This verse is a description of total reliance on God. Just as the eyes of a servant are riveted on his master, our eyes should be directed to and focused on God. This is how knowledge of His countenance is gained and how God reveals Himself to us (see Isaiah 53:1). Our spiritual strength begins to be drained when we stop lifting our eyes to Him. Our stamina is sapped, not so much through external troubles surrounding us but through problems in our thinking. We wrongfully think, “I suppose I’ve been stretching myself a little too much, standing too tall and trying to look like God instead of being an ordinary humble person.” We have to realize that no effort can be too high.

For example, you came to a crisis in your life, took a stand for God, and even had the witness of the Spirit as a confirmation that what you did was right. But now, maybe weeks or years have gone by, and you are slowly coming to the conclusion— “Well, maybe what I did showed too much pride or was superficial. Was I taking a stand a bit too high for me?” Your “rational” friends come and say, “Don’t be silly. We knew when you first talked about this spiritual awakening that it was a passing impulse, that you couldn’t hold up under the strain. And anyway, God doesn’t expect you to endure.” You respond by saying, “Well, I suppose I was expecting too much.” That sounds humble to say, but it means that your reliance on God is gone, and you are now relying on worldly opinion. The danger comes when, no longer relying on God, you neglect to focus your eyes on Him. Only when God brings you to a sudden stop will you realize that you have been the loser. Whenever there is a spiritual drain in your life, correct it immediately. Realize that something has been coming between you and God, and change or remove it at once.

_______________________________________________________

November 24, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

I do not know what occurs or how it takes place, but I have come to know through experience that it is impossible to remain down and discouraged when I begin to praise God. Not for just His blessings on me, but for simply being the God of the universe. I have experienced this transformation and have begun to understand that He can change me from the inside out as I worship and praise Him even as I face the most challenging of circumstances.

And God says…”You have been told to worry about nothing but pray about everything, and you shall experience peace that passes all understanding. Praying is simply staying in contact with me not requesting this or that or asking for this blessing or that rescue. Worshiping in Spirit and in truth brings your Spirit into harmony with the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit can then minister to you.

Galatians 5:22-26 (The Message)

 22-23But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

What we must beware of is not damage to our belief in God but damage to our Christian disposition or state of mind. “Take heed to your spirit, that you do not deal treacherously” (Malachi 2:16). Our state of mind is powerful in its effects. It can be the enemy that penetrates right into our soul and distracts our mind from God. There are certain attitudes we should never dare to indulge. If we do, we will find they have distracted us from faith in God. Until we get back into a quiet mood before Him, our faith is of no value, and our confidence in the flesh and in human ingenuity is what rules our lives.

Beware of “the cares of this world . . .” (Mark 4:19). They are the very things that produce the wrong attitudes in our soul. It is incredible what enormous power there is in simple things to distract our attention away from God. Refuse to be swamped by “the cares of this world.”

Another thing that distracts us is our passion for vindication. St. Augustine prayed, “O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself.” Such a need for constant vindication destroys our soul’s faith in God. Don’t say, “I must explain myself,” or, “I must get people to understand.” Our Lord never explained anything— He left the misunderstandings or misconceptions of others to correct themselves.

When we discern that other people are not growing spiritually and allow that discernment to turn to criticism, we block our fellowship with God. God never gives us discernment so that we may criticize, but that we may intercede.

______________________________________________________

November 23, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Over and over the lesson becomes the same; whatever or however challenging the circumstance, the answer is the same, Jesus. Whether it is contempt or insults from someone, or my need to vindicate or defend myself, I can turn to Jesus and find my peace. He becomes the most simple and yet profound and comprehensive solution to all my challenges in this life.

And God says…” Jesus is the way, the truth and the light. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you….Acknowledge the Lord in all your ways and do not rely on your own strength or initiative and He will make your paths straight. Jesus…..who is able to do immeasurably more than all you ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within you.”

Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow aspects of life are not ordained by God; they are ordained by Him equally as much as the profound. We sometimes refuse to be shallow, not out of our deep devotion to God but because we wish to impress other people with the fact that we are not shallow. This is a sure sign of spiritual pride. We must be careful, for this is how contempt for others is produced in our lives. And it causes us to be a walking rebuke to other people because they are more shallow than we are. Beware of posing as a profound person— God became a baby.

To be shallow is not a sign of being sinful, nor is shallowness an indication that there is no depth to your life at all— the ocean has a shore. Even the shallow things of life, such as eating and drinking, walking and talking, are ordained by God. These are all things our Lord did. He did them as the Son of God, and He said, “A disciple is not above his teacher . . .” (Matthew 10:24).

We are safeguarded by the shallow things of life. We have to live the surface, commonsense life in a commonsense way. Then when God gives us the deeper things, they are obviously separated from the shallow concerns. Never show the depth of your life to anyone but God. We are so nauseatingly serious, so desperately interested in our own character and reputation, we refuse to behave like Christians in the shallow concerns of life.

Make a determination to take no one seriously except God. You may find that the first person you must be the most critical with, as being the greatest fraud you have ever known, is yourself.

______________________________________________________

November 22, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

I have begun to take others’ spiritual guidance and direction with a grain of salt….that is unless I am quickened by the Spirit of God and or their guidance is supported by the word of God. Whenever Oswald Chambers or anyone else tells me “beware” of doing this or that, I will read it, digest it and then allow the Holy Spirit of God to bring it into my consciousness. Like most things in my world, I try to hold guidance and direction in an open palm waiting for direction from the Holy Spirit. If I hear the same message over again and again, and or find the message resonating with me, I will then share it with David or another brother and we will prayerfully examine the direction and its application.

And God says…”My son, don’t believe everything you hear or read. Carefully weigh and examine what people write and tell you.  Not every Godly piece of advice or direction is for you at this particular time and not everyone who talks about God comes from God…..remember to test everything you hear with the word of God and with the Spirit of God living within you. And also remember that there is a time for everything. If you want to hear My voice and My confirmation, simply listen for Me. Knock and the door will be answered, ask and you shall receive. My sheep know my voice, listen for Me and do what I ask.”

“And know this; you are My child bought with the blood and sacrifice of Jesus. You are too valuable for Me to leave without specific direction. When you are not certain of My voice and direction, simply wait. I will never leave or forsake you.”

Very few of us know anything about conviction of sin. We know the experience of being disturbed because we have done wrong things. But conviction of sin by the Holy Spirit blots out every relationship on earth and makes us aware of only one— “Against You, You only, have I sinned . . .” (Psalm 51:4). When a person is convicted of sin in this way, he knows with every bit of his conscience that God would not dare to forgive him. If God did forgive him, then this person would have a stronger sense of justice than God. God does forgive, but it cost the breaking of His heart with grief in the death of Christ to enable Him to do so. The great miracle of the grace of God is that He forgives sin, and it is the death of Jesus Christ alone that enables the divine nature to forgive and to remain true to itself in doing so. It is shallow nonsense to say that God forgives us because He is love. Once we have been convicted of sin, we will never say this again. The love of God means Calvary— nothing less! The love of God is spelled out on the Cross and nowhere else. The only basis for which God can forgive me is the Cross of Christ. It is there that His conscience is satisfied.

Forgiveness doesn’t merely mean that I am saved from hell and have been made ready for heaven (no one would accept forgiveness on that level). Forgiveness means that I am forgiven into a newly created relationship which identifies me with God in Christ. The miracle of redemption is that God turns me, the unholy one, into the standard of Himself, the Holy One. He does this by putting into me a new nature, the nature of Jesus Christ.

______________________________________________________

November 19, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

How is it that I am being transformed into Jesus when I do and say things that Jesus would never do or say? When is this great transformation taking place? How can I be certain that it will actually occur? If I am to judge my own failures, it is clear that I am not transformed yet. How long do I wait? When does the metamorphosis actually happen? How long can God tolerate me in my current condition?

And God says…”I cannot tolerate even one white lie told for the benefit of the other person. I cannot tolerate the wonderful things you do for me and others and recall proudly. I cannot tolerate your random acts of kindness spoken of casually so that others may know of your charity. And I cannot tolerate you noticing another’s failures and speaking of them to yourself and others. But I can and do tolerate, love and adore Jesus. And He is who I see when I look at you. And you can be certain that you are being transformed into Jesus because I have told you it is so”

If there is even a trace of individual self-satisfaction left in us, it always says, “I can’t surrender,” or “I can’t be free.” But the spiritual part of our being never says “I can’t”; it simply soaks up everything around it. Our spirit hungers for more and more. It is the way we are built. We are designed with a great capacity for God, but sin, our own individuality, and wrong thinking keep us from getting to Him. God delivers us from sin— we have to deliver ourselves from our individuality. This means offering our natural life to God and sacrificing it to Him, so He may transform it into spiritual life through our obedience.

God pays no attention to our natural individuality in the development of our spiritual life. His plan runs right through our natural life. We must see to it that we aid and assist God, and not stand against Him by saying, “I can’t do that.” God will not discipline us; we must discipline ourselves. God will not bring our “arguments . . . and every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5)— we have to do it. Don’t say, “Oh, Lord, I suffer from wandering thoughts.” Don’t suffer from wandering thoughts. Stop listening to the tyranny of your individual natural life and win freedom into the spiritual life.

“If the Son makes you free . . . .” Do not substitute Savior for Son in this passage. The Savior has set us free from sin, but this is the freedom that comes from being set free from myself by the Son. It is what Paul meant in Galatians 2:20  when he said, “I have been crucified with Christ . . . .” His individuality had been broken and his spirit had been united with his Lord; not just merged into Him, but made one with Him. “. . . you shall be free indeed”— free to the very core of your being; free from the inside to the outside. We tend to rely on our own energy, instead of being energized by the power that comes from identification with Jesus.

________________________________________________________

November 18, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Whenever I read Oswald Chambers or another writer that tells me God has saved me from sin, but I am to provide my own day to day discipline after my salvation and “pull myself up from my spiritual bootstraps” I feel isolated and alone. Am I the only one that needs saving day to day to day? Can everyone else discipline themselves into growth and maturity after their salvation?

And God says…”My power is made perfect in your weakness. Where did you get the notion that salvation was an event and not a lifetime process? Your guarantee of an everlasting life occurred at the point  of your decision to surrender your life to Me, but your complete salvation and life more abundantly comes in being continuously rescued from your disconnection from me (and as my friend Brian McLaren says) and My adventures for your life. Your abundant life is a race you run, not a finish line you cross. And as you stumble and fall, and stumble and fall you will, remember Jesus came to save you every day and in every way. Drown in His ocean of grace and look back and notice how the discipline He provided produces changes in you.”

In the Scriptures, the great miracle of the incarnation slips into the ordinary life of a child; the great miracle of the transfiguration fades into the demon-possessed valley below; the glory of the resurrection descends into a breakfast on the seashore. This is not an anticlimax, but a great revelation of God.

We have a tendency to look for wonder in our experience, and we mistake heroic actions for real heroes. It’s one thing to go through a crisis grandly, yet quite another to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, and no one paying even the remotest attention to us. If we are not looking for halos, we at least want something that will make people say, “What a wonderful man of prayer he is!” or, “What a great woman of devotion she is!” If you are properly devoted to the Lord Jesus, you have reached the lofty height where no one would ever notice you personally. All that is noticed is the power of God coming through you all the time.

We want to be able to say, “Oh, I have had a wonderful call from God!” But to do even the most humbling tasks to the glory of God takes the Almighty God Incarnate working in us. To be utterly unnoticeable requires God’s Spirit in us making us absolutely humanly His. The true test of a saint’s life is not successfulness but faithfulness on the human level of life. We tend to set up success in Christian work as our purpose, but our purpose should be to display the glory of God in human life, to live a life “hidden with Christ in God” in our everyday human conditions (Colossians 3:3). Our human relationships are the very conditions in which the ideal life of God should be exhibited.

_________________________________________________________

November 16, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

God, please give me some indication that I am on the right track, the right path. I feel like I am walking around in circles sometimes, hoping and praying that I am right where you want me to be. If my circumstances have not changed, if life does not seem to be getting any better, how do I know you are still there if I cannot feel you and know you are near?

And God says…”Nothing can separate you from My love. Nothing, not even you or the circumstances you create. When it seems as if no one else knows how you feel, My love for you is proven real; over and over. Simply wait on Me and know that when you do your hope will always be rewarded…….you can’t round up enough containers to hold everything I generously pour into your life through the Holy Spirit! ………”

“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Acknowledge the Lord in all your ways and He will make your paths straight. Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.” 

One of the hardest lessons to learn comes from our stubborn refusal to refrain from interfering in other people’s lives. It takes a long time to realize the danger of being an amateur providence, that is, interfering with God’s plan for others. You see someone suffering and say, “He will not suffer, and I will make sure that he doesn’t.” You put your hand right in front of God’s permissive will to stop it, and then God says, “What is that to you?” Is there stagnation in your spiritual life? Don’t allow it to continue, but get into God’s presence and find out the reason for it. You will possibly find it is because you have been interfering in the life of another— proposing things you had no right to propose, or advising when you had no right to advise. When you do have to give advice to another person, God will advise through you with the direct understanding of His Spirit. Your part is to maintain the right relationship with God so that His discernment can come through you continually for the purpose of blessing someone else.

Most of us live only within the level of consciousness— consciously serving and consciously devoted to God. This shows immaturity and the fact that we’re not yet living the real Christian life. Maturity is produced in the life of a child of God on the unconscious level, until we become so totally surrendered to God that we are not even aware of being used by Him. When we are consciously aware of being used as broken bread and poured-out wine, we have yet another level to reach— a level where all awareness of ourselves and of what God is doing through us is completely eliminated. A saint is never consciously a saint— a saint is consciously dependent on God.

_______________________________________________________

November 15, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Dear God, why is it that I can be living life right along and enjoying life and our relationship and then without any warning at all, make a wrong choice, and damage my connection?

And God says…”It is in your nature to seek your own choices. It is in your inner core, to seek your own answers to your questions about life and it is in your nature to try to avoid pain and increase your peace and pleasure. Although your choices never bring the results you seek, you make the choice to be independent of Me over and over. That is why the grace you find in Jesus is never ending and the magnitude of the sacrifice so overwhelming. You can only find your life when you lose it, and you come to our connection only when you reach the end of yourself. Forget your failures, and drown yourself in My ocean of grace.  Focus on Me and be transformed.”  

 “As the Apostle said… ’And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate[a] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.’ 2 Corinthians 3:18

God’s command is, “Take now,” not later. It is incredible how we debate! We know something is right, but we try to find excuses for not doing it immediately. If we are to climb to the height God reveals, it can never be done later— it must be done now. And the sacrifice must be worked through our will before we actually perform it.

“So Abraham rose early in the morning . . . and went to the place of which God had told him” (Genesis 22:3). Oh, the wonderful simplicity of Abraham! When God spoke, he did not “confer with flesh and blood” (Galatians 1:16). Beware when you want to “confer with flesh and blood” or even your own thoughts, insights, or understandings— anything that is not based on your personal relationship with God. These are all things that compete with and hinder obedience to God.

Abraham did not choose what the sacrifice would be. Always guard against self-chosen service for God. Self-sacrifice may be a disease that impairs your service. If God has made your cup sweet, drink it with grace; or even if He has made it bitter, drink it in communion with Him. If the providential will of God means a hard and difficult time for you, go through it. But never decide the place of your own martyrdom, as if to say, “I will only go to there, but no farther.” God chose the test for Abraham, and Abraham neither delayed nor protested, but steadily obeyed. If you are not living in touch with God, it is easy to blame Him or pass judgment on Him. You must go through the trial before you have any right to pronounce a verdict, because by going through the trial you learn to know God better. God is working in us to reach His highest goals until His purpose and our purpose become one.

________________________________________________________

November 11, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Last night during the men’s Bible Study we shared what Jesus means to us. Each one of us took a turn and talked about Jesus in his life. We all had a different way of explaining our different positions and yet we all were saying the same thing. Jesus we said is the answer, the lover of our souls, our conviction, our Savior and Lord, and best friend and brother. We each saw Jesus differently and yet it was clear that Jesus was for each of us exactly what God needed Him to be in our separate and individual lives. Thank you Lord for Jesus, and His sacrifice and willingness to be our all in all.

And God says…” Jesus is the way, the truth and the light. He is the living water for your life, regardless of your circumstance. When you seek the Kingdom of God, you find the step by step direction in Jesus. When you come to Jesus and surrender yourself, He can and will meet you right at the point of your need, and because the needs of each man are different, Jesus can and will be described differently. But He is the same. He is everything you need, right when you need it and remember God provides for all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.”