We are in danger of getting into a bargaining spirit with God when we come to Him—we want the witness of the Spirit before we have done what God tells us to do.Why doesn’t God reveal Himself to you? He cannot. It is not that He will not, but He cannot, because you are in the way as long as you won’t abandon yourself to Him in total surrender. Yet once you do, immediately God witnesses to Himself—He cannot witness to you, but He instantly witnesses to His own nature in you. If you received the witness of the Spirit before the reality and truth that comes from obedience, it would simply result in sentimental emotion. But when you act on the basis of redemption, and stop the disrespectfulness of debating with God, He immediately gives His witness. As soon as you abandon your own reasoning and arguing, God witnesses to what He has done, and you are amazed at your total disrespect in having kept Him waiting. If you are debating as to whether or not God can deliver from sin, then either let Him do it or tell Him that He cannot. Do not quote this or that person to Him. Simply obey Matthew 11:28 , “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden . . . .” Come, if you are weary, and ask, if you know you are evil (see Luke 11:9-13).The Spirit of God witnesses to the redemption of our Lord, and to nothing else. He cannot witness to our reason. We are inclined to mistake the simplicity that comes from our natural commonsense decisions for the witness of the Spirit, but the Spirit witnesses only to His own nature, and to the work of redemption, never to our reason. If we are trying to make Him witness to our reason, it is no wonder that we are in darkness and uncertainty. Throw it all overboard, trust in Him, and He will give you the witness of the Spirit.

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October 22, 2014

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, when I ask for help and rescue You tell me that You meet me right there; at my need and request. You tell me to ask and to expect a response….. “Ask and you’ll get; Seek and you’ll find; Knock and the door will open.”  If that is the case, then why do I feel so helpless and so vulnerable when my needs are great and Your rescue not evident?  I know You love me, Your sacrifice proves that. So how do I trust, believe and surrender my own methods for Yours when I cannot see, touch or feel You dealing with my needs and rescue?

And God says…”My ways are not your ways. Imagine that My vocabulary is more than a trillion words and yours is 100,000….. How do we communicate? Imagine that you need to see, hear, smell, taste, and touch to acknowledge Me moving in your life and to your rescue. I am not limited by your senses, nor am I limited by your capacity to understand.  You must simply surrender and trust Me to be God, trust Me and not your own senses and awareness.  And when you cannot find the faith to surrender and trust that I will meet all your needs, allow My love, grace and mercy to fill your gaps and provide the faith, hope and mercy you need to still claim my promises. “

Luke 11:9-13The Message (MSG) 9 Here’s what I’m saying: Ask and you’ll get; Seek and you’ll find; Knock and the door will open. 10-13 “Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This is not a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in. If your little boy asks for a serving of fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? If your little girl asks for an egg, do you trick her with a spider? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing—you’re at least decent to your own children. And don’t you think the Father who conceived you in love will give the Holy Spirit when you ask him?”

 

Sanctification is not a question of whether God is willing to sanctify me— is it my will? Am I willing to let God do in me everything that has been made possible through the atonement of the Cross of Christ? Am I willing to let Jesus become sanctification to me, and to let His life be exhibited in my human flesh? (see 1 Corinthians 1:30). Beware of saying, “Oh, I am longing to be sanctified.” No, you are not. Recognize your need, but stop longing and make it a matter of action. Receive Jesus Christ to become sanctification for you by absolute, unquestioning faith, and the great miracle of the atonement of Jesus will become real in you.All that Jesus made possible becomes mine through the free and loving gift of God on the basis of what Christ accomplished on the cross. And my attitude as a saved and sanctified soul is that of profound, humble holiness (there is no such thing as proud holiness). It is a holiness based on agonizing repentance, a sense of inexpressible shame and degradation, and also on the amazing realization that the love of God demonstrated itself to me while I cared nothing about Him (see Romans 5:8). He completed everything for my salvation and sanctification. No wonder Paul said that nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).Sanctification makes me one with Jesus Christ, and in Him one with God, and it is accomplished only through the magnificent atonement of Christ. Never confuse the effect with the cause. The effect in me is obedience, service, and prayer, and is the outcome of inexpressible thanks and adoration for the miraculous sanctification that has been brought about in me because of the atonement through the Cross of Christ.______________________________________________________________October 20 2014

Journal Entry for today-JDV

Lord, Thank you for the reminder to let You make the changes in us. Thank you for reminding us that Your sacrifice provided all we need for salvation and sanctification. But Lord, I do need help in living this out. My failures cry out to me, my unworthiness stares me right in the face. How am I to realize sanctification when my life is so uneven?

And God says…”How you live it out has nothing to do with your sanctification. You cannot use your life as the measuring stick. Your sanctification is a result of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It is completed. You simply accept and acknowledge it; it requires nothing except your acceptance. Let the Holly Spirit take care of your living it out. You simply get and stay connected to Jesus and let His life transform yours over time. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding and He will make your paths straight. And as the song says… it will be a glorious unfolding”

Prayer does not equip us for greater works— prayer is the greater work. Yet we think of prayer as some commonsense exercise of our higher powers that simply prepares us for God’s work. In the teachings of Jesus Christ, prayer is the working of the miracle of redemption in me, which produces the miracle of redemption in others, through the power of God. The way fruit remains firm is through prayer, but remember that it is prayer based on the agony of Christ in redemption, not on my own agony. We must go to God as His child, because only a child gets his prayers answered; a “wise” man does not (see Matthew 11:25).Prayer is the battle, and it makes no difference where you are. However God may engineer your circumstances, your duty is to pray. Never allow yourself this thought, “I am of no use where I am,” because you certainly cannot be used where you have not yet been placed. Wherever God has placed you and whatever your circumstances, you should pray, continually offering up prayers to Him. And He promises, “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do . . .” (John 14:13). Yet we refuse to pray unless it thrills or excites us, which is the most intense form of spiritual selfishness. We must learn to work according to God’s direction, and He says to pray. “Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:38).

There is nothing thrilling about a laboring person’s work, but it is the laboring person who makes the ideas of the genius possible. And it is the laboring saint who makes the ideas of his Master possible. When you labor at prayer, from God’s perspective there are always results. What an astonishment it will be to see, once the veil is finally lifted, all the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you have been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ.

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October 17 2014

Prayer for my day-JDV

Lord, thank you for the reminder about the power of prayer.  Thank you especially for reminding me that that I am to pray as a little child; trusting and communicating to My Father. And I am very thankful that You continue to remind me that even when I cannot trust as a child, even when I do not have the faith nor feel worthy of approaching You, that You provide the grace, faith, love and mercy that fills my gaps. Please help me to be in a more constant state of prayer this day. Help me to be connected to You at every opportunity. In Jesus name…Amen.

The key to the missionary’s difficult task is in the hand of God, and that key is prayer, not work— that is, not work as the word is commonly used today, which often results in the shifting of our focus away from God. The key to the missionary’s difficult task is also not the key of common sense, nor is it the key of medicine, civilization, education, or even evangelization. The key is in following the Master’s orders— the key is prayer. “Pray the Lord of the harvest . . . .” In the natural realm, prayer is not practical but absurd. We have to realize that prayer is foolish from the commonsense point of view.From Jesus Christ’s perspective, there are no nations, but only the world. How many of us pray without regard to the persons, but with regard to only one Person— Jesus Christ? He owns the harvest that is produced through distress and through conviction of sin. This is the harvest for which we have to pray that laborers be sent out to reap. We stay busy at work, while people all around us are ripe and ready to be harvested; we do not reap even one of them, but simply waste our Lord’s time in over-energized activities and programs. Suppose a crisis were to come into your father’s or your brother’s life— are you there as a laborer to reap the harvest for Jesus Christ? Is your response, “Oh, but I have a special work to do!” No Christian has a special work to do. A Christian is called to be Jesus Christ’s own, “a servant [who] is not greater than his master” (John 13:16), and someone who does not dictate to Jesus Christ what he intends to do. Our Lord calls us to no special work— He calls us to Himself. “Pray the Lord of the harvest,” and He will engineer your circumstances to send you out as His laborer.

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Journal Entry for Today-JDV

October 16, 2014

Lord thank you for the lesson about being called to Jesus, not to a mission. Help us to be connected to You this day and to be conscious of the notion that we are not called to do a work regardless of how good or religious the intention or the stated mission. It is clear that we are to be connected to Jesus, and we are to allow Jesus to work through us to sow and reap. Thank you for teaching us that some of the very best work we do is when we are connected to Jesus and are  unaware of the sowing and reaping being done by You through us. I hear the scriptures clearly; “Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and everything else we need will be provided. Acknowledge the Lord in all our ways and You will make our paths straight. Delight ourselves in the Lord and You will give us the desires of our hearts.”

Lord, help us to be connected, curious, expectant and obedient this day. And when we cannot be connected, curious, expectant and obedient, thank you for filling in our gaps with your love, faith, grace, and mercy.

 

The key to the missionary’s message is the propitiation of Christ Jesus— His sacrifice for us that completely satisfied the wrath of God. Look at any other aspect of Christ’s work, whether it is healing, saving, or sanctifying, and you will see that there is nothing limitless about those. But— “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”— that is limitless (John 1:29). The missionary’s message is the limitless importance of Jesus Christ as the propitiation for our sins, and a missionary is someone who is immersed in the truth of that revelation.The real key to the missionary’s message is the “remissionary” aspect of Christ’s life, not His kindness, His goodness, or even His revealing of the fatherhood of God to us. “. . . repentance and remission of sins should be preached . . . to all nations . . .” (Luke 24:47). The greatest message of limitless importance is that “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins . . . .” The missionary’s message is not nationalistic, favoring nations or individuals; it is “for the whole world.” When the Holy Spirit comes into me, He does not consider my partialities or preferences; He simply brings me into oneness with the Lord Jesus.A missionary is someone who is bound by marriage to the stated mission and purpose of his Lord and Master. He is not to proclaim his own point of view, but is only to proclaim “the Lamb of God.” It is easier to belong to a faction that simply tells what Jesus Christ has done for me, and easier to become a devotee of divine healing, or of a special type of sanctification, or of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But Paul did not say, “Woe is me if I do not preach what Christ has done for me,” but, “. . . woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16). And this is the gospel— “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

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Journal Entry for Today

October 15 2014-JDV

Lord, whenever I hear “religious” words like sanctification, justification and propitiation, I wonder why they do not have the personal impact that other words like love; grace, faith, mercy have on me? I wonder why these words and concepts do not seem as personal to me. Should I spend more time learning about them, or understanding them?  Am I right to be distant from these words, or should I spend more of my spiritual energy learning about them?

And God says…”Translators and biblical scholars searched for words that would help explain the wonderful way for mankind, mired in wrong doing and wrong being,  to become connected to Me through Jesus. However in finding these words they often overlooked the heart in favor of the head. And as you know the real way for people to learn the Gospel is to see it lived out in an individual. When the very personal ways of love, grace, faith and mercy are lived out in you, these powerful and personal words have impact on others. However, your ability and opportunity to live out these words are possible because God provided Jesus as the substitute for your wrong being. And as a result you can now live the “God provided” abundant life by being connected to Jesus, curious about how I will answer your life questions, while you remain expectant and obedient. You can live out the life of a Christian not because of any good thing you have or will do, but because of the sacrifice of Jesus. And when you cannot and do not live out your life doing the right thing, the “propitiation of Jesus”, allows Me  to provide the grace and mercy necessary to overlook your wrong doing or wrong being. I do not see you and your wrong being or doing, I see Jesus. You do not have to be good enough; you simply have to accept Jesus and the abundant life provided by His sacrifice.”

 

Moses saw the oppression of his people and felt certain that he was the one to deliver them, and in the righteous indignation of his own spirit he started to right their wrongs. After he launched his first strike for God and for what was right, God allowed Moses to be driven into empty discouragement, sending him into the desert to feed sheep for forty years. At the end of that time, God appeared to Moses and said to him, ” ’. . . bring My people . . . out of Egypt.’ But Moses said to God, ’Who am I that I should go . . . ?’ ” (Exodus 3:10-11). In the beginning Moses had realized that he was the one to deliver the people, but he had to be trained and disciplined by God first. He was right in his individual perspective, but he was not the person for the work until he had learned true fellowship and oneness with God.We may have the vision of God and a very clear understanding of what God wants, and yet when we start to do it, there comes to us something equivalent to Moses’ forty years in the wilderness. It’s as if God had ignored the entire thing, and when we are thoroughly discouraged, God comes back and revives His call to us. And then we begin to tremble and say, “Who am I that I should go . . . ?” We must learn that God’s great stride is summed up in these words— “I AM WHO I AM . . . has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14). We must also learn that our individual effort for God shows nothing but disrespect for Him— our individuality is to be rendered radiant through a personal relationship with God, so that He may be “well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). We are focused on the right individual perspective of things; we have the vision and can say, “I know this is what God wants me to do.” But we have not yet learned to get into God’s stride. If you are going through a time of discouragement, there is a time of great personal growth ahead.

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Journal Entry for Today

October 13, 2014

Lord, this is a good lesson for discovering the difference for knowing what must be done, and having the power….the power of the Holy Spirit to take action. In my life, I have often heard the calling very clearly and then I start out on my own power only to miss the intended mark. You have been teaching us to wait until we not only know what needs to be done, but to wait until we are full of Your power…AND to let You do the work, let You take the action. Even, or especially, when we know what it is we are to do, we are to wait on You Lord.

And God says…”Even when you know the next steps, even when you know exactly what must be accomplished, you must wait on My Spirit. Set your sights on the goal and leave the “how” to Me. Acknowledge Me in all your ways and do not rely on your own ways and understanding and I will bring it to fruition. Delight yourself in the Lord and I will give you the desires of your heart. Your responsibility is to simply be connected to Me, remain curious about how and when I will deal with the circumstance for you or on your behalf. Expect Me to act and then be obedient to Me when I do.  And if you cannot do these things, trust that I will do them for you. Believe, and know that I will help you in your unbelief.”

 

Isn’t it humiliating to be told that we must come to Jesus! Think of the things about which we will not come to Jesus Christ. If you want to know how real you are, test yourself by these words— “Come to Me . . . .” In every dimension in which you are not real, you will argue or evade the issue altogether rather than come; you will go through sorrow rather than come; and you will do anything rather than come the last lap of the race of seemingly unspeakable foolishness and say, “Just as I am, I come.” As long as you have even the least bit of spiritual disrespect, it will always reveal itself in the fact that you are expecting God to tell you to do something very big, and yet all He is telling you to do is to “Come . . . .”“Come to Me . . . .” When you hear those words, you will know that something must happen in you before you can come. The Holy Spirit will show you what you have to do, and it will involve anything that will uproot whatever is preventing you from getting through to Jesus. And you will never get any further until you are willing to do that very thing. The Holy Spirit will search out that one immovable stronghold within you, but He cannot budge it unless you are willing to let Him do so.How often have you come to God with your requests and gone away thinking, “I’ve really received what I wanted this time!” And yet you go away with nothing, while all the time God has stood with His hands outstretched not only to take you but also for you to take Him. Just think of the invincible, unconquerable, and untiring patience of Jesus, who lovingly says, “Come to Me. . . .”

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Journal Entry for Today

October 8, 2014

Lord, once more we learn the lesson of connecting with Jesus; surrendering all else that we believed held answers for us. We surrender our families, spouses, careers, hopes and dreams as we learn that without You these things are not the treasures we thought. They can become part of the treasure you have for us, but only after we surrender them.  Thank You for continuing to show me these lessons.

And God says…”You must be willing to give up your families, spouses, careers, hopes and dreams when you come to Me. And as a good Father, I will not take them from you, I will give them even more purpose and meaning as you allow Me to live through you.  I came to give you life and life more abundantly, allow Me to do just that with the things you treasure most.  Once again this morning you can surrender your life to Me, 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. I know this is not an easy task, but it is simple; simply imagine everything you hold dear, or want for your life in a  separately labeled package, and place it at the foot of the cross this day: Your family, your career, your spouse, your career, hopes and dreams. And in this act of surrender, know that I will treasure your treasures as a Father that loves you so very much.”