Prayer does not equip us for greater works— prayer is the greater work. Yet we think of prayer as some commonsense exercise of our higher powers that simply prepares us for God’s work. In the teachings of Jesus Christ, prayer is the working of the miracle of redemption in me, which produces the miracle of redemption in others, through the power of God. The way fruit remains firm is through prayer, but remember that it is prayer based on the agony of Christ in redemption, not on my own agony. We must go to God as His child, because only a child gets his prayers answered; a “wise” man does not (see Matthew 11:25).

Prayer is the battle, and it makes no difference where you are. However God may engineer your circumstances, your duty is to pray. Never allow yourself this thought, “I am of no use where I am,” because you certainly cannot be used where you have not yet been placed. Wherever God has placed you and whatever your circumstances, you should pray, continually offering up prayers to Him. And He promises, “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do . . .” (John 14:13). Yet we refuse to pray unless it thrills or excites us, which is the most intense form of spiritual selfishness. We must learn to work according to God’s direction, and He says to pray. “Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:38).

There is nothing thrilling about a laboring person’s work, but it is the laboring person who makes the ideas of the genius possible. And it is the laboring saint who makes the ideas of his Master possible. When you labor at prayer, from God’s perspective there are always results. What an astonishment it will be to see, once the veil is finally lifted, all the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you have been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ.

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October 17, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, thank you for the reminder that prayer is not a means to an end, it is the end itself.  You know that I want the circumstances we face to change, that I want us to have life and life more abundantly, and so I pray, as I should. But You remind me in this devotional that prayer is an outcome as well, and I am to reach out to You and for You simply because prayer strengthens our communication and relationship, and is a natural byproduct of Jesus living through me.

And God says…”Prayer is a way for you and Me to communicate and build our relationship. It is the foundation of our daily walk. Take time to simply pray without petitions. Reach out to Me to simply communicate.  Pray without ceasing and discover that your prayers have become a dialog, and the dialog has become a daily discussion that strengthens our connection and your reception and discernment.  And while the discussion and dialog is in end in itself, you will also discover a peace that passes all understanding.”

The key to the missionary’s difficult task is in the hand of God, and that key is prayer, not work— that is, not work as the word is commonly used today, which often results in the shifting of our focus away from God. The key to the missionary’s difficult task is also not the key of common sense, nor is it the key of medicine, civilization, education, or even evangelization. The key is in following the Master’s orders— the key is prayer. “Pray the Lord of the harvest . . . .” In the natural realm, prayer is not practical but absurd. We have to realize that prayer is foolish from the commonsense point of view.

From Jesus Christ’s perspective, there are no nations, but only the world. How many of us pray without regard to the persons, but with regard to only one Person— Jesus Christ? He owns the harvest that is produced through distress and through conviction of sin. This is the harvest for which we have to pray that laborers be sent out to reap. We stay busy at work, while people all around us are ripe and ready to be harvested; we do not reap even one of them, but simply waste our Lord’s time in over-energized activities and programs. Suppose a crisis were to come into your father’s or your brother’s life— are you there as a laborer to reap the harvest for Jesus Christ? Is your response, “Oh, but I have a special work to do!” No Christian has a special work to do. A Christian is called to be Jesus Christ’s own, “a servant [who] is not greater than his master” (John 13:16), and someone who does not dictate to Jesus Christ what he intends to do. Our Lord calls us to no special work— He calls us to Himself. “Pray the Lord of the harvest,” and He will engineer your circumstances to send you out as His laborer.

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October 16, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, sometimes it doesn’t feel like I am in your will, even though I am standing still, surrendered, and waiting on you. I can hear only my own voice and wonder if you are there?

And God says,…”Do not listen or depend on anything as fickle and unreliable as your own feelings. After all these years you should know that your feelings are unreliable indicators of truth. Trust in Me with all your heart and do not rely on your own ..understanding …and or feelings.  If I said it, I meant it, and it is the truth. And I said and say nothing can separate you from me. Not even your own unreliable and undisciplined behavior and or feelings. I am with you always.”

The key to the missionary’s work is the authority of Jesus Christ, not the needs of the lost. We are inclined to look on our Lord as one who assists us in our endeavors for God. Yet our Lord places Himself as the absolute sovereign and supreme Lord over His disciples. He does not say that the lost will never be saved if we don’t go— He simply says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations . . . .” He says, “Go on the basis of the revealed truth of My sovereignty, teaching and preaching out of your living experience of Me.”

“Then the eleven disciples went . . . to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them” (Matthew 28:16). If I want to know the universal sovereignty of Christ, I must know Him myself. I must take time to worship the One whose name I bear. Jesus says, “Come to Me . . .”— that is the place to meet Jesus— “all you who labor and are heavy laden . . .” (Matthew 11:28)— and how many missionaries are! We completely dismiss these wonderful words of the universal Sovereign of the world, but they are the words of Jesus to His disciples meant for here and now.

“Go therefore . . . .” To “go” simply means to live. Acts 1:8 is the description of how to go. Jesus did not say in this verse, “Go into Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria,” but, “. . . you shall be witnesses to Me in [all these places].” He takes upon Himself the work of sending us.

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you . . .” (John 15:7)— that is the way to keep going. Where we are placed is then a matter of indifference to us, because God sovereignly engineers our goings.

“None of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus . . .” (Acts 20:24). That is how to keep going until we are gone from this life.

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October 14, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, I read another story this morning about a new believer that had to overcome the impact and reputation of the religious community, (including my own evangelical establishment) in order to become a believer.  He had to get past his view of the polarization, unforgiveness and hypocrisy he saw in us. Now that I think about this, it is exactly what Jesus had to overcome as well. He had to challenge the religious leaders and establishment of His time. When they wanted to stone a woman for sexual impurity, he asked them to look into their own hearts and imperfections. Jesus reached out to everyone, even those that were considered “unclean”. But Lord, in many ways, we still exclude many because of their particular kind of sin or lifestyle. Lord, how can we reach out past our religiosity and actually reach, encourage and include so many that do not know You?

And God says…”As Chambers writes, your mission field is in front of you, right where you live, allowing Jesus to live through you.  And your mission is to allow Jesus to flow through you to others. And remember, who you are speaks much more loudly than what you will say. There is no need to quote scripture, or offer up the four spiritual laws, or a sinner’s prayer. When you let Jesus live through you, His love, complete with knowledge, wisdom, faith, and discipline will flow through you and touch others. When Jesus lives though you, people will follow you, because they are following Jesus. Simply surrender yourself, and Jesus will shine through. When you allow Jesus to live through you, the whole world can see, and hear His life singing. And if you are not quite certain how to do this, simply ask Me to show you.”

Galatians 2:20

The Message (MSG)

^19-21What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.

Sin is a fundamental relationship— it is not wrong doing, but wrong being— it is deliberate and determined independence from God. The Christian faith bases everything on the extreme, self-confident nature of sin. Other faiths deal with sins— the Bible alone deals with sin. The first thing Jesus Christ confronted in people was the heredity of sin, and it is because we have ignored this in our presentation of the gospel that the message of the gospel has lost its sting and its explosive power.

The revealed truth of the Bible is not that Jesus Christ took on Himself our fleshly sins, but that He took on Himself the heredity of sin that no man can even touch. God made His own Son “to be sin” that He might make the sinner into a saint. It is revealed throughout the Bible that our Lord took on Himself the sin of the world through identification with us, not through sympathy for us. He deliberately took on His own shoulders, and endured in His own body, the complete, cumulative sin of the human race. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us. . .” and by so doing He placed salvation for the entire human race solely on the basis of redemption. Jesus Christ reconciled the human race, putting it back to where God designed it to be. And now anyone can experience that reconciliation, being brought into oneness with God, on the basis of what our Lord has done on the cross.

A man cannot redeem himself— redemption is the work of God, and is absolutely finished and complete. And its application to individual people is a matter of their own individual action or response to it. A distinction must always be made between the revealed truth of redemption and the actual conscious experience of salvation in a person’s life.

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October 7, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, sometimes I understand so well, that the wonder of Your love and sacrifice overwhelms me.  Sometimes I have a crystal clear awareness that You have done all that is necessary for my salvation and transformation.

Other times, most often right after I disappoint myself and fail you, I fall into worry and doubt, and try to understand what happened to my joyful walk. I then can become introspective about my place in your kingdom.  Am I truly worthy enough? Does Your grace and mercy cover me? Must I do one more thing, pray one more prayer, and confess one more time? Where is the joy I held onto so tightly just a few minutes, hours or days ago?

And God says…”The sacrifice of Jesus covers all your bad choices, forever; past, present and future. My grace and mercy are much greater that your nature, or choices. Regardless of what the enemy wants you to believe, nothing can separate you from Me. Nothing. Find the joy, certainty and peace of your salvation in praise and worship. Find it in communion with Me. When the enemy tries to steal life and life more abundantly from you and tries to replace your joy and peace with fear, worry and doubt, revisit my promises. Then celebrate those promises in your worship and praise as you rekindle the joy and peace of life and life more abundantly.”

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2 Peter 1:4

And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Matthew 11:28-29

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Isaiah 40:29-31

He gives power to the weak
and strength to the powerless.
Even youths will become weak and tired,
and young men will fall in exhaustion.
But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint.

Philippians 4:19

And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:37-39

No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Proverbs 1:33

But all who listen to me will live in peace,
untroubled by fear of harm.”

John 14:27

“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.

The Bible does not say that God punished the human race for one man’s sin, but that the nature of sin, namely, my claim to my right to myself, entered into the human race through one man. But it also says that another Man took upon Himself the sin of the human race and put it away— an infinitely more profound revelation (see Hebrews 9:26). The nature of sin is not immorality and wrongdoing, but the nature of self-realization which leads us to say, “I am my own god.” This nature may exhibit itself in proper morality or in improper immorality, but it always has a common basis— my claim to my right to myself. When our Lord faced either people with all the forces of evil in them, or people who were clean-living, moral, and upright, He paid no attention to the moral degradation of one, nor any attention to the moral attainment of the other. He looked at something we do not see, namely, the nature of man (see John 2:25).

Sin is something I am born with and cannot touch— only God touches sin through redemption. It is through the Cross of Christ that God redeemed the entire human race from the possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin. God nowhere holds a person responsible for having the heredity of sin, and does not condemn anyone because of it. Condemnation comes when I realize that Jesus Christ came to deliver me from this heredity of sin, and yet I refuse to let Him do so. From that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation. “This is the condemnation [and the critical moment], that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light . . . ” (John 3:19).

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October 5, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

God sometimes it feels like I live in one of those hamster wheels.  I run and never get anywhere, caught in a static circle of faithless doubt and recrimination. I know what the Bible says about your grace, mercy, and forgiveness, but Lord, many days I wake up and don’t feel all that forgiven. And it is difficult to recall and remember that Your promises are meant for me.  I simply do not feel worthy.

When my circumstances and trials are very difficult, I often wonder if I am not receiving exactly what I deserve.  Perhaps I am reaping the “fruits” of my own transgressions, of all those times when I knew the right thing to do but did “the other”. I want to claim and live in your promises, but it often feels as if the promises are for those “other, better people”. Lord, can and will You help me out of this circle of doubt and uncertainty? Please help me claim your grace, mercy, forgiveness and love, and help me live them out as I live out this day. Lord, help me to live in your provision and promises, through Jesus Christ.

And God says…”The enemy wants to create doubt in your mind. It is his role in this life. He cannot change the impact and reality of the cross. He cannot change the life and life more abundantly I have provided, but he will try to make you believe it is not available to you. He will try to make you believe that you are not worthy, that you have lived beyond my love, hope, faith, grace and mercy.  But that can never happen. Nothing can separate you from My love. Trust in Me, believe and claim My promises. And live an abundant life this day.

2 Peter 1:4

And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Matthew 11:28-29

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Isaiah 40:29-31

He gives power to the weak
and strength to the powerless.
Even youths will become weak and tired,
and young men will fall in exhaustion.
But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint.

Philippians 4:19

And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:37-39

No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Proverbs 1:33

But all who listen to me will live in peace,
untroubled by fear of harm.”

John 14:27

“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.

Thank God for being able to see all that you have not yet been. You have had the vision, but you are not yet to the reality of it by any means. It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will be the choice ones, that most of us turn back. We are not quite prepared for the bumps and bruises that must come if we are going to be turned into the shape of the vision. We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to be battered into the shape of the vision to be used by God? The beatings will always come in the most common, everyday ways and through common, everyday people.

There are times when we do know what God’s purpose is; whether we will let the vision be turned into actual character depends on us, not on God. If we prefer to relax on the mountaintop and live in the memory of the vision, then we will be of no real use in the ordinary things of which human life is made. We have to learn to live in reliance upon what we saw in the vision, not simply live in ecstatic delight and conscious reflection upon God. This means living the realities of our lives in the light of the vision until the truth of the vision is actually realized in us. Every bit of our training is in that direction. Learn to thank God for making His demands known.

Our little “I am” always sulks and pouts when God says do. Let your little “I am” be shriveled up in God’s wrath and indignation–”I AM WHO I AM . . . has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14). He must dominate. Isn’t it piercing to realize that God not only knows where we live, but also knows the gutters into which we crawl! He will hunt us down as fast as a flash of lightning. No human being knows human beings as God does.

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October 4, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, there are times when I try to figure out what is going on so I can respond. I try to understand the circumstances and Your purpose (s) so I can then respond. I look around, wonder what is going on, why it is occurring, and then I put Your actions and hoped for future actions into a “context”…and then I say “…OK this makes sense to me now, so I can obey.” But this is not Your will for me is it? It does not have to make sense; I really do not need to understand, I simply need to obey.

And God says…”It is not possible for you to understand all that I do in your life and the lives around you. When you wait to understand the what and why of what I am doing,   you are simply saying; until God conforms to my way of thinking, my sense of logic and purpose I will not respond to Him. Who are you following when you do that? Where is the faith when you wait until it all makes sense to you? I am only pleased when you walk in faith. Do not wait to understand, simply trust and obey. Acknowledge Me in all your ways, and I will make your paths straight. You please Me when you walk in faith. Pray for faith not understanding.  Your desire to understand and give My actions context is about you. Faith and obedience without understanding is about Me. Trust in Me, have faith in Me”