God intends for us to live a well-rounded life in Christ Jesus, but there are times when that life is attacked from the outside. Then we tend to fall back into self-examination, a habit that we thought was gone. Self-awareness is the first thing that will upset the completeness of our life in God, and self-awareness continually produces a sense of struggling and turmoil in our lives. Self-awareness is not sin, and it can be produced by nervous emotions or by suddenly being dropped into a totally new set of circumstances. Yet it is never God’s will that we should be anything less than absolutely complete in Him. Anything that disturbs our rest in Him must be rectified at once, and it is not rectified by being ignored but only by coming to Jesus Christ. If we will come to Him, asking Him to produce Christ-awareness in us, He will always do it, until we fully learn to abide in Him.Never allow anything that divides or destroys the oneness of your life with Christ to remain in your life without facing it. Beware of allowing the influence of your friends or your circumstances to divide your life. This only serves to sap your strength and slow your spiritual growth. Beware of anything that can split your oneness with Him, causing you to see yourself as separate from Him. Nothing is as important as staying right spiritually. And the only solution is a very simple one— “Come to Me….” The intellectual, moral, and spiritual depth of our reality as a person is tested and measured by these words. Yet in every detail of our lives where we are found not to be real, we would rather dispute the findings than come to Jesus.

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August 19 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning God and thank You for one more day of surrender and connection to You. And I need Your help once again to balance this devotional with what You have been teaching us. Or could it be true that if we are truly connected to You we are not distracted by anything? Chambers says…”Anything that disturbs our rest in Him must be rectified at once, and it is not rectified by being ignored but only by coming to Jesus Christ. If we will come to Him, asking Him to produce Christ-awareness in us, He will always do it, until we fully learn to abide in Him. Never allow anything that divides or destroys the oneness of your life with Christ to remain in your life without facing it. “

Lord, I would love for this to work out this way; to be able to live in constant Christ-awareness, or oneness in You. But that is not how it has worked for me. For a time I will be surrendered and connected and then….Out of the blue an event, circumstance, or problem hits me and once again I fall into worry, fear and uncertainty.

And God says…”You live in a fallen world and as a consequence difficult circumstances and the enemy may find you at any time. However, you can use the “pressure” or “self-awareness” of the circumstance or trial to remind you that Jesus came to give you life and life more abundantly. Once you feel the pressure of the trial, simply recommit to living in oneness with Jesus by placing your trials and circumstances at the foot of the cross, and surrendering your worry, fear and anxiety. Also ask Me for the faith, strength and grace to surrender and be one with Jesus. Acknowledge Me in all our ways and I will make your paths straight. In this way your trials can become teachers and reminders to live surrendered and connected to Jesus. Do not try to get out of your trials too early, let them have their perfect result; bringing you into oneness with Jesus. Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and I will provide everything else you need for your life. And you will find the peace the passes all understanding.”

 

 

The rich young ruler went away from Jesus speechless with sorrow, having nothing to say in response to Jesus’ words. He had no doubt about what Jesus had said or what it meant, and it produced in him a sorrow with no words with which to respond. Have you ever been there? Has God’s Word ever come to you, pointing out an area of your life, requiring you to yield it to Him? Maybe He has pointed out certain personal qualities, desires, and interests, or possibly relationships of your heart and mind. If so, then you have often been speechless with sorrow. The Lord will not go after you, and He will not plead with you. But every time He meets you at the place where He has pointed, He will simply repeat His words, saying, “If you really mean what you say, these are the conditions.”“Sell all that you have…” (Luke 18:22). In other words, rid yourself before God of everything that might be considered a possession until you are a mere conscious human being standing before Him, and then give God that. That is where the battle is truly fought— in the realm of your will before God. Are you more devoted to your idea of what Jesus wants than to Jesus Himself? If so, you are likely to hear one of His harsh and unyielding statements that will produce sorrow in you. What Jesus says is difficult— it is only easy when it is heard by those who have His nature in them. Beware of allowing anything to soften the hard words of Jesus Christ.

I can be so rich in my own poverty, or in the awareness of the fact that I am nobody, that I will never be a disciple of Jesus. Or I can be so rich in the awareness that I am somebody that I will never be a disciple. Am I willing to be destitute and poor even in my sense of awareness of my destitution and poverty? If not, that is why I become discouraged. Discouragement is disillusioned self-love, and self-love may be love for my devotion to Jesus— not love for Jesus Himself.

Have you ever heard the Master say something very difficult to you? If you haven’t, I question whether you have ever heard Him say anything at all. Jesus says a tremendous amount to us that we listen to, but do not actually hear. And once we do hear Him, His words are harsh and unyielding.Jesus did not show the least concern that this rich young ruler should do what He told him, nor did Jesus make any attempt to keep this man with Him. He simply said to him, “Sell all that you have…and come, follow Me.” Our Lord never pleaded with him; He never tried to lure him— He simply spoke the strictest words that human ears have ever heard, and then left him alone.Have I ever heard Jesus say something difficult and unyielding to me? Has He said something personally to me to which I have deliberately listened— not something I can explain for the sake of others, but something I have heard Him say directly to me? This man understood what Jesus said. He heard it clearly, realizing the full impact of its meaning, and it broke his heart. He did not go away as a defiant person, but as one who was sorrowful and discouraged. He had come to Jesus on fire with zeal and determination, but the words of Jesus simply froze him. Instead of producing enthusiastic devotion to Jesus, they produced heartbreaking discouragement. And Jesus did not go after him, but let him go. Our Lord knows perfectly well that once His word is truly heard, it will bear fruit sooner or later. What is so terrible is that some of us prevent His words from bearing fruit in our present life. I wonder what we will say when we finally make up our minds to be devoted to Him on that particular point? One thing is certain— He will never throw our past failures back in our faces.___________________________________________________________

August 17 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, this parable mirrors our learning of the past few years; namely that we are to surrender all we are and have to You, be connected and then to live in oneness out of our connection with and to You. You have made it abundantly clear that surrender is the first step in the process. The emphasis in this lesson is that it is difficult for a rich man to give up his riches and his life of worldly certainty. Perhaps it is giving up the trust we have in ourselves and our own resources that is the key? For many of us, giving up on our own resources and choices and the certainty we feel holding onto them is very difficult until we find that we have runout of resources and choices. Does this really have to happen for us to seek You first? Do we have to run out of our own resources, actually come to the end of ourselves before we truly seek You or are we to recall also that all things are possible with God?

And God says…”Historically, and in the natural, women and men look to their own solutions and options before reaching for Mine. Historically, men and women do not seek first the Kingdom of God, you seek your own options and choices. It is much easier to surrender yourself to Me when you are not burdened with easy access to your own options and choices. But to live the abundant life and a life of discipleship you must first surrender your hopes, opportunities, fears and dreams to Me. This is very hard, although not impossible, to do for most humans. Can and will you acknowledge Me first in all things? Most people of wealth cannot, although with God all things are possible.”

“Romans 12:2 (MSG) So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

 

 

 

It is very easy to grieve the Spirit of God; we do it by despising the discipline of the Lord, or by becoming discouraged when He rebukes us. If our experience of being set apart from sin and being made holy through the process of sanctification is still very shallow, we tend to mistake the reality of God for something else. And when the Spirit of God gives us a sense of warning or restraint, we are apt to say mistakenly, “Oh, that must be from the devil.”

“Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19), and do not despise Him when He says to you, in effect, “Don’t be blind on this point anymore— you are not as far along spiritually as you thought you were. Until now I have not been able to reveal this to you, but I’m revealing it to you right now.” When the Lord disciplines you like that, let Him have His way with you. Allow Him to put you into a right-standing relationship before God.

“…nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him.” We begin to pout, become irritated with God, and then say, “Oh well, I can’t help it. I prayed and things didn’t turn out right anyway. So I’m simply going to give up on everything.” Just think what would happen if we acted like this in any other area of our lives!

Am I fully prepared to allow God to grip me by His power and do a work in me that is truly worthy of Himself? Sanctification is not my idea of what I want God to do for me— sanctification is God’s idea of what He wants to do for me. But He has to get me into the state of mind and spirit where I will allow Him to sanctify me completely, whatever the cost (see 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).

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August 14 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, I agree with Chambers on almost everything in this devotional except the piece that says… It is very easy to grieve the Spirit of God; we do it by despising the discipline of the Lord, or by becoming discouraged when He rebukes us. I believe You already know my stubborn, self-righteous, self-serving, discipline avoiding human nature, and You love me anyway and have made a way for me to be conformed into the likeness of Jesus, regardless. Do I grieve You when I go off on my own, or forget that the tough times are part of the sandpaper and whetstones of life that You use to mold me into the shape of Jesus? Do I grieve You when I do not respond to your discipline or give up on You and Your promises?

And God says…”The sacrifice of Jesus allows Me to see Jesus instead of you…He was and is your substitute. I am not grieved; however, I do wish you would learn early and quickly for your own sake. When you go through the same trial time after time it is not because I want to discipline you over and over, it is because you have not availed yourself of the benefits of the trial. And it goes on and on, over and over until you are blessed and transformed by the trial. Jesus cannot operate on your behalf when do not believe. Your abundant life lies inside the teaching and discipline of the Holy Spirit. When you try to avoid the discipline, you are also avoiding the abundant life that lies on the other side of faith, hope, and belief. I simply want my children to enjoy the benefits of the abundant life I prepared on the other side of the discipline. Acknowledge Me in all your ways, and I will make your paths straight. Seek first the kingdom of God which is Jesus, and I will provide everything else you require. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.

The voice of the Spirit of God is as gentle as a summer breeze— so gentle that unless you are living in complete fellowship and oneness with God, you will never hear it. The sense of warning and restraint that the Spirit gives comes to us in the most amazingly gentle ways. And if you are not sensitive enough to detect His voice, you will quench it, and your spiritual life will be impaired. This sense of restraint will always come as a “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12), so faint that no one except a saint of God will notice it.Beware if in sharing your personal testimony you continually have to look back, saying, “Once, a number of years ago, I was saved.” If you have put your “hand to the plow” and are walking in the light, there is no “looking back”— the past is instilled into the present wonder of fellowship and oneness with God (Luke 9:62 ; also see 1 John 1:6-7). If you get out of the light, you become a sentimental Christian, and live only on your memories, and your testimony will have a hard metallic ring to it. Beware of trying to cover up your present refusal to “walk in the light” by recalling your past experiences when you did “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7). When-ever the Spirit gives you that sense of restraint, call a halt and make things right, or else you will go on quenching and grieving Him without even knowing it.

Suppose God brings you to a crisis and you almost endure it, but not completely. He will engineer the crisis again, but this time some of the intensity will be lost. You will have less discernment and more humiliation at having disobeyed. If you continue to grieve His Spirit, there will come a time when that crisis cannot be repeated, because you have totally quenched Him. But if you will go on through the crisis, your life will become a hymn of praise to God. Never become attached to anything that continues to hurt God. For you to be free of it, God must be allowed to hurt whatever it may be.

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August 13 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, I did a  digital search to gain opinions and Bible Commentary about how we might “quench the spirit”. In a blog called Jesus Plus Nothing, it said….. How can we quench the Spirit? By not doing the things that give him access to control our lives. That sounds a lot like the teaching You have given us, and keep reinforcing daily: surrender our lives, decisions, and day to day activities to You, be connected to You in everything, be curious about how you will respond and make our paths straight and immediate obedience when You speak to us through whatever vehicle or mechanism. Is this the issue and question for today? How to avoid quenching the Spirit?

And God says…” Yes, that is the lesson for today. To remind and reinforce one more time the notion that you engage and ignite the Spirit of God in your life when you surrender your life to God. And it does not just mean surrender your life in the sense that you know Jesus as Savior and Lord of your life, but in addition you also surrender your day to day living as outlined by Paul and translated by Eugene Peterson in Romans 12:2 (MSG): Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

When we are afraid, the least we can do is pray to God. But our Lord has a right to expect that those who name His name have an underlying confidence in Him. God expects His children to be so confident in Him that in any crisis they are the ones who are reliable. Yet our trust is only in God up to a certain point, then we turn back to the elementary panic-stricken prayers of those people who do not even know God. We come to our wits’ end, showing that we don’t have even the slightest amount of confidence in Him or in His sovereign control of the world. To us He seems to be asleep, and we can see nothing but giant, breaking waves on the sea ahead of us.“…O you of little faith!” What a stinging pain must have shot through the disciples as they surely thought to themselves, “We missed the mark again!” And what a sharp pain will go through us when we suddenly realize that we could have produced complete and utter joy in the heart of Jesus by remaining absolutely confident in Him, in spite of what we were facing.There are times when there is no storm or crisis in our lives, and we do all that is humanly possible. But it is when a crisis arises that we instantly reveal upon whom we rely. If we have been learning to worship God and to place our trust in Him, the crisis will reveal that we can go to the point of breaking, yet without breaking our confidence in Him.We have been talking quite a lot about sanctification, but what will be the result in our lives? It will be expressed in our lives as a peaceful resting in God, which means a total oneness with Him. And this oneness will make us not only blameless in His sight, but also a profound joy to Him.

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August 12, 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Dear Lord,

Help me cast my cares on You, not just in the difficult times when I have no other choice, but as a matter of course, as I live out my life. Help me to live out my surrender and our connection in everything I do this and every day. As Paul says in Romans 12:2…(MSG) So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Help me Lord live this way. And Lord I believe, but please help me in my unbelief.

It is not wrong for you to depend on your “Elijah” for as long as God gives him to you. But remember that the time will come when he must leave and will no longer be your guide and your leader, because God does not intend for him to stay. Even the thought of that causes you to say, “I cannot continue without my ‘Elijah.’ ” Yet God says you must continue.Alone at Your “Jordan” (2 Kings 2:14). The Jordan River represents the type of separation where you have no fellowship with anyone else, and where no one else can take your responsibility from you. You now have to put to the test what you learned when you were with your “Elijah.” You have been to the Jordan over and over again with Elijah, but now you are facing it alone. There is no use in saying that you cannot go— the experience is here, and you must go. If you truly want to know whether or not God is the God your faith believes Him to be, then go through your “Jordan” alone.Alone at Your “Jericho” (2 Kings 2:15). Jericho represents the place where you have seen your “Elijah” do great things. Yet when you come alone to your “Jericho,” you have a strong reluctance to take the initiative and trust in God, wanting, instead, for someone else to take it for you. But if you remain true to what you learned while with your “Elijah,” you will receive a sign, as Elisha did, that God is with you.

Alone at Your “Bethel” (2 Kings 2:23). At your “Bethel” you will find yourself at your wits’ end but at the beginning of God’s wisdom. When you come to your wits’ end and feel inclined to panic— don’t! Stand true to God and He will bring out His truth in a way that will make your life an expression of worship. Put into practice what you learned while with your “Elijah”— use his mantle and pray (see 2 Kings 2:13-14). Make a determination to trust in God, and do not even look for Elijah anymore.

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August 11 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning Lord. This devotional made me think about the role models I have had over the years and how at first, they seemed 20 feet tall and impervious to fear and failure; and then their humanity made them seem not so tall and impervious. I can recall putting pastors, teachers and Christian brothers and sisters on Christian pedestals…until they fell off. Is this a lesson about an amazing prophet and his accomplishments or is it a lesson about his fear and failures? This seems to be a lesson about finding Christian mentors and letting them go.

And Gods says…”The Bible and history are full of stories about the failures of strong believers, teachers and prophets. Just when you thought a disciple or prophet was worth following, he  or she finds their Jezebel or Bathsheba and/or denies Christ before the rooster comes fully awake in the morning. And when you turn your eyes inward you recall your own Jezebel, Bathsheba, and accompanying fears and misdeeds. This is a lesson of reminder that when you put your eyes on men, ultimately you will always be disappointed. And even if you are not disappointed, they will provide no real transformation. When you hold up a pastor, teacher or political party or candidate as a solution, you will always be disappointed. And when someone holds you up as a great example you too will fail and falter. But take heart, this then becomes the time and place for My great grace.”

“Let go of your human pillars of “truth and strength” including your own righteousness, and remember to acknowledge Me in all your ways and let Me make your paths straight. Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and I will provide everything you else you require for your life, including the strength for taking the right paths and the grace for the times you and your mentors will not. Trust in Me with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding or worthiness, or that of others and I will make your paths straight.”

Choosing to suffer means that there must be something wrong with you, but choosing God’s will— even if it means you will suffer— is something very different. No normal, healthy saint ever chooses suffering; he simply chooses God’s will, just as Jesus did, whether it means suffering or not. And no saint should ever dare to interfere with the lesson of suffering being taught in another saint’s life.The saint who satisfies the heart of Jesus will make other saints strong and mature for God. But the people used to strengthen us are never those who sympathize with us; in fact, we are hindered by those who give us their sympathy, because sympathy only serves to weaken us. No one better understands a saint than the saint who is as close and as intimate with Jesus as possible. If we accept the sympathy of another saint, our spontaneous feeling is, “God is dealing too harshly with me and making my life too difficult.” That is why Jesus said that self-pity was of the devil (see Matthew 16:21-23). We must be merciful to God’s reputation. It is easy for us to tarnish God’s character because He never argues back; He never tries to defend or vindicate Himself. Beware of thinking that Jesus needed sympathy during His life on earth. He refused the sympathy of people because in His great wisdom He knew that no one on earth understood His purpose (see Matthew 16:23). He accepted only the sympathy of His Father and the angels (see Luke 15:10).Look at God’s incredible waste of His saints, according to the world’s judgment. God seems to plant His saints in the most useless places. And then we say, “God intends for me to be here because I am so useful to Him.” Yet Jesus never measured His life by how or where He was of the greatest use. God places His saints where they will bring the most glory to Him, and we are totally incapable of judging where that may be.

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August 10 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, this seems like a very difficult teaching; that we should be prepared and accepting of pain and suffering for our own lives and that we should not offer sympathy to Christians going through pain and suffering. This seems somewhat counter intuitive to the two commandments of Jesus: love God with all your heart mind and soul and to love your neighbor as yourself. What do I do when I see a Christian brother or sister suffering? What do we do when we are suffering? Do we accept the suffering, simply assuming You will use the suffering and pain to make us stronger? If You came to give us life and life more abundantly, how does this fit?

And God says…(Romans 12:1-2) “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and visually, in your mind, daily,  place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

“As you are being transformed by this process, and begin living surrendered, connected, curious, and obedient, you will know when to reach out and offer comfort, and when to stay within your own connection with Jesus. You will know when and how to respond to the many difficult and challenging circumstances you are bound to face. Acknowledge Me in all your ways and I will make your paths straight. Seek first the kingdom of God, which is Jesus and I will provide everything you require, including discernment and a peace that passes all understanding.”

Our Lord’s childhood was not immaturity waiting to grow into manhood— His childhood is an eternal fact. Am I a holy, innocent child of God as a result of my identification with my Lord and Savior? Do I look at my life as being in my Father’s house? Is the Son of God living in His Father’s house within me?The only abiding reality is God Himself, and His order comes to me moment by moment. Am I continually in touch with the reality of God, or do I pray only when things have gone wrong— when there is some disturbance in my life? I must learn to identify myself closely with my Lord in ways of holy fellowship and oneness that some of us have not yet even begun to learn. “…I must be about My Father’s business”— and I must learn to live every moment of my life in my Father’s house.

Think about your own circumstances. Are you so closely identified with the Lord’s life that you are simply a child of God, continually talking to Him and realizing that everything comes from His hands? Is the eternal Child in you living in His Father’s house? Is the grace of His ministering life being worked out through you in your home, your business, and in your circle of friends? Have you been wondering why you are going through certain circumstances? In fact, it is not that you have to go through them. It is because of your relationship with the Son of God who comes, through the providential will of His Father, into your life. You must allow Him to have His way with you, staying in perfect oneness with Him.

The life of your Lord is to become your vital, simple life, and the way He worked and lived among people while here on earth must be the way He works and lives in you.

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August 7 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Lord, once again the Chambers’ devotional seems to load up on platitudes and disciplines that don’t seem to work for me. He writes “Are you so closely identified with the Lord’s life that you are simply a child of God, continually talking to Him and realizing that everything comes from His hands? Is the eternal Child in you living in His Father’s house? Is the grace of His ministering life being worked out through you in your home, your business, and in your circle of friends? Clearly what he writes is a goal, but I would be hard pressed to say that this is the way that I live every day, 100% of the time. When I read teachings like this I wonder if there are believers that really can live like that 100% of the time, or are platitudes like this simply ways of reminding me that I am once again ”less than”?

And God says…”There is the other part of Chambers’ devotional that might bring some clarity…. “The only abiding reality is God Himself, and His order comes to me moment by moment. Am I continually in touch with the reality of God, or do I pray only when things have gone wrong— when there is some disturbance in my life? I must learn to identify myself closely with my Lord in ways of holy fellowship and oneness that some of us have not yet even begun to learn.”

“You have been learning to identify closely with Me in difficult times and because of the shaping and discipline of difficult times, you are learning to find the oneness in connection with Me during times of well being and prosperity. Of course you are not able to be connected all the time, however, you are learning to live every day in pursuit of surrender, connection (oneness), curiosity (about how I will meet your needs and respond to your prayers) and obedience. Your focus on surrender, connection and curiosity began and automatically restarts when you face the difficulties of life. And then they become a pattern. Let your trials have their perfect result. And when you revert to your old ways of control, fear and  occasional self-righteousness, trust that my love and grace holds you up and fills the gaps until you once again seek our oneness and find yourself in your Father’s house.”