Devotions

When I read about the exploits of godly men in the Old Testament, my heart burns. These servants were so burdened for the cause of God’s name, they did powerful works that baffle the minds of most Christians today.

One such saint was Ezra, a man of God who awakened his entire nation to God. Scripture says that God had his hand on Ezra, and Ezra testified, “So I was encouraged, as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me” (Ezra 7:28). God stretched out his hand, enveloped Ezra, and turned him into a different man.

Why would God do that? There were hundreds of scribes in Israel at the time and they all had the same calling to study and explain God’s Word to the people. The Scripture gives us the answer: “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel” (Ezra 7:10). Ezra made a conscious decision to seek God’s Word above all and to obey it. And he never swerved from that decision.

Ezra didn’t have some supernatural experience that caused him to love the Scriptures. God didn’t tell him, “You’re going to lead 50,000 to repent and do my work, but in order to do that you’re going to need power, fortitude, purity, spiritual authority. Yet, this comes only by knowing and obeying my Word. Tomorrow, you’ll wake up with an ever-growing hunger to study the Word.”

No, that is not the way it happened at all. Ezra was diligent in searching the Scriptures long before God put his hand on him. He allowed himself to be examined by the Word, washed by it, and as a result, God anointed him.

Certainly, God’s anointing is supernatural, but he lays his hand on those who are wholly given to knowing and obeying his Word. That is where the anointing begins. No one can expect God’s touch if he isn’t passionate about the Scriptures.

“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14).

You might wonder why you feel so dull in your spirit. Or why you don’t have power to witness as you would like. Or why your prayers seem so weak. It could possibly be because there is too much of the world, the residue of the flesh and carnality, functioning within you.

You may be listening to the wrong kind of music or watching unwholesome material on TV or online. And what about the people you associate with? Are they challenging you to be more like Jesus or are they carnal, pleasure-seeking companions who lead you away from him?

“Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord” (6:17). Be separate from what? From fellowship with things that are not pure and holy, things that are untrue and unloving and cause divisions. Things that cause separation between you and others and diminish your faith and your love and your prayer life.

Actually, God may have already spoken to your heart about what some of those things are and he is saying, “Get rid of them. Take the time to remove those from your life. Be separate from them!” And when you do this, his Spirit will renew you. God’s grace will encompass you and enable you to declare that the defilements in you are a thing of the past. The defeat from the evil one that tries to diminish your faith, your strength, your power, is a thing of the past!

God is not asking us to step out of certain things because he is some kind of moral cop trying to make sure you do exactly as he says. No, it is because he is a father who loves you and delights in your goodness. And he delights in your living a glorious, precious, wonder-filled life.

We read in the book of Isaiah, “He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall” (Isaiah 40:29-30). In other words, there comes a season in each of our lives when we feel we cannot go on. We feel as if we are going to crash and burn, spiritually speaking. Similarly, we all face seasons when coldness gets into our heart — perhaps because of the monotony of daily life.

Marriages often get into trouble because there is no effort on the part of either spouse to rekindle the flame of love. Likewise, coldness can seep into our relationship with God — particularly when we become so accustomed to the pattern of our Christian walk that we begin to do things on autopilot. Soon the weight of repetition and personal trials start to crash in upon us, and before we know it, we feel like we are going to lose lift, just as an airplane does when it loses speed.

It is imperative that we recognize God has already told us what to do when this happens. Just as a pilot is trained in certain procedures so that he will respond properly, so we must heed God’s instructions and trust what He says rather than relying on our own instincts.

The Bible tells us, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6). 

God has told us in Jeremiah 29:11: “I know the thoughts that I think toward you … thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” He will bring you to that place of freedom that you long for, give you the strength you need, place a renewed vision within you. So trust the Lord and acknowledge Him in all your ways, and then watch where He will lead you!

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.

As Jesus spent his last hours with his disciples, he said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you” (John 16:23). Then he told them further, “Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (16:24).

What an incredible statement! As this scene took place, Christ was warning his followers that he was going away and he wouldn’t see them for a time. Yet, in the very same breath, he assured them they had access to every blessing of heaven. All they had to do was ask in his name.

Considering all the power and resources we have in Christ, most believers have asked almost nothing in his name. Christ’s words to his disciples convict me: “Until now you have asked nothing in My name.” Here is what I believe grieves God’s heart more than all the sins of the flesh combined. Our Lord is grieved by the ever-growing lack of faith in his promises — by the ever-increasing doubts that he answers prayer and by a people who claim less and less of the power that is in Christ.

The world has never known a needier time. Yet there is less petitioning than ever in the name of Jesus, and as the days pass, Christians are asking less and less of the Lord. They are afraid to step out, often because of unbelief.

It is amazing how faithfully the Church refers to Christ’s name. We praise it, bless it, we sing about the “wonder-working power in the blessed name of the Lord.” But we don’t appropriate the power that is in his name.

Beloved, we are to take our position in Christ and get hold of God’s Word. His promises are the weapons of our warfare and they will become mighty in our hands when we lay hold of them.

“Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest’” (Hebrews 3:8-11).

What reason is given for why God’s people were not able to enter his rest? Was it because of adultery, covetousness, drunkenness? No, it was because of unbelief alone. Here was a nation exposed to forty years of miracles, supernatural wonders that God worked on their behalf. In fact, no other people on earth had been so loved, so tenderly cared for.

They received revelation after revelation about the goodness of the Lord. They heard a fresh word preached regularly from Moses, their prophet leader, and yet, they never mixed that word with faith. Therefore, hearing it did them no good. In the midst of all those blessings, they still did not trust God to be faithful, and over time, unbelief set in.

Beloved, unbelief is the root cause behind all hardness of heart. The Scripture goes on, “Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?” (Hebrews 3:17). The people’s unbelief kindled God’s anger against them; moreover, it hardened them into a continual spiral of unbelief: “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God … lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (3:12-13). 

Unbelief is also the root of all bitterness, rebellion and coldness. That is why Hebrews 3 is addressed to believers. You can be saved, Spirit-filled, and walking holy before God and still be guilty of unbelief. It is so important that we accept his supernatural power by faith and say with confidence, “Do it again, Lord. And let your strength be made perfect in my weakness.”