Martha believed in the power available to Jesus Christ; she believed that if He had been there He could have healed her brother; she also believed that Jesus had a special intimacy with God, and that whatever He asked of God, God would do. But— she needed a closer personal intimacy with Jesus. Martha’s theology had its fulfillment in the future. But Jesus continued to attract and draw her in until her belief became an intimate possession. It then slowly emerged into a personal inheritance— “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ…” (John 11:27).Is the Lord dealing with you in the same way? Is Jesus teaching you to have a personal intimacy with Himself? Allow Him to drive His question home to you— “Do you believe this?” Are you facing an area of doubt in your life? Have you come, like Martha, to a crossroads of overwhelming circumstances where your theology is about to become a very personal belief? This happens only when a personal problem brings the awareness of our personal need.To believe is to commit. In the area of intellectual learning I commit myself mentally, and reject anything not related to that belief. In the realm of personal belief I commit myself morally to my convictions and refuse to compromise. But in intimate personal belief I commit myself spiritually to Jesus Christ and make a determination to be dominated by Him alone.

Then, when I stand face to face with Jesus Christ and He says to me, “Do you believe this?” I find that faith is as natural as breathing. And I am staggered when I think how foolish I have been in not trusting Him earlier.

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November 6 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning God. I really love the way You continue to show us, through devotionals, music, and your Spirit the main thing, over and over and over. We no longer need to search for that one next sermon, lesson, Bible study or small group to feel intimate and connected with You. We simply need to give up…..to You. We no longer feel compelled to understand we simply surrender, connect with You and live out of that. And even when we cannot surrender, You give us trials and circumstances that give us that perfect result.

 

And God says…”When you seek Me, you will find Me, and most people, most of the time, seek Me after trying to figure it all out on their own; after trying to solve the problems and or eradicate their pain. You wonder where I am as you feel trapped inside your prayers and ideas about what it means to trust Me. Martha just knew in her own idea of how I should work; that Jesus could have healed Lazarus had He been there. It did not occur to her that Jesus could and would raise him from the dead. When you surrender your own ideas about how I should work in your life, you free me from the constraints of your limited faith. Trust in Me with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding of how and when I should work, and I will make your paths straight. Seek Jesus first, in all things, and know I will meet all your needs in ways you could not imagine or pray for.  Surrender, connect and be curious in your delight with Me and I will give you the desires of your heart.”

It is essential that you give people the opportunity to act on the truth of God. The responsibility must be left with the individual— you cannot act for him. It must be his own deliberate act, but the evangelical message should always lead him to action. Refusing to act leaves a person paralyzed, exactly where he was previously. But once he acts, he is never the same. It is the apparent folly of the truth that stands in the way of hundreds who have been convicted by the Spirit of God. Once I press myself into action, I immediately begin to live. Anything less is merely existing. The moments I truly live are the moments when I act with my entire will.

When a truth of God is brought home to your soul, never allow it to pass without acting on it internally in your will, not necessarily externally in your physical life. Record it with ink and with blood— work it into your life. The weakest saint who transacts business with Jesus Christ is liberated the second he acts and God’s almighty power is available on his behalf. We come up to the truth of God, confess we are wrong, but go back again. Then we approach it again and turn back, until we finally learn we have no business going back.

When we are confronted with such a word of truth from our redeeming Lord, we must move directly to transact business with Him. “Come to Me…” (Matthew 11:28). His word come means “to act.” Yet the last thing we want to do is come. But everyone who does come knows that, at that very moment, the supernatural power of the life of God invades him. The dominating power of the world, the flesh, and the devil is now paralyzed; not by your act, but because your act has joined you to God and tapped you in to His redemptive power.

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November 4 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning God and thank You for the Holy Spirit that has been leading David and me into the revelation about surrender, connection, curiosity and obedience. Today You showed us that this is not only an event in our lives it is also a daily and issue related process. That is to say, as believers, we start the day seeking surrender, connection and curiosity for our lives for this day; just like the daily manna You provided the Israelites in the desert. You are leading us to an awareness that we are to also seek surrender, connection and curiosity around key issues, opportunities, circumstances and trials. That when the dashboard of our lives shows our need to predict, control, worry, or even understand a situation, we are to seek, with Your help, to be surrendered and connected. We understand that we are not to limit you by expecting a certain outcome or response from You. It is sufficient for us to let You be the God of our lives, and know that all things work for the good of those that love the Lord.

And God says…”Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door will be opened. Just like the difficulty created by the people of Nazareth, when you limit the power of God by limiting your faith to certain desired outcomes that you can grasp, you in effect are limiting My power in your life. Trust in Me with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding, awareness, or religion, and I will make your paths straight. When you seek Me first (through surrender and connection), I can meet all your other needs. And when you do not feel as if you can surrender and let go of your own ideas of how I should respond to you my grace is sufficient for you. Through practiced daily and circumstance focused surrender, connection and curiosity you will discover that you are living a life delighted in the Lord; even when circumstances are unchanged and difficult. And when you delight yourself in the Lord I can give you the desires of your heart.”

Our Lord never insists on obedience. He stresses very definitely what we ought to do, but He never forces us to do it. We have to obey Him out of a oneness of spirit with Him. That is why whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He prefaced it with an “If,” meaning, “You do not need to do this unless you desire to do so.” “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself…” (Luke 9:23). In other words, “To be My disciple, let him give up his right to himself to Me.” Our Lord is not talking about our eternal position, but about our being of value to Him in this life here and now. That is why He sounds so stern (see Luke 14:26). Never try to make sense from these words by separating them from the One who spoke them.The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear. If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself. Jesus Christ will not force me to obey Him, but I must. And as soon as I obey Him, I fulfill my spiritual destiny. My personal life may be crowded with small, petty happenings, altogether insignificant. But if I obey Jesus Christ in the seemingly random circumstances of life, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God. Then, when I stand face to face with God, I will discover that through my obedience thousands were blessed. When God’s redemption brings a human soul to the point of obedience, it always produces. If I obey Jesus Christ, the redemption of God will flow through me to the lives of others, because behind the deed of obedience is the reality of Almighty God.

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November 2, 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning God. Thank You for this day and the opportunity to start my day with You. I recall and read that we are not to confuse the commandments of Jesus with the Ten Commandments. Jesus was clear when asked about the commandments: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with your entire mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments,” (Matt 22:36-40, Amp).

The lesson further reinforces what You have been teaching us about surrender: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself…” (Luke 9:23). In other words, “To be My disciple, let him give up his right to himself to Me.”

This seems very consistent with Your leading over the past several months and years; that when we are in an intimate relationship with You (loving You with all our heart and mind) and surrendered (giving up our rights to ourselves) and connected, we then are in a position to allow You in the person of the Holy Spirit to live through us and guide us into obedience.

 

And God says…”Trust in Me with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding and I will make your paths straight. I will lead you into obedience out of your surrender and connection with Me, not because you feel obligated or guilty, but out of love. And I even provide you this capacity to love, when you ask for the ability to surrender. When you love Me with all your heart and soul, it is surrender. And out of this love comes the ability to love yourself and your neighbor.”

“When you seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, I can meet all your needs, because you allow Me to do this out of your surrender. You can choose to strive, grit your teeth and try, try, try to meet your own needs…and fail. You can choose to strive to become a better person, a better Christian, a better husband, wife, mother or father,  son or daughter, employer or employee, a better provider…and over time you will fail. Or you can choose to surrender and delight yourself in Me and allow Me to give you the desires of your heart. Take My yoke upon you daily….and let go of your own ideas of how to live and you will discover the daily wonder and true success and satisfaction of a surrendered and connected life”.

Faith in active opposition to common sense is mistaken enthusiasm and narrow-mindedness, and common sense in opposition to faith demonstrates a mistaken reliance on reason as the basis for truth. The life of faith brings the two of these into the proper relationship. Common sense and faith are as different from each other as the natural life is from the spiritual, and as impulsiveness is from inspiration. Nothing that Jesus Christ ever said is common sense, but is revelation sense, and is complete, whereas common sense falls short. Yet faith must be tested and tried before it becomes real in your life. “We know that all things work together for good…” (Romans 8:28) so that no matter what happens, the transforming power of God’s providence transforms perfect faith into reality. Faith always works in a personal way, because the purpose of God is to see that perfect faith is made real in His children.For every detail of common sense in life, there is a truth God has revealed by which we can prove in our practical experience what we believe God to be. Faith is a tremendously active principle that always puts Jesus Christ first. The life of faith says, “Lord, You have said it, it appears to be irrational, but I’m going to step out boldly, trusting in Your Word” (for example, see Matthew 6:33). Turning intellectual faith into our personal possession is always a fight, not just sometimes. God brings us into particular circumstances to educate our faith, because the nature of faith is to make the object of our faith very real to us. Until we know Jesus, God is merely a concept, and we can’t have faith in Him. But once we hear Jesus say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9) we immediately have something that is real, and our faith is limitless. Faith is the entire person in the right relationship with God through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

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October 30 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning God. A line in the song for today spoke to my heart; …I look back and I see you, I always do.” That seems to be one of the ways my faith is strengthened; by looking back and seeing how You loved me through it all. One of the scriptures I recall about faith is Romans 10:17. Faith comes from hearing the word of God. And I have understood this to mean that my faith grows as I read and am submerged in Your word. But I am also starting to believe that my faith grows as I am surrounded by Your voice that comes through my surrender and our connection. And the evidence of this comes when I look back and see how You have impacted my life; how You have loved me, through it all.

And God says…”When you seek Me you will find Me. If you seek my voice, you will hear Me from sources all around you. When You are surrendered, connected and curious, you will hear me speaking to you though the Bible, all kinds of songs, books, movies, nature, and your family, friends and circumstances. When we are connected you will see and hear Me everywhere. Your faith grows as you are surrendered, connected and curious. As you simply let go of the commonsense of it and let My presence be natural and supernatural in your life. Seek first the kingdom of God, and I will meet ALL your needs. Acknowledge Me in all your ways and I will make your paths straight.  All things (that means everything) work for the good of those that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.”

 

 

The modern view of the death of Jesus is that He died for our sins out of sympathy for us. Yet the New Testament view is that He took our sin on Himself not because of sympathy, but because of His identification with us. He was “made…to be sin….” Our sins are removed because of the death of Jesus, and the only explanation for His death is His obedience to His Father, not His sympathy for us. We are acceptable to God not because we have obeyed, nor because we have promised to give up things, but because of the death of Christ, and for no other reason. We say that Jesus Christ came to reveal the fatherhood and the lovingkindness of God, but the New Testament says that He came to take “away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

And the revealing of the fatherhood of God is only to those to whom Jesus has been introduced as Savior. In speaking to the world, Jesus Christ never referred to Himself as One who revealed the Father, but He spoke instead of being a stumbling block (see John 15:22-24). John 14:9, where Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father,” was spoken to His disciples.That Christ died for me, and therefore I am completely free from penalty, is never taught in the New Testament.

What is taught in the New Testament is that “He died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:15)— not, “He died my death”— and that through identification with His death I can be freed from sin, and have His very righteousness imparted as a gift to me. The substitution which is taught in the New Testament is twofold— “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” The teaching is not Christ for me unless I am determined to have Christ formed in me (see Galatians 4:19).

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I am not saved by believing— I simply realize I am saved by believing. And it is not repentance that saves me— repentance is only the sign that I realize what God has done through Christ Jesus. The danger here is putting the emphasis on the effect, instead of on the cause. Is it my obedience, consecration, and dedication that make me right with God? It is never that! I am made right with God because, prior to all of that, Christ died. When I turn to God and by belief accept what God reveals, the miraculous atonement by the Cross of Christ instantly places me into a right relationship with God. And as a result of the supernatural miracle of God’s grace I stand justified, not because I am sorry for my sin, or because I have repented, but because of what Jesus has done. The Spirit of God brings justification with a shattering, radiant light, and I know that I am saved, even though I don’t know how it was accomplished.The salvation that comes from God is not based on human logic, but on the sacrificial death of Jesus. We can be born again solely because of the atonement of our Lord. Sinful men and women can be changed into new creations, not through their repentance or their belief, but through the wonderful work of God in Christ Jesus which preceded all of our experience (see 2 Corinthians 5:17-19). The unconquerable safety of justification and sanctification is God Himself. We do not have to accomplish these things ourselves— they have been accomplished through the atonement of the Cross of Christ. The supernatural becomes natural to us through the miracle of God, and there is the realization of what Jesus Christ has already done— “It is finished!” (John 19:30).

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October 28 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning God and thank you for this devotional and Your leading. It seems that You are teaching us that our actions and intent play little if any role in our “getting right with You”. Our actions and intent do not count. What counts is the cross of Jesus. Is this the lesson Lord? That our role is to simply acknowledge and accept the cross of Jesus? Should we stop striving to be “more” of “this” or less of “that” ? Should we give up our attempts to become better men and women? Should we give up trying to become men after Your own heart?

And God says…”When you simply accept the work of Jesus on the cross, and surrender yourself to Me, I am free to work in your life. The supernatural work of the cross begins where you end. When you let go of your ideas of what our relationship should be like, when you let go of your plans and perceptions and understanding, I am free to make your paths straight. ….”Acknowledge the Lord in all your ways and do not trust your own understanding and I will make your paths straight”.

“When you seek first seek the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and His righteousness, all your needs will be met… your day to day needs as well as your need for clarity and answers to life’s questions. Although the questions, answers and issues you thought were important miraculously change and or are suddenly unimportant when you realize, through surrender and connection, that I am God, and I love you more than you can comprehend. When you are surrendered and connected you simply “know” your standing with Me. You then begin to realize that I always and forever, work all things, all circumstances, all events and issues out for your good. Delight yourself in the Lord and I will give you the desires of your miraculously changed heart and life.”

A missionary is someone sent by Jesus Christ just as He was sent by God. The great controlling factor is not the needs of people, but the command of Jesus. The source of our inspiration in our service for God is behind us, not ahead of us. The tendency today is to put the inspiration out in front— to sweep everything together in front of us and make it conform to our definition of success. But in the New Testament the inspiration is put behind us, and is the Lord Jesus Himself. The goal is to be true to Him— to carry out His plans.

Personal attachment to the Lord Jesus and to His perspective is the one thing that must not be overlooked. In missionary work the great danger is that God’s call will be replaced by the needs of the people, to the point that human sympathy for those needs will absolutely overwhelm the meaning of being sent by Jesus. The needs are so enormous, and the conditions so difficult, that every power of the mind falters and fails. We tend to forget that the one great reason underneath all missionary work is not primarily the elevation of the people, their education, nor their needs, but is first and foremost the command of Jesus Christ— “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…” (Matthew 28:19).

When looking back on the lives of men and women of God, the tendency is to say, “What wonderfully keen and intelligent wisdom they had, and how perfectly they understood all that God wanted!” But the keen and intelligent mind behind them was the mind of God, not human wisdom at all. We give credit to human wisdom when we should give credit to the divine guidance of God being exhibited through childlike people who were “foolish” enough to trust God’s wisdom and His supernatural equipment.

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October 26 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning Lord. This devotional reminds me that the main thing is still the main thing; our relationship with Jesus Christ. Chambers says…”Personal attachment to the Lord Jesus and to His perspective is the one thing that must not be overlooked”.  This reminds me that we may have our own ideas about what our work and service “looks like” but we have no business lending our perspective to spiritual initiatives. And that even in what we would call “non-spiritual” matters, we are to allow Jesus to provide His perspective. In all we do and seek to do, it is the perspective of Jesus that holds real meaning for us and those we engage with our service.

And God says…”That is exactly right. Seek first the Kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and His righteousness, and I will provide everything else you need. Acknowledge Me in all your ways, not just the ones that “look spiritual”, and I will make your paths straight. Delight yourself in the Lord, immerse yourself in His presence, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

“Our relationship is found in living out of your daily surrender, connection, curiosity, and obedience, in all you think, say and act upon; in ALL you do. Just come to Me surrendered, and I will provide everything else you require for a life as a missionary, a father, mother, husband, wife, employee, entrepreneur, pastor, or however else you might see yourself, and the roles of your life. When you live surrendered and connected, you can be certain that MY perspective from the Holy Spirit will guide, direct and create the “Jesus” perspective for your living. And when you fail to live surrendered and connected? When you take your own yoke, and your own ideas about your life and service? My grace is sufficient for you, and you can be certain that I will work out all things for the good of those that love the Lord.”