Devotions

Beloved, God is searching for a people who will trust him fully. The Lord did not save us so we could bask endlessly in his goodness, mercy and glory. He had an eternal purpose in choosing each one of us and that purpose goes beyond blessings, fellowship and revelation. The fact is, God still reaches out to lost humankind, searching for a believing people he can shape into his greatest evangelistic tool.

God was searching for such a people in Gideon’s day. When Gideon issued a call for volunteers to fight the Midianites, thousands of Israelites responded. But the Lord told Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands … Proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart’” (Judges 7:2-3).

God was telling Gideon, “If anybody is afraid, tell him to go home now. I will not allow my army to be infected by fear.” God was actually turning away volunteers for his army; at one point, some 22,000 doubters were sent home. Gideon eventually reduced the number of volunteers to 10,000 but God told him there were still too many and the Lord finally settled on 300 battle-tested soldiers. 

This ought to tell us something. As the Lord seeks gospel messengers he can send out to the world, he is not going to recruit churches whose pews are filled with fearful, doubting, untested people. He will not look for powerful, efficient religious organizations or highly educated seminarians. God uses organizations and the highly educated, of course, but in themselves none of these has the resources needed to be God’s tried and tested messengers.

So, what is needed to reach a lost and hurting world? God is seeking those who are willing to be tested, tried by fire, those whose faith he can refine and bring forth as pure gold.

In the Sermon on the Mount (Luke 6:20-22), Jesus gives a list of characteristics or activities for which one will be blessed. He speaks of blessing those who are meek, those who are poor in spirit and those who are peacemakers. This list has come to be known as “the beatitudes.” However, the beatitudes did not include, “Blessed are the disruptive, for they shall not be paralyzed.”

Being “disruptive” is an attitude that Jesus encourages in us and one that he lived out himself; he was not only meek and mild, but he was radical and wild. On more than one occasion, Jesus was disruptive to the norms of the religious. He also was disruptive to the kingdom of darkness.

Jesus’ powerful life in prayer was constantly and effectively a thorn in the side of evil. When he prayed, kingdoms were moved, powers of darkness fled, and a great work of God was released on earth. He was even disruptive to those who chose to follow him, constantly upsetting their comfort zone. When they lacked this disruptive spirit, he came and awakened them to their need for vigilant, aggressive prayer, asking them, “Couldn’t you fight in prayer for even an hour?” He disruptively turned their world upside down. 

There are times in our lives when the battles we face, the tasks at hand, and the missions to which we are charged need more than casual, comfortable prayers. Comfort and ease in the sweet hour of prayer may be fine for morning devotionals, but when we are charged with a holy mission that seems totally hindered by the adversary, our true hope is found in radical, disruptive praying. Rather than a sweet hour of prayer, we often need hours of prayer.

Many Christians are so paralyzed that people look at their lives and see nothing atypical or peculiar about them. But we are called to be a peculiar people and when we are disruptive for the kingdom of God, we will appear peculiar, indeed.

On the Day of Pentecost, Peter preached, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 2:38). In other words, “Put off your old way of living and all your own attempts to be holy in your own strength. Put off the façade of being a Christian, and put on Christ. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the promise is for you!”

According to the Scriptures, three thousand souls were added to the Church that day — three thousand religious people who had been doing the best they could to be godly in their own strength; three thousand who were perhaps tired of learning about God and His former power; three thousand who noticed that there were people who actually possessed the power of God!

So what must you and I do in order to get this power of God today? After all, we will surely need it in order to confront the days ahead of us.

First, we must return to the full purpose that God intended for our lives on this earth: to be living witnesses of who He is, which requires humility, for we will be mocked and ridiculed. Yet, regardless of what the world may think, there must be a resolve in our heart that says, “I don’t care what it will cost. I want this new life, this strength to go with God, and I will not settle for being lukewarm.”

This is a choice you and I must make. Remember, the promise of the Holy Spirit is to you, to your children, to the young, the old, the educated, the uneducated, the strong, the weak. Do you really want it — and the lifestyle that accompanies it?

If you are willing, I encourage you to go before the Lord in humility and ask him to fulfill his great promise to you. He will surely be faithful to his Word. And then as his Church, we will return to the power of God in these last days!

Carter Conlon joined the pastoral staff of Times Square Church in 1994 at the invitation of the founding pastor, David Wilkerson, and was appointed Senior Pastor in 2001.

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1). What an incredible verse. Matthew boldly states that God’s Spirit led Christ into a desert experience, where he would have to undergo severe temptations. Even more amazing, this verse directly follows a scene of great glory when Jesus had just been baptized in the Jordan River. As he came up out of the water, the heavens opened and the Spirit of God descended like a dove and rested on his shoulder. “And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:17).

One could wonder if God was so pleased with Jesus, why did he then lead him into a wilderness experience? Let me remind you that Jesus is the pattern for our lives as believers. John writes, “As He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). Moreover, Christ was “in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). The message from scripture is that all who are in Christ will undergo a trying experience, just as Jesus did.

Such trials come only to those who walk in the Spirit and commune with the Lord. Yet, when the Holy Spirit leads us into the wilderness, God has an eternal purpose in mind. Make no mistake, however; God doesn’t tempt us, the devil does the tempting. “Let no man say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone” (James 1:13).

Jesus would not be tempted by gross sin because he was righteous; his temptations would be in the spiritual realm. The same is true for us today. A truly spiritual person probably isn’t tempted to get drunk or use drugs, but his temptations will be more like those Christ endured — disobeying the Word or testing your dependence on the Father.

Do not let the devil rob you of your anointing or undermine your calling. Stand on the Word of God and you will come through in victory — just as Jesus did.

Throughout the Bible, God’s people are commanded to pray at all times — in good times and bad. No matter what our situation or condition, we are to pray without ceasing. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

I believe every sincere Christian wants to pray but even mature believers slack off or find it difficult at times. After much prayer and study of God’s Word, I believe the Lord shed some light on this subject for me. Here are five common hindrances to prevailing prayer:

1. Difficulty believing your prayers are accepted. Even after hearing the gospel of grace preached for years, some Christians still lack confidence that they are accepted before the Lord.

2. Feeling guilty for praying only when you are in trouble. The Bible tells us, “He shall regard the prayer of the destitute, and shall not despise their prayer” (Psalm 102:17). God will never reject our prayers simply because we offer them in a crisis.

3. Mistakenly believing prayer has to be exhausting or loud. Sometimes fervent prayer is appropriate, but God will hear us if we don’t raise our voices. 

4. Emphasizing mental praying at the exclusion of praying aloud. I believe quiet, unspoken prayers are effective; indeed, when Paul speaks of “praying without ceasing,” I believe he is referring to mental prayers. But praying aloud can be a blessed relief at times.

5. Prevailing prayer is impossible without the help of the Holy Spirit. Paul writes, “The Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us” (Romans 8:26).

Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you to pray. He will put a spirit of thanksgiving in your heart and as you respond to his voice, you will find a river of godly prayer flowing from your soul.