OUR SPIRITUAL ANOINTING.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY TWENTY TWO.

LUKE 4:18-19.   "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor, He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed, To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."
This is the passage of scripture from Isaiah 61 that Jesus read out in the synagogue in Nazareth, He says that this passage of scripture applies to Him. My question is this, does this scripture also apply to us as believers, as members of the body of Christ? I believe that the answer to this question is yes. In John 14:12 Jesus said, that if we believe in Him then the works that He did we would do, and even greater works. So how did Jesus do the works that He did? well we know that He said that the Spirit of the Lord was on Him to do the works, It also says in Luke 4:1 that Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit and was led into the wilderness and that when He came out of the wilderness He did so in the power of the Holy Spirit. So during His earthly ministry everything that Jesus did was done through the power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. In actual fact the life that Jesus lived on the earth was a demonstration to us as to how we are meant to live our lives as His disciples. In Matthew 10 we see that Jesus sends out the twelve disciples into the towns and tells them to go and preach the gospel and He gives them authority to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead and to cast out demons. This was all part of the training process for the twelve in preparation for what was to come. Jesus was making disciples or ones that would follow in His teaching and in His footsteps. We see in Luke 10 Jesus now appoints seventy others, and sends them out, we see that when they come back they are amazed that even the demons were subject to them in the name of Jesus. This again was part of the training for these disciples. Jesus actually says to them when they return that He has given them complete authority over the enemy, but even so it is more important that they know that their names are in heaven. So, even though we can do all the miracles and have the power or authority over Satan, it is more important that we do not loose sight of our eternal destiny. Of course we know that in accordance with what Colossians 2:13-15 ultimately Jesus defeated Satan on the cross, that all our sins were forgiven, and Satan no longer has authority over us. We see in Matthew 28:18-20 That Jesus now commissions his disciples to go out into all the world and make disciples of all the nations, He tells them that He now has all authority in heaven and on the earth, He has taken back the authority that Adam had given to Satan when he sinned, and He is now giving that authority back to His disciples. He said to the disciples; "Go in My name" in other words go in My authority, we cannot do it in our own authority, it is only as we walk in obedience to the word of God and in the anointing of the Holy Spirit that we can do what Jesus is commanding us to do. We see in Mark 16:14-18 Mark also records the great commission, but he also included the facts that the disciples would perform miracles, and we see in verse 20 it says that as the disciples went out preaching the gospel God confirmed His word with the miracles. Some would argue that the miracles finished when the original disciples had died or shortly after, there is absolutely no Biblical support for this, on the contrary, Jesus said to go into all the world and that He would be with us till the end of the age. Well we know that the gospel is still being preached and that this age that we are now living in started on the day of Pentecost and has not finished yet, and will not finish till Jesus comes back. Jesus said to His disciples that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit had come upon them, that word power means might, the power to perform miracles, on the day of Pentecost Peter said that the gift of the Holy Spirit would be available to everyone who was saved. I believe that it is time for the Church to rise up in the authority and the anointing that Jesus has given us and begin to not only preach the gospel but to step out in boldness and begin to believe God for the miracles signs and wonders that accomplish and confirm the word of God. This is not meant to be restricted to the confines of a Church building, Jesus sent His disciples out into the towns and if you look at Jesus own ministry most of His miracles were done outside of the synagogues, out among the people. AMEN.  

SPIRITUAL WARFARE.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY TWENTY ONE.

EPHESIANS 6:10-12.  Vs.10. Finally, my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, Vs.11. Put on the whole armor of God, that you might be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Vs.12, For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Paul has written a letter of great significance to the people at Epesus, in this passage he is showing them that are not in a physical battle but a spiritual one, how they fight this battle will have a great bearing on how they apply the rest of what Paul has written to them. The same applies to us. Paul tells us in verse ten that we are going to have to put on the whole armor of God, but to do that we are going to have to be strong in the Lord. Paul had already prayed for the church in chapter three that they would be strengthened with all might through the Spirit in the inner man. We need to be strong spiritually, we need to have a strong relationship with Christ through His word and through prayer. We need a good revelation of who Christ is in us and as a result, who we are in Him.  It is important that we realise that we must put on the whole armor, putting on only part of it will leave us vulnerable to the enemy. Note what Paul says at the end of verse 11, "That we can stand against the wiles of the devil." In 2 Corinthians 2;11 Paul says there that we are not ignorant of Satan's devices. Satan has his plans and his strategies that he will try to use against us, but when we understand what God's word says about Christ in us and who we are in Him, we can stand against his plans, as David said in Psalm 119;98, that through God's word he was made wiser than his enemies. We must understand that we are fighting against a spiritual hierarchy, there are different levels of spiritual authority in the kingdom of darkness, as we grow in the things of God and in our authority we will come up against stronger forces, this is why it is important that we understand how to apply the armor. Paul has fashioned the armor after the style of a Roman soldiers armor, so let's see how it works. We see in verse 13 that Paul again reinforces that we must put on the whole armor of God because there will be particular days that will be evil, we will be coming under greater spiritual attack and that we must take a stand and continue to stand. The first item is the belt of truth, the belt is the foundation of the armor, the breastplate is secured to it as, a soldier would gird his loins into the belt and his sword hung off it. The belt is called the belt of truth, the foundation of our armor is that what it says in the Bible is the absolute truth, God's word is true and we can totally rely on it. The breastplate protects the heart and the vital organs, we have a breastplate of righteousness, we are the righteousness of God in Christ, we are meant to walk in that righteousness. The breastplate is designed to protect our spirit, to protect who we are in Christ, when Satan comes to tempt us we can so no because we are the righteousness of God. The shoes of the gospel of peace, it is important to realise that these are our shoes, the word that we walk in, during the battle we can have peace because we know that Jesus has won the victory. Above all taking the shield of faith, we live by faith, we are saved by faith, our whole spiritual life depends on faith. Faith is what takes a hold of the promises of God and brings them from the spiritual world into our physical world. When Satan comes against us with his lies and tries to tell us that God's word is not true or when he comes against us with sickness or financial situations we can pick up the shield of faith, declare the word of God and the fiery darts will fall to the ground. The helmet protects our thinking, protects our mind. if Satan can control our mind and our thinking then he can control us. Salvation speaks of wholeness in every are of our lives, spirit soul and body, in Romans 12:2 says that we are not to be conformed or fashioned after the world, but that our lives are to be transformed or changed by having our minds renewed so that we can know and walk in the will of God, that transforming or renewing only comes through the word of God. In 2 Corinthians 10:5 it says that we are to take every thought captive that tries to establish itself above what we know to be true in the word to the obedience of Christ, we are not to allow wrong thoughts to take over our thinking, this is how Satan will establish his strongholds. And finally we are to take up the sword, which is the word of God, so when Satan comes against us we take a hold of what God's word says and use it to destroy his lies and his temptation, we can do as Jesus did in the wilderness and say, "It is written" Finally when Paul says that we are to put on the armor, this does not mean that we can take it off, it means that we are walking in what the armor says about us and about the word, it is the out working of it in our lives. So let us remember we are no fighting against people, but Satan will try to use people to get to us, he will try to use people and circumstances to cause us to sin and fall short of God's best for us. Let us be strong in the Lord and continually walk in the armor of God, knowing what it says about us and knowing that through Christ we have the victory. AMEN.           

MORE THAN CONQUERORS.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY TWENTY.

ROMANS 8:37.     Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
So what the things that Paul is talking about here? In verse 35 he is talking about being persecuted, going through stress, tribulations, facing times of no food, being in danger even under the threat of death, yet in the face of all this we can have complete victory, The expression more than conquerors actually speaks of a supernatural victory, not in our own strength, but through Jesus who loves us. Paul goes on to say that there is absolutely nothing in the created world, whether it be physical or spiritual,  whether it be even death itself, regardless of how high we are feeling or how low we are feeling, nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ. This is an amazing encouragement to us, Jesus said Himself that He would never leave us or forsake us. He has given us His Holy Spirit as our guide, teacher and comforter. Jesus even warned us, He said, "In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world." The world system and the god of this world has no authority over us, Jesus has stripped him totally, he only has the authority over our lives that we allow him to have. When Satan comes with his lies and his temptation we, like Jesus, can say, "Get behind me Satan!" While ever Satan is behind us we cannot bow to him and his temptation. It is important in this that we realise that we need to stay in God's love, that we stay in His word, that we continue to walk in obedience to what God is calling us to. The only reason that the enemy comes against us is to destroy what God is wanting to do in us and through us. Prayer is a vital aspect of this, in Philippians 4:6 Paul says that we are not be anxious, or worry, about anything, but that we are to hand everything over to God in prayer. It is as we do this that the peace of God will protect us, the peace of God will guard us spiritually and our minds will be at peace as well. The peace of God is not natural peace, it is the peace that can only come from the Holy Spirit, The peace that goes beyond our natural thinking, in the face of great adversity or turmoil we can have peace, the assurance that all is under control. In 2 Corinthians 2:14 Paul says; "Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place." Paul was out travelling around preaching the Gospel and he faced many and varied obstacles and yet he was able to say that through Christ he was always lead in triumph as he preached the gospel. If we are being led by the Holy Spirit then we are going somewhere, we are not standing still. David said in Psalm 23, "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, Your rod and Your staff they comfort me." David did not camp in the valley, he walked through it and as he did he knew that God was with him. The rod was God's protection and the staff was God's support. So the fact that David knew that God would protect him and not let him stumble was great comfort to David. So we  too can know that as we walk through those valley experiences, as we remain in God's love and His word, walking in His will and purpose that He will protect in His love and His word will be our support and guide, and we will be victorious in Christ. AMEN.     

FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY NINETEEN.

GALATIANS 5:22-23.    But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering (patience), kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such there is no law.
Paul in the context of what Galatians five is about is comparing the difference between walking in the flesh and walking in the Spirit. In verse 16 he says that if we walk in the Spirit we will not fulfill the lusts or the carnal desires of the flesh, he then goes on to describe what they are. We want to look at the fruit of the Spirit, it is important that we understand that it is the fruit of the Spirit, the manifestation of the character of the Holy Spirit as we walk in Him. Note that Paul says the first fruit is love, this is important, the love here is agape love, the same love that john 3:16 talks about, it's God's love, it's not just natural affection, it is sacrificial love. It is the kind of love that compels us to love God and to love others. If we don't walk in the love of God, then the other aspects of the fruit of the Spirit won't be there. You might ask, why is that? Because if we are walking in the love of God we will walk in obedience to His word and His will, if we are not doing that, then we are just walking in the flesh. The second aspect is joy, Why joy, joy is the bi-product of walking in the love of God and obedience to the will of God, Jesus talked about this in John 15:11. He had just shared with them the importance of knowing the love of God and walking in obedience to His will and His word and He then tells them that if they did this they would experience His joy, that His joy would be in them and as a result their joy would be full, and we know that the joy of the Lord is our strength. We need to be strengthened in spirit to walk in all that God has for us. Then we have peace, Jesus said in John 14:27 that He would give us peace, not the same as the world has, but His peace. When we have the peace of the Holy Spirit we can know peace in whatever circumstances we might find ourselves in. Peace of mind comes when we know that we are walking in the love of God and in His will, it is not a natural peace, but it is the peace of God which guards our hearts and our minds and keeps us in fellowship with Jesus. It's interesting because the next fruit is longsuffering or patience. Now there are two aspects to this, one is longsuffering, which does not mean that you are going to suffer for a long time, but it actually means slow to anger, so when things don't go our way or someone wrongs us we don't fly off the handle or as Galatians 5:20 calls it outbursts of wrath. This gives us the ability to show people leniency, to give them grace, note to condone any wrong doing, but to be able to show them love and grace to help them. The other aspect of this is endurance, the ability to stay strong and single minded and focused on what God wants in the face of adversity, when it appears that things are going wrong. In James 1:1-5 the word patience there means endurance. When we are going through the trials we rejoice in the Lord, we thank Him for His joy, for His strength, for His ability to endure, to remain focused and to remain in His will and purpose. The next aspect is kindness, or the ability to treat others well, to consider their welfare, It deals with how we treat others who may be testing our patience, those who need us to be lenient with them, those who need our love and grace. The next aspect is goodness, the ability to walk a virtuous lifestyle, to demonstrate goodness. Faithfulness is the ability to remain in faith, the inner conviction that we know that God is true and His word is true, the ability in the face of opposition to stand on our conviction that God is faithful. The next aspect is gentleness, this can also be translated meekness, which is not a weakness or someone who is weak but it is the actually power under control, it is being even tempered, tranquil and the ability to forgive or pardon where necessary and correct people with a right spirit. The last aspect is self control, or temperance, the ability to keep oneself in check, the ability to say no I am not going there, when temptation comes we can reign in the desires of the flesh and so no. We have that choice, and the fruit of self control gives us the ability to say no. So, do you notice how it all flows on from one aspect to the next, walk in love and obedience, you experience the joy of the Lord, which is our strength, we then experience the peace of God which guards our hearts and our minds, so when we come under pressure we are able to walk in the patience, the ability to show people love and grace where needed and the ability to endure and stay strong, out of that we are able to treat others with kindness, to be able to demonstrate the goodness of God, to know that God is faithful and to remain faithful, We have the ability to walk the strength of the Spirit but under control, we now have the ability to say no to the desires of the flesh.  And of course against this there is no law, Why? because when we walk in the love of God and the fruit of the Spirit we are not under the law. So let this be the thing that motivates us that we will walk in the love of God and the fruit of the Spirit. AMEN.  

LOVE PERFECTED.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY EIGHTEEN.

1 JOHN 4:18.    There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
So, how can we know that we have been made perfect in love? We know that God is love, and that He is perfect and that love is the fruit of the Spirit. So is being made perfect in love something that will happen over night or is it a process. It is vitally important that we understand how this works. We see there that John says that there is no fear in love, and that perfect love will actually cast fear out of our lives. Why is this important? because as he says there fear involves torment. Fear is one of the major weapons that Satan will use against us. He uses it to stop us from walking in the will of God. Fear of what people will say or think of us, fear of failure, what if it doesn't work, fear is never of God, remember God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind. Love is the fruit of the Spirit. The word torment that John uses there actually has to do with punishment. Satan is the accuser of the brethren, when we fail to walk in obedience he come in with all his accusations and finger pointing, Tries to make us feel guilty and that we are going to be punished by God. Yes if we miss it we need to repent straight away, don't allow Satan to become your accuser, if we repent God's grace is always there to forgive us and His love will strengthen us to go on. If we are struggling with fear in our lives, then it is obvious that we have not been perfected in the love of God in certain areas of our lives.We must understand this, the concept of being perfected, is maturing in the love of God, remember it is the fruit of the spirit, and like fruit on a tree it has to grow. We all need a greater revelation of the love of God, we all need to grow in this, this is why Paul prayed for the Ephesian church that they would have a comprehension or working knowledge of the love of God, and as he said it passes our natural understanding, we can only truly know the love of God through spiritual revelation. So, how does the process of maturing in love work? obviously firstly we must know that God loves us and that His love is unconditional, we cannot earn the love of God, We can only love God because He first loved us, it is His love shed abroad in our hearts that gives us the capacity to love God. In John 15:9 Jesus says, "As the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you, abide in that love." Jesus knew that His Father loved Him and He lived in the knowledge of that, He is saying here that He loves us with the same love that His Father loved Him with, and He wants us to know that and to remain or live in that revelation. Jesus in the next verse gives us the key to remaining in that love, obedience. As He said, He kept his Father's commandments and so He was able to abide in His love. He demonstrated His love for the Father by His obedience, The truth is, if we truly love God then we will want to walk in obedience to His will and His word. Jesus goes on to show us the result of walking in His love and in obedience to His will. He says in John 15:10 That he has shared these things with them that His joy might remain in them and that their joy might be full. Jesus takes great pleasure when we walk in obedience to His will Zephaniah 3:17 says that He rejoices over us with gladness and that He quiets us with His love. He will rejoice over you with singing. The amazing thing is this, because that joy that Jesus feels is in the Holy Spirit, we have the Holy spirit in us and we experience that joy, His joy becomes our joy, and the joy of the Lord is our strength. What we experience goes far beyond the emotional feeling of happiness, There is a sense of this amazing joy that wells up in our spirit and there is a feeling of great strength that come with it. As we walk in this we are empowered more and more to do the will of the Father. If we will step out and begin to walk in this we will get a greater revelation of the love of God, both for us and for the love of others, especially if we walk in this towards those who are outside of Christ. As we take that initial step, stepping out in love, the fear will go, because where there is love there is no fear, remember love casts out fear. The more we walk in this, the more our love will grow, we will find that the fear no longer has any influence in that area of our life,we are being perfected in love, we are maturing and growing in the fruit of the Spirit. We will come to the point where it is just natural for us to reach out and love people, because the love of God compels us. This is what the Church needs right now, not greater music, fancier light shows and whatever, but a greater revelation of the love of God, it is only as we do this that we will take our eyes off ourselves, and do what Jesus said, look unto the harvest, for the fields are white, ready to be harvested. My prayer for all of us, myself included, that we would get a greater revelation of the depth, the width, the height and the length of the love of God which passes all our natural understanding and that we would walk in it, because as we do this God will be able to do through us far more than we could ever ask or think, all by His power working in us, for His glory, in the church, in this generation and into the generations to come, and on into eternity. AMEN.       

THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY SEVENTEEN.

PSALM 23:1.    The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
This is the opening verse in what is probably the best known passage of scripture in the whole Bible, but how important is it that we understand that the Lord is our shepherd? David had, as a young man, been a shepherd, he had looked after his father's sheep while his older brothers away at war. It was while he was tending his father's sheep that he slay Goliath. David understood the role of a shepherd and how they had to protect the sheep, as well as make sure that they had green pasture to feed in. We see in the incident with Goliath when Saul says that David is only a youth and cannot go up against Goliath, David describes how he protected the sheep from the lion and the bear, and how he had actually killed them in protecting the sheep. David said that this Philistine would be no different to one of them. In Psalm 23 we see how David describes the role of the shepherd and how the Lord would lead David and would ensure that David's needs would be met, both physically and spiritually, and that he would be protected, even in dark times, even to the point that his enemies would even see how God blessed him, and of course, because the Lord was his shepherd, David would dwell in His house for ever. So, if we come over into the New Testament, we see that Jesus makes a very powerful, and profound statement, in John 10:11 "I Am the good shepherd, The good shepherd gives His life for His sheep." This is profound , because the Jews had always seen God as their shepherd, Jesus here is saying that He is God, but that He had come to lay down His life for His sheep. In verse 14 He repeats the fact that He is the good shepherd and that He knows His sheep and His sheep know Him. Jesus knows that we are His and He knows everything about us, and we too can know Him and know His voice. He makes the statement a couple of times in John 10 that He is going to lay His life down for His sheep and He says in verse 18 that no one takes His life from Him but that He has the power to lay it down and also the power to take it up again, obviously speaking of how He would ultimately lay His life down for us and be resurrected again. He goes on in verses 27-29 to explain how we can hear His voice and that as hear His voice we will follow Him, and that He has given us eternal life, and that nothing can snatch us out of His hand, He holds us in the palm of His hand, as it were, that's how much He protects us. He even goes on to say that because we are in His hand we are also in the Father' hands and no one will be able to snatch us out. That is an amazing promise of protection for us, This is so powerful because remember Jesus had said in John 10:10 that the thief comes but to rob, kill and destroy, but that He had come to give us abundant life, that life is found as we stay safe and secure in His hand. I love what it says in Isaiah 41:10 Fear not, for I am with you: Be not dismayed, for I am your God, I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. Jesus is the One who sits at the right hand of God, Jesus is the One who will uphold us, He is the one who will walk with us through the valley experiences that we go through when the enemy tries to come against us. Jesus is the One who speaks to us in that still small voice that says, "This is way, walk in it" when all around us seems desolated and there seems to be no water or food for us, Jesus is the one who leads us into the green pastures and besides the still waters, He is the One who restores our soul, brings us peace and reassurance. He is the One who leads in righteousness and away from temptation. Jesus is the One who provides for us even in the face of our enemies, an anoints us with His Spirit so that we can walk in His authority and know His joy that will be our strength. His goodness and his grace is with us everyday and He promised us in John 10:28 that we have eternal life, so we can dwell in the house of the Lord forever. AMEN.     

GOD IS THE GOD GRACE.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY SIXTEEN.

EPHESIANS 2:8.     For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God.
This verse shows us that we are saved by grace, that as we put our faith in Christ we are saved, that it is a gift from God, so if it is a gift, can we earn it? The next verse says that we can not earn it through our works, because if we could it would give us the opportunity to boast in our achievements. So what is grace? Grace is God's favor, we can't earn it; it is the act of the holy Spirit drawing us to God, The word tells us that God desires all men to be saved and come to know the truth, Jesus said that He is the way, the truth and the life. When we hear the gospel the Holy Spirit speaks to our heart, faith is stirred within us and the Holy Spirit draws us to Christ, who is our salvation. There is absolutely nothing we can do to earn it, let's face it, when most of us were saved we certainly weren't trying to please God, we were out there living our own lives, doing our own thing. So is grace a new thing, or is God a God of grace?  Many believe that grace is only a new testament thing, The usual context is, "We are no longer under the law, we are now saved by grace" Let us have a look at this, I believe that if we know the truth about grace we can have a greater understanding of the nature and love of God.  Psalm 84;11 For the Lord is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly. This verse shows that God is their light and their protection and that He has given them grace and as they walk in it and walk uprightly or in moral integrity God will not withhold His favor from them. Again in Psalm 103;8 it say that the Lord is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in mercy. God does not deal with us as we deserve, He didn't deal with the children of Israel as they deserved. The word gracious means to treat with kindness. So we see from these verses that God has always been a gracious God, one prepared to show mercy and to treat His children with kindness despite their failures. The truth is that the law was never given to make men righteous, Paul said that if anyone could be made righteous through the law, then Christ died in vain. The law was given as a teacher to bring people to the promised Messiah, who was Jesus. Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Abraham walked in God's unearned favor, Jesus said of Abraham, "Abraham say My day and he rejoiced" So then does grace mean that we don't have to do anything? We know that when we come to Christ and are born again we now have the Holy Spirit living in us, the Bible tells us that we are God's temple, that His Spirit dwells in us. In Zechariah 12;10 it says that Holy Spirit is the Spirit of grace, and in Hebrews 10;29 the Holy Spirit is again referred to as the Spirit of Grace. So we have the very grace of God living on the inside of us. So now that we know this, how does that effect our lives? can we just go about living our lives as we please, or are we expected to do anything as Christians? Jesus gives us a few clues on this, In John 15 He was talking about how He is the vine and that we need to be abiding in the vine and that we are expected to bear fruit, if we don't then we will be cut off and discarded, He tells us in that passage that the key to remaining in the vine is to walk in His love and to walk in obedience to His commandments, but hang on, aren't the commandments part of the law, and we are no longer under the law? The commandments are fulfilled as we walk in love for God and in love for our neighbors, We demonstrate our love for God as we walk in obedience to His will and purpose for our lives and as we serve our neighbors in love. Jesus also warned us that it is only those who do the will of the Father that will inherit the kingdom of God. So how does the Holy Spirit come into this? Firstly Jesus said that it is the Holy Spirit that will guide us into the truth, So it is only by the grace of God that we can understand the truth of His word, we cannot work it out with our own understanding, Paul said that the natural man or our natural thinking cannot receive the things of the Spirit, it is only by the Holy Spirit that they can be understood. In Galatians 5;25 it says that if we live in the Spirit then we must walk in the Spirit, In Romans 8:14 it says that all those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. So we can see from these two scriptures that we are meant to live our lives led by the Holy Spirit, we are meant to walk in the grace of God. The beautiful side of this and the most powerful aspect of this is that if we walk in the grace of God, in His anointing, in His Spirit we will not fall into sin, Galatians 5:16 says that if we walk in the Spirit we will gratify the lusts of the flesh. But Paul makes an interesting point in Galatians 5:18 He says that if we are being led by the Spirit the we are not under the law, the moment you stop walking in the Spirit you stop walking in the grace of God and you come back under the law. It is important that we understand this because in Romans five Paul says that where sin abounds grace abound all the more, so when temptation comes God's grace, God's anointing is greater, if we will yield to it  we won't fall into temptation. He goes on in chapter six to explain how we have been crucified with Christ, the old man is dead so that sin no longer will have dominion over us, we can now count ourselves dead to sin and alive in Christ, that we can yield our members to Christ as instruments of righteousness because we now are under grace, under his anointing, no longer under the law. Praise God, We serve the God of Grace, He has given us His Spirit, we now have His grace dwelling on the inside of us and that we can live everyday in that anointing, walking in the favor of God, living lives of total obedience to His will and in absolute freedom.        

KEYS TO OUR HEALING.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY FIFTEEN.

ISAIAH 53:5.   But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, The chastisement of our peace was  upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
This verse out of Isaiah 53 is part of the prophecy concerning the coming Messiah. He would pay the supreme price for our salvation, All that He would go through would pay for our sins, for our rebellion. He would take the punishment that we deserved so that we could have our relationship restored back to God, so that we could have peace, spiritually and emotionally and so that we could also receive healing in every part of our lives. Isaiah looked forward to what was going to take place, If the children of Israel walked in God's word and honoured the covenants that God had made with Abraham and then Moses they could claim the promises that Isaiah spoke of. The law and the sacrifices that were instituted through Moses were given as a sign pointing to the promised Messiah, as the animals were offered up as a sacrifice the children of Israel were meant to look beyond the animal to the promised Messiah, knowing that the blood of the bulls and goats only covered their sins. It would only be the blood of the promised Lamb of God that would ultimately remove their sin. Through the promised Messiah they could also claim God's healing and protection from sickness. In Exodus 15:26 God promised them that if they walked in obedience to His word and kept the covenants that He had established with them they would not suffer any of the diseases that they had seen in Egypt. So the Messiah comes, Jesus is that promised Messiah, He is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He is the one that Isaiah looked forward to, 1 Peter 2:24 says this; "Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness; by Whose stripes you were healed." So, Peter is now looking back to the finished work of the cross. Jesus has bore all our sins in His own body, the debt is now paid in full, as it says in Romans 6:6-7 The old man or old nature was crucified with Christ that we should no longer be a slave to sin, for if we have died then we have been set free from the power of sin, it no longer should have dominion over us, but note what Peter says, "By His stripes we were healed" Our healing, the same as our salvation, is now an accomplished fact. There is nothing more that Jesus can do for our salvation or our healing. On the same day, on the same cross, at  the same time that Jesus purchased our salvation, He also paid for our healing. So how do we appropriate our healing, same as our salvation, by faith, through grace. Romans 10:10 says, For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the tongue confession is made unto salvation. Salvation covers every aspect of our lives, spirit, soul and body. So if we are praying for healing for ourselves or someone else we must first realise that, like our salvation, it is an accomplished fact. In Mark 11;22-24 Jesus shows us a major key, the first thing He says is; "Have faith in God." That is a pretty good place to start. He then goes on to say that we can speak to the mountains, or obstacles in our lives and cast them into the sea, if we don't doubt in our hearts and finally He says says that when we do pray, we need to receive the thing that we are praying for there and then. Hebrews 11:1 says that Now faith is, so faith is always in the present, it is never past tense or future tense, it always operates in the now, in the moment that we are praying. It goes on to say that faith is the substance of things hoped for. Hope is the key here, Biblical hope is not the same as worldly hope, worldly hope is based in fear, Hope my kids don't end up on drugs, hope is doesn't rain tomorrow, hope I win lotto. The fear of what could happen or what might not happen if certain things do or don't happen. Biblical hope is based on the inner assurance that we have that God's word is totally dependable, that all His promises are Yes and Amen in Jesus. The hope for healing is the inner knowledge that we have that "By His stripes we WERE healed" Faith then takes a hold of that hope or inner assurance and causes it to manifest from the realm of the Spirit into our physical world, and healing takes place in either our body or the person we are praying for. So, here is the challenge, next time you are praying for healing, ask yourself this question; "Am I saved because I have prayed and believed in Jesus, or am I waiting to be saved," Your answer should be, "No I am not waiting to be saved, I know that I am saved." So why don't we apply the same principle to our healing, seeing that it was on the same cross, on the same day, at the same time that Jesus purchased our salvation, and paid for our healing.  

WALKING IN REVELATION.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY FOURTEEN.

ISAIAH 55:8-9.   "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are My ways your ways," says the Lord, "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than yours, and My thoughts are higher than yours."
These verses are quoted so many times by Christians in a bid to prove that we can not really know God's thought or His ways, is this really the case? Does God expect us to live our Christian lives not understanding His will or purpose for us and the thoughts that He has about us? Firstly we must put those verses in context, note what Isaiah says in verse seven, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, And He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." So obviously Isaiah is not speaking to people who are walking in the ways of God, He is telling the unrighteous to forsake his ways and his thoughts and return back to God's ways and thoughts because God's ways are so much higher than theirs. So if you are a Christian and you have been taught this, I have good news for you, you can know God's ways and His thoughts for you. Obviously God's thoughts for us and about us are contained in His word. It is as we spend time in the word of God and in prayer that we come to a greater understanding of these things. Jeremiah 33:3 says; "Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know." God is saying here that if we cry out to Him He will answer us and show amazing things that we have not known before. Jeremiah 29:11, "For I the thoughts that I think towards you," says the Lord, "thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." If we are going to know what that future and hope is then we are going to have to know what God is thinking. Well praise God that we can. In John 16;12-15 Jesus told His disciples that He had much more to share with them but that they would have to wait until the Holy Spirit had been given to them, but that once He had come He would lead them into the truth and that the Holy Spirit would take what Jesus shared with Him and tell the disciples. Jesus said to His disciple in John 15 that He loved them in the same way that the Father had loved Him, and that they needed to abide or live in that love, So they were going to have an understanding of that love, well the same applies to us. If we are to walk in the love of God and minister to others out of that love then we are going to have to know it and how to apply it to our lives on a daily basis. In the book of Ephesians, Chapter 2:16-21 Paul's prayer is that we would be able to understand and know how to walk in and apply the love of God in our daily lives, regardless of the situation. And as we do this we will see God do things way beyond what we could ever imagine through the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The result is that God gets all the glory for what has happened. So we can see from these verses that it is God's will for us to know the thoughts that God has towards us and what is ways are. Moses was one who knew the ways of God, Psalm 103:7 He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel. The children of Israel say the acts of God, but they did not really understand the ways of God, when we knows the ways of God we are able understand why God does what He does. It is important that we have this understanding so that we can discern what God is doing, so when He does certain things we know which way He is leading us. Moses understood the ways of God, so he was able to lead the children of Israel through the wilderness. So for us, it is as we yield our lives to the anointing of the Holy Spirit that is in us, yielding our wills to the will of God, allowing the Holy Spirit to renew our mind and thinking to the word of God that we can come to know what God's thoughts are for us and what His ways are for us to walk in, As Psalm 119:105 says; Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. So let us be encouraged, regardless of the situation that we are in, whether it be good or bad, we can know the mind of Christ in that place, we have the mind of Christ in us through His Spirit, let us learn to yield to Him, because it is only as we do this we can know what God's will and purpose is in that situation. Remember, His ways will always be higher than ours and His thoughts will always be higher than our thoughts, I know whose thoughts and ways I want to live by, how about you.?

THE DISCIPLES CROSS.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY THIRTEEN.

LUKE 9:23.    Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me."
We all know that we are saved by grace, God's unmerited favor, there is absolutely nothing that we can do to earn it, we cannot work for it. So what happens after we are saved and we want to follow Jesus, we want to be His disciple, do we have a responsibility to play in that? Jesus said here that if we desire or want to follow Him, then we must first deny ourselves. So what is self denial? It is basically laying down all our rights to live our own lives as we see fit, For Jesus said in the next verse if we try to save our own lives, we will loose it, but if we are prepared to lay our own lives down for His sake, then we will save our lives. In Romans 12:1 Paul says that we are to offer ourselves up to God as living sacrifices, that this is the very least that we can do. In 1 Corinthians 6;19-20 Paul says that we are God's temple, that His Holy Spirit lives in us, and that we are not our own, but that we have been bought with a price. We know that price was the very blood and life of Jesus, the Lamb of God. So are we prepared to deny ourselves? are we truly prepared to lay down our lives so that we can follow Jesus. The Holy Spirit challenged me some years ago when I was praying about this verse, He said to me; "David are you prepared to go to the garden?" Even writing that now, all these years later, awakens in me again that sense of the responsibility that comes with that. The reality, the self denial, dying to our own flesh is the hardest part. Jesus had spoken many times during His earthly ministry of His death and resurrection, yet on the night it was to happen we see Him in the garden praying that if there was any other way, that His Father would remove the cup from Him, He was in such anguish in His flesh that he sweated drops of blood, yet in the end He was able to surrender totally to His Father's will, and go and die the cruelest of deaths for you and for me, such was His love for His Father and for us. Jesus then says in that verse that we are to take up our cross daily and follow Him, The thing we must realise here, is that we cannot take up our cross until we have totally denied ourselves, we cannot take up our cross in our own strength. So what is the cross that Jesus is speaking of? We have all heard people say, both Christians and non-Christians, "This is just my cross that I have to bear" This is usually said about some hardship or difficult situation that they find themselves in. Quite often it might be related to some form of illness. So is this what our cross is? Let us have a look at Jesus and His life to see if we can get an answer. We know that Jesus had come to the earth as the Messiah, the One who was to redeem mankind from the curse of sin and the penalty that brought with it. He had come to redeem mankind back to God. We know for that to happen that He was going to have to offer up His life as the perfect sacrifice, as the perfect Lamb of God. Jesus spoke many times during His earthly ministry, especially towards the end, that He was going to have to suffer at the hands of men and be put to death. He knew the physical, and spiritual anguish and pain that He was going to go through, we saw that in what He went through in the garden, Yet ultimately the cross was His Father's will for Him. So what did Jesus accomplish for us through His death and resurrection? He paid for our sins, through His death and resurrection we are now the righteousness of God in Him, our sins are now forgiven, by His stripes we are now healed, we now have spiritual, emotional and physical healing available to us. He has defeated the enemy, Satan no longer has any authority over us and He promised us even though we will have tribulation and trouble in this world, He has overcome the world and that in Him we can now have abundant life. So looking at all of that, is it possible that our cross is sickness and disease, some form of hardship or tribulation, some terrible situation that God expects us to endure for the rest of our lives? I don't think so, if it were then the cross of Jesus was not a complete work, if it was not a complete work, then we are lost in the world with no hope of salvation. So what is our cross? our cross, like Jesus, is the will that God has called us to walk in. Each day we are meant to offer our lives to God as living sacrifices, yielding our wills to His will, demonstrating our love, like Jesus did, being willing to be obedient to the Father and His word. Jesus said that there is no greater love, than to lay our lives down for others. Our calling as Christians is to serve God and to serve those around us. People will tell you that the cross is where we die to self, that is not entirely true, as we have already seen, we die to self in the garden experience, where we say, "Father not my will but your will be done" Yes, as we pick up that cross, the flesh dies to itself because it is now surrendered to the will of the Father. The aspect of following is two fold, yes, firstly, we follow the example of Jesus by dying to our own wills and submitting to the Father's will and secondly, as we walk in obedience to what Jesus is calling us to do He will lead us down the path to the fulfillment of His will for our lives. So let us all be encouraged to have the boldness of heart to be prepared to lay down our own lives, to be willing to die to our desires and then to take up the calling that Christ is putting on our lives on a daily basis. Remember Christianity is not a destination, but a life journey. Let us all run the race with perseverance, reaching upward to the high call of God that is in Christ Jesus.     

DEDICATED TO GOD.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY TWELVE.

2 CHRONICLES 7:14.    "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
This verse is quoted by Christians all around the world, and yes, it is a very powerful verse and the truth it contains is very relevant even today. Let us put it into context and see just how powerful it can really be. In the context Solomon has just finished dedicated the temple to God. If we read 2 Chronicles 6 we see that Solomon has just prayed this amazing prayer in the midst of the congregation of Israel, starting at verse 12 he kneels on a platform before the alter, spreads his arms towards heaven and then prays this amazing prayer of dedication, suggest that you read it. During that prayer in a number of places he prays that if the children of Israel stray from God but then repent and come back to God, that He will forgive them. In verse 40 he says; "Now, my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and let Your ears be attentive to the prayer made in this place." Solomon recognises that the temple is to be a place of prayer.In verse 1 of chapter 7 we see the fire of God falls and consumes the sacrifice and burnt offerings and the glory of God filled the house to the point that the priests could not enter the house. When the children of Israel saw what had happened all they could do was bow down on the ground and begin to worship God. This should be our response to the presence of a Holy God. For the next twenty two days they continued to offer sacrifices and held feast days as they continued to dedicate the temple to God. After this God appears to Solomon by night, and he says to Solomon that He has heard Solomon's prayers and has chosen the temple for Himself to be His sanctuary, it is God who chooses the sanctuary. He then reminds Solomon of what he had prayed, He repeats back to Solomon basically what Solomon had prayed earlier, this is where verse 14 comes in. And in verse 15-16 He says; "Now my eyes will be open and My ears attentive to to prayer made in this place, for now I have chosen and sanctified this house; that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually."  We see here again it is only God who can sanctify the house, it is as we come humbly before Him, in an attitude of repentance, walking in holiness, recognizing that His house is a place to be honored and respected because His presence is there. We see then how God warns Solomon, he is to walk in obedience to God's word as his father David did, it is only then that God will establish his throne, he is not to turn away from it and to go and serve other gods, because if he does God's judgment will come against Israel and they will be uprooted from the land, the house that God has sanctified will be cast out of His sight and it will just become a byword. everyone that passes by the house of the Lord that had once been exalted will look at it and ask what has happened to it. The answer will be, because they turned away from the God of their fathers and worshiped other gods, God has brought this calamity upon them. It is okay to pray 2 Chronicles 7:14, nothing wrong with that, but what do we do afterwards. Do we truly honour the house of God, do we see it as a place that God has sanctified for His presence, or do we see it as a social hangout, a place to come to and be entertained in the name of worship. Sadly, in many ways the church today has become a byword, people don't see much difference between the way the world lives and the way that Christians live, the holiness of God has been lost from His house, the reverential  fear of God is not in the hearts of His people.  
This brings us to another aspect of this for us, 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him, For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. We are now the temple of God, His Spirit dwells in us. The word says that we are to be holy, even as He is holy. Our lives are to be sanctified and set apart for the master's work, we are no longer our own, we have been purchased with the precious blood of the Lamb. Paul said in Ephesians 4:1 "I, therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called." There is a real weightiness in what Paul is saying here, that we would have an appreciation of what Christ has poured into us, what He has purchased us for, it is not about how we see our worth in our own ability but how we see and appreciate who Christ is in us, and what He has done in us and desires to do through us as we walk in His anointing and in holiness. It is time for us to rise up as God's people, on an individual basis, each one of us working in the body of Christ to fulfill what God has called us to be in true righteousness and holiness, recognising that we are the temple of God and that when we come into His house with our brothers and sisters in Christ that we are coming into a place that God has sanctified and set apart for His worship and that we are to honor His presence there. 

I CAN DO ALL THINGS.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY ELEVEN.

PHILIPPIANS 4:13.   I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.
Paul knew what it was to suffer many things during his ministry, he knew what it was to have plenty and he knew what it was to have nothing. yet irrespective of his situation, he recognised that he could only do what he did through Christ. In our own lives we will face many different situations, some will be good, some might not be so good and some might look like a total disaster. How are we going to handle them? The temptation in the good times is to think that we can handle this on our own, we can take the credit for it. Not a good idea, this opens the door to pride and closes the door to God's grace, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. We are meant to live by the grace of God. If we keep our hearts open and we can see God's hand at work in our lives in the good times, it makes it easier to see His hand at work in the times that are not so good. David recognised this, in Psalm 34:1 he said that he would praise the Lord at all times, that His praises would continually be on his lips. It is important that we have an attitude praise, regardless of what situation we are facing. Because David was able to praise Go in every situation when he faced difficult situations he was able to strengthen himself in the Lord. We see an example of this in 1 Samuel 30, the Amalekites had attacked them and taken all the women and children, the people wanted to stone David, but is says in verse six that David strengthened himself in the Lord, he went and sort the Lord and the Lord gave him the strategy to defeat the Amalekites and get the woman and children back. It was out of his relationship with God that was built in both the good and the bad times that David knew that he could depend on God in the bad times. It is important that we know that we can be strengthened in the spirit. Paul prayed for the Ephesians that they would be strengthened with all might in the inner man through the Holy Spirit, We can also pray the same way, and it is also important that we continue to walk in the love of God, desiring to have a greater revelation of how it works in our lives, as we do this we will be able to see God do things far beyond what we can even imagine. Whether it be in good times or bad times, it is not about us, we are here to serve the King of Kings, to see His kingdom established and as we serve Him He will always lead us in triumph, and we, like Paul, will be able to say with all assurance, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  

GOD'S LOVE DEMONSTRATED.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY TEN.

ROMANS 5:8.   But God demonstrated His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
This is quite an amazing statement, It shows us that there was absolutely nothing that we could do to earn God's love. In actual fact Christ died before we were even born. So how does this work? We know that through the fall of Adam we all inherited sin from him, in says in Romans five that through one man, that being Adam, we all died. Through one mans obedience, Jesus, we can all be made alive again and come back into relationship with God as our heavenly Father. So when we consider this fact, that even before we were born, Christ had died, to not only bring us back into relationship with God, but everyone who lived before us and everyone else who will live after us, it shows us how amazing the love and the grace of God really is. Consider what David said in Psalm 139. David shows us in this Psalm that there is not one single thing that God does not know about him. Even down to the point that God knows what thoughts David is going to have before he thinks them. That David cannot get away from God's presence, does not matter where he goes God will be there, David admits that this is all too much for him, he can't understand it. He does go on to say that he realises how great God's work is, even in his own creation, He said, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are your work, that my soul knows very well." He acknowledged that even before he was born God knew all his days, that they were written in God's book. He sees the value in the thoughts that God has about him and that it is not possible to number them and that God will never leave him and be there as soon as he wakes. David also recognises  his own weakness when he asks God to search him and reveal if there are any ways in him that are contrary to God. When we read this Psalm in light of what we know about David's life it really is quite amazing. So even before God chose David to be king He already knew what David was going to do. He was already aware of how David would fall. In Acts 13:22 we see this statement about David; "And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, "I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will." Wow, despite all his failings, God said that about David. God sees the end from the beginning. We can take great heart from this, God sees you and I in the same light as David. He knows every thing that there is to know about you. He knows you better than you know yourself. So is there a better person to entrust our lives to? I don't think so. God looked down through the annuls of eternity, saw you and me and said that we were worth sending His own Son to die for, because He sees the end from the beginning, the same as He did with David. Let us always remember that there is absolutely nothing in this world, whether material or spiritual that can separate us from the love of God. "For God so loved the world, that includes you and me, that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever, we are a "whoever", believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." You know that there is absolutely nothing that you can do to make God love you any more than He does right now. His love is perfect, His love is complete, His love is eternal. You know, we are no longer bound by legal obligation, but rather we are held in the arms of a loving Father. Let us learn to just rest in His arms and allow Him to minister His love into our lives. When we know the love of God, which passes our natural understanding, it takes away all the need for us to strive and to try and prove ourselves worthy, we know that God loves us, despite ourselves, and we are able to serve Him with a greater passion and desire to see His will established in our lives and in our world.

PEOPLE OF VALOUR.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY NINE.

JUDGES 6:12.   And the Angel of the Lord appeared  to him, and said to him, "The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valour."
This is where the Lord calls Gideon, God is about to deliver the children of Israel from the Midianites. We see here that God does not say to Gideon that He is going to make him a man of valour, He declares that he is that already. So what does the word valour mean? It means one who is strong, virtuous and worthy. So this is how God sees Gideon, of course Gideon doesn't see himself that way, he was hiding in the wine press thrashing wheat. All that Gideon can see is all the problems that they are having because of the Midianites and he is wondering where God is in it all.God then tells Gideon to go in his might and deliver the children of Israel for he has been sent. But all Gideon can think of is how he is not qualified to do what God is asking him to do. 
How often do we find ourselves in this situation? God calls us, shows us some new revelation in is word and then tells us to walk in it and all we can think about is how we blew it yesterday, or how inadequate we are. God saw the potential that was in Gideon, He knew what He had created him to do. The same is with us. Ephesians 2:10 says that we are God's creation in Christ, that He has created us for His purpose, for the works that He has called us to walk in before the world was created. When we see that we know that God is in control and we can trust Him. Gideon asked God to confirm that it was really Him speaking to Gideon, God showed him by consuming the sacrifice that He asked him to prepare for Him. There is nothing wrong with asking God to confirm what He is saying to us. We see with Gideon that he gathers his army and God says to him that he has too many in his army, God is concerned that the children of Israel will take the credit for themselves when they win, even though it is God who will give them the victory. He will do the same with us, God will strip us back to the position where we are totally dependent on Him. The whole point of it is so that He will get all the glory and we will realise that it is only by His power that we can really do anything for Him. Of course we know that Gideon went out with his army of three hundred against the Midianites and God gave him the victory and Israel lived in peace for forty years under Gideon's rule. 
We see something significant in Gideon's journey, at the start of it God tells him that he is to destroy the alters and the wooden image that have been set up by his father to worship Baal, and he is to build an alter to the Lord in its place. It is important for us that we make sure that we have nothing in our lives that we place ahead of God, as Jesus said we are to worship God in spirit and in truth, our whole lives are to be offered up to God as a living sacrifice. Gideon was given the job of delivering the children of Israel from their enemies, God has also given us a job, going out into the world and delivering people from the power of the enemy, we will face our own enemies in doing that, but if we recognize that it is God who has called us and that He sees and knows the potential that He has placed within us through the Holy Spirit, then even though we are few in number compared to our enemies, God will give us the victory and He will get the glory.       

CHRIST IN ME.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY EIGHT.

GALATIANS 2:20.   For I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Paul makes the statement, "For I have been crucified with Christ", so what does he mean by this? it is important that we understand this. We know that Jesus went to the cross and was crucified on our behalf to pay the price for our sins, as Paul says at the end of that verse, "Who loved me and gave Himself for me." Paul recognises in the earlier verses that we can not be justified through the law, it is only through faith in Christ that we can be made righteous. Paul is saying that his sin was was nailed to the cross in Christ. We see in Romans 6;6 he said; "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified in Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin." Our old nature was nailed to the cross with Christ, so that sin would no longer have power over us. It is important that we realise this because Paul goes on to say in Galatians 2:20 that it is no longer he who lives, but that it is Christ living in him. We now have Christ living is us through the Holy Spirit, and it is important that we live out of His life and not out of the flesh. Paul goes on to say that the life that he now lives in his flesh body, he lives  by faith in Jesus. Now, yes, Paul had put his faith in Christ, put he is going further with this. He is confirming his earlier statement about Christ being in him and because Christ is in him, he is also in Christ. What he is saying is that it is by faith that he is in Christ and because he is in Christ he now lives his life in Him. It is important that we understand this, because if we don't we will try to live out of our own lives, trying to please God in our own strength. That simply does not work. Paul actually goes on in the next chapter of Galatians to correct the Galatians for this very thing, they were trying to be made perfect by obeying the law, people had come in and told them that they had to still keep the law. We can never be made right with God through our own efforts, in actual fact the moment we stop walking in the Spirit and walk in the flesh we actually come back under the law, Galatians 5:18 says that if we are led by the Spirit then we are no longer under the law. The other aspect of this is the fact that we are made the righteousness of God in Christ and we are meant to walk in that, so it is important that we know the old man or the old sin nature is now dead, crucified with Christ, because if it isn't then we will have no victory over sin, we can only deal with temptation in our lives when we know that our old man is dead and that it no longer has any power over us. We can now reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to the life of Christ in us. So when temptation comes knocking on the door of our lives we can simply say no, take authority over the thought, remind ourselves that we are the righteousness of God in Christ and that we live and walk in His Spirit. As Paul said in Galatians 5:24-25 Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. And as Paul said in Galatians 5:16 If we walk in the Spirit we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. So praise God, we can all say, like Paul, that we have been crucified with Christ, the old man is gone, we have Christ living on the inside through the power of His Spirit and that we are in Him and that we can live our lives through the life of His Spirit and that we can walk in victory. Sin no longer has dominion over us, we are set free from it.        

THE JOY OF THE LORD.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY SEVEN.

NEHEMIAH 8:10.    Then he said to them, "Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to the Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."
The context of this verse, all the people of Israel had gathered and Ezra had read the law of Moses out to them and they began to mourn and weep as the understood the word. But Ezra and Nehemiah told them not to weep but to go home and celebrate and to share their food with those who had nothing prepared and the joy of the Lord was their strength. The word joy there means to make glad, to rejoice. So, as the children of Israel went home and celebrated over the word that they had heard that day they were strengthened. The word strength means a fortified place, a stronghold. So they would be protected in their lives as they rejoiced in God's word. So how does this apply to us today, well we must have the same attitude to receiving the word of God. Sometimes the word is not that easy for us, especially when God is bringing correction into our lives and asking us to change, but we must remember God only does it because He loves us and wants us to grow. His discipline is always for our good, we are the ones who will benefit if we accept what God is saying to us and allow the word to have its effect in our lives. The only way this will happen is as we receive the word with gladness and praise God for what He is doing in our lives. Yes I know all to well that this is not always easy. If we don't receive that word with gladness and continue to stand in it, we may find that it will be bearing fruit for a short time but then something will happen, Satan will come against us in some way and we will stumble and we will lose the word and its fruit. Jesus said to His disciples in John 15 that they must abide in the vine to bear fruit and the way that they would remain in the vine was to walk in obedience to His word, he went onto say that He had shared these things with them that His joy would be in them and that their joy would be be full. Jesus rejoices when we walk in obedience to His word, He takes great joy in our obedience and we experience that joy in our own spirits. That overflow of the joy of the Lord causes us to be strengthened spiritually. When we choice to walk in obedience to the word of God in our lives and receive with gladness what He is doing in our lives we live in His presence, Psalm 16:11; You show me the path of life, in Your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand pleasures forevermore. See the word of God is a lamp unto our feet and a lamp unto our path, so as we walk in that we walk in His presence and as we stay in His presence we experience His joy. What we must understand is that His joy is not just an emotional high, but that it comes from the Spirit, Yes, there is a sense of joy as we know it but it goes far beyond that, we are aware of a spiritual strength that we may not have experienced before. So let us be encouraged to receive the implanted word of God with great rejoicing, even in the tough times, be willing to let that word do what it has been sent to do and walk in it, knowing that as we do we will be walking in His presence and that we will be strengthened spiritually and that as a result we will be able to accomplish the things that God is calling us to do.   

THE PEACE OF GOD.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY SIX.

PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7.    Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be know to God, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
This passage shows us the importance of taking our concerns to God in prayer. Paul says here be anxious for nothing, in other words there is no issue in our lives that God is not interested in because God knows what can happen if we allow anxiety to take root in our lives. So why is it so important that we do not let anxiety become an issue in our lives? Proverbs 12:25 Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad. Anxiety will cause us to become depressed or crushed spiritually, emotionally and even physically if we allow it to rule our lives. Yes, it is a process, anxiety is fear based, fear of what might or might not happen depending on the situation. In Joshua chapter one we see that God tells Joshua that he is to meditate day and night in the word of God and not to speak contrary to what the word says because as he does this he will be successful in all that he does, and then in verse nine God says to him, "Have I not commanded you to be strong and of a good courage, do not be afraid or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."  See the process, fear comes, we allow that fear to remain and don't deal with it through the word, through prayer and knowing what the word says about the situation and we the become dismayed, the word dismayed means to prostrate by violence or confusion or fear, to beat down, discourage. This is exactly what depression will do. So as Paul says there we are to be bring everything to God as we pray and ask Him for His will and His supply in the situation. Whatever it might be, and we do it with thanksgiving, Jesus said that when we pray that we are to believe that we have received the answer as we pray, This is the attitude of thanksgiving, "Lord I thank you that your will has been established in this situation, I thank You that You supply all my needs according to Your riches in glory in Christ Jesus." This is the sort of attitude we need to have, This is how faith works in this. As it says it Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen. Faith always operates in the now, never yesterday or tomorrow, and the hope there is not like worldly hope which is fear based, Biblical hope is based on the fact that all God's promises are yes and amen in Jesus, that we can totally depend on God and His word that He watches over it to perform it. Note what Paul says then, "That the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your heart and minds through Christ Jesus." The peace of God is simply entering into a state of rest, Paul says that it will guard our hearts and our minds through Christ Jesus. To guard means to protect, the enemy will have no access to you, as we allow the peace of God to fill our heats it will cause that peace to renew our minds and all those thoughts of anxiety will go. As Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:7 God has not given us a  spirit of fear, but of power, love and of a sound mind. So let us be encouraged, whatever it is, whatever we  are concerned about, whatever our needs are, let us bring them to the Lord in prayer, we must never let anxiety get a foothold into our lives, it will open the door to the spirit of fear which comes with on agenda, to rob, kill and destroy. Through the Holy Spirit we have the power or the authority to resist that, we can pray and bring our needs to our heavenly Father knowing that He will always hear us, and knowing that His peace will be a guard around our hearts and minds, as we  know that God will supply all our needs, whatever that might be, not according our ability, but according to all His riches in Christ Jesus.   

KNOWING THE LOVE OF GOD.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY FIVE.

EPHESIANS 3:17-19.    That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and the length and depth and height; to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
As we know that Christ dwells in our heart through faith, we can be fully established and grounded in Christ's love. Paul says here that we should be able to comprehend, along with all the rest of the body of Christ, what is the full extent of God's love for us. The word comprehend means to take a hold of, seize and to be able to perceive. It's basically having a working knowledge of how the love of God works in the situations that we find ourselves in. Does this mean that we can totally understand the enormity of God's love, Let me answer it this way, God is infinite, He lives in eternity, so His love is eternal and infinite, we are finite beings so we will never be able to totally understand the enormity of God's love. That is not to say though that in every situation that we find ourselves, we cannot know the fullness of God's love for us that brings us through the situation we find ourselves. Paul says there that the love of Christ passes knowledge, this means that we will never be able to understand the love of Christ with our own understanding, it has to come from the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who will guide us into all truth. So why is it so important that we can have an understanding of how Christ's love works in our lives and how we can know how to use His love in our lives? We are meant to walk in the love of God every day, it is through our love for Jesus that we are able to walk in obedience to His word and will for our lives. Love is the fruit of the Spirit, Jesus said that it is as we walk in love for one another that people would know that we are His disciples. So how do we come to this sort of understanding of the love of God? There are a couple of ways that this happens, firstly we must develop our personal relationship with Jesus, if we don't make the effort to spend time with Him through His word and prayer then how can we expect to get to know Him and to know His love for us. we cannot live part time lukewarm Christian lives and expect to know the love of God. Of course I am aware that there may be things in our lives that can hinder us from receiving the love of God, past hurts, emotional, physical, things that have caused us to close our hearts because we don't want to be hurt again. Can I encourage you, if you are reading this and that is you, if you need to, seek help from someone you can trust, another mature Christian brother or sister, your pastor, someone you can talk to and who will pray with you to allow God to heal those hurts. God wants above all else for us to understand the love He has for us. So, we all need to be encouraged in this area of our lives, to continue to build on our relationship with Jesus, believe me, none of us can say that we have arrived when it comes to this area of our lives, we can all grow and improve in this area. Another way that we can get a greater understanding of the love of God is through our simple acts of obedience. Jesus said that if we love Him then we will keep His commandments, this simply means walking in obedience to His word and to His will. In John 15 Jesus had been talking to His disciples of the importance of abiding in the vine and how we do that is by walking in obedience, in verse eleven He said that he had shared those things with them that His joy might be in them and that their joy would be full. As we walk in obedience to what Jesus asking us to do, and walk in His love then Jesus gets great joy out of that and His joy, the joy of the Lord spills over into our spirits and we experience that joy, our joy is full. This joy goes way beyond happiness, even beyond our own understanding. It flows out of our spirit and brings with it a sense of great strength, because the joy of the Lord is our strength. Remember God is love, so when He floods our lives with His anointing like that a greater awareness of His love comes with it. Fear is one of the things that will stop us from stepping out at times to do what God is asking. When we take that step of faith in obedience that fear is broken, When we step out in love fear has to go because perfected love casts out fear, our love is perfected or matured by our acts of faith and obedience. The simply amazing thing is this, as we begin to walk in this and grow in it God is able to do far more than we can even imagine, far beyond what we can even ask or think, He can use us to do things that we would not even dream of doing and it is all done through His love and power working through us. It gets even better, God gets all the glory, not only now, but in the generations to come and even on into eternity. Let us all desire with all our hearts to have a greater understanding of the love of God and how to walk in it and in obedience to what God wants to do in us and through us for His glory so that we can see His kingdom established in our world.     

NEW CREATIONS IN CHRIST.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY FOUR.

2 CORINTHIANS 5:17.    Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; all things have become new.
Paul is saying here that if anyone is in Christ we are a new creation, so what does it mean to be in Christ? does it mean that we are somehow inside of Jesus? no it doesn't, what it does mean is that we have accepted the finished work of the cross, Jesus is our Lord and Savior, we have been born again and we are now in spiritual relationship with Him. So what does it mean to be a new creation? Does it mean that somehow the old person disappeared, and people now see a brand new version of us? No of course not. we are talking here about our spirituality, when we were born, we were born dead in sin, spiritually separated from God because we inherited the sin of Adam. Jesus said to Nicodemus in John three that we needed to be born again so that we could understand the kingdom of God and enter into it, to be born again is to be spiritually rejuvenated, to be brought back into spiritual life again, back into spiritual relationship with God, In Ezekiel 36;26-27 God promises there that He will give us a new heart, that He will remove the old dead heart of stone, and that He will put His Spirit within us and that He will write His word on our hearts so that we can walk in them. The word heart refers to our spiritual man or as Paul calls it, the inner man. The new word does not mean something that has never existed before, but rather to rebuild or repair. So God restores our spirit back into Spiritual relationship with Him and then is able to put His Spirit in our spirit. We have now been made alive spiritually. Paul describes it this way in Ephesians 2:1 And you He made alive, who were once dead in trespasses and sins. and in verses 4-5 he says; But God who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved.  He goes on to say in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that old things have passed away, all things have been made new. The old thing that Paul is referring to there is the old man, the old spiritual nature that kept us bound to Adam. Paul says in Romans 6:6 "Knowing this that the old man has been crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin." That there is the old Adam, the old sin nature. We are no longer related to Adam spiritually, we are now in Christ, He is our spiritual identity. The nature of a mans spirit determines the nature of the man. Many Christians will say that they are just old sinners, this is totally wrong, We are now in Christ spiritually, Christ is not a sinner, Paul goes on in that passage in 2 Corinthians 5 in verse 21 to say, "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" We are now the righteousness of God in Christ. In 2 Peter 1:3-4 Peter says there that God's divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, and that through His promises we are now partakers of God's divine nature. This does not mean that we are now some how divinity, but rather we now have God's divine nature living in us through His Holy Spirit. Peter says in those verses that we now have all that we need to live Godly lives.If we still think that we are sinners, then we need to read Psalm 1 David in that Psalm clearly shows the difference between the sinner and the Godly or righteous man. He says in verse five that the sinner will not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. Yes we still sin, we still fall short of God's best for our lives, and we should never take that lightly, our desire should be to walk in the righteousness that we now have in Christ. Paul encourages us in both Ephesian 2:22-24 and Colossians 3:9 to put off our old habits, the old things that we used to walk in, and now have our minds renewed to the knowledge of who we are in Christ and to put on or walk in the new man who has been created in the image of Christ, in other word to walk in His righteousness. But if we do fall, and we will, remember we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ and if we come before the throne of grace in repentance and confess our sin, God is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleans us from it. Don't allow the enemy to lie to you and say that you can't be forgiven or that God does not love you because of what you have done. God is a God of restoration, He will restore you, we just have to learn from our mistakes, press back into the things of God and continue to move forward. So be encouraged, if you are in Christ, you are no longer an old sinner but a new creation in Christ, made God's righteousness and God has given you all the things that you need through the power of His Spirit to live a Godly and victorious life.       

THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE.

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY THREE.

JOHN 8:31-32.     Vs. 31. Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in my word, you are My disciples indeed, Vs.32. and you shall know the truth and the truth will make you free."
Over the years I have noticed that many Christians can quote John 8:32 quite easily, but if you ask them what verse 31 says, they don't know. It is imperative that we understand verse 31, if we want to walk in the freedom that verse 32 offers, we must walk in obedience to verse 31. Note what Jesus said; "IF you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed." The first thing that we must do is to abide in the word of Jesus. So what does it mean to abide?, the word abide means stay, endure, stand. This must be our attitude, that when we see or hear something through the word of God, as we hear Jesus speaking to us through His word that we continue to stand in it and walk in obedience to it. Jesus said that as we do this then we are truly His disciples, so what is a disciple?, the word disciple means a student or a pupil. Jesus is our teacher, it is His Spirit who guides us into all truth. We will never stop learning while we are on this earth, we will simply never know it all. As a disciple of Jesus it is our responsibility to continue to learn and apply the word of God to our lives. God will only hold us responsible to walk in the revelation that we have, but it is our responsibility to keep digging deeper into the word of God to get greater revelation. The truth is though, unless we are walking in obedience to the revelation that God has given us, He won't give us more. It is so important to us that we continue to stand in the word, in John 10;10 Jesus said that the thief comes only to rob, kill and destroy, we all know who the thief is. Satan's plan is to steal the word from us and to stop us from walking in the truth that Jesus is showing us. In Matthew chapter 13 and Luke 8 we see the parable of sower. In both of these accounts we see Jesus talks about the seed that is sown on stony ground, the hearer receives the word and is able to endure for a short while, but because they are deeply established in the word when Satan comes along they stumble and fall and the word is lost. It is interesting that in Matthew 13:21 it says that when tribulation and persecution comes for the words sake they stumble, this shows that Satan is after the word, in Luke 8:13 it is called temptation, tribulation and persecution will cause us to lose faith, and not walk in what God is calling us to do, and we know that unless we outwork our faith it is dead. Temptation can obviously come in many forms, but the result is the same. So why is this so important, because Jesus said that it is only as we do this that we can know the truth, and it is the truth that will make us free. The other thing that we must realize here is that truth is only truth to us when it is applied truth, when we walk in it. Romans 12;2 says that we are not to be conformed to the worlds way of thinking, but we must allow ourselves to be changed through the renewing of our minds, that we must now think the way God wants us to think and that through that we can prove what the will of God is for our lives. We prove what the will of God is by walking in it. Jesus said that we will know the truth and the truth will make us free, so what is that freedom? In Galatians 5 Paul shows us the difference between walking in the flesh and walking in the Spirit. In verse 16 he says that if we walk in the spirit we will give in to the desires of our flesh, he goes on to say that the flesh continually contends with the spirit, and our spirit wants to bring the flesh into submission, but that if we give into the flesh we will do the thing that we don't really want to do. Of course this is inline with what we saying earlier how Satan wants to get us to fall into temptation so that he can steal the word from us. But note what he says in verse 18, But if you are led by the spirit you are not under the law. He then goes onto compare the work of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit, obviously we are meant to walk in the fruit of the Spirit. If we don't walk in the fruit of the Spirit but walk in the flesh we come back under the law and into bondage, Romans 8:1-2 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit has set me free from the law of sin and death. See what Paul says here, if we walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh Satan can't condemn us, because he is the only one who does, and the life of the Spirit will set us free from the law of sin and death. Remember how if we fall into temptation the enemy can steal the word from us, well that is death, that word cannot bear fruit and it dies. Note what Paul says in Galatians 5:23, in the second part of the verse he says, "Against such there is no law." Is this exactly what Romans 8:1-2 are talking about. Note what Paul said in Galatians 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made you free, and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. The word free in John 8:32 means exempt from moral, ceremonial or moral liability. In other words we are no longer under condemnation, no longer under the law of sin and death but set free through the life of the Spirit. This is the freedom that Jesus wants to walk in. So let me encourage you to abide in His word, to walk as a true disciple of Jesus, desiring to go deeper into the word, to walk in greater revelation of who Christ is and what His will for our lives, walking in the fruit of the Spirit and and the love of God and as we do this we will truly know the Spiritual freedom that Jesus has come to give us, the abundant life that only He can give.  
     

WHAT IS COURAGE?

DAILY DEVOTION.

DAY TWO.

JOSHUA 1:6.   Be strong and of a good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to your fathers to give them.
A little bit of background, the children of Israel have just spent forty years wondering in the wilderness because of their disobedience and lack of faith. In verse one we see that Moses is now dead, he was not allowed to enter the promise land because of his disobedience to God. In verse two God tells Joshua that it is now time to arise, go over the Jordan, and posses the land that God had promised. The word arise in verse two means to go to the next level. It is now time for Joshua to step up into the calling that God has for him. In our verse, God tells Joshua that he has to be strong and of good courage as he is now going to divide the land up for all the children of Israel. So what is courage? Courage is not the lack of fear, but what we do in the face of fear. The word courage actually means, to be steadfast in mind, strengthened, to prevail, to be alert. It is an attribute of our heart or spirit as we are single minded about what God is calling us to do, as we are prepared to stand strong, to push through even though we are aware of the other forces that are coming against us to stop us. In verse seven God even tells Joshua that it is going to take courage to walk in the word of God, a single minded commitment to walk in obedience to God's word. In verse 8 God tells Joshua that he is not to let God's word out of his mouth, in other words, he is to only speak in accordance with God's word, and that he is to meditate in God's word day and night so that he will be successful in what God is calling him to do. The same applies to us. If we want to achieve all that God is calling us to do the God's word must be our first priority. Romans 12:2 says that we are not to be conformed to this world, but that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we may prove what the good and acceptable will of God is. It is only as our thinking is brought into line with the word of God that we will walk in the will of God for our lives. Even our speech must line up with what God says about us. You cannot go about saying that you can't do what God is asking you to do and then expect to do anything for God. The word says that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. This must be the confession that we make when God is calling us to walk in His will that we can do it because Christ gives the strength and the ability to do it. In verse nine of Joshua one God tells Joshua that he has no choice in being courageous, He says to him; "Have I not commanded you? be strong and of good courage, do not be afraid or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." We do not have an option here, God is telling us that we must be strong, and courageous, we are not to allow fear to rule in our our lives and to become dismayed because He will be with us wherever we go. There is a process here that we must see. To be strong has the sense of us strengthening ourselves, like David did in 1 Samuel 30:6, he strengthened himself in the Lord, we do this by encouraging ourselves with the word, speaking the word out over our lives, bringing our thinking back into line with the word of God, and then having that courageous attitude of persevering and pushing through despite the opposition. We must not let fear take root in our hearts, if we allow fear to begin to dominate it will lead to dismay, fear will bring oppression around our minds, thoughts that I can't do it, I'm not good enough for this, I don't have the ability, at this point we are open to becoming dismayed, dismay will crush us, the word dismay means to prostrate with violence or confusion and fear, to beat down. Dismay will crush us spiritually, emotionally and physically, in other words we will not do what God is calling us to do. We must remember that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and of a sound mind. Perfected love will cast out fear, as we continue to meditate in the word, confess the word over our lives and over the situation, knowing that we can do all things through Christ who gives us the strength and the ability, the love of Christ is perfected in us as we step out and do what He is calling us to do despite the fear, as we do this the fear has no choice, it has to go. Be encouraged in this and let us all arise, go to the next level in our own personal lives, taking a hold of God's word, allowing it to transform us and renew us so that we can be the people of courage that God has called us to be and go in and posses land that God has given us.