What has been like “water from the well of Bethlehem” to you recently— love, friendship, or maybe some spiritual blessing (  2 Samuel 23:16 )? Have you taken whatever it may be, even at the risk of damaging your own soul, simply to satisfy yourself? If you have, then you cannot pour it out “to the Lord.” You can never set apart for God something that you desire for yourself to achieve your own satisfaction. If you try to satisfy yourself with a blessing from God, it will corrupt you. You must sacrifice it, pouring it out to God— something that your common sense says is an absurd waste.

How can I pour out “to the Lord” natural love and spiritual blessings? There is only one way— I must make a determination in my mind to do so. There are certain things other people do that could never be received by someone who does not know God, because it is humanly impossible to repay them. As soon as I realize that something is too wonderful for me, that I am not worthy to receive it, and that it is not meant for a human being at all, I must pour it out “to the Lord.” Then these very things that have come to me will be poured out as “rivers of living water” all around me ( John 7:38 ). And until I pour these things out to God, they actually endanger those I love, as well as myself, because they will be turned into lust. Yes, we can be lustful in things that are not sordid and vile. Even love must be transformed by being poured out “to the Lord.”

If you have become bitter and sour, it is because when God gave you a blessing you hoarded it. Yet if you had poured it out to Him, you would have been the sweetest person on earth. If you are always keeping blessings to yourself and never learning to pour out anything “to the Lord,” other people will never have their vision of God expanded through you.

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September 3, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

If I think about my connection to and with God being a conduit through which He can flow to and through me, I can picture in my mind blessings flowing through……not to. Considering Oswald’s devotional for today, I can understand what can happen when I hold onto the blessings……..they can clog up the conduit.

And God says…..”When you give yourself away, and allow all your blessings to flow through to others, more blessings can flow through you. 

Jesus did not say, “He who believes in Me will realize all the blessings of the fullness of God,” but, in essence, “He who believes in Me will have everything he receives escape out of him.” Our Lord’s teaching was always anti-self-realization. His purpose is not the development of a person— His purpose is to make a person exactly like Himself, and the Son of God is characterized by self-expenditure. If we believe in Jesus, it is not what we gain but what He pours through us that really counts. God’s purpose is not simply to make us beautiful, plump grapes, but to make us grapes so that He may squeeze the sweetness out of us. Our spiritual life cannot be measured by success as the world measures it, but only by what God pours through us— and we cannot measure that at all.

When Mary of Bethany “broke the flask . . . of very costly oil . . . and poured it on [Jesus’] head,” it was an act for which no one else saw any special occasion; in fact, “. . . there were some who . . . said, ’Why was this fragrant oil wasted?’ ” (Mark 14:3-4 ). But Jesus commended Mary for her extravagant act of devotion, and said, “. . . wherever this gospel is preached . . . what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her” ( Mark 14:9 ). Our Lord is filled with overflowing joy whenever He sees any of us doing what Mary did— not being bound by a particular set of rules, but being totally surrendered to Him. God poured out the life of His Son “that the world through Him might be saved” ( John 3:17 ). Are we prepared to pour out our lives for Him?

“He who believes in Me . . . out of his heart will flow rivers of living water”— and hundreds of other lives will be continually refreshed. Now is the time for us to break “the flask” of our lives, to stop seeking our own satisfaction, and to pour out our lives before Him. Our Lord is asking who of us will do it for Him?

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September 2, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

When I say to God, take my life, that must mean I give up my right to my own ideas about what, where and how my life is to be lived. On the one hand I can say that I want to God to have complete control of my life, but am I ready to give up my own ideas about the what, where and how of my life?

And God says….”Remember, I made you, and breathed life into you. I know you better than you know yourself. I know the desires of your heart that are good for your life, and what makes you truly joyful. And you know the magnitude of My sacrifice for you. I will do more in your life than you could ever imagine. Your abundant life in Me has been and is always available. Simply give up your “right” to your own life and experience the extraordinary and fulfilling life I want to live through you.”

We must continually remind ourselves of the purpose of life. We are not destined to happiness, nor to health, but to holiness. Today we have far too many desires and interests, and our lives are being consumed and wasted by them. Many of them may be right, noble, and good, and may later be fulfilled, but in the meantime God must cause their importance to us to decrease. The only thing that truly matters is whether a person will accept the God who will make him holy. At all costs, a person must have the right relationship with God.

Do I believe I need to be holy? Do I believe that God can come into me and make me holy? If through your preaching you convince me that I am unholy, I then resent your preaching. The preaching of the gospel awakens an intense resentment because it is designed to reveal my unholiness, but it also awakens an intense yearning and desire within me. God has only one intended destiny for mankind— holiness. His only goal is to produce saints. God is not some eternal blessing-machine for people to use, and He did not come to save us out of pity— He came to save us because He created us to be holy. Atonement through the Cross of Christ means that God can put me back into perfect oneness with Himself through the death of Jesus Christ, without a trace of anything coming between us any longer.

Never tolerate, because of sympathy for yourself or for others, any practice that is not in keeping with a holy God. Holiness means absolute purity of your walk before God, the words coming from your mouth, and every thought in your mind— placing every detail of your life under the scrutiny of God Himself. Holiness is not simply what God gives me, but what God has given me that is being exhibited in my life.

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Journal Entry for Today

September 1, 2010

Very early this morning we were talking and you reminded me that when I ask you to respond my prayers, that I may be allowing my limited understanding and natural eyes to restrict my faith and get in the way. It then occurred to me that when I seek my “natural answers” …only those answers and solutions I can fathom, that I might be in the way of the miracles You want to provide.

And God says…”If I already know your needs before you even utter them, and if I can and do answer your prayers before you ever pray them, then why do you pray? Why have I commanded you to pray? Because it is a living dialog that helps create and sustain our intimate relationship.”

“When you pray with your expectations as narrow as your natural mind can understand, your faith is as narrow as your expectations. And I respond to your faith. When you pray with expanded supernatural expectations I can respond to that faith. Pray for “eyes” that expect miracles, and the faith to wait on Me while living and becoming holy, by allowing Jesus to live through you. Focus on Jesus, be transformed ……….holy and expectant.