…bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ… —2 Corinthians 10:5

Determinedly Discipline Other Things. This is another difficult aspect of the strenuous nature of sainthood. Paul said, according to the Moffatt translation of this verse, “…I take every project prisoner to make it obey Christ….” So much Christian work today has never been disciplined, but has simply come into being by impulse! In our Lord’s life every project was disciplined to the will of His Father. There was never the slightest tendency to follow the impulse of His own will as distinct from His Father’s will— “the Son can do nothing of Himself…” (John 5:19). Then compare this with what we do— we take “every thought” or project that comes to us by impulse and jump into action immediately, instead of imprisoning and disciplining ourselves to obey Christ.

Practical work for Christians is greatly overemphasized today, and the saints who are “bringing every thought [and project] into captivity” are criticized and told that they are not determined, and that they lack zeal for God or zeal for the souls of others. But true determination and zeal are found in obeying God, not in the inclination to serve Him that arises from our own undisciplined human nature. It is inconceivable, but true nevertheless, that saints are not “bringing every thought [and project] into captivity,” but are simply doing work for God that has been instigated by their own human nature, and has not been made spiritual through determined discipline.

We have a tendency to forget that a person is not only committed to Jesus Christ for salvation, but is also committed, responsible, and accountable to Jesus Christ’s view of God, the world, and of sin and the devil. This means that each person must recognize the responsibility to “be transformed by the renewing of [his] mind….” (Romans 12:2).

_______________________________________________________________

September 9, 2016

Journal entry for today-JDV

Good morning God, and thank you for this devotional and the lessons You are teaching us from these devotionals. After dedicating our study to You and praying that You lead us, we once again substituted the word “surrender” in front of any activity or action on our part and concluded that one way for us to “bring every thought [and project] into captivity” is for us to start every project or activity of every day with a short prayer of surrender. In this way we can live knowing we will be “praying without ceasing” and we can absolutely look through the rear view mirror of our day knowing that the results of our day fit into Romans 8:28…”all things work together for our good.” Such a simple lesson but one we have not truly executed throughout each day. Thank You for showing us this opportunity.

And God says…”Good intentions and good outcomes” are not indicators that you have taken EVERY thought captive, or that I am in the outcome.  Early in your Christian life you learned this scripture… “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ… —2 Corinthians 10:5” as a guide for casting out secular, natural and sinful thoughts. And this scripture was used by your teachers to help motivate you to lose secular and sinful thoughts; to live out of thoughts captive to Me. However, this scripture is also a guide as to how to live a connected life. Take every thought; secular or “spiritual” and surrender it to me. Take every project, large or small, every household duty and surrender it to Me. Do not just say grace over your breakfast; surrender the preparation of the breakfast to Me. Surrender every thought, every project, whether you believe it to be spiritual or not; surrender it to Me in advance of any action on your part.”

“When you live this way, you can be sure that you are in fact praying without ceasing and living a life of surrender and connection. Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and I will take care of your daily needs, projects and opportunities. Acknowledge Me in all your ways and I will make your paths straight.”

…casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God… —2 Corinthians 10:5

Determinedly Demolish Some Things. Deliverance from sin is not the same as deliverance from human nature. There are things in human nature, such as prejudices, that the saint can only destroy through sheer neglect. But there are other things that have to be destroyed through violence, that is, through God’s divine strength imparted by His Spirit. There are some things over which we are not to fight, but only to “stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord…” (see Exodus 14:13). But every theory or thought that raises itself up as a fortified barrier “against the knowledge of God” is to be determinedly demolished by drawing on God’s power, not through human effort or by compromise (see 2 Corinthians 10:4).

It is only when God has transformed our nature and we have entered into the experience of sanctification that the fight begins. The warfare is not against sin; we can never fight against sin— Jesus Christ conquered that in His redemption of us. The conflict is waged over turning our natural life into a spiritual life. This is never done easily, nor does God intend that it be so. It is accomplished only through a series of moral choices. God does not make us holy in the sense that He makes our character holy. He makes us holy in the sense that He has made us innocent before Him. And then we have to turn that innocence into holy character through the moral choices we make. These choices are continually opposed and hostile to the things of our natural life which have become so deeply entrenched— the very things that raise themselves up as fortified barriers “against the knowledge of God.” We can either turn back, making ourselves of no value to the kingdom of God, or we can determinedly demolish these things, allowing Jesus to bring another son to glory (see Hebrews 2:10).

The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. —John 4:14

He who believes in Me…out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. —John 7:38

Stay here and watch with Me. —Matthew 26:38


“Watch with Me.” Jesus was saying, in effect, “Watch with no private point of view at all, but watch solely and entirely with Me.” In the early stages of our Christian life, we do not watch with Jesus, we watch for Him. We do not watch with Him through the revealed truth of the Bible even in the circumstances of our own lives. Our Lord is trying to introduce us to identification with Himself through a particular “Gethsemane” experience of our own. But we refuse to go, saying, “No, Lord, I can’t see the meaning of this, and besides, it’s very painful.” And how can we possibly watch with Someone who is so incomprehensible? How are we going to understand Jesus sufficiently to watch with Him in His Gethsemane, when we don’t even know why He is suffering? We don’t know how to watch with Him— we are only used to the idea of Jesus watching with us.

The disciples loved Jesus Christ to the limit of their natural capacity, but they did not fully understand His purpose. In the Garden of Gethsemane they slept as a result of their own sorrow, and at the end of three years of the closest and most intimate relationship of their lives they “all…forsook Him and fled” (Matthew 26:56).

“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit…” (Acts 2:4). “They” refers to the same people, but something wonderful has happened between these two events— our Lord’s death, resurrection, and ascension— and the disciples have now been invaded and “filled with the Holy Spirit.” Our Lord had said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” (Acts 1:8). This meant that they learned to watch with Him the rest of their lives.

…it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” —1 Peter 1:16

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

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

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

Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord,
The term “holiness” is difficult for me. It has connotations (for me anyway) of lofty and unattainable expectations and “holier than thou” and hypocritical outside holiness. Can I just assume that opening the door as John said in Revelation 3:20 will generate holiness, almost as a by-product?

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

That will indeed happen if some of your assumptions are kept. Surrender is essential. Mainly surrender of your ego and the impulses from your false self or “flesh.” The Big Four, your need to Look Good, Feel Good, Be Right and Be In Control. When those are surrendered you will have made room for me (us) in your heart and you will start seeing the bigger picture, seeing thru our eyes, You will find compassion in your heart that wasn’t there before. You could call it a by product, but actually it is the main product. It is the holiness that was the objective all along.

These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. —John 15:11

Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. —Luke 10:20

Jesus Christ is saying here, “Don’t rejoice in your successful service for Me, but rejoice because of your right relationship with Me.” The trap you may fall into in Christian work is to rejoice in successful service— rejoicing in the fact that God has used you. Yet you will never be able to measure fully what God will do through you if you do not have a right-standing relationship with Jesus Christ. If you keep your relationship right with Him, then regardless of your circumstances or whoever you encounter each day, He will continue to pour “rivers of living water” through you (John 7:38). And it is actually by His mercy that He does not let you know it. Once you have the right relationship with God through salvation and sanctification, remember that whatever your circumstances may be, you have been placed in them by God. And God uses the reaction of your life to your circumstances to fulfill His purpose, as long as you continue to “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7).

Our tendency today is to put the emphasis on service. Beware of the people who make their request for help on the basis of someone’s usefulness. If you make usefulness the test, then Jesus Christ was the greatest failure who ever lived. For the saint, direction and guidance come from God Himself, not some measure of that saint’s usefulness. It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him. All that our Lord gives His attention to in a person’s life is that person’s relationship with God— something of great value to His Father. Jesus is “bringing many sons to glory…” (Hebrews 2:10).

Journal DJR
Good morning Lord, I totally resonate with what Chambers is saying… to focus on our relationship and let the service and actions flow out of that. I had difficulty finding a song that expressed that perfectly. This one mentioned it but also seemed too allow the trap that Chambers mentions: the tendency to put the emphasis on service. Which can lead to relaxing in our pursuit of the relationship.

Of course both are important. You’ve heard Richard Rohr say about the organization that he leads, the “Center for Action and Contemplation” that the most important word in the title is the word “AND” You can’t thrive without both. Service and Relationship. Action and Contemplation. It’s just a matter of which comes first and drives the other. Here’s the order.

Think about what happens in that Relationship, especially if you get serious and dial down your clamoring thoughts and seriously strive to give heart space and head space to me and the relationship.

Revelation 3:20 I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

John 7:37-39 ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’ (When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit)

So you and the Holy Spirit will both come and dine?

All three of us. We’ll be teaching you more about that as the restoration project moves along. Just know, we can’t be isolated for parsing and analysis as some like to do. For us, it’s a dance, a circle dance and the partners are always moving. And we’re inviting you into our dance.

Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” —John 11:40

Every time you venture out in your life of faith, you will find something in your circumstances that, from a commonsense standpoint, will flatly contradict your faith. But common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense. In fact, they are as different as the natural life and the spiritual. Can you trust Jesus Christ where your common sense cannot trust Him? Can you venture out with courage on the words of Jesus Christ, while the realities of your commonsense life continue to shout, “It’s all a lie”? When you are on the mountaintop, it’s easy to say, “Oh yes, I believe God can do it,” but you have to come down from the mountain to the demon-possessed valley and face the realities that scoff at your Mount-of-Transfiguration belief (see Luke 9:28-42). Every time my theology becomes clear to my own mind, I encounter something that contradicts it. As soon as I say, “I believe ‘God shall supply all [my] need,’ ” the testing of my faith begins (Philippians 4:19). When my strength runs dry and my vision is blinded, will I endure this trial of my faith victoriously or will I turn back in defeat?

Faith must be tested, because it can only become your intimate possession through conflict. What is challenging your faith right now? The test will either prove your faith right, or it will kill it. Jesus said, “Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me” Matthew 11:6). The ultimate thing is confidence in Jesus. “We have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end…” (Hebrews 3:14). Believe steadfastly on Him and everything that challenges you will strengthen your faith. There is continual testing in the life of faith up to the point of our physical death, which is the last great test. Faith is absolute trust in God— trust that could never imagine that He would forsake us (see Hebrews 13:5-6).

____________________________________________________________

August 29, 2016

Journal for Today-JDV

Thank you God for this day and for this opportunity to learn more about Your love and guiding hand. Unlike Chambers message today, “…the test of your faith will either prove your faith or kill it “ we believe Romans 8:28; all things work together for the good of those that love the Lord. We also agreed that our faith needs testing, but that our tests are simply tests to surrender knowing our inabilities and weaknesses are overcome by your strength as we surrender and live connected lives. Is this right Lord, is this the way to live past our own weaknesses and imperfections?

And God said…”Absolutely. If you try to live in your own strength, knowledge, faith and hope you will live in defeat. It is when you learn to let go and allow Me to carry you that you truly live. Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and I will meet all your daily needs. Acknowledge the Lord in all your ways and do not rely on your own strength, knowledge, faith and hope and I will make your paths straight. When you say you cannot “handle it” or life is “too much”, that is right where I can meet you. I meet you right at the point of your surrender.”

What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? —Matthew 7:9