Archive for December, 2015

“And Every Virtue We Possess”

December 30th, 2015

 

…All my springs are in you. —Psalm 87:7


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 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning Lord and thank you for this day and this devotional…and for the earlier journal entry I wrote that mysteriously disappeared as I was typing. I was almost finished writing the journal entry and was feeling quite smug about my wonderful spiritual insights, and then poof, it was gone. Boy that was a message. The real message was/is that my personal virtue, spiritual insights and writing hold no value except the transforming Holy Spirit value provided from surrendering my virtue, insights and writing to You. I looked all over my computer, and could not find the document anywhere. And then it occurred to me that all things work together for good and that my smug, self-satisfied and virtuous feelings were exactly what the devotional was about today. Thank you for that “real time” lesson.

And God says…”When you focus on Me, and not the tasks at hand, you will see the value in things that do not work, writing that is lost, money misplaced, and goals that are unreached. When you focus on Me and not the tasks at hand, I can show you the value of things that seem to hold no value. When you seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, I can provide everything else you need, including “closure” where you thought there was none. Acknowledge Me in all your ways and do not rely on your own understanding of what is needed for your daily tasks and I will make your paths straight. Your true virtues are the virtues of Jesus and they come to life in you as you surrender yourself to me. When you give up your rights to yourself; your rights to look good, feel good, be right and to be in control, the virtues of Jesus become yours by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.”

Deserter or Disciple?

December 29th, 2015

 

From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. —John 6:66


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 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning God and thank you for this devotional and the words of Oswald Chambers that often provide a sharpening place for the views You have given us over the last few years. Here Chambers reminds us that when You give us a vision or truth, that we are to “walk in the light” after You give us the vision and light. But Lord, that has never worked for me in the “real world”. I find that whenever You give me a vision or truth, that I am to wait on You, surrender the truth and vision and wait for You to live out the truth and vision through me. In the past, whenever I would see the vision or revealed truth, I would think: “well this is up to me now…I must walk in the vision, share the vision, and live it out. I must tell the next person about the revealed truth of a book, study or Spirit led discovery.” But over the last few months and years You have taught us to wait on You. You have shown us that our action is not required, only our surrender. Is this right Lord? Are we to receive a vision or truth; surrender it to You and then wait, or are we to take action and live it out?

And God says…”The bondage that can come from a heavenly vision is not your lack of action or conformity and obedience but rather a lack of surrender and connection. I give you those visions and insights so that you know I am your God and I am living through you. However, apart from Me you can do nothing. On your own and in your own disciplined nature you cannot be obedient and faithful. However, you have discovered that when you are surrendered and connected, I can live through you so that your life is one of obedience and faith. Like the song says, “Lift your eyes to the Maker of the mountains you can’t climb”. The very reason for Jesus and His sacrifice is because no one could or can live up to the vision. However, you can do all things through Christ Jesus. It is not a partnership whereby I show you what needs to be done and you do it. It is a surrender whereby you give your daily and minute to minute life to Me, and I live through you.”

Continuous Conversion

December 28th, 2015

unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. —Matthew 18:3


These words of our Lord refer to our initial conversion, but we should continue to turn to God as children, being continuously converted every day of our lives. If we trust in our own abilities, instead of God’s, we produce consequences for which God will hold us responsible. When God through His sovereignty brings us into new situations, we should immediately make sure that our natural life submits to the spiritual, obeying the orders of the Spirit of God.
Just because we have responded properly in the past is no guarantee that we will do so again. The response of the natural to the spiritual should be continuous conversion, but this is where we so often refuse to be obedient. No matter what our situation is, the Spirit of God remains unchanged and His salvation unaltered. But we must “put on the new man…” (Ephesians 4:24). God holds us accountable every time we refuse to convert ourselves, and He sees our refusal as willful disobedience. Our natural life must not rule— God must rule in us.To refuse to be continuously converted puts a stumbling block in the growth of our spiritual life.
There are areas of self-will in our lives where our pride pours contempt on the throne of God and says, “I won’t submit.” We deify our independence and self-will and call them by the wrong name. What God sees as stubborn weakness, we call strength. There are whole areas of our lives that have not yet been brought into submission, and this can only be done by this continuous conversion. Slowly but surely we can claim the whole territory for the Spirit of God.
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December 28 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning God, and happy Monday after Christmas. The festive holiday is over; we joyously celebrated the birth of Jesus and only occasionally succumbed to the commercial trappings that consumed us from the media. Candlelight services were wonderful, as was the music that filled the church and replaced the sermon the Sunday before Christmas. The time with family was priceless, as were the opportunities to reach out to others. On a number of occasions I found myself checking to see if I was surrendered and connected with You God. Chambers calls it continuous conversion, we call it surrender and connection with a transformation that provides strength for our curiosity and obedience.

However Lord, Chambers also says that if we trust our own abilities instead of You, we produce consequences for which You will hold us responsible. That cannot be right can it God? If the word tells us that there is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus, then how can we be held accountable when we trust our own abilities instead of You?

 

And God says…”Why do you seek to be surrendered and connected? It is because you want Me to live through you and transform your life. You want to live an abundant life; the one I promised you. And you know you can live that life and be at peace, even though circumstances are not optimum, when you are surrendered to Me. You know all the while that I am good all the time, and that I love you beyond imaginings. I do not hold you responsible when you are not surrendered and connected, curious and obedient, grace can and will cover all you are and all you do; however, I cannot transform you or your circumstances when you are not surrendered. I cannot give you the peace that passes understanding when you have chosen to be your own god, and do things your way. The results of your unsurrendered life are the consequences that Chambers speaks of. Acknowledge the Lord in all your ways and I will make your paths straight. Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and I will provide everything else you require.”

 

 

Sharing in the Atonement

December 23rd, 2015

God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ… —Galatians 6:14


The gospel of Jesus Christ always forces a decision of our will. Have I accepted God’s verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ? Do I have even the slightest interest in the death of Jesus? Do I want to be identified with His death— to be completely dead to all interest in sin, worldliness, and self? Do I long to be so closely identified with Jesus that I am of no value for anything except Him and His purposes?
The great privilege of discipleship is that I can commit myself under the banner of His Cross, and that means death to sin. You must get alone with Jesus and either decide to tell Him that you do not want sin to die out in you, or that at any cost you want to be identified with His death. When you act in confident faith in what our Lord did on the cross, a supernatural identification with His death takes place immediately. And you will come to know through a higher knowledge that your old life was “crucified with Him” (Romans 6:6). The proof that your old life is dead, having been “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20), is the amazing ease with which the life of God in you now enables you to obey the voice of Jesus Christ.

Every once in a while our Lord gives us a glimpse of what we would be like if it were not for Him. This is a confirmation of what He said— “…without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). That is why the underlying foundation of Christianity is personal, passionate devotion to the Lord Jesus. We mistake the joy of our first introduction into God’s kingdom as His purpose for getting us there. Yet God’s purpose in getting us into His kingdom is that we may realize all that identification with Jesus Christ means.

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December 23 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning God and thank you for this reminder again; that the gospel of Jesus is the main thing, and that we need to always keep the “main thing the main thing”. And Chambers seemed right on target; when he explains that something transformational occurs to us when we surrender to and focus on the cross of Jesus.

 

And God says…” When you simply focus on the cross of Jesus, and surrender all of your rights to yourself; your right to look good, feel good, be right and be in control, you, in effect, give Me permission to transform you. Your faith in your surrender ignites our intimate relationship. Delight yourself in the Lord and I will give you the desires of your heart.”

Experience or God’s Revealed Truth?

December 21st, 2015

We have received…the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. —1 Corinthians 2:12


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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December 21 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning God and thank you for the reminder to keep the “main thing the main thing”. How often I cloud the issue searching for the right scripture, song, doctrine or prayer. I have looked for answers in experiences, parables, bible studies, and from others I though more “spiritual” than me. Then you remind me and bring me right back to Jesus.

And God says…”It is not because you focus on surrender, connection, curiosity and obedience that you experience a peace that passes all understanding and look forward to each new day with eager anticipation and enthusiasm. It is because of whom you surrender to. Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and I will provide everything else you require, including the strength and power to surrender, be connected, curious and obedient. Acknowledge Me in all your ways and do not rely on your own understanding or experiences, and I will make your paths straight. And recall that is it perfectly fine to look back in your rear view mirror and recall times when you were rescued and lifted up. But first recall who did the lifting.”

Test of Faithfulness

December 18th, 2015

We know that all things work together for good to those who love God… —Romans 8:28


It is only a faithful person who truly believes that God sovereignly controls his circumstances. We take our circumstances for granted, saying God is in control, but not really believing it. We act as if the things that happen were completely controlled by people. To be faithful in every circumstance means that we have only one loyalty, or object of our faith— the Lord Jesus Christ. God may cause our circumstances to suddenly fall apart, which may bring the realization of our unfaithfulness to Him for not recognizing that He had ordained the situation. We never saw what He was trying to accomplish, and that exact event will never be repeated in our life. This is where the test of our faithfulness comes.
If we will just learn to worship God even during the difficult circumstances, He will change them for the better very quickly if He so chooses.Being faithful to Jesus Christ is the most difficult thing we try to do today. We will be faithful to our work, to serving others, or to anything else; just don’t ask us to be faithful to Jesus Christ. Many Christians become very impatient when we talk about faithfulness to Jesus. Our Lord is dethroned more deliberately by Christian workers than by the world. We treat God as if He were a machine designed only to bless us, and we think of Jesus as just another one of the workers.

The goal of faithfulness is not that we will do work for God, but that He will be free to do His work through us. God calls us to His service and places tremendous responsibilities on us. He expects no complaining on our part and offers no explanation on His part. God wants to use us as He used His own Son.

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December 18 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning God and thank you for this lesson. And while I thought I was living right in the middle of a faithful surrender to Romans 8:28, all things work together for good to those who love God; I noticed that I was just trying to control a conversation so that I came out on top. I had replaced my transparency with communication methods designed to “give me the edge” because I wanted to “be in control”. What is up with that? Just when I feel like I have grown past the seduction of the big four; to look good, feel good, be right and be in control, I fall right back into a trap to try and regain control. Lord, I pray that You will help me become a man after your own heart as I surrender myself to You. Help me walk by faith even when I cannot see.

And God says…”It is good that you recognize your failure to surrender and live connected. Paul recognized and lamented his repeated failures…”Who will save me from this wretched condition? Thank God it has already been done by Christ Jesus.” You will never be perfect this side of heaven, and you will find that your nature will always pull you in the direction of trying to “look good, feel good, be right and be in control”. You can avoid this trap when you are surrendered and connected to Me. And when you are not surrendered and connected, this side of heaven, remember that I do not see your failures. I see only Jesus. Acknowledge Me in all your ways, and I will make your paths straight. And like the father that told Jesus, I believe, help me in my unbelief; you can say and pray; I surrender, help me God in my unsurrender.”

 

 

Redemption— Creating the Need it Satisfies

December 17th, 2015

The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him… —1 Corinthians 2:14

The gospel of God creates the sense of need for the gospel. Is the gospel hidden to those who are servants already? No, Paul said, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe…” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). The majority of people think of themselves as being completely moral, and have no sense of need for the gospel. It is God who creates this sense of need in a human being, but that person remains totally unaware of his need until God makes Himself evident. Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you…” (Matthew 7:7). But God cannot give until a man asks. It is not that He wants to withhold something from us, but that is the plan He has established for the way of redemption. Through our asking, God puts His process in motion, creating something in us that was nonexistent until we asked. The inner reality of redemption is that it creates all the time. And as redemption creates the life of God in us, it also creates the things which belong to that life. The only thing that can possibly satisfy the need is what created the need. This is the meaning of redemption— it creates and it satisfies.

Jesus said, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32). When we preach our own experiences, people may be interested, but it awakens no real sense of need. But once Jesus Christ is “lifted up,” the Spirit of God creates an awareness of the need for Him. The creative power of the redemption of God works in the souls of men only through the preaching of the gospel. It is never the sharing of personal experiences that saves people, but the truth of redemption. “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).

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Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord,
The closing remarks, that sharing of personal experiences doesn’t save people, but the truth of redemption caused me to think. Paul and Peter and Steven all spent a lot of time sharing personal experiences. Were they just the vehicle to carry the truth of redemption?

Exactly, People relate to stories. It’s been the same for thousands of years and you see it in your grandchildren. Stories open the mind and heart. Listeners automatically compare their own experience with what is being shared. They subconsciously ask, “Could it be like that for me too?” People who would not listen to deep theology will listen to your story. Just be sure that your story isn’t only about you and your victory over trials. I will use your story for my work. Always remember that there are parallel realities happening together … natural and spiritual. Holy Spirit is working in your listeners. Your job is to set the stage with your story and your life, not take the stage. Then I will do the work of conviction, redemption, and guidance in your listeners. Always be living your life and telling your story knowing that I’m working with you and that people are watching. Stay curious about what I am doing in the parallel reality of the spirit.

Wrestling Before God

December 16th, 2015

 

Take up the whole armor of God…praying always… —Ephesians 6:13,18

 

You must learn to wrestle against the things that hinder your communication with God, and wrestle in prayer for other people; but to wrestle with God in prayer is unscriptural. If you ever do wrestle with God, you will be crippled for the rest of your life. If you grab hold of God and wrestle with Him, as Jacob did, simply because He is working in a way that doesn’t meet with your approval, you force Him to put you out of joint (see Genesis 32:24-25).
Don’t become a cripple by wrestling with the ways of God, but be someone who wrestles before God with the things of this world, because “we are more than conquerors through Him…” (Romans 8:37). Wrestling before God makes an impact in His kingdom. If you ask me to pray for you, and I am not complete in Christ, my prayer accomplishes nothing. But if I am complete in Christ, my prayer brings victory all the time. Prayer is effective only when there is completeness— “take up the whole armor of God….”Always make a distinction between God’s perfect will and His permissive will, which He uses to accomplish His divine purpose for our lives. God’s perfect will is unchangeable. It is with His permissive will, or the various things that He allows into our lives, that we must wrestle before Him.
It is our reaction to these things allowed by His permissive will that enables us to come to the point of seeing His perfect will for us. “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God…” (Romans 8:28)— to those who remain true to God’s perfect will— His calling in Christ Jesus. God’s permissive will is the testing He uses to reveal His true sons and daughters. We should not be spineless and automatically say, “Yes, it is the Lord’s will.” We don’t have to fight or wrestle with God, but we must wrestle before God with things. Beware of lazily giving up. Instead, put up a glorious fight and you will find yourself empowered with His strength.
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December 16 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning God and thank you for this day and this lesson from Oswald Chambers. The only problem I have with the lesson Lord, is, is, is everything! Statements like “If I pray and I am not complete, You will not answer my prayer”. Or, “we must continue to wrestle with our issues and the difference between Your permissive will and your perfect will. And when Chambers says, “Prayer is effective only when there is completeness. Chambers even adds a qualifier to Romans 8:28…”“We know that all things work together for good to those who love God…” (Romans 8:28)— to those who remain true to God’s perfect will— His calling in Christ Jesus. God I understand the qualifier is that we love you, but to add the qualifier “to those that remain true to Gods perfect will?” Lord, how can we fall back into our own work, and our own worthiness when you gave us Jesus because we could never achieve worthiness through our own diligence and discipline? And given this disparity in teaching, how do we really know that all things work together for our good Lord?

 

And God says…As Paul said in Romans 8:16-17 and as is interpreted by Eugene Peterson in the Message…”God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who He is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what’s coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance!” Many teachers and writers want the same thing for their students and readers, and so they often extend their understanding into teachings and create process, doctrine, and a “quid pro quo” that seems to make sense to them and the worlds understanding of “religion”. But My unconditional love and forgiveness requires only one thing; that you accept it. You can access a supernatural level of peace and understanding by simply relying on the sacrifice of Jesus. When you surrender all your own understanding (and that of many teachers) to Me, I can and will make your paths straight.”

 

“Approved to God”

December 15th, 2015

 

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. —2 Timothy 2:15


If you cannot express yourself well on each of your beliefs, work and study until you can. If you don’t, other people may miss out on the blessings that come from knowing the truth. Strive to re-express a truth of God to yourself clearly and understandably, and God will use that same explanation when you share it with someone else. But you must be willing to go through God’s winepress where the grapes are crushed.
You must struggle, experiment, and rehearse your words to express God’s truth clearly. Then the time will come when that very expression will become God’s wine of strength to someone else. But if you are not diligent and say, “I’m not going to study and struggle to express this truth in my own words; I’ll just borrow my words from someone else,” then the words will be of no value to you or to others. Try to state to yourself what you believe to be the absolute truth of God, and you will be allowing God the opportunity to pass it on through you to someone else.
Always make it a practice to stir your own mind thoroughly to think through what you have easily believed. Your position is not really yours until you make it yours through suffering and study. The author or speaker from whom you learn the most is not the one who teaches you something you didn’t know before, but the one who helps you take a truth with which you have quietly struggled, give it expression, and speak it clearly and boldly.
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Journal DJR

Good Morning Lord,
Initially this seems like admonition to work hard, study hard and strive for excellence … in our own power. As you know and we’ve come to acknowledge… that builds our kingdom, not yours. And doesn’t work out well in the end. After talking it through, it seems that the key is whether the working, studying and striving is the main course … or whether it is a by product of a surrendered life. One that is connected and curious to see what you have next … pre committed to obedience and waiting for your leading. Then it’s a whole different ballgame. And a whole different kind of excellence and professionalism.

I’ve told you…
(“don’t worry about how to respond or what to say. God will give you the right words at the right time. Matt 1-:19)

Not worrying about it doesn’t mean that I don’t want excellence. But I do define it differently. Sometimes it will look the same, but sometimes, because I see a much bigger picture, the circumstance that I promise to work out for good… doesn’t look so good right now.

The other huge difference is whether your efforts are coming out of your own stress, anxiety, and willpower or from your surrendered life. If you are experiencing that peace that passes understanding in stressful circumstances, it’s a pretty good indicator that we are connected, the surrender and curiosity and obedience is working.

Yes, when all that is working, Life is indeed good. Help me live there more of the time. All of the time!

The Great Life

December 14th, 2015

 

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled… —John 14:27

 

Whenever we experience something difficult in our personal life, we are tempted to blame God. But we are the ones in the wrong, not God. Blaming God is evidence that we are refusing to let go of some disobedience somewhere in our lives. But as soon as we let go, everything becomes as clear as daylight to us. As long as we try to serve two masters, ourselves and God, there will be difficulties combined with doubt and confusion. Our attitude must be one of complete reliance on God. Once we get to that point, there is nothing easier than living the life of a saint.
We encounter difficulties when we try to usurp the authority of the Holy Spirit for our own purposes.God’s mark of approval, whenever you obey Him, is peace. He sends an immeasurable, deep peace; not a natural peace, “as the world gives,” but the peace of Jesus. Whenever peace does not come, wait until it does, or seek to find out why it is not coming. If you are acting on your own impulse, or out of a sense of the heroic, to be seen by others, the peace of Jesus will not exhibit itself. This shows no unity with God or confidence in Him.
The spirit of simplicity, clarity, and unity is born through the Holy Spirit, not through your decisions. God counters our self-willed decisions with an appeal for simplicity and unity.My questions arise whenever I cease to obey. When I do obey God, problems come, not between me and God, but as a means to keep my mind examining with amazement the revealed truth of God. But any problem that comes between God and myself is the result of disobedience. Any problem that comes while I obey God (and there will be many), increases my overjoyed delight, because I know that my Father knows and cares, and I can watch and anticipate how He will unravel my problems.
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December 14 2015
Journal Entry for Today-JDV
Good morning God and thank you for what seems like a “wrap up” lesson. “Whenever peace does not come, wait until it does, or find out why it is not coming” seemed to wrap up what You have been teaching us about surrender, connection and curiosity over these past several months. We have found that our surrender (giving up our rights to ourselves, our own ideas, perceptions and religion) leaves us in a place where we can actually let go and trust that all things work together for the good of those that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. You have been teaching us that we are to let go of our ideas about prayer and what we believe are the “right outcomes”. And that our circumstances and or the circumstances of those we love do not matter; You are God and You are good all the time. Is this truly the lesson Lord?
And God says…”You can call it situational surrender. The process whereby you surrender, pray or reach out when things do not seem to be going your way, or the difficulties or anticipated difficulties seem too much for you or yours. It is easy to surrender when things are overwhelming and not going your way, but what about the times when you can see your goals, your dreams and visions emerging? What about when things seem to be going well for you and your family? Do you still surrender? Can you give up your views of good, excellent and amazing for Mine? And how do you know when it is My will and not your own ideas and vision about family, church, relationships and material things? Surrender, connection, curiosity, that is followed by obedience and the peace that passes understanding is one very good way to always start. Acknowledge Me in all your ways, and I will make your paths straight. Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and I will give you everything else you require, including the vision, ideas, and perceptions that bring a peace that passes all understanding, regardless of the circumstances facing you and yours. Delight yourselves in the Lord, and I will give you the desires of your heart. “