The Spirit of God testifies to and confirms the simple, but almighty, security of the life that “is hidden with Christ in God.” Paul continually brought this out in his New Testament letters. We talk as if living a sanctified life were the most uncertain and insecure thing we could do. Yet it is the most secure thing possible, because it has Almighty God in and behind it. The most dangerous and unsure thing is to try to live without God. For one who is born again, it is easier to live in a right-standing relationship with God than it is to go wrong, provided we heed God’s warnings and “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7).

When we think of being delivered from sin, being “filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18), and “walk[ing] in the light,” we picture the peak of a great mountain. We see it as very high and wonderful, but we say, “Oh, I could never live up there!” However, when we do get there through God’s grace, we find it is not a mountain peak at all, but a plateau with plenty of room to live and to grow. “You enlarged my path under me, so my feet did not slip” (Psalm 18:36).

When you really see Jesus, I defy you to doubt Him. If you see Him when He says, “Let not your heart be troubled . . .” (John 14:27), I defy you to worry. It is virtually impossible to doubt when He is there. Every time you are in personal contact with Jesus, His words are real to you. “My peace I give to you . . .” (John 14:27)— a peace which brings an unconstrained confidence and covers you completely, from the top of your head to the soles of your feet. “. . . your life is hidden with Christ in God,” and the peace of Jesus Christ that cannot be disturbed has been imparted to you.

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December 24, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Yesterday morning as I struggled with concerns about the amount of faith I have and need to move forward, it struck me that Jesus came to give me freedom from these concerns. Just as He came to free us from our worries and concerns about our behaviors and thoughts from our “yesterdays”, He came to free us from our concerns about our “tomorrows.”

And God says…”I came to give you life and life more abundantly. Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be given you……You can live in peace and happiness if you simply live in the present. Your history and future are secured  by the sacrifice of Jesus. All your future needs are met in Christ. Live in the present knowing that I have your past and future secured and complete in Christ, and I shall meet all your needs according to My riches in glory”.

When God begins to draw me to Himself, the problem of my will comes in immediately. Will I react positively to the truth that God has revealed? Will I come to Him? To discuss or deliberate over spiritual matters when God calls is inappropriate and disrespectful to Him. When God speaks, never discuss it with anyone as if to decide what your response may be (see Galatians 1:15-16). Belief is not the result of an intellectual act, but the result of an act of my will whereby I deliberately commit myself. But will I commit, placing myself completely and absolutely on God, and be willing to act solely on what He says? If I will, I will find that I am grounded on reality as certain as God’s throne.

In preaching the gospel, always focus on the matter of the will. Belief must come from the will to believe. There must be a surrender of the will, not a surrender to a persuasive or powerful argument. I must deliberately step out, placing my faith in God and in His truth. And I must place no confidence in my own works, but only in God. Trusting in my own mental understanding becomes a hindrance to complete trust in God. I must be willing to ignore and leave my feelings behind. I must will to believe. But this can never be accomplished without my forceful, determined effort to separate myself from my old ways of looking at things. I must surrender myself completely to God.

Everyone has been created with the ability to reach out beyond his own grasp. But it is God who draws me, and my relationship to Him in the first place is an inner, personal one, not an intellectual one. I come into the relationship through the miracle of God and through my own will to believe. Then I begin to get an intelligent appreciation and understanding of the wonder of the transformation in my life.

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December 22, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Walking completely by faith and in your will feels like stepping off into the dark, placing my next step in an area that is completely uncertain, and unknown; like driving in the Tule fog here in the San Joaquin Valley, when we often cannot see 6 feet in front of the car. I am completely surrendered to you in these circumstances. And for the life of me I do not know why I cannot simply let go of my fear and anxiety in these circumstances, because you have met me at the point of my needs over and over and over. I believe…..help me in my unbelief.

And God says…”I only ask you to trust one step out at any time….like the lamp that lights your feet a step at a time. I know that you are not capable of understanding and accepting the larger picture of the future. You must follow Me in faith. That is why the magnitude of My sacrifice was so great. If I love you so much as to give you My Son, imagine the magnitude of My love. My ways are not your ways and you cannot hope to understand the “what and why” of tomorrow. But you can understand the sacrifice of Jesus. Focus on Jesus and His sacrifice and you will move into an understanding and trust that transcends knowing so that you can confidently step into My will and your future, one step at a time.

My experience is not what makes redemption real— redemption is reality. Redemption has no real meaning for me until it is worked out through my conscious life. When I am born again, the Spirit of God takes me beyond myself and my experiences, and identifies me with Jesus Christ. If I am left only with my personal experiences, I am left with something not produced by redemption. But experiences produced by redemption prove themselves by leading me beyond myself, to the point of no longer paying any attention to experiences as the basis of reality. Instead, I see that only the reality itself produced the experiences. My experiences are not worth anything unless they keep me at the Source of truth— Jesus Christ.

If you try to hold back the Holy Spirit within you, with the desire of producing more inner spiritual experiences, you will find that He will break the hold and take you again to the historic Christ. Never support an experience which does not have God as its Source and faith in God as its result. If you do, your experience is anti-Christian, no matter what visions or insights you may have had. Is Jesus Christ Lord of your experiences, or do you place your experiences above Him? Is any experience dearer to you than your Lord? You must allow Him to be Lord over you, and pay no attention to any experience over which He is not Lord. Then there will come a time when God will make you impatient with your own experience, and you can truthfully say, “I do not care what I experience— I am sure of Him!”

Be relentless and hard on yourself if you are in the habit of talking about the experiences you have had. Faith based on experience is not faith; faith based on God’s revealed truth is the only faith there is.

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Journal Entry for Today-JDV

December 21, 2010

When I awoke this morning I reached out for you, the very first thing. It has become more than a habit or first reflex, it has become a daily conscience decision to seek you first as I begin my day.  

And God says…” When you are in need you seek Me first. When things are going well for you and all your circumstances are in order you will often find yourself “multitasking “ through your day, without Me. Even when you seek Me first, the intensity of our connection and your conscious communication with Me is intensified by your need, and or pain. C. S. Lewis said… “God whispers to you in your pleasures, speaks to you in our conscience, but shouts in your pains: It is My megaphone to rouse a deaf world” ~the scriptures say…acknowledge the Lord in all your ways and He will make your paths straight. I am the vine. You are the branches. Those who live in me while I live in them will produce a lot of fruit. But you can’t produce anything without me. Seek Me first and  give thanks for the circumstances that help create this pattern in your life.”

Very few of us have any understanding of the reason why Jesus Christ died. If sympathy is all that human beings need, then the Cross of Christ is an absurdity and there is absolutely no need for it. What the world needs is not “a little bit of love,” but major surgery.

When you find yourself face to face with a person who is spiritually lost, remind yourself of Jesus Christ on the cross. If that person can get to God in any other way, then the Cross of Christ is unnecessary. If you think you are helping lost people with your sympathy and understanding, you are a traitor to Jesus Christ. You must have a right-standing relationship with Him yourself, and pour your life out in helping others in His way— not in a human way that ignores God. The theme of the world’s religion today is to serve in a pleasant, non-confrontational manner.

But our only priority must be to present Jesus Christ crucified— to lift Him up all the time (see 1 Corinthians 2:2). Every belief that is not firmly rooted in the Cross of Christ will lead people astray. If the worker himself believes in Jesus Christ and is trusting in the reality of redemption, his words will be compelling to others. What is extremely important is for the worker’s simple relationship with Jesus Christ to be strong and growing. His usefulness to God depends on that, and that alone.

The calling of a New Testament worker is to expose sin and to reveal Jesus Christ as Savior. Consequently, he cannot always be charming and friendly, but must be willing to be stern to accomplish major surgery. We are sent by God to lift up Jesus Christ, not to give wonderfully beautiful speeches. We must be willing to examine others as deeply as God has examined us. We must also be sharply intent on sensing those Scripture passages that will drive the truth home, and then not be afraid to apply them.

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December 20, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Yesterday during a session of prayer for and about our 11:00 AM Sunday service..(as a congregation we were invited and encouraged to stay after the service and pray about the future of the 11:00 o’clock service because the praise team was losing some key members to a transfer) I felt led by the Holy Spirit to thank God for the disruption and change that caused us to come together as a congregation and look to God for answers.

And God says… “All things work for the good of those that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose…..Whatever occurs that drives you to Me is good. Often it is necessary for your comfort zones to be stretched, and the status quo to be turned upside down for you to seek me. Often daily activities become habit forming so that you become less dependent on Me. You become unconsciously competent in your activities and lose an intense need to reach out to Me. Change can and does often correct that malady.”

Wrestling Before God

You must learn to wrestle against the things that hinder your communication with God, and wrestle in prayer for other people; but to wrestle with God in prayer is unscriptural. If you ever do wrestle with God, you will be crippled for the rest of your life. If you grab hold of God and wrestle with Him, as Jacob did, simply because He is working in a way that doesn’t meet with your approval, you force Him to put you out of joint (see Genesis 32:24-25). Don’t become a cripple by wrestling with the ways of God, but be someone who wrestles before God with the things of this world, because “we are more than conquerors through Him . . .” (Romans 8:37). Wrestling before God makes an impact in His kingdom. If you ask me to pray for you, and I am not complete in Christ, my prayer accomplishes nothing. But if I am complete in Christ, my prayer brings victory all the time. Prayer is effective only when there is completeness— “take up the whole armor of God . . . .”

Always make a distinction between God’s perfect will and His permissive will, which He uses to accomplish His divine purpose for our lives. God’s perfect will is unchangeable. It is with His permissive will, or the various things that He allows into our lives, that we must wrestle before Him. It is our reaction to these things allowed by His permissive will that enables us to come to the point of seeing His perfect will for us. “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God . . .” (Romans 8:28)— to those who remain true to God’s perfect will— His calling in Christ Jesus. God’s permissive will is the testing He uses to reveal His true sons and daughters. We should not be spineless and automatically say, “Yes, it is the Lord’s will.” We don’t have to fight or wrestle with God, but we must wrestle before God with things. Beware of lazily giving up. Instead, put up a glorious fight and you will find yourself empowered with His strength.