Am I as spontaneously kind to God as I used to be, or am I only expecting God to be kind to me? Does everything in my life fill His heart with gladness, or do I constantly complain because things don’t seem to be going my way? A person who has forgotten what God treasures will not be filled with joy. It is wonderful to remember that Jesus Christ has needs which we can meet— “Give Me a drink” (John 4:7). How much kindness have I shown Him in the past week? Has my life been a good reflection on His reputation?God is saying to His people, “You are not in love with Me now, but I remember a time when you were.” He says, “I remember…the love of your betrothal…” (Jeremiah 2:2). Am I as filled to overflowing with love for Jesus Christ as I was in the beginning, when I went out of my way to prove my devotion to Him? Does He ever find me pondering the time when I cared only for Him? Is that where I am now, or have I chosen man’s wisdom over true love for Him? Am I so in love with Him that I take no thought for where He might lead me? Or am I watching to see how much respect I get as I measure how much service I should give Him?

As I recall what God remembers about me, I may also begin to realize that He is not what He used to be to me. When this happens, I should allow the shame and humiliation it creates in my life, because it will bring godly sorrow, and “godly sorrow produces repentance…” (2 Corinthians 7:10).

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January 21 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, one more time it seems like Chambers is laying out guilt, obligation and leveraging emotional manipulation to try and motivate his students and keep them in line. This is the kind of teaching that chased me from the church years ago.

And God says…”It is true that Chambers and many others in the church and the church itself have used various kinds of emotional leverage to try and move people to repentance and sanctification. However, I have reminded you over the years that I only want relationships of love.  I do not want your guilt, obligation or your sense that you need to measure up.  Leave those feelings of unworthiness at the cross along with the feelings of guilt and obligation. Of course you are unworthy, but when I look at you, I see Jesus. My unlimited grace and mercy provide the path for you to be connected to Me out of love. I would not have you trade one set of chains for another.”  

Whenever God gives a vision to a Christian, it is as if He puts him in “the shadow of His hand” (Isaiah 49:2). The saint’s duty is to be still and listen. There is a “darkness” that comes from too much light— that is the time to listen. The story of Abram and Hagar in Genesis 16 is an excellent example of listening to so-called good advice during a time of darkness, rather than waiting for God to send the light. When God gives you a vision and darkness follows, wait. God will bring the vision He has given you to reality in your life if you will wait on His timing. Never try to help God fulfill His word. Abram went through thirteen years of silence, but in those years all of his self-sufficiency was destroyed. He grew past the point of relying on his own common sense. Those years of silence were a time of discipline, not a period of God’s displeasure. There is never any need to pretend that your life is filled with joy and confidence; just wait upon God and be grounded in Him (see Isaiah 50:10-11).Do I trust at all in the flesh? Or have I learned to go beyond all confidence in myself and other people of God? Do I trust in books and prayers or other joys in my life? Or have I placed my confidence in God Himself, not in His blessings? “I am Almighty God…”— El-Shaddai, the All-Powerful God (Genesis 17:1). The reason we are all being disciplined is that we will know God is real. As soon as God becomes real to us, people pale by comparison, becoming shadows of reality. Nothing that other saints do or say can ever upset the one who is built on God.___________________________________________________________________ 

January 19 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, I get the message of this devotional; when You give me a vision, wait on You to fulfill it, do not take it into my own hands.  And I must certainly avoid the old “OK thanks for the vision, let me take it from here Lord”.  It is a sound message to wait upon the Lord. And when I am certain that it is a vision or direction from You, I believe I can, and do wait on You.  But when I want or need something so badly, and believe You have sent the answer in the form of a solution, reprieve, or blessing…well I have a propensity to grab hold for all I’m worth.

Now looking back over some of the “visions” or answers I thought I received from You, I question my capacity and patience and wonder if the vision or message was from You at all? Or was it my imagination, or my intensified desire? If I was absolutely certain that the vision is or was from you, and if I could stand still and wait even while I saw the boat sinking or freight train barreling down…Lord I would be a lot more patient and become more proficient at the waiting part.

And God says…”You become more proficient as you wait and listen. Your faith grows as you wait and notice that the boat has not sunk and the freight train was a miniature or a figment of your fear and trepidation. When you say, “I believe, help me in my unbelief”, how do you think your belief can be helped? Your  belief grows out of sitting in the boat (or walking on the water) when the boat seems to be sinking, Your belief and faith grows when you wait on Me all the while sensing and feeling the rumbling on the train tracks. Of course you would wait if I sent a miracle so that there was no reason to doubt. But Jesus came as a human child in swaddling clothes. He did not fly out of the sky proclaiming victory. And the answers to your wants, needs, prayers and requests also come in the form of everyday occurrences.”  

“All things work together for the good of those that love the Lord. When you live and interpret all things as coming to you from God, you then can also wait for the nudge, notion or specific direction for when and how to take action, or not. You will become proficient.  Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not rely on your own understanding and I will make your paths straight. … Those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary. If you seek Me, seek my voice, you will learn to hear Me above your own voice and the cacophony of everyday life. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door will be opened. My sheep know My voice.”

When we talk about the call of God, we often forget the most important thing, namely, the nature of Him who calls. There are many things calling each of us today. Some of these calls will be answered, and others will not even be heard. The call is the expression of the nature of the One who calls, and we can only recognize the call if that same nature is in us. The call of God is the expression of God’s nature, not ours.

God providentially weaves the threads of His call through our lives, and only we can distinguish them. It is the threading of God’s voice directly to us over a certain concern, and it is useless to seek another person’s opinion of it. Our dealings over the call of God should be kept exclusively between ourselves and Him.

The call of God is not a reflection of my nature; my personal desires and temperament are of no consideration. As long as I dwell on my own qualities and traits and think about what I am suited for, I will never hear the call of God. But when God brings me into the right relationship with Himself, I will be in the same condition Isaiah was. Isaiah was so attuned to God, because of the great crisis he had just endured, that the call of God penetrated his soul.

The majority of us cannot hear anything but ourselves. And we cannot hear anything God says. But to be brought to the place where we can hear the call of God is to be profoundly changed.

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January 16 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, thank You for the reminder that we can and do hear Your voice. Thank You for reminding me that when I hear Your voice I am in the same condition as was Isaiah; so connected that I can hear You very clearly.

And God says…”And Isaiah was attuned and connected to Me because of the great crisis he had just endured. Do not try to get out of your crisis and difficulties too quickly, let them have their perfect result; one of which is that you are attuned and very connected to Me. Get and stay connected, daily. Be attuned to My voice. Then live it out in your minute by minute, hour by hour walk. Acknowledge Me in all your ways, and I will make your paths straight. Delight yourself in the Lord and I will give you the desires of your heart. Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and everything else you require will be provided.”

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.”

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January 14 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, thank you for this day and this devotional. This devotional reminds us that You are communicating with us, all of us, all the time. Our ability to hear is the issue. And we hear you clearly when we are connected. Help me to get connected, stay connected and to live it out this day Lord.  And Lord, You know that I am not together enough to say send me; but I know that whatever I face in the journey is already dealt with by You. Thank you for the reminder that we can all say “send me” because the Holy Spirit that opens our ears also prepares and protects us as we step out.

And God says…” Your surrender is all that is required to develop ears that can hear. My sheep know My voice.  Occasionally you will have to “wait”, trust and believe before you can hear Me clearly. But do not stop surrendering and listening. Do not step out on your own thinking you have it all figured out in advance…..you know…I show you a slice of the journey so that you can then grab hold and say…”Thank You Lord for showing me, now I’ve got this”. Trust in Me and wait on Me until the next steps are very bright and clear. Do not say…”Here I am send me” and then rush out on your own. When I send you, I send you knowing your next steps, only lighting your way a few steps at a time. The key is to get and stay connected, knowing all things work for the good of those that love the Lord.”

Thank You Lord, but how long will I have to wait on You?  How long will you keep me waiting?  How long before I know it is You that is speaking, guiding and directing my steps? How long before you act? How long before you actually show and equip me for my connection and the next steps?

Spend your “waiting time” in surrender, worship and prayer, and you will never wait again.  You will simply be connected to the moment…with Me. Delight yourself in the Lord and I will give you the desires of your heart.

Our Solitude with Him. Jesus doesn’t take us aside and explain things to us all the time; He explains things to us as we are able to understand them. The lives of others are examples for us, but God requires us to examine our own souls. It is slow work— so slow that it takes God all of time and eternity to make a man or woman conform to His purpose. We can only be used by God after we allow Him to show us the deep, hidden areas of our own character. It is astounding how ignorant we are about ourselves! We don’t even recognize the envy, laziness, or pride within us when we see it. But Jesus will reveal to us everything we have held within ourselves before His grace began to work. How many of us have learned to look inwardly with courage?We have to get rid of the idea that we understand ourselves. That is always the last bit of pride to go. The only One who understands us is God. The greatest curse in our spiritual life is pride. If we have ever had a glimpse of what we are like in the sight of God, we will never say, “Oh, I’m so unworthy.” We will understand that this goes without saying. But as long as there is any doubt that we are unworthy, God will continue to close us in until He gets us alone. Whenever there is any element of pride or conceit remaining, Jesus can’t teach us anything. He will allow us to experience heartbreak or the disappointment we feel when our intellectual pride is wounded. He will reveal numerous misplaced affections or desires— things over which we never thought He would have to get us alone. Many things are shown to us, often without effect. But when God gets us alone over them, they will be clear.

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January 12 2015

 

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning Lord.  Once again Chambers writes about our spiritual frailties. And I suspect he was (and is) still trying to help us understand that without You we can are unable to see ourselves clearly. And that is certainly true.  When you taught us to get connected to You, stay connected and then live it out, we came to understand that this is the way to be led and shaped by You.  That Your Spirit would lead, guide and direct us in all things, as long as we seek You first.  Is this the case?

And God says…”Yes this is the case. The scriptures are clear about this as well. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door will be opened. Come near to Me and I will come near to you. Acknowledge Me in all your ways and I will make your paths straight.  Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and everything else you want or need will be provided. When you seek Me you will find Me. Try this…..Seek Me first in everything and anything you do this day, and then recall your day and the way it rolled out as you get ready for bed in the evening.  The peace and progress of your life and activities will astound you.”

 

“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.

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January 9 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, when we are alone and talking I can often sense your love and peace and that deep sense of belonging. And even though I know that Your Spirit is embedded in me there are other times when I cannot feel You at all, and it seems that you have abandoned me.  If your spirit is embedded within me then why does this happen?

And God says…” There are those that would say that you have done something wrong, committed some transgression to cause our communication to be broken. They would say that this is the reason you often can’t feel or sense my presence. But that is not accurate. I will never leave you or forsake you. My love and grace are much greater than your wrong doing or thinking. You often cannot hear or sense my presence because your faith and spiritual muscles need to grow, and they grow best when you are in the midst of trying times. During these times you learn more about Me and yourself. I am God and my ways are not your ways.  Many believe that a good parent should remove their child from pain and suffering immediately. But the best news in history came from letting my Son endure the pain and suffering of the cross.  When I allow time and suffering to leave their mark on you, these are signs that I am loving and blessing you.  Trust Me, acknowledge Me in all your ways, do not lean on your own understanding, and I will make your paths straight. Delight yourself in Me and I will give you the desires of your heart.  If I gave up My son for you, I would certainly not withhold any good thing”.   When I am quiet, I am letting the trial, pain and hurt to have its perfect result. And the result is that you  are shaped into a more perfect likeness of Jesus.”

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.