Be determined to know more than others. If you yourself do not cut the lines that tie you to the dock, God will have to use a storm to sever them and to send you out to sea. Put everything in your life afloat upon God, going out to sea on the great swelling tide of His purpose, and your eyes will be opened. If you believe in Jesus, you are not to spend all your time in the calm waters just inside the harbor, full of joy, but always tied to the dock. You have to get out past the harbor into the great depths of God, and begin to know things for yourself— begin to have spiritual discernment.

When you know that you should do something and you do it, immediately you know more. Examine where you have become sluggish, where you began losing interest spiritually, and you will find that it goes back to a point where you did not do something you knew you should do. You did not do it because there seemed to be no immediate call to do it. But now you have no insight or discernment, and at a time of crisis you are spiritually distracted instead of spiritually self-controlled. It is a dangerous thing to refuse to continue learning and knowing more.

The counterfeit of obedience is a state of mind in which you create your own opportunities to sacrifice yourself, and your zeal and enthusiasm are mistaken for discernment. It is easier to sacrifice yourself than to fulfill your spiritual destiny, which is stated in Romans 12:1-2. It is much better to fulfill the purpose of God in your life by discerning His will than it is to perform great acts of self-sacrifice. “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice . . .” (1 Samuel 15:22). Beware of paying attention or going back to what you once were, when God wants you to be something that you have never been. “If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know . . .” (John 7:17).

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June 8, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Thank you for the lessons Lord. I am learning that Your will is not determined by the outcome as interpreted by my eyes and my filters. It is not an easy lesson.  I have always interpreted Your will by the doors that open to provision, safety …a good or more secure outcome for me and mine.  I have interpreted my next steps by how they might add to the safety, security, and provision for my family and me. It is not an easy lesson to learn that I am to no longer use those elements as my yardstick to determine Your will, my next steps or actions. The song says blessed be your name in all things…and I understand that I can sing that song as long as I am obedient to your will and often Your will is not necessarily found in my perceptions. You are the provision, safety, and security…and I am to follow You-not the elements that might signal safety, security and provision.

And God says…”It is a great deception.  You often interpret My will by the worldly success or outcome or opportunity. You think it was a success if 1000 showed up at church, or if 25 came forward, or if the investment paid off and or he or she were healed. And while it is My will that people are healed and you be blessed, my perfect will is for you to become conformed to the likeness of Christ Jesus. Jesus only acted in My will and you know the outcome of His physical life. And yet it was the most victorious life ever lived. The victory came out of what appeared (to human eyes and perceptions) to be utter defeat. The eternal victory came after and through the physical and worldly failure. Trust in the Lord with all your heart; praise the name of Jesus in all things. Operate in My will because You know it is My will, not because you think it has the most successful worldly outcome. My ways are not your ways.

Romans 12

Place Your Life Before God

^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 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.

Am I fulfilling this ministry of intercession deep within the hidden recesses of my life? There is no trap nor any danger at all of being deceived or of showing pride in true intercession. It is a hidden ministry that brings forth fruit through which the Father is glorified. Am I allowing my spiritual life to waste away, or am I focused, bringing everything to one central point— the atonement of my Lord? Is Jesus Christ more and more dominating every interest of my life? If the central point, or the most powerful influence, of my life is the atonement of the Lord, then every aspect of my life will bear fruit for Him.

However, I must take the time to realize what this central point of power is. Am I willing to give one minute out of every hour to concentrate on it? “If you abide in Me . . . “— that is, if you continue to act, and think, and work from that central point— “you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7). Am I abiding? Am I taking the time to abide? What is the greatest source of power in my life? Is it my work, service, and sacrifice for others, or is it my striving to work for God? It should be none of these— what ought to exert the greatest power in my life is the atonement of the Lord. It is not on what we spend the greatest amount of time that molds us the most, but whatever exerts the most power over us. We must make a determination to limit and concentrate our desires and interests on the atonement by the Cross of Christ.

“Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do . . . .” The disciple who abides in Jesus is the will of God, and what appears to be his free choices are actually God’s foreordained decrees. Is this mysterious? Does it appear to contradict sound logic or seem totally absurd? Yes, but what a glorious truth it is to a saint of God.

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June 7, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

I used to wonder about Your many names Lord. Jehovah – Jireh, The Lord will provide, or Jehovah – Shalom, The Lord of Peace, and Jehovah – Maccaddeshem, The Lord sanctifier, and the eleven others    listed in the Bible. Why were You given so many names?  And then as the song played I considered the names of Jesus; Healer, Savior, Provider, Sanctifier, Deliverer……and I could go on and on and on. And I begin to realize that it is simply one more way to trust You in every area of my life.

And God says …”Many trust Me for salvation, sanctification, and provision. Many trust Me for peace and healing, while many others trust Me and have faith that I will protect them and their families. But at the heart of the intense belief in every area is need.  You find the faith and trust because you need salvation, sanctification, provision, peace, healing or protection. And yet many, many times you cry out for Me to remove your needs. It is a small but important distinction that I meet your needs…I do not remove them. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely or trust in your own ways, and He will make your paths straight. I will meet all your needs according to My riches in glory. Call Me by the name that meets your needs: Healer, Provider, Savior, Protector, Deliverer, and of course call Me all these names as you call the names of Jesus.”

Your will agrees with God, but in your flesh there is a nature that renders you powerless to do what you know you ought to do. When the Lord initially comes in contact with our conscience, the first thing our conscience does is awaken our will, and our will always agrees with God. Yet you say, “But I don’t know if my will is in agreement with God.” Look to Jesus and you will find that your will and your conscience are in agreement with Him every time. What causes you to say “I will not obey” is something less deep and penetrating than your will. It is perversity or stubbornness, and they are never in agreement with God. The most profound thing in a person is his will, not sin.

The will is the essential element in God’s creation of human beings— sin is a perverse nature which entered into people. In someone who has been born again, the source of the will is Almighty God. “. . . for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” With focused attention and great care, you have to “work out” what God “works in” you— not work to accomplish or earn “your own salvation,” but work it out so you will exhibit the evidence of a life based with determined, unshakable faith on the complete and perfect redemption of the Lord. As you do this, you do not bring an opposing will up against God’s will— God’s will is your will. Your natural choices will be in accordance with God’s will, and living this life will be as natural as breathing. Stubbornness is an unintelligent barrier, refusing enlightenment and blocking its flow. The only thing to do with this barrier of stubbornness is to blow it up with “dynamite,” and the “dynamite” is obedience to the Holy Spirit.

Do I believe that Almighty God is the Source of my will? God not only expects me to do His will, but He is in me to do it.

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June 6, 2011

Journal entry for today-JDV

Lord, I need you in so many areas of my life, and I wonder if I am worthy enough to receive your love, grace and hope. I wonder if I matter enough or if I am good enough to receive your care and provision. And then I remember the sacrifice of Jesus.

When I recall the magnitude of your sacrifice I grasp a bit of the truth…and then the Holy Spirit speaks to me quietly reminding me that I am yours….not because of anything I have or have not done, but because of Jesus.

And God says…”You will have doubts and concerns in this life, but they can serve as reminders to stay connected to Me. You may stray and defy Me and My word and direction … that too can serve to drive you back to Me.  You come to learn that because You are mine, I will never let you go…ever. All things work together for good for those that love Me and are called according to My purpose. Trust Me and rest, you are spoken for.”

Are you obsessed by something? You will probably say, “No, by nothing,” but all of us are obsessed by something— usually by ourselves, or, if we are Christians, by our own experience of the Christian life. But the psalmist says that we are to be obsessed by God. The abiding awareness of the Christian life is to be God Himself, not just thoughts about Him. The total being of our life inside and out is to be absolutely obsessed by the presence of God. A child’s awareness is so absorbed in his mother that although he is not consciously thinking of her, when a problem arises, the abiding relationship is that with the mother. In that same way, we are to “live and move and have our being” in God (Acts 17:28), looking at everything in relation to Him, because our abiding awareness of Him continually pushes itself to the forefront of our lives.

If we are obsessed by God, nothing else can get into our lives— not concerns, nor tribulation, nor worries. And now we understand why our Lord so emphasized the sin of worrying. How can we dare to be so absolutely unbelieving when God totally surrounds us? To be obsessed by God is to have an effective barricade against all the assaults of the enemy.

“He himself shall dwell in prosperity . . .” (Psalm 25:13). God will cause us to “dwell in prosperity,” keeping us at ease, even in the midst of tribulation, misunderstanding, and slander, if our “life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). We rob ourselves of the miraculous, revealed truth of this abiding companionship with God. “God is our refuge . . .” (Psalm 46:1). Nothing can break through His shelter of protection.

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June 2, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Obsessed is a word that brings some negative connotations to my mind. One primary definition of obsessed is: preoccupied with concern.  And when You are the first and last thing on my mind and in my heart, I really do not feel any concern at all, Lord. Chambers was right about forgetting worry and fears.  I have learned that when you occupy my heart, mind and thoughts, even though my circumstances may be challenging, I can face life in eager anticipation. It is not a question of bringing you my prayers and petitions, or my worries and concerns. When I simply bring myself and seek You…every worry, concern and challenge pales in comparison and I am at peace. Thank you Lord.

And God says…”You will face challenges and trials in this life, I have told you this over and over. But these challenges and trials can work to your advantage when you let Me navigate your life. Remember, nothing can touch you that has not first touched my hands, and I love you more than you can imagine or even understand. …Philippians 4 (Message) ^6-7Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.”

Can a sinner be turned into a saint? Can a twisted life be made right? There is only one appropriate answer— “O Lord God, You know” (Ezekiel 37:3). Never forge ahead with your religious common sense and say, “Oh, yes, with just a little more Bible reading, devotional time, and prayer, I see how it can be done.”

It is much easier to do something than to trust in God; we see the activity and mistake panic for inspiration. That is why we see so few fellow workers with God, yet so many people working for God. We would much rather work for God than believe in Him. Do I really believe that God will do in me what I cannot do? The degree of hopelessness I have for others comes from never realizing that God has done anything for me. Is my own personal experience such a wonderful realization of God’s power and might that I can never have a sense of hopelessness for anyone else I see? Has any spiritual work been accomplished in me at all? The degree of panic activity in my life is equal to the degree of my lack of personal spiritual experience.

“Behold, O My people, I will open your graves . . .” (Ezekiel 37:12). When God wants to show you what human nature is like separated from Himself, He shows it to you in yourself. If the Spirit of God has ever given you a vision of what you are apart from the grace of God (and He will only do this when His Spirit is at work in you), then you know that in reality there is no criminal half as bad as you yourself could be without His grace. My “grave” has been opened by God and “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells” (Romans 7:18). God’s Spirit continually reveals to His children what human nature is like apart from His grace.

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June 1, 2011

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Just as I think I have graduated from immature Christian to mature believer, or have been promoted from Private Christian to corporal or sergeant…perhaps even Colonel Christian, I go and do something really off the way…..

Then as I am chiding and condemning myself, asking for your grace and forgiveness, You send me a lesson and song like this, reminding me that You love me anyway. You remind me that your grace is an ocean and I can drown in it if I choose. I may not be able to choose to always be obedient and faithful even as I try my very hardest. But I can choose Your grace.

And God says…”Whenever, whatever, however you find yourself, you can always choose Me. There is no need to be separated from Me, even when you “do something really off the way”. You can be immediately restored. When you are immediately restored through confession and repentance, and are connected to Me you allow Me to once again (and again, and again, and again….) to live and love through you, changing you from the inside out. If you confess your sins, I am faithful and just and will forgive you… and purify you. There is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.

Trust in Me and recall Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans… Romans 7:22-28 -It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?

The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.