Security from Yesterday. “. . . God requires an account of what is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15). At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.

Security for Tomorrow. “. . . the Lord will go before you . . . .” This is a gracious revelation— that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our “rear guard.” And God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.

Security for Today. “You shall not go out with haste . . . .” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.

Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.

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December 31, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

The last day of the year and is it me or is God really organizing my thoughts and vision of a fresh look at life in the New Year? Is He sorting things so that I see and feel His hand on my past and on my future?

And God says…”Your culture and the pervasive communications around the New Year event have prepared your mind for the fertile seeds of hope for tomorrow. It is right inside this cultural field of hope that the Holy Spirit can operate inside your heart and mind and that of many, many others. Be aware that many are looking for the very hope that lives within you and shines on your face. Be sensitive and available to share your hope. The hope you have found in Christ Jesus.”

Our Lord never “patches up” our natural virtues, that is, our natural traits, qualities, or characteristics. He completely remakes a person on the inside— “. . . put on the new man . . .” (Ephesians 4:24). In other words, see that your natural human life is putting on all that is in keeping with the new life. The life God places within us develops its own new virtues, not the virtues of the seed of Adam, but of Jesus Christ. Once God has begun the process of sanctification in your life, watch and see how God causes your confidence in your own natural virtues and power to wither away. He will continue until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus. Thank God if you are going through this drying-up experience!

The sign that God is at work in us is that He is destroying our confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but only a wasted reminder of what God created man to be. We want to cling to our natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us in contact with the life of Jesus Christ— a life that can never be described in terms of natural virtues. It is the saddest thing to see people who are trying to serve God depending on that which the grace of God never gave them. They are depending solely on what they have by virtue of heredity. God does not take our natural virtues and transform them, because our natural virtues could never even come close to what Jesus Christ wants. No natural love, no natural patience, no natural purity can ever come up to His demands. But as we bring every part of our natural bodily life into harmony with the new life God has placed within us, He will exhibit in us the virtues that were characteristic of the Lord Jesus.

And every virtue we possess
Is His alone.

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December 30, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

I heard from a believer today that people were “fleeing” her church. She said her pastor has started telling the congregation that it was his job to dispense harsh messages and if they left feeling guilty it was probably because they were doing something that was wrong. He was pointing out the right way they should live, and if they were not living according to the Bible preaching he was delivering ….then it was alright with him if they got angry and left the church. Since their pastor has been on this tack, about 6-7 months, the parishioners have been fleeing services and attendance has been falling dramatically. How can I help? How can I help the pastor and what can I tell the members of the church that come to me with questions?

And God says…” It is not unusual for God seekers to fall into the trap of the Pharisees and forget the most important commandments of Jesus; love your God with all your heart, mind and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. When you follow these commandments God can change you from the inside out. The “trying to be good for God” changes into “being in a relationship that manifests itself by a transformation over time”.

 “You cannot help the pastor; you cannot help him see he is driving away his parishioners by telling them they must live under the law. But you can be available to share the message of love, grace and transformation as it applies to your life and experience. You can be available to share your experience and remind people that any and every virtue you posses is  because of the completed work of Christ. And although His work is completed, He is still working out the completion in you… and it is His work, not yours.

When God, by His Spirit through His Word, gives you a clear vision of His will, you must “walk in the light” of that vision (1 John 1:7). Even though your mind and soul may be thrilled by it, if you don’t “walk in the light” of it you will sink to a level of bondage never envisioned by our Lord. Mentally disobeying the “heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19) will make you a slave to ideas and views that are completely foreign to Jesus Christ. Don’t look at someone else and say, “Well, if he can have those views and prosper, why can’t I?” You have to “walk in the light” of the vision that has been given to you. Don’t compare yourself with others or judge them— that is between God and them. When you find that one of your favorite and strongly held views clashes with the “heavenly vision,” do not begin to debate it. If you do, a sense of property and personal right will emerge in you— things on which Jesus placed no value. He was against these things as being the root of everything foreign to Himself— “. . . for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses” (Luke 12:15). If we don’t see and understand this, it is because we are ignoring the underlying principles of our Lord’s teaching.

Our tendency is to lie back and bask in the memory of the wonderful experience we had when God revealed His will to us. But if a New Testament standard is revealed to us by the light of God, and we don’t try to measure up, or even feel inclined to do so, then we begin to backslide. It means your conscience does not respond to the truth. You can never be the same after the unveiling of a truth. That moment marks you as one who either continues on with even more devotion as a disciple of Jesus Christ, or as one who turns to go back as a deserter.

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December 29, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

I do not know if I have ever waited for the “Heavenly Vision” to become crystal clear before taking hold of it and running off to “help” with the completion. I often evaluate circumstances and my environment intensely and I interpret any change or movement inside my circumstances as God’s will. As soon as I see the circumstances in a way to suggest God is moving, l grasp the change “as a sign” and run with it. But after a while, when the end result does not turn out as I imagined, I wonder if it was God’s heavenly vision or not, and I am left more confused than ever.

And God says…”I am not the author of confusion. There is no uncertainty in My will for you or your life. My heavenly vision is clear in the scriptures, and the Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth. When and if you are uncertain and or confused about My will or heavenly vision it is because you feel the need for urgency as you look at your circumstances. When you look to Me and wait for Me to clearly provide a heavenly vision, there is absolute certainty about My will for you and your life. Your heavenly vision comes alive when you wait on Me. Wait on your heavenly vision knowing that I will never leave you or forsake you. When you wait upon the Lord, your faith is strengthened and I can work in your life. When you take hold of the vision too early, it is because you are afraid. I cannot move in your fear, I can only move in your faith. When you are anxious and fearful, pray and wait on Me. When you are uncertain, pray and wait on Me. Your uncertainty fades and turns to certainty as you stay connected and look to Me, and not your circumstances or your beliefs about the timing.

When you are certain of your heavenly vision, quite certain, absolutely certain, then you shall move in confidence, even though you may be moving only one step at a time. Let Me open your eyes to the certainty one step at a time as you wait for Me at every step.

Trust in Me with all your heart and do not trust your own machinations, and I will make your paths straight. Delight yourself in the Lord, and I will give you the desires of your heart^.……those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles. You shall run and not be weary; you shall walk and not faint or become tired.  I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, a plan to give you hope and a future.

Our battles are first won or lost in the secret places of our will in God’s presence, never in full view of the world. The Spirit of God seizes me and I am compelled to get alone with God and fight the battle before Him. Until I do this, I will lose every time. The battle may take one minute or one year, but that will depend on me, not God. However long it takes, I must wrestle with it alone before God, and I must resolve to go through the hell of renunciation or rejection before Him. Nothing has any power over someone who has fought the battle before God and won there.

I should never say, “I will wait until I get into difficult circumstances and then I’ll put God to the test.” Trying to do that will not work. I must first get the issue settled between God and myself in the secret places of my soul, where no one else can interfere. Then I can go ahead, knowing with certainty that the battle is won. Lose it there, and calamity, disaster, and defeat before the world are as sure as the laws of God. The reason the battle is lost is that I fight it first in the external world. Get alone with God, do battle before Him, and settle the matter once and for all.

In dealing with other people, our stance should always be to drive them toward making a decision of their will. That is how surrendering to God begins. Not often, but every once in a while, God brings us to a major turning point— a great crossroads in our life. From that point we either go toward a more and more slow, lazy, and useless Christian life, or we become more and more on fire, giving our utmost for His highest— our best for His glory.

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December 27, 2020

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

The line in the song….”To know You is to know You will always be enough” resonated with me this morning. I know that I often question God’s willingness to be enough in my life when circumstances are crowding in on me and it seems as if there is not enough time, plans or activities in place to “meet all my needs according to His riches in glory.” Because I cannot see Him at work in my circumstances I often question His faithfulness and or my worthiness or whatever else is between me and complete trust and faith that God is meeting me at the very point of my needs.

And God says…”You must come to trust Me regardless of your circumstances, and as Oswald Chambers writes, it may be difficult ( although all things are possible with God) to do this when you come to Me with intensity only in the middle of a crisis. Come to Me with an intense desire to know Me more outside difficult circumstances, so that you can look beyond the temporary and know that I am always with you. However, when you do come to Me in difficult circumstances, know that you can find Me working beyond the ordinary. I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. (Jeremiah 29:11 MSG) “

The Spirit of God testifies to and confirms the simple, but almighty, security of the life that “is hidden with Christ in God.” Paul continually brought this out in his New Testament letters. We talk as if living a sanctified life were the most uncertain and insecure thing we could do. Yet it is the most secure thing possible, because it has Almighty God in and behind it. The most dangerous and unsure thing is to try to live without God. For one who is born again, it is easier to live in a right-standing relationship with God than it is to go wrong, provided we heed God’s warnings and “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7).

When we think of being delivered from sin, being “filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18), and “walk[ing] in the light,” we picture the peak of a great mountain. We see it as very high and wonderful, but we say, “Oh, I could never live up there!” However, when we do get there through God’s grace, we find it is not a mountain peak at all, but a plateau with plenty of room to live and to grow. “You enlarged my path under me, so my feet did not slip” (Psalm 18:36).

When you really see Jesus, I defy you to doubt Him. If you see Him when He says, “Let not your heart be troubled . . .” (John 14:27), I defy you to worry. It is virtually impossible to doubt when He is there. Every time you are in personal contact with Jesus, His words are real to you. “My peace I give to you . . .” (John 14:27)— a peace which brings an unconstrained confidence and covers you completely, from the top of your head to the soles of your feet. “. . . your life is hidden with Christ in God,” and the peace of Jesus Christ that cannot be disturbed has been imparted to you.

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December 24, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Yesterday morning as I struggled with concerns about the amount of faith I have and need to move forward, it struck me that Jesus came to give me freedom from these concerns. Just as He came to free us from our worries and concerns about our behaviors and thoughts from our “yesterdays”, He came to free us from our concerns about our “tomorrows.”

And God says…”I came to give you life and life more abundantly. Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be given you……You can live in peace and happiness if you simply live in the present. Your history and future are secured  by the sacrifice of Jesus. All your future needs are met in Christ. Live in the present knowing that I have your past and future secured and complete in Christ, and I shall meet all your needs according to My riches in glory”.

When God begins to draw me to Himself, the problem of my will comes in immediately. Will I react positively to the truth that God has revealed? Will I come to Him? To discuss or deliberate over spiritual matters when God calls is inappropriate and disrespectful to Him. When God speaks, never discuss it with anyone as if to decide what your response may be (see Galatians 1:15-16). Belief is not the result of an intellectual act, but the result of an act of my will whereby I deliberately commit myself. But will I commit, placing myself completely and absolutely on God, and be willing to act solely on what He says? If I will, I will find that I am grounded on reality as certain as God’s throne.

In preaching the gospel, always focus on the matter of the will. Belief must come from the will to believe. There must be a surrender of the will, not a surrender to a persuasive or powerful argument. I must deliberately step out, placing my faith in God and in His truth. And I must place no confidence in my own works, but only in God. Trusting in my own mental understanding becomes a hindrance to complete trust in God. I must be willing to ignore and leave my feelings behind. I must will to believe. But this can never be accomplished without my forceful, determined effort to separate myself from my old ways of looking at things. I must surrender myself completely to God.

Everyone has been created with the ability to reach out beyond his own grasp. But it is God who draws me, and my relationship to Him in the first place is an inner, personal one, not an intellectual one. I come into the relationship through the miracle of God and through my own will to believe. Then I begin to get an intelligent appreciation and understanding of the wonder of the transformation in my life.

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December 22, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Walking completely by faith and in your will feels like stepping off into the dark, placing my next step in an area that is completely uncertain, and unknown; like driving in the Tule fog here in the San Joaquin Valley, when we often cannot see 6 feet in front of the car. I am completely surrendered to you in these circumstances. And for the life of me I do not know why I cannot simply let go of my fear and anxiety in these circumstances, because you have met me at the point of my needs over and over and over. I believe…..help me in my unbelief.

And God says…”I only ask you to trust one step out at any time….like the lamp that lights your feet a step at a time. I know that you are not capable of understanding and accepting the larger picture of the future. You must follow Me in faith. That is why the magnitude of My sacrifice was so great. If I love you so much as to give you My Son, imagine the magnitude of My love. My ways are not your ways and you cannot hope to understand the “what and why” of tomorrow. But you can understand the sacrifice of Jesus. Focus on Jesus and His sacrifice and you will move into an understanding and trust that transcends knowing so that you can confidently step into My will and your future, one step at a time.

My experience is not what makes redemption real— redemption is reality. Redemption has no real meaning for me until it is worked out through my conscious life. When I am born again, the Spirit of God takes me beyond myself and my experiences, and identifies me with Jesus Christ. If I am left only with my personal experiences, I am left with something not produced by redemption. But experiences produced by redemption prove themselves by leading me beyond myself, to the point of no longer paying any attention to experiences as the basis of reality. Instead, I see that only the reality itself produced the experiences. My experiences are not worth anything unless they keep me at the Source of truth— Jesus Christ.

If you try to hold back the Holy Spirit within you, with the desire of producing more inner spiritual experiences, you will find that He will break the hold and take you again to the historic Christ. Never support an experience which does not have God as its Source and faith in God as its result. If you do, your experience is anti-Christian, no matter what visions or insights you may have had. Is Jesus Christ Lord of your experiences, or do you place your experiences above Him? Is any experience dearer to you than your Lord? You must allow Him to be Lord over you, and pay no attention to any experience over which He is not Lord. Then there will come a time when God will make you impatient with your own experience, and you can truthfully say, “I do not care what I experience— I am sure of Him!”

Be relentless and hard on yourself if you are in the habit of talking about the experiences you have had. Faith based on experience is not faith; faith based on God’s revealed truth is the only faith there is.

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Journal Entry for Today-JDV

December 21, 2010

When I awoke this morning I reached out for you, the very first thing. It has become more than a habit or first reflex, it has become a daily conscience decision to seek you first as I begin my day.  

And God says…” When you are in need you seek Me first. When things are going well for you and all your circumstances are in order you will often find yourself “multitasking “ through your day, without Me. Even when you seek Me first, the intensity of our connection and your conscious communication with Me is intensified by your need, and or pain. C. S. Lewis said… “God whispers to you in your pleasures, speaks to you in our conscience, but shouts in your pains: It is My megaphone to rouse a deaf world” ~the scriptures say…acknowledge the Lord in all your ways and He will make your paths straight. I am the vine. You are the branches. Those who live in me while I live in them will produce a lot of fruit. But you can’t produce anything without me. Seek Me first and  give thanks for the circumstances that help create this pattern in your life.”