His!

September 4, 2010

What has been like “water from the well of Bethlehem” to you recently— love, friendship, or maybe some spiritual blessing (  2 Samuel 23:16 )? Have you taken whatever it may be, even at the risk of damaging your own soul, simply to satisfy yourself? If you have, then you cannot pour it out “to the Lord.” You can never set apart for God something that you desire for yourself to achieve your own satisfaction. If you try to satisfy yourself with a blessing from God, it will corrupt you. You must sacrifice it, pouring it out to God— something that your common sense says is an absurd waste.

How can I pour out “to the Lord” natural love and spiritual blessings? There is only one way— I must make a determination in my mind to do so. There are certain things other people do that could never be received by someone who does not know God, because it is humanly impossible to repay them. As soon as I realize that something is too wonderful for me, that I am not worthy to receive it, and that it is not meant for a human being at all, I must pour it out “to the Lord.” Then these very things that have come to me will be poured out as “rivers of living water” all around me ( John 7:38 ). And until I pour these things out to God, they actually endanger those I love, as well as myself, because they will be turned into lust. Yes, we can be lustful in things that are not sordid and vile. Even love must be transformed by being poured out “to the Lord.”

If you have become bitter and sour, it is because when God gave you a blessing you hoarded it. Yet if you had poured it out to Him, you would have been the sweetest person on earth. If you are always keeping blessings to yourself and never learning to pour out anything “to the Lord,” other people will never have their vision of God expanded through you.

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September 3, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

If I think about my connection to and with God being a conduit through which He can flow to and through me, I can picture in my mind blessings flowing through……not to. Considering Oswald’s devotional for today, I can understand what can happen when I hold onto the blessings……..they can clog up the conduit.

And God says…..”When you give yourself away, and allow all your blessings to flow through to others, more blessings can flow through you. 

Jesus did not say, “He who believes in Me will realize all the blessings of the fullness of God,” but, in essence, “He who believes in Me will have everything he receives escape out of him.” Our Lord’s teaching was always anti-self-realization. His purpose is not the development of a person— His purpose is to make a person exactly like Himself, and the Son of God is characterized by self-expenditure. If we believe in Jesus, it is not what we gain but what He pours through us that really counts. God’s purpose is not simply to make us beautiful, plump grapes, but to make us grapes so that He may squeeze the sweetness out of us. Our spiritual life cannot be measured by success as the world measures it, but only by what God pours through us— and we cannot measure that at all.

When Mary of Bethany “broke the flask . . . of very costly oil . . . and poured it on [Jesus’] head,” it was an act for which no one else saw any special occasion; in fact, “. . . there were some who . . . said, ’Why was this fragrant oil wasted?’ ” (Mark 14:3-4 ). But Jesus commended Mary for her extravagant act of devotion, and said, “. . . wherever this gospel is preached . . . what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her” ( Mark 14:9 ). Our Lord is filled with overflowing joy whenever He sees any of us doing what Mary did— not being bound by a particular set of rules, but being totally surrendered to Him. God poured out the life of His Son “that the world through Him might be saved” ( John 3:17 ). Are we prepared to pour out our lives for Him?

“He who believes in Me . . . out of his heart will flow rivers of living water”— and hundreds of other lives will be continually refreshed. Now is the time for us to break “the flask” of our lives, to stop seeking our own satisfaction, and to pour out our lives before Him. Our Lord is asking who of us will do it for Him?

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September 2, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

When I say to God, take my life, that must mean I give up my right to my own ideas about what, where and how my life is to be lived. On the one hand I can say that I want to God to have complete control of my life, but am I ready to give up my own ideas about the what, where and how of my life?

And God says….”Remember, I made you, and breathed life into you. I know you better than you know yourself. I know the desires of your heart that are good for your life, and what makes you truly joyful. And you know the magnitude of My sacrifice for you. I will do more in your life than you could ever imagine. Your abundant life in Me has been and is always available. Simply give up your “right” to your own life and experience the extraordinary and fulfilling life I want to live through you.”

We must continually remind ourselves of the purpose of life. We are not destined to happiness, nor to health, but to holiness. Today we have far too many desires and interests, and our lives are being consumed and wasted by them. Many of them may be right, noble, and good, and may later be fulfilled, but in the meantime God must cause their importance to us to decrease. The only thing that truly matters is whether a person will accept the God who will make him holy. At all costs, a person must have the right relationship with God.

Do I believe I need to be holy? Do I believe that God can come into me and make me holy? If through your preaching you convince me that I am unholy, I then resent your preaching. The preaching of the gospel awakens an intense resentment because it is designed to reveal my unholiness, but it also awakens an intense yearning and desire within me. God has only one intended destiny for mankind— holiness. His only goal is to produce saints. God is not some eternal blessing-machine for people to use, and He did not come to save us out of pity— He came to save us because He created us to be holy. Atonement through the Cross of Christ means that God can put me back into perfect oneness with Himself through the death of Jesus Christ, without a trace of anything coming between us any longer.

Never tolerate, because of sympathy for yourself or for others, any practice that is not in keeping with a holy God. Holiness means absolute purity of your walk before God, the words coming from your mouth, and every thought in your mind— placing every detail of your life under the scrutiny of God Himself. Holiness is not simply what God gives me, but what God has given me that is being exhibited in my life.

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Journal Entry for Today

September 1, 2010

Very early this morning we were talking and you reminded me that when I ask you to respond my prayers, that I may be allowing my limited understanding and natural eyes to restrict my faith and get in the way. It then occurred to me that when I seek my “natural answers” …only those answers and solutions I can fathom, that I might be in the way of the miracles You want to provide.

And God says…”If I already know your needs before you even utter them, and if I can and do answer your prayers before you ever pray them, then why do you pray? Why have I commanded you to pray? Because it is a living dialog that helps create and sustain our intimate relationship.”

“When you pray with your expectations as narrow as your natural mind can understand, your faith is as narrow as your expectations. And I respond to your faith. When you pray with expanded supernatural expectations I can respond to that faith. Pray for “eyes” that expect miracles, and the faith to wait on Me while living and becoming holy, by allowing Jesus to live through you. Focus on Jesus, be transformed ……….holy and expectant.

What was the joy that Jesus had? Joy should not be confused with happiness. In fact, it is an insult to Jesus Christ to use the word happiness in connection with Him. The joy of Jesus was His absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice to His Father— the joy of doing that which the Father sent Him to do— “. . . who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross . . .” ( Hebrews 12:2 ). “I delight to do Your will, O my God . . .” ( Psalm 40:8 ). Jesus prayed that our joy might continue fulfilling itself until it becomes the same joy as His. Have I allowed Jesus Christ to introduce His joy to me?

Living a full and overflowing life does not rest in bodily health, in circumstances, nor even in seeing God’s work succeed, but in the perfect understanding of God, and in the same fellowship and oneness with Him that Jesus Himself enjoyed. But the first thing that will hinder this joy is the subtle irritability caused by giving too much thought to our circumstances. Jesus said, “. . . the cares of this world, . . . choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” ( Mark 4:19 ). And before we even realize what has happened, we are caught up in our cares. All that God has done for us is merely the threshold— He wants us to come to the place where we will be His witnesses and proclaim who Jesus is.

Have the right relationship with God, finding your joy there, and out of you “will flow rivers of living water” ( John 7:38 ). Be a fountain through which Jesus can pour His “living water.” Stop being hypocritical and proud, aware only of yourself, and live “your life . . . hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3 ). A person who has the right relationship with God lives a life as natural as breathing wherever he goes. The lives that have been the greatest blessing to you are the lives of those people who themselves were unaware of having been a blessing.

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August 31, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

I have discovered a difference and a connection between my prayers and my joy. When I focus on prayer as a means of worship and a way to have a more intimate dialog with God, I experience peace and joy.

And God says…..”When you seek a more intimate relationship with Me you will have it. When you worship and bring Me glory, you are more complete. As you look to Me, your life comes into focus and you have an entirely different perspective; your life is hidden in Christ, and He can live through you. You no longer live; it is Christ in you that lives.”

“Regardless of your circumstances, when you live like this, you live in joy, and you come to know that it is the joy of Christ.”

Jesus Christ is saying here, “Don’t rejoice in your successful service for Me, but rejoice because of your right relationship with Me.” The trap you may fall into in Christian work is to rejoice in successful service— rejoicing in the fact that God has used you. Yet you will never be able to measure fully what God will do through you if you have a right-standing relationship with Jesus Christ. If you keep your relationship right with Him, then regardless of your circumstances or whoever you encounter each day, He will continue to pour “rivers of living water” through you ( John 7:38 ). And it is actually by His mercy that He does not let you know it. Once you have the right relationship with God through salvation and sanctification, remember that whatever your circumstances may be, you have been placed in them by God. And God uses the reaction of your life to your circumstances to fulfill His purpose, as long as you continue to “walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:7 ).

Our tendency today is to put the emphasis on service. Beware of the people who make their request for help on the basis of someone’s usefulness. If you make usefulness the test, then Jesus Christ was the greatest failure who ever lived. For the saint, direction and guidance come from God Himself, not some measure of that saint’s usefulness. It is the work that God does through us that counts, not what we do for Him. All that our Lord gives His attention to in a person’s life is that person’s relationship with God— something of great value to His Father. Jesus is “bringing many sons to glory . . .” ( Hebrews 2:10 ).

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August 30, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

My stomach has had a hollow feeling for a while. I was on the receiving end of one more surprise, one more sideways emotional ambush to accompany the missed expectations; the missed expectations being the ones that I would not be able to deliver.

I used to pride myself on being able to deliver on the expectations; it was one of my sources of pride. If I made a commitment I would keep it, come well or wide water. But it seems that source of pride is no longer available to me.

And God says…”Your abilities and responsibilities have no place in a transformed life. And you know that pride has no place in your life at all. I will meet your needs, and deliver all the abilities you will ever need. I will meet all your needs as soon as you let go of them and let Me.”

“And just because your circumstances get in the way does not mean that you ignore expectations or responsibilities, or try to forget them. Bring them to Me. Let Me meet all your needs. Let Me deliver on the expectations through you.”

“You cannot have it both ways; prayer for deliverance and the personal power to meet your own needs, AND prayer for Me to meet your needs. Trust in Me with all your heart and do not rely on your own plans, efforts and experience and I will meet all your needs.”

“Bring Me your broken and contrite heart and let Me continue to transform you. I do this Not because of what you have done, or will do. I do this because I love you.

Prayer is not a normal part of the life of the natural man. We hear it said that a person’s life will suffer if he doesn’t pray, but I question that. What will suffer is the life of the Son of God in him, which is nourished not by food, but by prayer. When a person is born again from above, the life of the Son of God is born in him, and he can either starve or nourish that life. Prayer is the way that the life of God in us is nourished. Our common ideas regarding prayer are not found in the New Testament. We look upon prayer simply as a means of getting things for ourselves, but the biblical purpose of prayer is that we may get to know God Himself.

“Ask, and you will receive . . .” ( John 16:24 ). We complain before God, and sometimes we are apologetic or indifferent to Him, but we actually ask Him for very few things. Yet a child exhibits a magnificent boldness to ask! Our Lord said, “. . . unless you . . . become as little children . . .” ( Matthew 18:3 ). Ask and God will do. Give Jesus Christ the opportunity and the room to work. The problem is that no one will ever do this until he is at his wits’ end. When a person is at his wits’ end, it no longer seems to be a cowardly thing to pray; in fact, it is the only way he can get in touch with the truth and the reality of God Himself. Be yourself before God and present Him with your problems— the very things that have brought you to your wits’ end. But as long as you think you are self-sufficient, you do not need to ask God for anything.

To say that “prayer changes things” is not as close to the truth as saying, “Prayer changes me and then I change things.” God has established things so that prayer, on the basis of redemption, changes the way a person looks at things. Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, but one of working miracles in a person’s inner nature.

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August 28, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Nowadays I wake up and feel the need to pray. I wonder what was going on in my life when I did not begin the day with prayer. Was I self sufficient, or just did I just reject the idea that God was waiting to answer my prayers? Was I oblivious or simply not needy enough? Perhaps I was simply unaware of my need because I did not have or seek an intimate relationship with Him.

And God says…”You tried to fill yourself up with life and self sufficiency so you would not have to acknowledge your deep and abiding need for Me. I made you such that you are not complete without Me, however, you can choose to reject Me….and you have.  Many reject Jesus as Savior, others reject Him as Lord. And still many reject Him for life. When you accept Jesus as your life, you then recognize and acknowledge the need for prayer that is essential for that life in Jesus.”

“When you are complete in Jesus, you know it. When you are not complete you know it as well, and  your  Spirit will cry out for prayer…..and you will hear it……. as long as you respond.”

Beware of not acting upon what you see in your moments on the mountaintop with God. If you do not obey the light, it will turn into darkness. “If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” ( Matthew 6:23 ). The moment you forsake the matter of sanctification or neglect anything else on which God has given you His light, your spiritual life begins to disintegrate within you.Continually bring the truth out into your real life, working it out into every area, or else even the light that you possess will itself prove to be a curse.

The most difficult person to deal with is the one who has the prideful self-satisfaction of a past experience, but is not working that experience out in his everyday life. If you say you are sanctified, show it. The experience must be so genuine that it shows in your life. Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent or self-gratifying; that belief came from the pit of hell itself, regardless of how beautiful it may sound.

Your theology must work itself out, exhibiting itself in your most common everyday relationships. Our Lord said, “. . . unless your righteousness exceeds the

righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven” ( Matthew 5:20 ).In other words, you must be more moral than the most moral person you know. You may know all about the doctrine of sanctification, but are you working it out in the everyday issues of your life? Every detail of your life, whether physical, moral, or spiritual, is to be judged and measured by the standard of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.

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August 27, 2010

Journal Entry for Today

Nowadays I wake up seeking God. I know that I need the one on oneness that can only come from an intimate connected relationship with Him. I wake up seeking Him because I know that without Him in every aspect of my life, I am not whole, I feel adrift seeking an anchor.

I used to wonder what it would feel like to be connected with God all the time. I now know what it feels like to be connected and intimate with God and when I am not, I am aware and seeking Him.

And God says, “As you experience more and more of Me in your life, you seek more of Me and less of you. You have begun to understand that a life in Me means a life led by My Spirit. You can no longer separate out daily activities and responsibilities by what is spiritual and what is not. You have come to understand that the life of a true believer is a life immersed in Me. You have experienced this and nothing else satisfies. Seek and you shall find; knock and the door will be opened.”

There are times in our lives when our peace is based simply on our own ignorance. But when we are awakened to the realities of life, true inner peace is impossible unless it is received from Jesus. When our Lord speaks peace, He creates peace, because the words that He speaks are always “spirit, and they are life” ( John 6:63 ). Have I ever received what Jesus speaks? “. . . My peace I give to you. . .”— a peace that comes from looking into His face and fully understanding and receiving His quiet contentment.

Are you severely troubled right now? Are you afraid and confused by the waves and the turbulence God sovereignly allows to enter your life? Have you left no stone of your faith unturned, yet still not found any well of peace, joy, or comfort? Does your life seem completely barren to you? Then look up and receive the quiet contentment of the Lord Jesus. Reflecting His peace is proof that you are right with God, because you are exhibiting the freedom to turn your mind to Him.

If you are not right with God, you can never turn your mind anywhere but on yourself. Allowing anything to hide the face of Jesus Christ from you either causes you to become troubled or gives you a false sense of security.

With regard to the problem that is pressing in on you right now, are you “looking unto Jesus” ( Hebrews 12:2 ) and receiving peace from Him? If so, He will be a gracious blessing of peace exhibited in and through you. But if you only try to worry your way out of the problem, you destroy His effectiveness in you, and you deserve whatever you get. We become troubled because we have not been taking Him into account. When a person confers with Jesus Christ, the confusion stops, because there is no confusion in Him. Lay everything out before Him, and when you are faced with difficulty, bereavement, and sorrow, listen to Him say, “Let not your heart be troubled . . .” ( John 14:27 ).

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Journal Entry for Today-JDV

August 26, 2010

I am embarrassed to admit that I still want the circumstances and difficulties to be smoothed out, or better yet, gone.

I have not yet grown enough to remember that the storms and trials are opportunities for God to speak loudly and clearly to me.

I still reach out with prayers and pleadings for God to change everything else even though I know that through the circumstances and storms He is changing me.

And God says…”Keeping your eyes on Me inside the storm is a discipline formed by the storms and trials of your life. You are transformed by the life of Jesus as you experience My mercy, grace and love in circumstances that really matter to you. In order to create a life in Jesus, your own life must be broken and I accomplish this in your storms.

Remember I will never leave you. The storms of this life are natural things. Your transformation is supernatural and occurs right in the middle of the storms. Keep your eyes on me, not your storms, and be transformed.

I love you and remember that nothing can separate you from My love and care. If I am for you who or what can stand against you?

We will never know the joy of self-sacrifice until we surrender in every detail of our lives. Yet self-surrender is the most difficult thing for us to do. We make it conditional by saying, “I’ll surrender if . . . !” Or we approach it by saying, “I suppose I have to devote my life to God.” We will never find the joy of self-sacrifice in either of these ways.

But as soon as we do totally surrender, abandoning ourselves to Jesus, the Holy Spirit gives us a taste of His joy. The ultimate goal of self-sacrifice is to lay down our lives for our Friend (see John 15:13-14 ). When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, our greatest desire is to lay down our lives for Jesus. Yet the thought of self-sacrifice never even crosses our minds, because sacrifice is the Holy Spirit’s ultimate expression of love.

Our Lord is our example of a life of self-sacrifice, and He perfectly exemplified Psalm 40:8, “I delight to do Your will, O my God . . . .” He endured tremendous personal sacrifice, yet with overflowing joy. Have I ever yielded myself in absolute submission to Jesus Christ? If He is not the One to whom I am looking for direction and guidance, then there is no benefit in my sacrifice. But when my sacrifice is made with my eyes focused on Him, slowly but surely His molding influence becomes evident in my life (see Hebrews 12:1-2 ).

Beware of letting your natural desires hinder your walk in love before God. One of the cruelest ways to kill natural love is through the rejection that results from having built the love on natural desires. But the one true desire of a saint is the Lord Jesus. Love for God is not something sentimental or emotional— for a saint to love as God loves is the most practical thing imaginable.

“I have called you friends. . . .” Our friendship with Jesus is based on the new life He created in us, which has no resemblance or attraction to our old life but only to the life of God. It is a life that is completely humble, pure, and devoted to God.

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August 26, 2010

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

What does it mean to be known as a friend of God?

I know what it feels like to be known as a Christian, and some of the negative responses have been earned. We often seem to stand against more things than we are for, we seem to polarize others and not in a good way, but in judgment.

Is that me?  Do I judge others? Am I quick with a criticism or judgment because they may not look, or think or believe as I do? I suspect it is true. I would rather be known as a friend of God.

 And God says, “You are my friend. When you accepted Christ as Savior and then Lord, you became a friend. And as My friend, I can transform you into a willing and eager friend of others. Judge not; remember the second commandment Jesus gave you….. Love your neighbor as yourself. One of the ways to tell if you are truly My friend and are truly connected to Jesus is when you love others. When you sit in judgment, you are sitting there alone, without Me.”

You are My friend and therefore a friend of all others.