Devotions

Christians today live in a time of great light. The Holy Spirit has revealed to us the powerful meaning of Jesus’ work on the cross, and the incredible blessings this means to our lives. Yet there was a time when Christ’s wonderful work was obscured from the world. That period was known as the Dark Ages because the meaning of the cross was veiled from the eyes of humanity.

Sermons during the Dark Ages focused on God’s wrath and damnation. Popes and priests preached a gospel of works and the people performed a variety of acts to try to find peace with God. People knew nothing of the benefits and blessings available through Christ’s victory at Calvary.

Even today, with all the teaching available on the subject, the majority of Christians still do not understand many important aspects of Christ’s work for us and what it means to be “in Christ.” The fact is, being in Christ is the only foundation upon which true holiness and righteousness can be built. Without this foundation, we will rely on our flesh to try to produce a form of holiness in ourselves. But true holiness is obtained only through knowing the riches of God in Christ Jesus.

“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age” (Titus 2:11-12). Only God’s grace can teach us the kind of theology that leads to holiness. And no works can ever produce that!

You are in Christ if you govern your life by the scriptures. Do you revere and fear God’s Word? Do you go daily to the mirror of scripture to be changed by it? “Whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him” (1 John 2:5).

I once preached a sermon about our need to show love to those closest to us. I spoke about the sinfulness of being easily provoked — and the Holy Spirit convicted me of that very sin in my own life. I have learned that when the Holy Spirit speaks, it pays to listen. I repented immediately and then, after much prayer and seeking God, I was convinced I had victory over that weakness.

I “walked in victory” for about four days when a phone conversation with a close friend unexpectedly ignited anger and indignation in me. I became so bothered that I could hardly stay focused on the Lord and I began to blame the devil for using my friend to hurt me. “God, the devil was using him to provoke me to sin.”

God was not going to let me get away with that attitude and he spoke to me in a still, small voice, “David, you are indulging your flesh. You are letting your past hurts and disappointments control you — and what you are doing is dangerous.”

It hit me that my agitation was not the direct result of that hurtful conversation, it was because I had fallen back into an old habit I thought I had conquered — letting things simmer inside me (See Ephesians 4:26-27). When this realization hit me, I wept before the Lord, “Will I never learn? You gave me this message and I preached it to a large crowd of people, but I haven’t been walking in victory in that area myself.”

I felt like a runner who had fallen in the race and I cried out, “Lord, I want so much to win the prize of being conformed to your likeness (See Romans 8:29). After all these years of walking with you, I still don’t come near the mark. Oh, God, I want to be like Jesus!”

Obey the faithful voice of the Holy Spirit and seek the face of the Lord. You will be amazed at how quickly he will restore you to victory.

We hear a lot about conspiracies in our society — schemes aimed at destroying both democracy in America and Christianity. The heart of God is not troubled by such conspiracies, but there is one conspiracy that does concern our heavenly Father. It is satanic and is aimed directly at Christians who have set their hearts on entering into the fullness of Christ.

The devil is terrified of Christians who hunger and thirst after righteousness; indeed, he fears praying saints more than anything. Every demonic principality seated in high places cowers upon hearing the cries of brokenhearted children of God. So we must be aware that the soul that cries out for depth in Christ will become the central focus of Satan’s conspiracy of interruptions.

Satan will do everything in his power to keep believers out of the secret closet of prayer. He makes anyone and anything seem more important to us than our time with the Lord. So, what is the solution? I believe the Lord has led me to take the following steps to guard my prayer time:

• Make communion with the Lord your primary goal in life. Job declared, “I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12). Prayer and the study of God’s Word cannot be optional.
• Consider your appointments with God more important than appointments with people. When we allow interruptions to come between us and time with the Lord, we are not really appreciating him as we should.
• Reject every interruption that you have power over and take spiritual authority over those interruptions you discern to be supernatural. Some interruptions are of our own doing but we must constantly be aware that Satan can and does conspire to interrupt us in supernatural ways.

Thank God, we are never at the mercy of the enemy or any of his devices. We can speak the word of faith and come boldly to his throne of grace and receive help in our time of need.

God wants you to grow in your faith and come into a place of dynamic, passionate, spiritual maturity. However, he knows that maturity does not come through your own efforts; only God can transform your heart in every area and give you the growth you need.

“But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, ‘I follow Paul,’ and another, ‘I follow Apollos,’ are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:1-6).

Paul is telling the truth when he says that God gives the growth — but if you are not growing in a certain area, is it God’s fault? No, God is not to blame! Perhaps you are resisting the work God is doing in your life. In this letter to the Corinthian church, Paul is saying that jealousy and strife are the culprits causing the church to remain babies instead of maturing. In other words, he is talking to carnal Christians. They have invited Jesus to come into their lives but they have not let him be Lord of their lives.

When you receive Jesus as your Savior and Lord, your life will be affected — you will become a different kind of person. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Even what does not look new has become new because he is in the process of cleansing, changing and transforming you!  

As my co-workers and I ministered to those who had come forward for prayer at the end of a service, I noticed an elderly grandmother cradling two small children in her arms. She was weeping and begging us to pray for her grandchildren.

“Pray that God will protect them,” she cried as she set them down. “Please pray that they will grow up safe and happy, that they won’t get into gangs and drugs. Please?”

My heart broke for this woman and her grandchildren, so innocent and beautiful. Her eyes cried out for help, for guidance, for any kind of relief from the pain and helplessness of life in the ghetto. I hugged her and then bent down to pray for the children. She continued to heave and sob the entire time. 

There are so many people in this world who are lost and lonely and hurting, people who have nowhere to turn and no idea how to escape Satan’s evil grip. Jesus is the only one who can help them. All they need is someone to point them toward the Cross, someone to care enough to take them by the hand and lead them into the arms of their Creator, someone to hold them and love them into the kingdom.

When I finished praying, I put my arms around the elderly woman and kissed her on the forehead. “Don’t worry,” I told her. “Everything will be all right. Jesus understands.”

There is something about staring into the eyes of hopelessness, despair, and absolute grief that brings the gospel message home to you in a way that nothing else can. Your life takes on a renewed sense of purpose and urgency and you want to spend every waking moment of your life sharing your faith and setting captive souls free.

Reaching people for Jesus is what my life is about. “Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled’” (Luke 14:23). I challenge you to join me and ask yourself this question: If I don’t help them, who will?

Nicky Cruz, internationally known evangelist and prolific author, turned to Jesus Christ from a life of violence and crime after meeting David Wilkerson in New York City in 1958. The story of his dramatic conversion was told first in The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson and then later in his own best-selling book Run, Baby, Run.