My Great Desire: by Andrew Murray

 

"One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple. "— PSALMS 27:4

        Here we have man's response to God's desire to dwell in us. When the desire of God toward us begins to rule the life and heart, our desire is fixed on one thing, and that is, to dwell in the house of the Lord all the clays of our life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, to worship Him in the beauty of holiness. And then to enquire in His temple and to learn what it means that God has said:

"I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it. And I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them."       

The more we realize the desire of God's love to give His rest in the heart, and the more our desire is thus quickened to dwell every day in His temple and behold His beauty, the more the Spirit of intercession will grow upon us, to claim all that in His New Covenant God has promised. Whether we think of our Church and country, of our home and school, of our nearer or wider circle; whether we think of the saved and all their needs, or the unsaved and their danger, the thought that God is indeed longing to find His home and His rest in the hearts of men, if He be only "inquired of," will rouse our whole being to strive for Zion's sake not to hold our peace. All the thoughts of our feebleness and unworthiness will be swallowed up in the wonderful assurance that He has said of human hearts:

"This is my rest for everywhere will I dwell; for I have desired it."       

 As our faith sees how high our calling is, how indispensable has made fervent, intense, persistent prayer as the condition oi His purpose being fulfilled, we shall be drawn to give up our life to a closer walk with God, to an unceasing waiting upon Him, and to a testimony to our brethren of what God will do in them and in us.
        Is it not wonderful beyond all thought, this Divine partnership, in which God commits the fulfillment of His desires to our keeping? Shame upon us that we have so little realized it!

Shaken Things Up! by TA Sparks

 

Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens. (Hebrews 12:26 ESV)

Everything is going to be shaken in earth and in heaven, with a view to finding out just how much there is of Christ living in it. These Jewish believers were going to see the temple and the whole temple system wrecked, and then they would discover just how much they had got of Christ, or how much of their life was bound up with earthly things. They would see what was left when that was all gone. God is not only going to shake Judaism, but this heavenly thing. He will shake heaven and earth, and we shall find out by that shaking what we have left when the earthly system passes, when even the representation of heavenly things in Christianity is tested (for Christianity has developed a representation of heavenly things, just as Judaism has). Men have made an earthly representation of the New Testament revelation of the church, and ministry, and priesthood. It is all going to be tested. For many it is now in the melting pot. The issue is the shaking of heaven and earth. What have we got left? The issue is Christ.

Whether you like all that we have said, or agree with it or not, does not worry me; but I am concerned that we have come to Christ, to show that Christ in heaven is our Life, Christ in heaven is our All, and appointed to be so by God, and nothing here can take the place of Christ. God will bring everything to an end that takes the place of Christ. He has determined from eternity that in all things Christ should have the preeminence, and have the fullness, and that nothing shall glory before Him or take His place. The Lord bring us into a larger measure of Christ, and a larger measure of Christ into us.

An Exchanged Life: by Henry Blackaby

 

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.      Galatians 2:20

The Christian life is an exchanged life. Jesus’ life for your life. When Christ takes control, your life takes on dimensions you would never have known apart from Him. When you are weak, then Christ demonstrates His strength in your life (2 Cor. 12:9-10). When you face situations that are beyond your comprehension, you have only to ask, and the infinite wisdom of God is available to you (James 1:5). When you are faced with humanly impossible situations, God does the impossible (Luke 18:27). When you encounter people whom you find difficult to love, God expresses His unconditional love through you (1 John 4:7). When you are at a loss as to what you should pray for someone, the Spirit will guide you in your prayer life (Rom. 8:16). When Christ takes up residence in the life of a believer, “all the fullness of God” is available to that person (Eph. 3:19).

It is marvelously freeing to know that God controls your life and knows what it can become. Rather than constantly worrying about what you will face, your great challenge is to continually release every area of your life to God’s control. The temptation will be to try to do by yourself what only God can do. Our assignment is to “abide in the vine” and to allow God to do in and through us what only He can do (John 15:5). Only God can be God. Allow Him to live out His divine life through you. He is the only One who can.

Deny Yourself: by Henry Blackaby

 

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”      Matthew 16:24

Sin causes us to be self-centered, shifting our hearts from God to self. The essence of salvation is an about-face from self-centeredness to God-centeredness. The Christian must spend a lifetime denying self. Our great temptation will be to affirm ourselves while we follow Jesus. James and John did this when they chose to follow Jesus but asked for the two most prominent positions in Jesus’ kingdom (Mark 10:35-37). James and John wanted a discipleship that would not impede their personal desires and aspirations. Like them, we say, “Lord, I want to be pleasing to you, but I want to stay where I am.”

Self-centered people try to keep their lives unruffled and undisturbed, safe and secure. Our temptation is to give our time and effort to the goals of this world. Then, when we are successful in the world’s eyes, we seek to bring God into our world by honoring Him with our success. We may say, “Now that I have succeeded in business [or sports, or politics, or with my family, or even Christian ministry], I want to give God the glory for it!” God is not interested in receiving secondhand glory from our activity. God receives glory from His activity through our lives.

The world will entice you to adopt its goals and to invest in temporal things. Resist the temptation to pursue your own goals, asking God to bless them. Rather, deny yourself and join the activity of God as He reveals it to you.

TRAGEDY: Men Do Not Know That God Is Here: by AW Tozer

And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. Genesis 28:16

The patriarch Jacob saw a vision of God and cried out in wonder, “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.”

Jacob had never been for one small division of a moment outside the circle of that all-pervading Presence. But he knew it not. That was his trouble, and it is ours.

Men do not know that God is here. What a difference it would make if they knew!

The Presence and the manifestation of the Presence are not the same. There can be the one without the other. God is here when we are wholly unaware of it. He is manifest only when and as we are aware of His Presence. On our part there must be surrender to the Spirit of God, for His work is to show us the Father and the Son.

If we cooperate with Him in loving obedience God will manifest Himself to us, and that manifestation will be the difference between a nominal Christian life and a life radiant with the light of His face.

It has been asked, “Why does God manifest His Presence to some and let multitudes of others struggle along in the half-light of imperfect Christian experience?” We can only reply that the will of God is the same for all—He has no favorites within His household. All he has ever done for any of His children He will do for all of His children. The difference lies not with God but with us!

The Devotion of Hearing: by Oswald Chambers

 

Samuel answered, "Speak, for Your servant hears." —1 Samuel 3:10

Just because I have listened carefully and intently to one thing from God does not mean that I will listen to everything He says. I show God my lack of love and respect for Him by the insensitivity of my heart and mind toward what He says. If I love my friend, I will instinctively understand what he wants. And Jesus said, “You are My friends…” (John 15:14). Have I disobeyed some command of my Lord’s this week? If I had realized that it was a command of Jesus, I would not have deliberately disobeyed it. But most of us show incredible disrespect to God because we don’t even hear Him. He might as well never have spoken to us.

The goal of my spiritual life is such close identification with Jesus Christ that I will always hear God and know that God always hears me (see John 11:41). If I am united with Jesus Christ, I hear God all the time through the devotion of hearing. A flower, a tree, or a servant of God may convey God’s message to me. What hinders me from hearing is my attention to other things. It is not that I don’t want to hear God, but I am not devoted in the right areas of my life. I am devoted to things and even to service and my own convictions. God may say whatever He wants, but I just don’t hear Him. The attitude of a child of God should always be, “Speak, for Your servant hears.” If I have not developed and nurtured this devotion of hearing, I can only hear God’s voice at certain times. At other times I become deaf to Him because my attention is to other things— things which I think I must do. This is not living the life of a child of God. Have you heard God’s voice today?

Love Brings Obedience: by Henry Blackaby

 

He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.      John 14:21

Obedience to God’s commands comes from your heart. When you begin struggling to obey God, that is a clear indication that your heart has shifted away from Him. Some claim: “I love God, but I’m having difficulty obeying Him in certain areas of my life.”  That is a spiritual impossibility. If I were to ask you, “Do you love God?” you might easily respond, “Yes!” However, if I were to ask you, “Are you obeying God?” would you answer yes as quickly? Yet I would be asking you the same question! Genuine love for God leads to wholehearted obedience. If you told your spouse that you loved her at certain times but that you struggled to love her at others, your relationship would be in jeopardy. Yet we assume that God is satisfied with occasional love or partial obedience. He is not.

Obedience without love is legalism. Obedience for its own sake can be nothing more than perfectionism, which leads to pride. Many conscientious Christians seek to cultivate discipline in their lives to be more obedient to Christ. As helpful as spiritual disciplines can be, they never can replace your love for God. Love is the discipline. God looks beyond your godly habits, beyond your moral lifestyle, and beyond your church involvement and focuses His penetrating gaze upon your heart.

Has your worship become empty and routine? Have you lost your motivation to read God’s Word? Are you experiencing spiritual lethargy? Is your prayer life reduced to a ritual? These are symptoms of a heart that has shifted away from God. Return to your first love. Love is the greatest motivation for a relationship with God and for serving Him.

The Name of Jesus: The Power of Intercession: by Andrew Murray

 

Until now you have not asked for anything in my name.

Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
John 16:24
 In that day you will ask in my name.

I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.

John 16:26

During Christ’s life on earth, the disciples had known little of the power of prayer. In Gethsemane, Peter and the others utterly failed. They had no concept of what it meant to ask in the name of Jesus and to receive. The Lord promised them that, in the day that was coming, they would be able to pray with such a power in His name that they would ask what they desired and it would be given to them.

“Hitherto…nothing.” “At that day ye shall ask in My name” and “shall receive.” These two conditions are still found in the church. With the great majority of Christians, there is such a lack of knowledge of their oneness with Christ Jesus, and of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of prayer, that they do not even attempt to claim the wonderful promises Christ gave here. But when God’s children know what it means to abide in Christ in vital union with Him and to yield to the Holy Spirit’s teaching, they begin to learn that their intercession is effective and that God will give the power of His Spirit in answer to their prayers.

It is faith in the power of Jesus’ name and in our right to use it that will give us the courage to follow where God invites us—to the holy office of intercessors. When our Lord Jesus, in His Farewell Discourse, gave His unlimited prayer promise, He sent the disciples out into the world with this thought: “He who sits upon the throne and lives in my heart has promised that what I ask in His name I will receive. He will do it.”

Oh, if Christians only knew what it means to yield themselves wholly and absolutely to Jesus Christ and His service, how their eyes would be opened to see that intense and unceasing prayerfulness is the essential mark of the healthy spiritual life! They would see that the power of all‑prevailing intercession will indeed be the portion of those who live only in and for their Lord.

Blessed Savior, give us the grace of the Holy Spirit to live in You, with You, and for You to such a degree that we may boldly look to You for the assurance that our prayers are heard. Amen.

The Intercessors God Seeks: by Andrew Murray

 

I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day or night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence. And give Him no rest.
—Isaiah 62:6-7

Watchmen were ordinarily placed on the walls of a city to give notice to the rulers of coming danger. Similarly, God appoints watchmen not only to warn men—often they will not hear—but also to summon Him to come to their aid whenever need or enemies may be threatening. The great mark of intercessors is that they are not to hold their peace day or night; they are to take no rest, and to give God no rest, until the deliverance comes. In faith they may be assured that God will answer their prayers.

It is concerning this that our Lord Jesus said, “shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him?” (Luke 18:7). From every land the voice is heard that the church of Christ, under the influence of the power of the world, is losing its influence over its members. There is little proof of God’s presence in the conversion of sinners or in the holiness of His people. With the great majority of Christians, there is an utter neglect of Christ’s call to take part in the spreading of His gospel. The power of the Holy Spirit is experienced very little.

Amid all the discussions as to what can be done to interest young and old in the study of God’s Word, one seldom hears of the indispensable necessity of the power of the Holy Spirit in the membership of the church. Few people are truly convinced that it is owing to the lack of prayer that the workings of the Spirit are so feeble, and many people fail to see that only through fervent prayer can change be brought about. If ever there was a time when God’s elect should cry out to Him, it is now. Will you not offer yourself to God for this blessed work of intercession and learn to consider it the highest privilege of your life to be a channel through whose prayers God’s blessings can be brought down to earth?

Ever blessed Father, hear us, we pray, and raise up the intercessors that You require. Give us men and women to act as Your watchmen, taking no rest and giving You no rest, until Your church again is praised in the earth. Blessed Father, let Your Spirit teach us how to pray. Amen.

Count the COST: by CS Lewis

 

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,
 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Philippians 2:12-13

William Law, in his terrible, cool voice, said,… ‘If you have not chosen the Kingdom of God, it will make in the end no difference what you have chosen instead.’ Those are hard words to take. Will it really make no difference whether it was women or patriotism, cocaine or art, whisky or a seat in the Cabinet, money or science? Well, surely no difference that matters. We shall have missed the end for which we are formed and rejected the only thing that satisfies. Does it matter to a man dying in a desert by which choice of route he missed the only well?

It is a remarkable fact that on this subject Heaven and Hell speak with one voice. The tempter tells me, ‘Take care. Think how much this good resolve, the acceptance of the Grace, is going to cost.’ But Our Lord equally tells us to count the cost. Even in human affairs great importance is attached to the agreement of those whose testimony hardly ever agrees. Here, more. Between them it would seem to be pretty clear that paddling is of little consequence. What matters, what Heaven desires and Hell fears, is precisely that further step, out of our depth, out of our control.