refers not to the body, but to all that a person is in themselves apart from the presence of God. To live ‘in the flesh’ is to live in a spirit of independence and self-reliance rather than a spirit of dependence on and obedience to God. It refers to the bankruptcy of human resources and capabilities when detached from the enabling grace, presence and power of God.

It is this sense of despair over any hope of the natural person being able to function as God intends on the basis of human capability that lies behind Paul’s view of humanity. This may at first seem a rather pessimistic view, but it is entirely realistic and accurate. Apart from revelation of this in Scripture and God’s provision of the Holy Spirit, we would not have the grounds nor the courage to face this truth about the human condition.

Jeremiah wrote long before Paul’s day, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Most disillusionment with the Christian life has its origin in an expectancy that given time, discipline and the grace of God, our hearts will somehow improve and our natural selves will grow in godliness. But that is not true to Scripture. The Christian life does not involve eradication or the suppression of sin, but involves counteraction of sin by the indwelling presence of the Spirit.

It is at the point of new birth when the Holy Spirit comes to indwell a person that there begins a civil war in the soul; that is an ongoing battle of flesh against the Spirit. Paul writes in Colossians 1:27, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Glory, being the moral character of God, can only be expressed by the indwelling life of Christ who is the exact radiance of God’s glory. In Him, we have our sole means of victory over the flesh for in the sight of God, we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and our sin done away with. 

I know how futile it would be to try living a godly life on my own. I ask that You reign powerfully in me so that my life becomes more and more a reflection of You. Thank You, Lord.

In what areas of my life do I need a deeper work of Christ in expressing His image?

“Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. She held court under the Palm of Deborah…and the Israelites came to her to have their disputes decided.” —JUDGES 4:4-5

We normally think of military leaders as men but the Bible gives us the story of a woman who ruled as a judge over Israel at a time when they were being cruelly oppressed. She was not only a great military leader, but a prophetess, a woman of God. Her name was Deborah.

During the 400 years judges ruled over Israel, there is a pattern of rebellion against God, leading to repression, then to restoration, and then to rest. This cycle is repeated seven times, and when the people cried out to God, He would raise up a judge to restore them, bring the nation back into rest again and into dependence on Him. Deborah is the restorer in the third of these seven cycles. She is beautifully described as “a mother of Israel”. 

For twenty years, the Israelites were ruthlessly exploited by a Canaanite king, named Jabin. The roads were so dangerous people took to winding paths through the woods and over mountains. Village life ceased and the national life of Israel was ground to a halt. Deborah sent for Barak, Israel’s commanding officer, and said to him, “The LORD, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead the way to Mount Tabor. I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’ Barak replied, ‘If you go, I will go; but if you don’t go with me, I won’t go.’ ‘Very well’, Deborah said. ‘I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman’” (Judges 4:6-9).

Deborah was not deterred by the fact she was a woman, nor by going up against 900 iron chariots, many of which were stuck in the bog of the Kishon River. Deborah said to Barak, “Go, this is the day the LORD has given Sisera into your hands. Has the LORD not gone ahead of you?” (4:14) And that is a key factor in our own struggles and conflicts. Deborah’s confidence was not in her ability, nor in military strength and strategy, but was entirely in God. She knew she was already battling from a position of victory, and under her reign, Israel enjoyed 40 years of peace. 

We all need the makings of a Deborah – the courage to step out in faith and trust God for who He is. As we act in obedience, He goes on ahead of us to prepare our way so that we may enter into the rest He promises.

Dear Lord, grant me the courage of Deborah, and a heart so in tune with yours that I will not fail to recognize your voice.

Am I willing to step out in faith, confident of God’s working in my own struggles?

“In those days, there was no king in Israel; everyone did as he saw fit.” —JUDGES 17:6

God did not establish Israel as a democracy or a monarchy, but as a theocracy. What this means is that God rules the nation by raising up men or women who were known as judges. They were primarily military leaders, but also spiritual leaders, and leaders of the judicial structure of the nation. God put His Holy Spirit on them, which people recognized and would follow their leading. This was the way God intended Israel be governed, but the people insisted on a monarchy. 

Several times throughout the book of Judges, it states “there was no king”, and this is not simply a statement of fact, but of frustration. All the surrounding nations had a king and the Israelites wanted to be able to predict their future and know who their next ruler would be. At their insistence, God gave them a king, but He warned them of consequences, such as tyrants and dictators reigning on the throne, heavy taxes for the king’s own use, subjects becoming slaves, and women becoming subservient, filling only domestic roles.

The history of this is of great relevance to the Church of Jesus Christ today, which is designed to be completely theocratic. Jesus Christ is the head and He raises up leaders, evangelists, pastors, teachers and elders. These are people recognized by the gifts God gives them, the work they do, and the evidence of the blessing and anointing of the Spirit of God on them. They do not act in either a dictatorial or democratic fashion, but are men and women who listen to God, discern His mind and direct the people in doing His will. This is what it means to be theocratic. 

It remains God’s purpose that we seek His mind, His will and His heart. Though a theocracy presents problems in being certain of God’s anointing on a person, we trust Him for His promise to guide us as we listen and obey Him. Henry Blackaby writes an excellent book on leadership, and he says, “Spiritual leaders do not try to satisfy the goals and ambitions of the people they lead, but those of the God they serve.” Later he says, “Jesus did not develop a plan, nor did He cast a vision; He sought His Father’s will.” The key to Jesus’ leadership was His relationship with His Father, and our relationship with Jesus Christ will be the key to good leadership. The church of Jesus Christ as always is a theocracy. Jesus Christ is its leader.

Dear Lord, help us to keep focused on your will and purpose in the church and to recognize the anointing of those in leadership roles. Thank You, Lord.

Do I recognize the Spirit of God in the leadership of the church I attend?

“I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.” —PHILIPPIANS 1:20

The life of a Christian is one about really living our lives, not just existing in them. No one wants to go through life in an endlessly dull routine. In the above verse, Paul is telling us there is an underlying reason to his life; something that gives him profound meaning, and makes life satisfying and purposeful every day. His reason to live is Christ!

That is some reason for living! This is my ambition, says Paul, “that Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by my life or by my death.” Most of our conscious reasons for living are dependent on our staying alive. Paul’s reason, however, transcends both living and dying.

The King James Version translates the above verse as, “that Christ might be magnified in my body.” The purpose of a magnifying glass is to make something bigger or to bring something into focus. Christian living involves magnifying Christ on a day to day basis. We do not make Him bigger than He already is, of course, but we bring Him into focus in all that we do in our lives. Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians from prison, and he is saying my reason for living is that I exhibit a bigger Jesus so that the guards who chain me up every day see Jesus in me. As my soul magnifies Christ, Jesus is revealed to my cell mates, my visitors, anyone I connect with. And if I die, my ambition is this: that my death brings Jesus into focus again. 

Many centuries ago, when Francis of Assisi used to train his men in southern Italy and send them out to evangelize, he would say to them, “Wherever you go, whatever you do, make sure you preach Christ; if necessary use words.” 

We preach Christ with our mouths closed by the way we live, the way we behave, and the way we treat our families, friends and anyone we connect with. It is with our lives we bring Christ into focus, and if necessary, use words. But our words will simply be an explanation of what is visible in our lives. Our lives become an exhibition of Christ; a revelation of Christ in us and this gives deep meaning, purpose and fulfillment. Of course, we need routine, but we need reason more than routine. The Christian life is practical, because, says Paul, my life is about living! It is to live in such a way that the life of Christ is magnified in us and through us.

Dear God, thank You so much for creating me. I pray I am able to show your love and godliness by the way I live. Amen.

Do I find myself so caught up in my routines that I lose focus of what is most important in my life? Think of things I can do to help break routine and bring Christ in more.

“‘Return to me, and I will return to you,’ says the LORD Almighty. But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’ Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.” —MALACHI 3:7-8

God issued a challenge through the prophet Malachi to prove Him. To prove God is to have truth translated into genuine spiritual experience. One of the symptoms of having lost touch with spiritual reality is that we become absorbed in self-preservation. With today’s increasing demands and pressures, life feels fraught with burdens and worries, so we tend to think of ourselves as the ones in need, and our giving is little, if any.

Under the Old Covenant, the people of God were to pay a tithe, which was one tenth of their income to God. “A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord: it is holy to the Lord” (Leviticus 27:30). This also included one tenth of herds and flocks; all of which were paid into the temple treasury to support the priesthood and those in need. This was not a donation, but was mandatory, and to hold it back was to be guilty of robbing God.

The people, including priests, tried to get away with sacrificing crippled, blind and diseased animals. They surrendered as little as possible to God, and as a result, were reaping the consequences of spiritual barrenness, despite their token fulfillment of temple rituals. Throughout generations of depriving God of what was rightfully His, the Israelites claimed no knowledge, guilt or accountability.

God’s final challenge to them and His final challenge of the Old Testament was to bring the tithe into the storehouse and to acknowledge His demands by giving to Him what already belongs to Him. “‘Test me in this’, says the LORD Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing you will not have room enough for it’” (Malachi 3:10). The challenge is straightforward as is the promise. Give God humbly and fully what belongs to Him and never again would the Israelites have less than enough.

God challenges us in the same way today. Perhaps we need to come to another altar where Paul says, “offer your body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship” (Romans 12:1). We are not our own. We were purchased with a price, paid by the blood of Jesus Christ. What we would be giving to God is what already belongs to Him – ourselves, so that He may use us to bring benefit and blessing to others. “Return to me,” God says, and as we do so, He will open the floodgates of heaven upon us. This is still His challenge and invitation to us.

I pray, Lord, for a deeper work of your Spirit in areas of my life that I know I need to submit more fully to You. Thank You, Lord.

Has concern about not having enough kept me from giving? 

“Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.” —JOHN 6:11

In the Christian life, there is a spiritual necessity and spiritual power that derives from giving thanks. Jesus demonstrates this in the feeding of the 5,000 men, plus their wives and children. They had gathered along the shores of Galilee to hear Jesus speak. As evening approached, it was evident they were not going anywhere and they were hungry. 

The disciples suggested they send the people to surrounding villages to buy food. But Jesus asked Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” This was only to test him as prior to this event, Jesus had told His disciples, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing…” (John 5:19). Philip answered, “That would take eight months of a man’s wages. Are we going to spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?” Then Andrew comes along and says, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish,” and then is apologetic, remarking, “But what are they among so many?” (John 6:9)

Were Jesus to have asked an atheist what could be done to feed these people, his response would have been the same as the disciples. “It can’t be done. There’s not enough money; not enough food.” What does that tell us about the disciples? They were professing disciples, but practising atheists. In our Christian faith, we can believe many things about Jesus, but live as though He were totally irrelevant. 

John 6:11 says that Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks and had the food distributed, as much as they wanted. The secret to Jesus having adequately fed the crowd is what John points out when he writes, “Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks” (John 6:23). Most of us would have referred to it as the place where Jesus had performed a miracle, but it says where “the Lord had given thanks”. And that is the key; so simple, we can miss it. Jesus gave thanks in advance, transferring the responsibility to His Father.

When giving thanks to God, we are expressing two things: our complete dependency on God and His utter sufficiency in whatever situation we entrust to Him. Giving thanks is a key in activating God’s working in our lives, because it acknowledges His presence and His sovereignty in all things. We can be like the disciples, relating situations to our own capabilities and keep God as a sleeping partner, or we can be like the little boy with such little food that he entrusted to Jesus.

Dear Lord Jesus, I am at a loss without You, and thank You for your presence and working in my life every single day. 

Am I thanking God for His presence, especially in situations where I don’t know what to do?

“Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God… Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.” —1 THESSALONIANS 4:1-2

We would be hard pressed to find a Christian who has experienced the personal will of God and not claimed it to be the pinnacle of their lives. What is more, it is ongoing. God has a plan, unique to each of us, but we must first appropriate God’s general will for all people into our lives. So the big question is: What is God’s will for all people?

There are four statements in Scripture that are explicitly God’s will for all people. Firstly, “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Some translations use the word ‘holy’, and in this context, Paul refers to sexual immorality. We are to control our bodies in a way that is holy and honourable. We cannot engage in, much less justify, sexual immorality of any kind if we are to experience God’s personal will for us.

Secondly, “Give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (5:18). Giving thanks is not a matter of simply being polite, but of expressing dependency on God. “All circumstances” include hardships, however severe, in which we acknowledge Jesus is sufficient in them and give thanks for His presence. A genuine mark of people living in the will of God is that everything they do is in the name of Jesus, and in all circumstances, good and bad, they give thanks.

Thirdly, “Submit yourself for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men… for it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men” (1 Peter 2:13-15). The principle of authority is God ordained, and the will of God functions in submission to authority. There may be times we are called to obey God rather than men, but when we do, we must also be willing to take the consequences which governing authority imposes. Paul was an expert in this and never complained.

Fourthly, “Those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good” (1 Peter 4:19). Suffering is part of life and within the will of God for us. In fact, it is often in our suffering that God does His best work in our lives, and when we continue to do good in these times, the outcome is always for the advancement of God’s agenda and purpose.

Being holy, giving thanks in all circumstances, submitting to authority and in suffering continue to do good is God’s will for all of us. With this in place and being filled with the Spirit, doors will open for us and continue to open.

Dear Lord, I can’t imagine anything greater than experiencing your personal will in my life. Thank You for letting us know how that may become a reality. 

In which of the four areas do I have the most difficulty in keeping God’s will for all people?

“Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.” —COLOSSIANS 4:12

Before we are likely to be confident of God’s specific plan for our lives, we have to be interested in God’s general will for all His people. There is probably about 95 percent of God’s will for our personal lives in revelation God gives us in Scripture of His general will for His people. 

Obedience to the general will of God is the only legitimate context for the discovery of the specific will of God. Paul passed on this concern of his friend, Epaphras – “that you stand firm in all the will of God.” This is a key ingredient if we are going to experience God’s personal will for us. What we are is far more important to God than what we do, and our being provides the root and reason for our doing. For example, God is more concerned with how we drive our cars than which car we drive, and how we live at home than which house we live in. These are secondary to God’s primary purpose of expressing the life of His Son in us.

Paul writes, “Do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:17-18). The will of God begins with the fullness of the Spirit. The fullness of the Spirit is not the mountain peak of Christian experience, or the top rung of the ladder. It is, in fact, a bottom rung, the position from which a life lived in the will of God begins and develops. There will almost certainly be a mountain to climb, but the fullness of the Holy Spirit is an indispensable ingredient in climbing that mountain and in fulfilling the will of God.

The command to be “filled with the Spirit” may equally be read in the present continuous sense – “be being filled with the Spirit”; in other words, a perpetual condition of life to be enjoyed afresh every day. We cannot have more or less of the Spirit of God. We either have Him or we don’t, but the fullness of the Spirit will be expressed in our day to day living; our attitudes, behaviours and how we treat others. 

It is to the immense poverty of the church that we see the fullness of the Holy Spirit as an ‘extra’ to salvation rather than as the prime objective. We are reconciled to God so that He may fill our lives with Himself, and lay down the only legitimate foundation for a life of fulfillment and purpose. The ongoing fullness of the Spirit is not an option, but an essential ingredient for enjoying God’s personal will for us.

Dear Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit takes over my life so that I may experience your personal will for me. Thank You, Lord. 

Am I living in the fullness of the Spirit, bringing Christ into my everyday life?

“But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles…” —GALATIANS 1:15-16

The fact that God has a plan for our lives is one of the most reassuring aspects of the Christian life. The idea of our short lives on earth fulfilling an eternal purpose gives a deep sense of significance and security. On the other hand, it is also troubling, because it seems so notoriously difficult to find and enjoy God’s plan with confidence. 

The Apostle Paul certainly held the belief that his life and vocation were preordained. He was not set apart from the time of his dramatic encounter with Christ on the Damascus Road, nor his ensuing transformation in Damascus, but was set apart by God from birth. Paul’s life was not a haphazard affair, but one steered and directed in fulfillment of the will of God. He lived with a sense of divine coordination and purpose as a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle.

With the antiquity of history and the brevity of records available, we are in danger of compressing Paul’s lifetime into a few paragraphs with all the pieces of the jigsaw falling neatly into place, much as we would like our own lives to be. But this would be to read Paul with one eye closed. The personal will of God is always clearer in retrospect than in prospect. The pattern is always easier to discern and explain looking back over past events than in anticipation of prospective events.

Paul taught that what we see and discern is so unreliable that the Christian life is “lived by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Our confidence lies more in the hidden and unseen than in the seen and obvious. We may feel a handicap in the assumption that men of Paul’s stature probably enjoyed a more immediate sense of God’s divine will than we ever will. But this would not be a fair conclusion. We may have recently submitted our lives to Christ or are on the verge of doing so, but this does not come as a news flash to God. He knows the path we will choose and, as He did with Paul, already has His plans in place for us. 

We may learn broad principles of God’s will from Paul’s writings, but feel there is little of the down-to-earth practical calibre that helps us confidently find and do God’s will in the nitty-gritty of contemporary life. But Paul knew very well the struggles and uncertainties, yet was confident, as we must be, of a fundamental issue from which the personal will of God derives. And that is obedience to God’s general will for all people is what makes possible the discovery of His specific will for each of us.

Lord, help me to live by faith and not by sight, and to step fully into your specific will for my life. Thank You, Lord. 

Looking back on past events, do I see the hand of God at work in my life?

“Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted….” —2 TIMOTHY 3:12

If someone wishes to attack God, what do they do? They cannot literally and physically attack God, because He is invisible. What they will do is attack His people.

If God has given us a position with a measure of influence, and we seek to honour Him and walk humbly with Him, then we should not be surprised if we come under attack. This is not because a godly life is taking on a “holier than thou” stance, but the reverse is true. As Christians, we recognize our sin and our inability to live the way God intended, and we have repented. So Christ has entered us, made His home in us, and our godliness, as revealed through us, is the tangible expression of God in us. If someone wants to hurt God, they must attack that which expresses God.

Unless we are foolishly provoking antagonism, we cannot take persecution too personally. The persecution of the church through its history has been the persecution of Christ. To Saul of Tarsus, the most adamant opponent of the Christian church, Jesus asked, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4) Saul, who was spending his time “breathing out murderous threats” against the Lord’s disciples and rounding them up, was stunned and flabbergasted. “Who are you, Lord?” he asked. How could he attack Christ and not even know who He is? Very simply – by attacking His church, which is His body comprised of every Christian. Hence, an attack on the body is not because there is a conflict with the church, but a conflict with Christ Himself.

In the Old Testament, God had to reassure Samuel when the people rebelled and demanded a king. Samuel was depressed and hurt over this, but God said to him, “It is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king” (1 Samuel 8:7). When we take the brunt of people’s rebellion against God, it is simply because we are physical targets, something tangible they can rebel against. 

We should be mindful, however, not to negate legitimate criticism, and to take our critics seriously. They may be right, and if they are, we should listen to them, be thankful for them and take appropriate steps to correction. But Paul warns of persecution being inevitable for those who want to live a godly life in Christ. This is fundamentally rebellion against God, and we must treat it as such. We do not need to vindicate ourselves or God. He will do both in His own time.

Dear Lord, I pray for those who have not yet discovered that You are the light of men. May your Spirit draw them and their hearts be receptive. Thank You, Lord.

How would I counteract criticism for wanting to live my life in Christ?

“The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.” —JOHN 1:41

Andrew is a man whose name most of us are familiar with yet about whom little is known. In fact, when he is first introduced in the Bible, it says, “Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother,” and Simon Peter was not even on the scene yet. We are aware that Peter wrote two books of the New Testament and is one of the most prominent of Jesus’ disciples. Andrew, however, is relegated to the shadows of his more robust, outspoken brother.

Originally, Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist, but he left John the day Jesus was passing by and he heard John say, “Look, the Lamb of God!” (John 1:36) Andrew and another disciple of John immediately followed Jesus. There is no record of any engagement or conversation. They simply followed closely behind. “Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, ‘What do you want?’ They said, ‘Rabbi’ (which means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’ ‘Come,’ he replied, ‘and you will see’’” (1:38-39). 

“Come and see,” was the invitation, and the first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon Peter and tell him, “We have found the Messiah,” and he brought him to Jesus. This is one of the best verses on evangelism in the Bible. He found someone. He told him. Andrew did not try to persuade his brother but simply brought him to Jesus. When Jesus fed a crowd of more than 5,000 near Bethsaida, it was Andrew who said, “Here is a boy with five small loaves and two fish” (6:9). When some Greek people had asked Philip if they could see Jesus, Philip brought them to Andrew who took them to Jesus (12:21-22). 

Here we have a wonderful picture of a man who becomes a true disciple of Christ. Andrew took every opportunity to bring people to Jesus and leave them with Him. As Christians, that is our task – to direct people to Jesus and leave them with Him. We do not have to devise clever strategies or to persuade and convince, because it is Jesus Himself by His Holy Spirit who will draw them. In a multitude of ways He reveals the truth to the heart that is disposed towards seeking and finding Him. 

Though we do not have a physical Jesus to bring people to as Andrew did, the invitation is still to “Come and see”. As people meet Jesus, they come to know Him for themselves, not because we have persuaded them, but because we have introduced them to a living Christ who will do His own work in their lives.

Dear Lord, thank You for giving us examples of good evangelism. I ask that You lead me to others who will be receptive to knowing You. 

Am I alert to opportunities of introducing others to Christ?

“Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you – guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.” —2 TIMOTHY 1:14

To Paul, truth was not a personal possession, but a revelation whose content must be guarded and distributed at all cost. Knowing his life was drawing to an end, he writes a second letter to Timothy and tells him, “What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching” (2 Timothy 1:13).

In Paul’s view, the Gospel was not a matter of opinion to be held above other opinions, but a matter of objective truth which is non-negotiable. By definition, truth is timeless and unchanging. It may be forgotten, neglected, ignored, perverted, opposed, rejected, counterfeited or displaced, but it never changes. The truth Paul proclaims was not merely an emphasis he stresses or an option to be agreed upon or disputed, but by its very nature, is an imperative to which there has to be a response.

Paul’s message centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ, making it much more than a series of theological propositions or articles of creed. These may be helpful to our understanding and necessary for our good, but they do not in themselves constitute the truth. They simply point to it. The truth is the person and activity of Jesus Christ who said, “I am the truth…” (John 14:6). All that is theologically true is truth about Jesus, and to embrace the truth is to allow that which is true of Jesus to become true of us. 

It is important to affirm that Scripture is true and without error in all it declares. It is God speaking to us and is to be completely trusted. However, the Scriptures themselves are not the truth. From Genesis to Revelation they bear witness to the truth, which is Jesus Himself. Paul, in his day, did not have a Bible to leave with his converts. He could only leave them Christ. In Philippians 1:4-6, he explains his follow up strategy. “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Who began the good work in them? Christ. Who will carry it on to completion? Christ. 

Jesus Christ was not the patron of Paul’s Christianity, but the very substance of his Gospel. As Christians, we are entrusted with “the good deposit”, the message of the Gospel, which at all cost, we are to guard with our hearts, minds and souls. Our understanding of truth is not dependent on intellectual capacity, but on the Holy Spirit’s active participation as He works in us so that our lives may bear witness to the Truth.

Precious Lord, thank You for being the Truth Scripture reveals, because it is your life lived in me that brings me joy, peace, purpose and fulfillment.

Am I guarding the truth of Scripture within me and passing it on?

“Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men’.” —MATTHEW 16:23

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” Some said John the Baptist, others said Elijah and others said Jeremiah or one of the other prophets. “But what about you?” Jesus asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven” (Matthew 16:15-17).

We can imagine how pleased Peter was to hear Jesus’ response, but seven verses later the tune drastically changes. Jesus rebukes Peter, saying, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me.” What happened? Why this sudden change? Verse 21 tells us, “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

We are very familiar with this, but it was totally new and devastating news for the disciples. Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him, “Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you!” (16:22). If we think about it, Peter’s response is a contradiction in terms. To say “never” is to cancel out the fact that Jesus is Lord, and to say “Lord” is to cancel out the right to say “never.” And this is what epitomizes Peter’s problem as it does for many of us. Peter has his doctrine correct – “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”, but his doctrine had not yet been translated into life and experience. 

When Jesus said, “You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men,” He is referring to operating by human reasoning. Doctrine is absolutely vital, but cannot make us spiritual. What Peter knew in his mind had not yet worked out into spiritual life. Jesus was still among them, not in them, and verse 20 tells us that He warned His disciples not to tell anyone He was the Christ. It is not the affirmation of Christ being the Son of God that is the foundation of Christian living. Even the demons believe that and tremble. It is the actual life of the risen Christ indwelling us that is the foundation in which doctrine comes to life as we begin to know and experience Him.

Thank You, Lord, that You are the means by your Spirit that turns my doctrine into real life experiences of You.

Has Christian doctrine come alive for me?

“They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised. Amen.” —ROMANS 1:25

We all have a reason to get up in the morning. Whether it is extremely tedious and unproductive or whether it is going to work, school, training, social engagements, we all have something we are going to do. The question is: What motivates us?

The truth is no one exists in a vacuum. The issue Paul is talking about in the opening verse is not intellectual, but volitional – a question of the will. If God is not at the center of our lives, we will fill that vacuum with created things and not the Creator. Paul speaks specifically of three areas: sexual impurity, arrogance and idolatry. If we persist in going our own way without regard for God, He will hand us over to what we want, and we will inevitably reap the consequences, which are usually painful and often devastating. 

Of sexual immorality, Paul says, “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another” (Romans 1:24). Sexual impurity can take many forms and is an inevitable consequence of spiritual breakdown. As we were created to be in God’s moral image, sexual impurity exchanges the truth about God for a lie. God is entirely faithful, entirely pure and entirely right.

Of arrogance, Paul says, “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened” (1:21). Suppressing the truth about God, opting instead for our own knowledge and reasoning will lead to spiritual and moral decay. In fact, we are becoming fools, Paul says, exchanging the glory of an immortal God for created things, which ultimately leads to idolatry. 

When the accumulation of wealth and material possessions for self gain become our motivation, we will be left spiritually bankrupt, because into that vacuum we are nurturing goals that are a violation of the truth about God. What we worship we serve and what we serve we worship. This is difficult for us because it is the norm of the culture we live in today. We are too sophisticated to call this ‘idol worship’, but idolatry is replacing the Creator with the created. History shows that when nations and peoples are materially prosperous, they usually become spiritually indifferent and then become morally bankrupt. And the moral bankruptcy then destroys the material prosperity.

From the beginning, God is the fuel we were meant to run on. It is as we allow Him to come into that vacuum and fill us with Himself that we are divinely motivated to begin each day, knowing God is at work in our lives.

Dear Heavenly Father, keep me divinely motivated. Fill me with Yourself and rule my day. Thank You, Lord.

Am I motivated to begin each day by the presence of God in me?

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” —ROMANS 1:20

Many people will argue that it is naïve to say creation reveals the Creator, but actually it is profoundly important. It is what we call “natural revelation”, and is available to anyone who will believe what they see and follow it through to its logical cause.

Throughout history, there have been arguments for the existence of God that do not rely on the Bible or on God’s revelation, but upon what is naturally available. There is the cosmological argument, which says every effect must have a cause. Rest is a natural state which needs nothing behind it, but motion is an unnatural state and needs something behind it. If a stationary object such as a chair or table were to suddenly move across the room on its own, we would want an explanation. The earth is constantly moving and there needs to be a cause behind it.

There is the teleological argument, which is one that argues for design because the world reveals intelligence, order, harmony, purpose. That implies the world exists not randomly, but for an intelligent purpose, and there is a supreme being adequate for the production of such a world. Without intelligent design, the world and all life within it would be a fluke.

There is the ontological argument, based on the fact we can only mentally conceive of things which actually exist. We can think of fictitious things, but even those are based on human experience. For example, a mermaid is entirely fictitious; half fish, half woman. Fish and women exist, or a Martian with one big eyeball and feathers. Eyeballs and feathers exist. When it comes to God, we are able to conceive of absolute power and perfection, even though we have never seen it. This is evidence that something like this exists, simply because we can conceive of it. 

There is a moral argument that says we have an innate sense of right and wrong. We have a conscience and as Paul says in Romans 2:15 the laws of God are written upon our hearts. The issue is not do we have a revelation of God, but do we suppress the logic of that revelation? 

Abraham Lincoln wrote: “I never gaze at the stars without feeling that I am looking into the face of God. I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he could look up into the sky and say, ‘There is no God’.” Everyone has had a revelation of God in creation, and it is the starting point, which if followed through, leads along a path of knowing God. 

Lord, I cannot conceive of a world without You, not only as the Creator, but as our life. Thank You for being all that You are.

What is the clearest evidence of God’s existence to me?

“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me… For when I am weak, then I am strong.” —2 CORINTHIANS 12:9-10

Failure is so often the prelude to discovering that the ability to survive and live is found in Christ Himself. The Apostle Paul records his own experience of this discovery. To the Corinthians, he catalogues a list of qualities and experiences of which he could legitimately boast, but then he says into his life comes a “messenger of Satan to torment me”. Three times he pleaded with the Lord to take it away, but the Lord said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

No one can ever be too weak for Christ to work in them and through them, but they can be too strong. No one can ever be too simple, but they can be too clever and no one can ever be too poor, but they can be too rich. The danger when we feel strong is that we believe it! It is only as God exposes our weaknesses that we are ready to trust Him for a strength that is not our own. It is for this reason Paul later states, “We are weak… yet by God’s power we live” (13:4).

In the Christian life, it is our sense of strength that becomes our weakness and our sense of weakness that becomes our strength. The extent of our strength is the measure of our self-sufficiency which will, in turn, become the cause of spiritual barrenness. Conversely, it will be to the extent of our weakness that will become the measure of our dependency on God which then becomes the cause of our fruitfulness. Hence, Paul’s affirmation, “We are glad when we are weak!”

If praise is to be given, it belongs exclusively to God. His power is displayed in people who know they cannot claim credit for it themselves. Many in Corinth were taking themselves or their leaders far too seriously. Some claimed to be of Paul’s persuasion, some of Apollos and some of Peter, as though these men held responsibility for their spiritual lives or were free to market their own brand of Christianity. Paul asks indignantly, “What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants through whom you came to believe... I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow” (1 Corinthians 3:5-6). 

It is not to the servant but to the Lord Jesus Christ we give credit, for it is only from Him we derive our resources. It is in our weaknesses we discover the strength of Christ, which is why the true servant of God will always lead people to become dependent upon God.

Dear Lord, grant me your strength and help me to become dependent upon You in my weaknesses. Thank You, Lord. 

Am I praying for God’s strength in my weakness?

“So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.”—1 CORINTHIANS 3:7

In the spiritual life of others it is bringing them into dependency upon God that is our goal. To prompt people into a dependency on us may ensure we acquire their cooperation and get our plans implemented with little fuss, but we will have created a cult. It may be founded on sound orthodox theology, but will never take them beyond spiritual babyhood to a healthy, wholesome maturity in Christ.

In the opening verse, Paul is stating that we are servants, but it is God who accomplishes His purpose through us. We may play a role in people coming to Christ, but the sooner we wean them from dependence on us and bring them to dependency on God, the sooner we will introduce them to spiritual maturity and usefulness. We should always relate to each other in mutual respect, but must always acknowledge only one Lord, Christ Himself, and only one source of strength, Christ Himself. 

We should never be afraid of letting people discover their own weaknesses. To fail is almost certainly to grow, but that is something we cannot teach. Though they may understand it, it will only become a propositional fact, which they will need to learn in their own experience. Again and again, it has been when people discover their own inherent weakness that God has broken in with the revelation of His strength. This has been true, not only in Scripture but throughout the history of the Christian church, and lies at the root of almost any great work and movement of God.

Some years ago, Dr. V. R. Edman, then president of Wheaton College in Illinois, wrote a book entitled, “They Found the Secret”. The book looks at twenty people who have made a marked impact for God. In his introduction, Edman makes an interesting observation: “The details of their experiences are usually quite different; yet as we listen to their stories and watch their lives, either in our reading or in our contact with them, we begin to see a pattern which reveals their secret. Out of discouragement and defeat they have come into victory. Out of weakness and weariness they have been made strong. Out of ineffectiveness and apparent uselessness they have become efficient and enthusiastic.”

“The pattern seems to be: self-centeredness, self-effort, increasing inner dissatisfaction and outer discouragement, a temptation to give it all up because there is no better way; and then finding the Spirit of God to be their strength, their guide, their confidence and companion – in a word, their life.” Our goal in mentoring others is always to lead them into complete dependency on Christ who, in our obedience to Him, becomes our life.

Dear Lord, I pray for everyone to discover how complete dependence on You is what brings them into a deeper experience of You. 

Am I steering people to dependence on God or allowing them to rely on my words?

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” —2 CORINTHIANS 5:17

Several years ago I wrote a book called, “Alive in Christ” with my purpose being how to find renewed spiritual power. As I was concluding the book, my young daughter came into my study and asked, “What has happened so far?” She obviously thought I was writing a story, and maybe I was. Maybe we would find glimpses of our own lives within the pages, but in our journey with Christ, it is a good question to ask. What has happened so far?

We neither want nor need to imitate another person’s experience, nor reduce God’s dealing with them to a pattern we would superimpose upon ourselves or on anyone else. When we look for a pattern, God normally surprises us by dealing with us in unexpected ways that will often leave us in awe. If we are burned out, frustrated and dissatisfied with no conscious communion with God, then we must get hold of the principle that lies behind every expression of Christianity.

It is Christ as our Lord who makes the Christian life work. He directs us and as we live in submission to His authority and obedience to Him, it is His Spirit as our life that enables us. He is our power and strength and we trust Him, stepping into every new day and every new situation with the conviction that the One whom we obey is totally able by His indwelling Holy Spirit to accomplish His purpose in us and through us.
 
If this is not yet your story, regardless of what you have been and wherever you have been, as a child of God you are a new creation in Christ, and He has planned your future. David writes, “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16). Just before that he says, “If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast” (139:9-10). Do we trust God for this? Are we willing to let go of human logic and ability and depend on a God who created us?

The Christian life is a committed relationship with Jesus Christ and we cannot allow that to wane. All the resources we need are met in Him, not only for living but in all He has called us to do. 

Step out with confidence in Christ and together you shall make things happen.

Dear Heavenly Father, I am greatly humbled to know that I am always in your presence. Thank You for everything You have done to make that possible. Amen.

In what areas of my life do I need to depend on the Lord’s enabling more?

“…since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain… let us draw near to God with a sincere heart…” — HEBREWS 10:19-22

The writer of Hebrews says that it is through the blood of Christ we now have boldness to enter the Most Holy Place. This is not boldness born of presumption, but born in humility where we recognize there is nothing we can do but enter into what Christ has already done. 

We cannot earn or take credit for having access to God. We can only come to Him through Jesus Christ. Neither do we doubt that we stand justified before God and have cleansing for our sins. This is our experience in the courtyard of God’s tabernacle, and it opens the door for us. With confidence we may enter and find the bread of His presence to sustain us, the oil of His Spirit to enable us, and the aroma of Christ to distinguish us. 

This path we have followed through the tabernacle was the route taken by Aaron and the priesthood on behalf of the people. The ordinary citizen did not come himself. The priest was his representative, and his action was vicarious. We take the same path for we come with the same need, but we have a much better priest. “Christ came as high priest… he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle…. He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood” (Hebrews 9:11-12). This does not need repetition by Him; it needs only appropriation by us. 

Though many people are familiar with this spiritual journey, the reality is that the Most Holy Place seems to be curtained off. The presence of God is still only a taste, the power of God rarely evident, and the purpose of God in restoring us to His image seems little more than wishful thinking. There were times when the offerings and sacrifices of the tabernacle did not please God. It had become routine; an obligation. The attitude to the ritual was the symptom of the people’s attitude toward God. They wanted His blessing, but had vested interests of their own and mingled the two, placing their needs first. 

We may say our prayers, read our Bibles, attend church, engage in service, and cling to “the old rugged cross”, but remain barren and empty. These are all valid and necessary, but like the rituals, they are not the substance of spiritual life, but an aid to it. It is not the cross, but Christ who saves. It is not our prayers, but God who hears us; not our service, but the power in which we serve that will be fruitful, and it is not our church, but the centrality of Christ in our everyday lives that will keep us in the Most Holy Place.

Dear Heavenly Father, I am greatly humbled to know that I am always in your presence. Thank You for everything You have done to make that possible. Amen.

Am I dealing directly with Christ or hoping He will take notice of the things I do that I think will please Him?

“And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” —MATTHEW 27:50-51

Once a year on the Day of Atonement, the altar of fragrant incense became soaked with the blood of the sin offering as Aaron poured it on the horns of the altar. That day, the smell of burning blood, mingled with the fragrance of the incense, brought a different aroma to God than any other day of the year.

On the cross at Calvary, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ brought all the rituals to fulfillment and to an end. As Christ, the aroma that delights God, was made to be sin and mingled His sinless life with the sin of the world, He cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). The tarnishing of the purity of Christ when the sins of the world were heaped upon Him and He was made to be sin for us brought to the Father an unpleasant smell, and heaven remained silent. The Father turned His head away and withdrew from His Son.

But a remarkable thing happened. As Jesus cried out on the cross and dismissed His Spirit, at that exact moment, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The curtain which had divided the Most Holy Place, concealing the presence of God, was ripped apart as a divine act, and it was ripped apart from the inside. God broke out! No longer was He to be approached in a building, nor through rituals and offerings that needed constant repetition. He had broken loose from the temple and its inner chamber to invade the lives of any man, woman or child who is willing to receive Him. They would now become the temple of His Spirit, the place He would make His home and the place from which He would do His work.

Beginning with Aaron, the priests knew that as the blood mingled with the sweet incense on the altar before the curtain in the tabernacle, they would at any moment be given access into the Most Holy Place where they would meet with God. The curtain would open and they would pass through. Since the Day of Pentecost when God poured out His Holy Spirit down from heaven, we have the divine privilege and invitation that is open to everyone – uninhibited, free and direct access to God in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Dear Lord, thank You for the ultimate gift of your Son who died in my stead. And thank You for breaking free from behind that curtain so that everyone may come to know and experience You. 

Am I utilizing and enjoying free, uninhibited access to God through prayer?