In that day you will ask in My name . . . —John 16:26

’. . . and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished.’ . . . But they understood none of these things . . . —Luke 18:31, 34


God called Jesus Christ to what seemed absolute disaster. And Jesus Christ called His disciples to see Him put to death, leading every one of them to the place where their hearts were broken. His life was an absolute failure from every standpoint except God’s. But what seemed to be failure from man’s standpoint was a triumph from God’s standpoint, because God’s purpose is never the same as man’s purpose.

This bewildering call of God comes into our lives as well. The call of God can never be understood absolutely or explained externally; it is a call that can only be perceived and understood internally by our true inner-nature. The call of God is like the call of the sea— no one hears it except the person who has the nature of the sea in him. What God calls us to cannot be definitely stated, because His call is simply to be His friend to accomplish His own purposes. Our real test is in truly believing that God knows what He desires. The things that happen do not happen by chance— they happen entirely by the decree of God. God is sovereignly working out His own purposes.

If we are in fellowship and oneness with God and recognize that He is taking us into His purposes, then we will no longer strive to find out what His purposes are. As we grow in the Christian life, it becomes simpler to us, because we are less inclined to say, “I wonder why God allowed this or that?” And we begin to see that the compelling purpose of God lies behind everything in life, and that God is divinely shaping us into oneness with that purpose. A Christian is someone who trusts in the knowledge and the wisdom of God, not in his own abilities. If we have a purpose of our own, it destroys the simplicity and the calm, relaxed pace which should be characteristic of the children of God.

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Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord. Wow, that last sentence really sums it up. This and yesterday’s devotional go together in summarizing the points you have been teaching us … that our higher purpose has little to do with money, things or worldly accomplishments and that your purpose can’t be discerned from psychological or business inventories but only thru connection with you and discerning with our inner spirits what it is that you would have us be about. And you’ve given us a “peace meter” which can be an indication of how we are walking in your plans for us.

“If we have a purpose of our own, it destroys the simplicity and the calm, relaxed pace which should be characteristic of the children of God.”

So, if we notice, or if our friends notice, or if our physician notices that we are stressed out….. it’s a pretty good indicator that we are somehow missing your best plan for us.

So, we’ve got a pretty good dashboard indicator or “idiot light” to let us know when we aren’t trusting in you alone or when we’ve overloaded ourselves with more than you’re calling us to. But once we realize it, getting out of that stress and overload trap, and staying out of it, has proven to be quite a challenge. I find it easy to backslide into the stressed out mode and find my mind wandering into my own interests and ideas…..

As you are learning, The solution is in the problem. Connection is the answer. Through connection, I will show you the way out of your stress right now … Come unto me and I will give you rest… and show you the way to live continually. As long as things are working in your own human power, you won’t “Come unto me” So when things fall apart and you get stressed out, see it as an invitation. An invitation to a better way of life. A life marked by “simplicity and the calm, relaxed pace which should be characteristic of the children of God.”

By the way, you mentioned falling back into thinking about “your ideas.” Where do you think those ideas come from? Especially in this, Connection, Curiosity and Expectation is the way to live. Invite me into all your thinking, yes, all of it, even those things you think I would be repulsed by. I will sort it out. Things that need to be left behind … I will guide you and help you and empower you when you “Come to me.” How well has gritting your teeth and making resolutions worked for you?

He took the twelve aside . . . —Luke 18:31

Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing —James 1:4

Many of us appear to be all right in general, but there are still some areas in which we are careless and lazy; it is not a matter of sin, but the remnants of our carnal life that tend to make us careless. Carelessness is an insult to the Holy Spirit. We should have no carelessness about us either in the way we worship God, or even in the way we eat and drink.

Not only must our relationship to God be right, but the outward expression of that relationship must also be right. Ultimately, God will allow nothing to escape; every detail of our lives is under His scrutiny. God will bring us back in countless ways to the same point over and over again. And He never tires of bringing us back to that one point until we learn the lesson, because His purpose is to produce the finished product. It may be a problem arising from our impulsive nature, but again and again, with the most persistent patience, God has brought us back to that one particular point. Or the problem may be our idle and wandering thinking, or our independent nature and self-interest. Through this process, God is trying to impress upon us the one thing that is not entirely right in our lives.

We have been having a wonderful time in our studies over the revealed truth of God’s redemption, and our hearts are perfect toward Him. And His wonderful work in us makes us know that overall we are right with Him. “Let patience have its perfect work . . . .” The Holy Spirit speaking through James said, “Now let your patience become a finished product.” Beware of becoming careless over the small details of life and saying, “Oh, that will have to do for now.” Whatever it may be, God will point it out with persistence until we become entirely His.

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Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord
Today there were many songs that speak to the lesson. I’ll add at least one more at the end.

But the message we seem to be hearing is that directed self effort is not the way to eliminate our character faults or sins. We’ve got lots of experience with those self improvement methods with marginal results. It’s true … a diet or exercise program rigidly adhered to, even with gritted teeth, has some value and will generate some change. Olympians do huge amounts of it with tremendous results.

1 Timothy 4:8(NLT) “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”

So what is the difference between training for physical events and measurements and “training for godliness?”

Good question. Confusing the methods for each has led to much pain and disillusion over the centuries. Physical training can be measured and quantified and checked off a list. Training in Godliness cannot because everyone has a customized program. The way you engage in training for Godliness is to connect with me, stay tuned, stay curious, stay expectant and stay ready. Then jump into obedience to whatever you hear or see that We, Father, Holy Spirit and I want to be accomplishing in any situation. You can’t distill that to a checklist of religious activity. You can only distill it to those characteristics, curiosity, expectancy, and readiness to obey. Then just live out of what comes your way. It will be totally customized, just for you and unlike anyone else on the planet.

Here’s another song that goes with the message today

Jesus did not commit Himself to them . . . , for He knew what was in man —John 2:24-25

Behold, He is coming with clouds . . . —Revelation 1:7

In the Bible clouds are always associated with God. Clouds are the sorrows, sufferings, or providential circumstances, within or without our personal lives, which actually seem to contradict the sovereignty of God. Yet it is through these very clouds that the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith. If there were never any clouds in our lives, we would have no faith. “The clouds are the dust of His feet” (Nahum 1:3). They are a sign that God is there. What a revelation it is to know that sorrow, bereavement, and suffering are actually the clouds that come along with God! God cannot come near us without clouds— He does not come in clear-shining brightness.

It is not true to say that God wants to teach us something in our trials. Through every cloud He brings our way, He wants us to unlearn something. His purpose in using the cloud is to simplify our beliefs until our relationship with Him is exactly like that of a child— a relationship simply between God and our own souls, and where other people are but shadows. Until other people become shadows to us, clouds and darkness will be ours every once in a while. Is our relationship with God becoming more simple than it has ever been?

There is a connection between the strange providential circumstances allowed by God and what we know of Him, and we have to learn to interpret the mysteries of life in the light of our knowledge of God. Until we can come face to face with the deepest, darkest fact of life without damaging our view of God’s character, we do not yet know Him.

“. . . they were fearful as they entered the cloud” (Luke 9:34). Is there anyone except Jesus in your cloud? If so, it will only get darker until you get to the place where there is “no one anymore, but only Jesus . . .” (Mark 9:8 ; also see Mark 2:7).

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Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord,
So you want me to “unlearn” some things…… I guess that makes sense. The things I’ve learned that turn out not to be true, seem to cause me the biggest problems. One of the biggest is, “If it’s to be, It’s up to me” Although there is some truth in that common self improvement mantra … it can lead to much wasted effort. Perhaps the way to sift out the kernel of truth in that statement would be to say, If I connect with you and discern what your will in a situation is and am obedient to that … then it will be.

That is true, but it is also true that you can use your own effort to cause a thing to happen without any regard to me or my plans. People do it all the time. It doesn’t bring about my best for them but it does happen. Will power and organized efforts are merely tools. They can be used positively or negatively. They can run you into situations of overload and stress. But if you stay connected, I will show you how to navigate thru the stressors and choose the path of peace that I have for you, even in the storms of life. The peace meter and the stress meter on the dashboard of your life are pretty good indicators of how well we are connected.

He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side . . . —Mark 6:45

. . . unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven —Matthew 5:20

The characteristic of a disciple is not that he does good things, but that he is good in his motives, having been made good by the supernatural grace of God. The only thing that exceeds right-doing is right-being. Jesus Christ came to place within anyone who would let Him a new heredity that would have a righteousness exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus is saying, “If you are My disciple, you must be right not only in your actions, but also in your motives, your aspirations, and in the deep recesses of the thoughts of your mind.” Your motives must be so pure that God Almighty can see nothing to rebuke. Who can stand in the eternal light of God and have nothing for Him to rebuke? Only the Son of God, and Jesus Christ claims that through His redemption He can place within anyone His own nature and make that person as pure and as simple as a child. The purity that God demands is impossible unless I can be remade within, and that is exactly what Jesus has undertaken to do through His redemption.

No one can make himself pure by obeying laws. Jesus Christ does not give us rules and regulations— He gives us His teachings which are truths that can only be interpreted by His nature which He places within us. The great wonder of Jesus Christ’s salvation is that He changes our heredity. He does not change human nature— He changes its source, and thereby its motives as well.

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Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord,
Thank you for your grace which covers the multitude of my sins. I still feel guilty when I fall short. Even though I know they are all covered by your sacrifice. Should I? Is there such a thing as “good guilt?”

Well, how’s that working out for you?

Not too well.

Guilt can be used to modify behavior. It has been used by society and religion for centuries. People even use it on themselves. People like you.
But it is never my highest and best tool for the job of behavior change.
My choice is love. Think about it. When you do something from guilt vs when you do the same thing for love. The motive changes everything. So when you set up lists of do’s and dont’s, even if they have scripture verses next to them, you are setting yourself up a life of white knuckling and striving and failing. All those things on your lists are good. But you striving in your own power to be better at them…. will make you tired and depressed. Come to me. Hear my plan for you, my plan for today … and live out of that. We will work those things out of your character that need to be worked out, in my time. I dont need your help in your self improvement program. You heaping guilt on yourself will just slow down our program.

But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us . . . sanctification . . . —1 Corinthians 1:30

This is the will of God, your sanctification. . . —1 Thessalonians 4:3

The Death Side. In sanctification God has to deal with us on the death side as well as on the life side. Sanctification requires our coming to the place of death, but many of us spend so much time there that we become morbid. There is always a tremendous battle before sanctification is realized— something within us pushing with resentment against the demands of Christ. When the Holy Spirit begins to show us what sanctification means, the struggle starts immediately. Jesus said, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate . . . his own life . . . he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26).

In the process of sanctification, the Spirit of God will strip me down until there is nothing left but myself, and that is the place of death. Am I willing to be myself and nothing more? Am I willing to have no friends, no father, no brother, and no self-interest— simply to be ready for death? That is the condition required for sanctification. No wonder Jesus said, “I did not come to bring peace but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). This is where the battle comes, and where so many of us falter. We refuse to be identified with the death of Jesus Christ on this point. We say, “But this is so strict. Surely He does not require that of me.” Our Lord is strict, and He does require that of us.

Am I willing to reduce myself down to simply “me”? Am I determined enough to strip myself of all that my friends think of me, and all that I think of myself? Am I willing and determined to hand over my simple naked self to God? Once I am, He will immediately sanctify me completely, and my life will be free from being determined and persistent toward anything except God (see 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).

When I pray, “Lord, show me what sanctification means for me,” He will show me. It means being made one with Jesus. Sanctification is not something Jesus puts in me— it is Himself in me (see 1 Corinthians 1:30).

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Journal DJR
Good morning Lord,
These are hard sayings, hate my life, hate my mother, take up a sword, …..
Obviously you are speaking metaphorically … but what are some of the practical applications of picking up lethal weapons and hating, etc?

One reason that I gave the truth in metaphor rather than a checklist of action items is so that the Holy Spirit could fill in the real life blanks for each individual. Only as you get and stay connected with me will you know where to apply the “sword” or the cross, or what element of your existence to “hate” and which is ready to take the next step of sanctification.
You must listen carefully for this. If you just start down a list of imperfections, whether prepared by others or even by yourself … you will become overwhelmed and despair. I don’t expect instant perfection. Stick with me and I will show you the areas that are ready for the sword. Speaking metaphorically again. Done this way, these “heavy” things become light.

Matthew 11:28-30 (NLT)

28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

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