I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ’Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ’Here am I! Send me’ —Isaiah 6:8
God did not direct His call to Isaiah— Isaiah overheard God saying, “. . . who will go for Us?” The call of God is not just for a select few but for everyone. Whether I hear God’s call or not depends on the condition of my ears, and exactly what I hear depends upon my spiritual attitude. “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). That is, few prove that they are the chosen ones. The chosen ones are those who have come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and have had their spiritual condition changed and their ears opened. Then they hear “the voice of the Lord” continually asking, “. . . who will go for Us?” However, God doesn’t single out someone and say, “Now, you go.” He did not force His will on Isaiah. Isaiah was in the presence of God, and he overheard the call. His response, performed in complete freedom, could only be to say, “Here am I! Send me.”
Remove the thought from your mind of expecting God to come to force you or to plead with you. When our Lord called His disciples, He did it without irresistible pressure from the outside. The quiet, yet passionate, insistence of His “Follow Me” was spoken to men whose every sense was receptive (Matthew 4:19). If we will allow the Holy Spirit to bring us face to face with God, we too will hear what Isaiah heard-”the voice of the Lord.” In perfect freedom we too will say, “Here am I! Send me.”
Lord, help me be a man after Your own heart…help me to not only say “here I am, send me”, help me to desire this more than anything else. I am a man of dust and desires, desperately in need of your grace, love and forgiveness.
And God says…”Set your eyes on Jesus, seek Him first and your heart and mind will be refreshed, renewed and transformed daily. You are not capable but Jesus is capable of doing all things through you and with you as you stay connected. And even when you are not connected, He will bring you into His arms.”
I now send you, to open their eyes . . . that they may receive forgiveness of sins . . . —Acts 26:17-18
This verse is the greatest example of the true essence of the message of a disciple of Jesus Christ in all of the New Testament
God’s first sovereign work of grace is summed up in the words, “. . . that they may receive forgiveness of sins . . . .” When a person fails in his personal Christian life, it is usually because he has never received anything. The only sign that a person is saved is that he has received something from Jesus Christ. Our job as workers for God is to open people’s eyes so that they may turn themselves from darkness to light. But that is not salvation; it is conversion-only the effort of an awakened human being. I do not think it is too broad a statement to say that the majority of so-called Christians are like this. Their eyes are open, but they have received nothing. Conversion is not regeneration. This is a neglected fact in our preaching today. When a person is born again, he knows that it is because he has received something as a gift from Almighty God and not because of his own decision. People may make vows and promises, and may be determined to follow through, but none of this is salvation. Salvation means that we are brought to the place where we are able to receive something from God on the authority of Jesus Christ, namely, forgiveness of sins.
This is followed by God’s second mighty work of grace: “. . . an inheritance among those who are sanctified . . . .” In sanctification, the one who has been born again deliberately gives up his right to himself to Jesus Christ, and identifies himself entirely with God’s ministry to others.
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January 10, 2013
Journal Entry for Today-JDV
Lord, sometimes I think and feel like Oswald Chambers is writing to prove his points, not necessarily your points. This devotional seems a little too complex and disjointed. It seems as if he is trying to make his students learn a thing that he knows. You have taught me that this can be futile. I am not to try and teach someone what You have taught me, I am to allow You to do the communicating and teaching after I surrender.
And God says…”Like every other lesson you have learned and will be learning, the lesson here is that you are to be connected to Jesus. When you are connected, everything else can and does flow supernaturally from Jesus through you and out to others. Do not be confused or concerned that you will not know what to say to others or if you will teach or communicate the right thing. Simply be connected and surrendered to Jesus and it will flow like living waters to quench the thirst of others….and in the process quench your thirst as well.”
May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless . . . —1 Thessalonians 5:23
“Your whole spirit . . . .” The great, mysterious work of the Holy Spirit is in the deep recesses of our being which we cannot reach. Read Psalm 139 . The psalmist implies— “O Lord, You are the God of the early mornings, the God of the late nights, the God of the mountain peaks, and the God of the sea. But, my God, my soul has horizons further away than those of early mornings, deeper darkness than the nights of earth, higher peaks than any mountain peaks, greater depths than any sea in nature. You who are the God of all these, be my God. I cannot reach to the heights or to the depths; there are motives I cannot discover, dreams I cannot realize. My God, search me.”
Do we believe that God can fortify and protect our thought processes far beyond where we can go? “. . . the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). If this verse means cleansing only on our conscious level, may God have mercy on us. The man who has been dulled by sin will say that he is not even conscious of it. But the cleansing from sin we experience will reach to the heights and depths of our spirit if we will “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7). The same Spirit that fed the life of Jesus Christ will feed the life of our spirit. It is only when we are protected by God with the miraculous sacredness of the Holy Spirit that our spirit, soul, and body can be preserved in pure uprightness until the coming of Jesus-no longer condemned in God’s sight.
We should more frequently allow our minds to meditate on these great, massive truths of God.
Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord,
Oswald started today with,
“The great, mysterious work of the Holy Spirit is in the deep recesses of our being which we cannot reach.”
Then Psalm 139 shows the depth at which you can know us and protect us. Depths that we cannot even imagine. The neuroscientists are just beginning to scratch the surface of the places in our brains that address the motives behind our actions and feelings. Although some of them feel smug that they have figured out some of why we do the things we do, it is only perhaps a teaspoonful compared to a swimming pool’s worth of complexity that your Holy Spirit navigates easily. Our problems and also our brilliance originate in those recesses of our soul and spirit which we cannot access. Of course we try with self help programs and studies of Psychology and Neuroscience. But to little avail. Those who’ve studied the most and learned the most seem no happier than the rest of us … maybe even less.
So it is comforting that you can take care of all that behind the scenes stuff in the areas of the brain and soul and spirit that we cannot access. So we learn once again that our job is just to stay connected and let you do your work. Thank you for loving us so much. Help us today to walk in the blessings that you have provided.
Abraham built an altar . . . ; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar . . . —Genesis 22:9
This event is a picture of the mistake we make in thinking that the ultimate God wants of us is the sacrifice of death. What God wants is the sacrifice through death which enables us to do what Jesus did, that is, sacrifice our lives. Not— “Lord, I am ready to go with You . . . to death” (Luke 22:33). But— “I am willing to be identified with Your death so that I may sacrifice my life to God.”
We seem to think that God wants us to give up things! God purified Abraham from this error, and the same process is at work in our lives. God never tells us to give up things just for the sake of giving them up, but He tells us to give them up for the sake of the only thing worth having, namely, life with Himself. It is a matter of loosening the bands that hold back our lives. Those bands are loosened immediately by identification with the death of Jesus. Then we enter into a relationship with God whereby we may sacrifice our lives to Him.
It is of no value to God to give Him your life for death. He wants you to be a “living sacrifice”— to let Him have all your strengths that have been saved and sanctified through Jesus (Romans 12:1). This is what is acceptable to God.
Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord,
Us humans, we think death is the ultimate sacrifice, and maybe it is … but living for you, 100%, all out, … we really find that harder than dying. Is that why so few of us do it … really 100%. Why do we hold back?
You have not completely accepted my gift. When you appropriate all that I have for you, you will give all that you have for me. It’s that simple. So come to the well…. Drink in the waters of life. Know that my life in you is only available thru my death for you.
Prayer:
Help me today, Lord, to find the cross and death and surrender all that stuff that I keep hanging onto … so that I can breathe in your life and live for you.
Jesus said to him, ’Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip?’ —John 14:9
These words were not spoken as a rebuke, nor even with surprise; Jesus was encouraging Philip to draw closer. Yet the last person we get intimate with is Jesus. Before Pentecost the disciples knew Jesus as the One who gave them power to conquer demons and to bring about a revival (see Luke 10:18-20). It was a wonderful intimacy, but there was a much closer intimacy to come: “. . . I have called you friends . . .” (John 15:15). True friendship is rare on earth. It means identifying with someone in thought, heart, and spirit. The whole experience of life is designed to enable us to enter into this closest relationship with Jesus Christ. We receive His blessings and know His Word, but do we really know Him?
Jesus said, “It is to your advantage that I go away . . .” (John 16:7). He left that relationship to lead them even closer. It is a joy to Jesus when a disciple takes time to walk more intimately with Him. The bearing of fruit is always shown in Scripture to be the visible result of an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ (see John 15:1-4).
Once we get intimate with Jesus we are never lonely and we never lack for understanding or compassion. We can continually pour out our hearts to Him without being perceived as overly emotional or pitiful. The Christian who is truly intimate with Jesus will never draw attention to himself but will only show the evidence of a life where Jesus is completely in control. This is the outcome of allowing Jesus to satisfy every area of life to its depth. The picture resulting from such a life is that of the strong, calm balance that our Lord gives to those who are intimate with Him.
When I am focused on You Lord, it seems that it is all I need. When I am connected to You, Jesus, I can be at peace without answers or solutions, because You are the answer and solution. You fill up my heart and head, when I seek You and You alone. How is this Lord, and how can I sustain this kind of intimacy?
And God says…” You cannot capture nor seek intimacy with Me, you can only surrender. When you surrender to Me, you are connected. You are not connected when you try to find Me in works, study or even prayer or conformity. Although those are all things that are good .You will find our intimacy in your surrender, allowing Me to live through you; works, study prayer and transformation can then occur. Seek first the Kingdome of God, which is Jesus, acknowledge the Lord in all you ways. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.
This CO2- (Church Of 2) is where two guys meet each day to tighten up our Connections with Jesus. We start by placing the daily “My Utmost For His Highest” in this WordPress blog. Then we prayerfully select some matching worship music and usually pick out a few lyrics that fit especially well. Then we just start praying and editing and Bolding and adding comments and see where the Spirit takes us.
It’s been a blessing for both of us.
If you’d like to start a CO2, we’d be glad to help you and your partner get started. Also click the link below to see how others are doing CO2.Odds Monkey
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