NOVEMBER 30
SUGGESTED READING: LUKE 10:17–22
Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20).
Jesus Christ emphatically said you must not rejoice in successful service: “In this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you.” Only the preacher who lives contrary to true spirituality rejoices in the souls that are saved, the demons cast out, the cases healed.
Jesus says, “Don’t do it.” Don’t rejoice in successful service, but rejoice in your relationship to Him, “… that your name is written in the Lamb’s book of life.” The disciples never understood Matthew 7 or Luke 10 until after the Resurrection; and neither will you and I, unless we receive the Holy Spirit.
Have you never seen an evangelist or preacher, used mightily of God in the salvation of souls, fall into the state of a castaway? This is how he fell—not in deliberate sin, but by deliberately and emphatically rejoicing in his successful service. This surely throws light on the essence of Satanic pride.
PRAYER THOUGHT: O God, I recognize the danger of self importance. Help me to rejoice in You.
SUGGESTED READING: LUKE 10:21–24
In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight (Luke 10:21).
The disciples discussed among themselves who would be first when Jesus formed His kingdom. When Jesus asked them what they questioned, they did not answer Him. Why? They felt they missed the mark and did not know how. Then Jesus took a little child and said, “Unless ye become as a little child, ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of Heaven.”
God teaches no other kind of person, but the childlike in spirit.
PRAYER THOUGHT: O God, grant that we will understand Your teachings with the humility and simplicity of a child.
SUGGESTED READING: MATTHEW 13:53–58
And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house (Matt. 13:57).
The disciples became more and more confused by Christ’s teachings. They were perplexed. The strain of service grew so intense that, in the last year of Jesus’ life, it was too much for them. He predicted, “You shall all be offended in Me, and you will leave Me alone.”
Can you blame them? I cannot. It is natural to be perplexed until we receive the Holy Spirit, who alone can expound all God’s truth.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Lord, enlighten my understanding so that I may fully comprehend Your teachings.
SUGGESTED READING: LUKE 22:31–38
And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren (Luke 22:31–32).
Christ permitted His disciples to be sifted, for He emphatically stated, “Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you. … But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.” Not “that you do not fall into sin” but “that your faith fail not.”
As a result of that sifting, every one of the disciples suffered from a broken heart. Did you ever notice what John Bunyan in Pilgrim’s Progress calls the “excellency of a broken heart”? The sacrifice which God requires is not “obedience in sacrifice,” but a broken heart. “A broken and contrite spirit, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Ps. 51:17b).
Peter denied with oaths and curses that he ever knew Jesus. That was the supreme point of self-revelation. The other disciples also fell away; and I am sure that when they realized their weakness, they too were broken-hearted.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Self-revelation is at times painful, but always helpful. Heavenly Father, I desire to know who I am, for the eternal well-being of my soul.
SUGGESTED READING: MARK 14:26–41
And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour? (Mark 14:37).
Jesus was torn with an agony that these poor, broken-hearted disciples could not understand. They looked up at Him with an answer unspoken, “Lord, how could we watch with you? Our hearts have been broken. We thought you were going to restore the kingdom to Israel.” They were sleeping for sorrow.
Peter said he would go with Jesus even to death. But did he ever think for one moment that Jesus would give himself over meekly to the world? When he did, Peter’s heart broke.
When a man is broken-hearted and despairing, he becomes weary and sleepy. He fails to be vigilant against the enemies.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Lord Jesus, lift me up when I grow weary.
SUGGESTED READING: 1 JOHN 5:1–15
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him (1 John 5:14–15).
The majority of us make the blunder of depending on our own earnestness in prayer, not on God. But, dear friend, we must not have such confidence in ourselves. Our confidence is in God!
All our fuss, all our earnestness, all our so-called gifts of prayer are not the slightest atom of use to Jesus Christ. He pays no attention to these. Our Lord taught His disciples the pattern of prayer (Luke 11) and emphasized in that prayer the importance of faith and trust.
Moreover, the Lord warns us about wrong motives in praying. Surrender to the will of God is primary to genuine praying. Guard against selfish asking and greedy wants as you pray.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Teach me to pray, Lord, as You taught the first disciples.
SUGGESTED READING: PSALM 34:12–22
The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit (Ps. 34:18).
“Lord, I have striven. I have prayed. I have agonized. Lord, I have experienced blessings and benedictions; but the thing has snapped, and I feel I have forsaken and fled from Thee.” Blessed be the name of God! If that is your confession, you will have to come into the kingdom by the same road the publican and harlot came.
Too many preachers and teachers are losing sight of the atonement of Jesus Christ. They preach salvation through a natural affinity to Jesus. But God wants people who are broken-hearted, broken-minded, and broken-prided.
This cruel self, oh, how it strives,
And works within my breast,
To come between Thee and my soul,
And keep me back from rest.
How many subtle forms it takes
Of seeming verity,
As if it were not safe to rest,
And venture all on Thee.
In Thy strong hand I lay me down,
So shall the work be done;
For who can work so wondrously
As the Almighty One?
PRAYER THOUGHT: I praise You, Lord, for my redemption!
SUGGESTED READING: 2 CORINTHIANS 5:11–16
Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, thou have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more (2 Cor. 5:16).
To apply our terms of salvation to the early disciples seems entirely misleading and unwarranted by Scripture. Yet, the disciples’ experience with their Lord throws a luminous interpretation on the spiritual experience of many today.
A problem arises today from the fact that the average evangelist regards conversion and regeneration as the same thing. In numbers of cases, conversion and regeneration actually do happen at the same time. But there are many cases in which conversion is a long process that takes place before the point of regeneration, which is the moment when a sinner’s need for Christ is consciously realized or entered into.
The men and the women who are fascinated by the Lord Jesus, and who consecrate their lives to Him, but who know nothing experimentally about being born from above, are converted. But they are not yet regenerated—born again. They yet need a disappointing revelation of themselves, as the disciples received during Jesus’ arrest and trial.
PRAYER THOUGHT: O Lord, search my heart and reveal where I stand in relation to You.
SUGGESTED READING: 2 CORINTHIANS 5:17–21
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (2 Cor. 5:17).
Every person—good, bad, or indifferent—must be born from above by the Spirit of God.
At the point of being born again, one who has been a wild and externally wicked sinner will be conscious of God’s forgiveness of sins. On the other hand, one who has been naturally good and religious will sense the spiritual poverty of the past. Both will realize their need to be born anew by the sovereign grace of God.
Supernatural signs will accompany those saved by the grace of God. (The opening of this question will produce much confusion; that cannot be helped.) We must proclaim the one thing the New Testament demands, which is right relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Oh, the bliss of knowing that all my sins are forgiven! Help me today to tell someone else how to become a new person in Christ.
SUGGESTED READING: LUKE 24:46–49
And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost (John 20:22).
Some people believe that receiving the Holy Spirit and the baptism with the Holy Spirit are one and the same thing, which in Scripture they certainly are not.
The men to whom Jesus said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” had been put through crises that had revealed their true nature to themselves. This could have been done only by the quickening of the Holy Spirit, who enabled them to understand Christ’s teachings and prepared them to receive Christ in His fullness, as promised by the Father.
Christ did not ask the disciples to believe in some person He called the Holy Spirit; instead, He told them to receive the Holy Spirit. No soul was ever, or will ever be, born into the kingdom of God except by the Holy Spirit.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Spirit of God, I need You daily.
SUGGESTED READING: JOHN 20:19–23
Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained (John 20:23).
When the disciples were quickened by the Holy Spirit, “the Scriptures were opened to them.” We read in John 20:9 that their condition before this time was that they “knew not the Scripture.” This is the first striking experience of every soul born from above, by the Spirit of God: The Bible becomes a new book.
Yet the quickening of the Spirit is not enough for Christian service. When Jesus ascended back to His Father, He would not allow His disciples to work for Him, in spite of the fact that they were Spirit-quickened. They were to do only two things: first, witness to the fact that He was risen from the dead; and second, tarry until they received the mighty baptism with the Holy Spirit.
Have you tried to rush into Christian service, not having received the promise of the Father?
PRAYER THOUGHT: I remember my sinful days of spiritual darkness. But I thank You, God, that the blessed Holy Spirit has brought new life and fresh light.
SUGGESTED READING: 2 KINGS 6:8–18
And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha (2 Kings 6:17).
“Opened sight” is a prominent result of spiritual regeneration. When the disciples were born again, they got their eyes opened to who they were, not only to whom the Lord was.
The Holy Spirit can anoint our spiritual eyes with salve. By His quickening, He performs a kind of surgical operation, which is necessary before we can see in any light other than that of our prejudices.
This is not the sanctified life we are talking about; this is the spiritually regenerated life. Examine yourself to see whether you have ever received this quickening of the Holy Spirit of God.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Open the blinded eyes of the human spirit, O Lord, so that we can see You in all Your beauty.
SUGGESTED READING: MATTHEW 16:13–20
Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained (John 20:23).
Our Lord said in Matthew 16:19, “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” This is a section of Scripture that scares Protestants, simply because a misuse has been made of it by the Roman Catholic Church. But we are not called upon to safeguard truth; we are called to let truth safeguard us.
The characteristic, then, of discipleship is spiritual life, which is as solid and as real as natural life. The view that looks on spiritual life as an acquirement of the intellect, and an accomplishment that is gained from prayer and consecration, is altogether foreign to the New Testament. Spiritual life is life proceeding from the Holy Spirit, whom we received when we were born again from above.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Life eternal is my hope! Oh, what anticipation and expectation!
SUGGESTED READING: JOHN 21:1–17
Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord (John 21:12).
The disciples questioned Jesus about many things. His answers surprised and confused them. The Spirit of God alone understands the things of God, and so they did not understand Him until they had received the Spirit of God, “that no flesh should glory in His presence.”
But now, after His resurrection, our Lord began questioning the disciples. He questioned them in such a way it would have been impossible for them to have answered Him unless they had received the Holy Spirit. The first question was about love. John 21 records the famous incident of the seashore breakfast. For us, the point of interest of this incident is our Lord’s questioning of Peter; but through Peter He questioned all the rest of them about love.
Love is not an emotional ecstasy. Love is the sovereign preference of the whole being for another. In asking “Lovest thou Me?” our Lord meant no empty sentiment; He meant a love full of such an extraordinary passion that all the relationships and loves of earth are hatred in comparison to it. If Peter and the other disciples had not received the Holy Spirit, they could never have answered Him, because the Holy Spirit alone loves our Lord Jesus Christ that way.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Yes, Lord, I love you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.
SUGGESTED READING: EXODUS 22:1–6
And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold (Luke 19:8).
One must be very careful to place spiritual things in their right sequence and relationship. It is perilously easy, for instance, to suppose that restitution is a necessary work before salvation; but that is thoroughly unscriptural. Spiritual regeneration leads one to restitution.
It is possible to preach mistakenly a baptism of power and of the Holy Spirit which totally ignores Romans 12:1—namely, the presentation of the body to God. A person can obey such a statement only if he has first of all received the Holy Spirit and been born from above.
Restitution and cross-bearing for the Lord are possible only after the glorious transformation of spiritual quickening.
PRAYER THOUGHT: With Paul I rejoice that “I have been crucified with Christ,” and in Him I now live by faith.
SUGGESTED READING: 1 PETER 5:1–4
Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind (1 Pet. 5:2).
Our Lord’s questioning of Peter about love (John 21) is intensely involved with the question of feeding His sheep. The characteristic of one who has the love of the Holy Spirit is intense activity in doing God’s will, not in working for God. Love and service are made one in an abstraction of delight, in which the individual is completely transfigured and the self totally effaced.
It is very helpful for modern Christians to remember that we are to feed Christ’s lambs and carry Christ’s sheep. We are not sent into the world to make our converts, or to run our movements, or to conserve our beliefs. May the Lord’s penetrating question paralyze every answer, save the answer of the Holy Spirit in His way, “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee.”
PRAYER THOUGHT: Lord Jesus, I love You. I am seeking new ways to express it. Help me to live my love in service to others.
SUGGESTED READING: ACTS 1:1–14
And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high (Luke 24:49).
Every spiritually minded person ought to study the difference between testifying and preaching. It is the duty of every born-again person to testify to what the Lord has done; but it requires a new discipline and the mighty baptism with the Holy Spirit before one is sent out to preach.
Our Lord distinctly told His spiritually quickened disciples that He would send the authoritative “promise of the Father” upon them (Acts 1:8) to prepare them for the work of preaching. However, in subsequent generations, there has not been sufficient distinction made between receiving the Spirit for spiritual quickening, and the baptism with the Holy Spirit for service.
The following notation from one of the most profound European scholars on this very matter ought to carry considerable weight. I refer to Bishop Westcott, in his Commentary on St. John’s Gospel. The bishop says:
The presence of this new life of humility in the disciples, communicated to them by Christ, was the necessary condition for the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The spirit which the Lord imparted to them was His Spirit, or, as it may be expressed, the Holy Spirit as dwelling in Him. By this He first quickened them and then sent them, according to His promise, the Paraclete, to be with them and to supply all power for the exercise of their different functions. The relation of the Paraclete to the Pentecostal gift is therefore the relation of quickening to the endowment; the one answers to the power of the resurrection; the other to the power of the ascension. The one to victory; the other to sovereignty.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me!
SUGGESTED READING: LUKE 24:50–53
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8).
Luke 24:50–53 relates a powerful revelation to the disciples as they saw the ascending Christ disappear. In Acts 1:11, the angelic proclamation says that this same Jesus will come back again. Many a commentator has spiritualized these passages to say that the promise was fulfilled at Pentecost. But the Holy Spirit has no wounds in His hands; the Holy Spirit has no atonement. Therefore, Pentecost cannot be the fulfillment of the angelic proclamation.
Pentecost is the fulfilling of the promise of the Lord, not the manifestation of a new Lord. We are to receive the Holy Spirit for quickening; and this quickening is preparation for a sacramental life of service. Our submissive waiting until the mighty fusing of the baptism with the Holy Spirit will allow us to be carried into the mystic body of Christ, for the mighty purposes of omnipotent God.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Thank You, Lord, for the promise of Your return. Let me live and serve in the fullness of Your Spirit until that great day.
SUGGESTED READING: EPHESIANS 4:1–10
But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ (Eph. 4:7).
Just as there is only one kind of human nature, there is only one kind of divine nature. And the holiness which the Bible teaches is the positive characteristic of the Christian is the kind Jesus had. God made His disciples one in holiness with Him.
They were not only made one in holiness, but one in love. Every Bible student must realize that there is only one kind of love taught in the Bible, and that is the love of God. The baptism with the Holy Spirit does not “patch up” natural human love to reach the standard of divine love, but makes the disciple one in love with his Lord.
The characteristic of Spirit-baptized ones is that they show the same unmerited mercy, the same unmerited love to others that Jesus showed to them.
PRAYER THOUGHT: I will earnestly seek to love my fellowman as I have been loved by Christ—with all my heart.
SUGGESTED READING: JOHN 17:17–26
And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one (John 17:22).
Not only are Spirit-baptized Christians made one in holiness and one in love, but they are to be made one in glory. Glory might be described as the place where Christ is enthroned in the fullness of consummating power and has all things subdued to Himself. There the Spirit-baptized are to be one with Him.
And as we are always with Christ, He is always with us. He, by virtue of His ascension, has become omnipresent. “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matt. 28:20) is an incomprehensible statement to human intelligence, but a blessed certainty to the Spirit of God and to the Spirit-baptized saint.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Lord, I appreciate the assurance of Your presence.
SUGGESTED READING: LUKE 12:31–40
Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Luke 12:32).
There is a supremacy in the persons that are Spirit-baptized—not a supremacy of power attached to the person, but a supremacy of the personality itself. We read in Acts 4:13: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” This aura of the Lord’s presence surrounds the personality of everyone who is baptized with the Spirit of Christ.
Remember that Jesus said the Holy Spirit would glorify Him. Consequently, when Spirit-baptized people do good works, they will glorify the Lord who is in heaven. There is no distinction between service, sanctification, and supremacy; all three are fused into one transfiguring devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. Spiritual supremacy is vested only in consecrated persons.
Further, this supremacy is void of self-interest. Read carefully Luke 24:47, Acts 1:8, and Acts 8:1–4. These passages clearly indicate that the baptism with the Holy Spirit removes all parochial notions, gives the disciple a world-wide view of God Himself, and endues him with love for the entire world.
PRAYER THOUGHT: O God, I revel in the opportunity to serve in Your kingdom.
SUGGESTED READING: JOHN 14:15–21
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever (John 14:16).
Individuals who are Spirit-baptized recognize that they are not their own. Their prayerful attitude is, “Lord, direct me by Thy Holy Spirit to choose what Thou hast ordained for me!”
Consequently, God is always uprooting the saints and scattering them far and wide. He does this to remind them, first, that this age is not their age; and, second, that there is a better time coming. And in that age, the spiritual supremacy of the saints will mean the supremacy of position.
In Luke 22:28–30, our Lord distinctly said that the position of His kingdom will ultimately be over everything. He said, “I appoint unto you a kingdom, even as My Father appointed unto Me, that ye may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom; and ye shall sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
Be patient with the Lord when He directs you into unaccustomed paths. He has a greater plan for you than human mind can fathom.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Lord, remind me that this world is not my home; so I must seek Your will, rather than my own comfort or security.
SUGGESTED READING: PSALM 35:1–10
And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6).
One of the most wonderful things in our spiritual experience is the way God alters and develops our sensitivity to other people. There was a time when our feelings were amazingly sensitive to what certain other people thought of us. Now God has made us absolutely indifferent to what they (the world) think of us (Christians). We are now sensitive to what another Person thinks. Ultimately, we are sensitive only to what God thinks of us.
Is this the way you view your situation? If you do, you will obtain victory.
PRAYER THOUGHT: O God, You are the only One I desire to please. Forgive me if I succumb to the judgment of others.
SUGGESTED READING: REVELATION 3:1–10
Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth (Rev. 3:10).
God would have His children remember that this is not His or their day. It is man’s day; and we must abide in prayerfully centered patience until He sees fit to put an end to man’s day. The patience of the saints is not the patience of exhaustion, or the patience of pessimism, but the patience of sovereign confidence in almighty God.
I believe the reason that most Christian people will not accept the counsel of patience is that the majority take their notions from preachers and books, instead of from the Bible itself.
The perils that we all well might shun,
We saunter forth to meet;
The path into the road of sin,
We tread with careless feet.
The air that comes instinct with death
We bid it round us flow;
And when our hands should bar the gate,
We parley with the foe.
The ill we deem we ne’er could do,
In thought we dramatize;
What we should love we learn to scan
With speculative eyes.
Alas! for ignorance profound
Of our poor nature’s bent
The wakened sympathy with wrong
Becomes the will’s consent.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Lord Jesus, I know that patience is a virtue. I need more.
For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth (Job 19:25).
Preaching in St. Paul’s Church in London, Father Frere is reported to have said the following on “The Fourfold Attitude Towards Suffering”:
Have you ever, I wonder, had to do something to a pet dog, which hurt very much, so as to get it well—to pull a thorn out of the foot, or wash out a wound, or something of that sort? You may remember the sort of dumb eloquence there was in the eye of the dog as he looked at you. It hurt tremendously, and yet there seemed to speak from his eyes trust of you. It looked as if he meant to say, “I do not in the least understand what you are doing, but go on.” And that is the picture of trust. It is a very necessary stage into which we have to be brought in our experience of suffering. Perhaps when we most acutely turn to it in the case of those whom we love, we have to look mutely up to God, and say to Him, “I do not understand it at all, but go on.” It is a real state of trust in God, and a step towards something further. Spiritual experience has begun, suffering has already deepened the soul.
We must learn to trust the Lord as we suffer. Christ is our example. Follow Him! Trust Him!
PRAYER THOUGHT: Lord, help me to trust and follow You today.
SUGGESTED READING: 2 CORINTHIANS 3:1–6
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life (2 Cor. 3:6).
Beware of paying too much attention to the talk of the soul that is in trouble. Keep your heart and mind alert to what God is saying to you; and if you do not hear God, then get to the place where you can. Get to the place where you will know when God brings His Word to your remembrance.
There is a wrong use of God’s Word and a right one, in counseling the troubled soul. The wrong one is this sort of thing: I cast about in my mind what sort of man you are, and then I hurl a text like a projectile at you. The Spirit of God is not in that. That use of the Word of God kills your own soul and the souls of the people you deal with. Jesus Christ said, “The words I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63).
Keep your soul in touch with the directions of the Spirit, for your own sake and the sake of those with whom you talk.
PRAYER THOUGHT: O Holy Spirit, help my conversations with others to give life, not wounds.
SUGGESTED READING: 2 CORINTHIANS 2
For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things (2 Cor. 2:9).
Let me share a very puzzling situation. You have all had experiences, I’m sure, in which people listened to clear Bible teaching, but failed to enter the kingdom of God. Yet, before that same congregation, a speaker gets up and shares a rambling testimony and—to your astonishment—people are born again.
I have attended the City Mission in New York City several times, for example, and I have never once heard correct biblical teaching there. But recently, I heard a man who had been wonderfully saved get up and tell what he was and what he had been. Then four or five others did this too. The Spirit of God got hold of the people in the congregation. Before I knew it, people went to the altar. These rough men knelt down and prayed with them, and the seekers “struck something,” as they say there. Something struck them!
God works in mysterious ways. Correct biblical teaching is a must. But so is obedience from the heart. This is true, no matter how strange or odd the circumstances happen to be.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Lord Jesus, I long to be obedient in every detail of Your will for my life—even if others do not understand.
SUGGESTED READING: 1 TIMOTHY 4:1–9
But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness (1 Tim. 4:7).
You cannot predict how God may operate. Many dear souls are living specimens of what God has done and how the Spirit of God has worked, even though you may not fully understand them nor their methods. Many times some poor, ignorant servant, who seems to scarcely know how to put anything together, is mightily used of God in the salvation of souls—while others, who have a clear understanding of the gospel, explain the way of salvation ever so clearly, yet nothing happens.
This illustrates once again that a right relationship with God is more important than right teaching about God.
Ask yourself, Do I experimentally know what full salvation is? Do I know what entire sanctification means, in my own experience? The worker for God must be in a healthy, vigorous spiritual condition himself. Are you?
PRAYER THOUGHT: O God, work out Your will in my life as You desire.
Your ways are above my ways.
SUGGESTED READING: 1 THESSALONIANS 1
We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each aboundeth (2 Thess. 1:3).
I want to offer a word of criticism about the choosing of Sunday school teachers. The way we are apt to choose Sunday school teachers is this: A person gets introduced into the kingdom of God and immediately we put that one into a Sunday school class to teach.
When a soul enters into the kingdom of God, that person must grow in obedience until he is consolidated in the ways of God. Why is this necessary? Because dealing with souls is tenfold more dangerous than dealing with bodies. Unless you are in a healthy, vigorous condition with God, you will catch the disease of the soul you are dealing with, instead of helping to cure it. Unless you know how to walk through that Bible, inhale the air of God’s truth, and get thoroughly robust, you are sure to catch the disease of the souls with whom you are dealing.
New Christians need time to grow before they are placed in positions of leadership.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Lord, as I deal with sinsick souls, insulate me from their disease. Enable me to be spiritually healthy so that I can help them find the Great Physician.
The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted (Ps. 104:16).
The cedars of Lebanon have a most extraordinary power. Instead of nourishing parasites, they kill them. The life within each tree is so strong and so robust that, instead of feeding the parasites, it chokes them off.
God grant that we may get so filled with His life, and be so spiritually flourishing, that He can trust us to work among the souls of our fellowmen—so that He may be able to pour His tremendous health and power through us!
Beware of working for God when you have very little Christianity yourself. And you cannot develop your own Christian life unless it exists. The advice that is too often given to Christian workers is, “If you work for God, you can develop your own Christian life.” You must learn to live with God first.
PRAYER THOUGHT: Help me to flourish like a cedar of Lebanon, so that I can be more effectively used by You.