Devotions

“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23).

We may hear teaching about the need to pray, fast and study the Scriptures. And we may plead with God for a deeper hunger for him, a closer walk with him, and a greater passion for Jesus. But Proverbs tells us we must reckon with even deeper issues than these. This verse speaks of heart issues, hidden, secret things that determine the life-flow that comes out of us.

Even if we pray longer hours, fast more often, and read the Bible more diligently, we can still be defiled in our mind and shut off all but a trickle of that life-flow.

Jesus tells us clearly what defiles a person: “Hear and understand: ‘Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man’” (Matthew15:10-11). What are these issues of the heart? What are the ways that pollute our inner man and then our entire being?

The Bible points out three issues: a defiled mouth, defiled ears, and defiled eyes. As servants of the Lord, we cannot allow anything to hinder the flow of Christ’s life in us. We have to rule our heart and actions by his Word because if any part of our inner man is defiled, our outward life and testimony will be hindered.

• A defiled mouth — James warns, “The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity” (James 3:6)
• Defiled ears — “The Lord has opened My ear; and I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away” (Isaiah 50:5). The Holy Spirit attuned the Son’s ear to hear the Word of his Father and he was quick to listen to it.
• Defiled eyes — “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment” (John 7:24).

No person is too holy to heed the warnings of Jesus and make a change. Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and make you clean in every area of your life.

“But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you” (Acts 26:16).

“Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus … to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:1-2).

These two verses exemplify the great purpose God had for Paul when he first appeared to him on the road to Damascus. The first thing Jesus does when he is about to change our life is appear to us. Maybe not in physical form, but he begins to make all the difference in the world and turn our world upside down. After telling us to “rise and stand on our feet,” he starts to reveal to us his new purpose.

There is a period of time that we are given to be on Earth (see Hebrews 9:27), but we are not saved just to get to heaven when we die. No, God has a purpose for each of us. Jesus gave Paul a specific purpose in his life and we see in Acts 26:16 that is was to be “a servant and witness.”

As a Christian, you are called to serve and to be a witness of Jesus Christ to those around you. What has God done for you? What have you seen God do for others?

At another time Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples …and, behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19). Because you are a servant of Christ, he is always with you, equipping you to be a witness to those you encounter. That is your highest purpose!

Many Christians have only a vague notion of who the Holy Spirit is. They may have heard of him, but they struggle to understand his role. Although he is often overlooked or perhaps even neglected by many believers, he is just as divine as the Father and the Son (Acts 5:3-4). Consider these facts:

• He possesses a divine personality and personally chooses people for ministry assignments (Acts 13:2).  
• He communicates with us (Revelation 2:7) and searches out the deep things of God to make them known to believers (1 Corinthians 2:9-12).
• He is the one who makes Christ a living reality to the believer (Ephesians 3:16-17) and in fact he is called the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9).
• He is coequal with both the Father and Son as part of the mystery of the triune God.

Understanding these biblical facts about the Holy Spirit within the larger biblical story of who God is and how he relates to his people is important.

God’s plan in redemption was that we should live life full of the Holy Spirit: “Do not be drunk with wine, in which is [debauchery]; but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). When you consider that the Holy Spirit is a person, the third person of the Godhead, what does it mean to be filled with a person? He is not a gas or a liquid, he’s as much a person as the Father and the Son. So a better description of “being filled” is to say the Spirit controls us.

Would you like to love more deeply and more freely? Do you wish to have more self-discipline? Are your life and ministry producing fruit? In order for these things to happen, you must surrender to the Helper. The Holy Spirit is the only one who can produce self-discipline, love, and boldness in you: “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

Jim Cymbala began the Brooklyn Tabernacle with less than twenty members in a small, rundown building in a difficult part of the city. A native of Brooklyn, he is a longtime friend of both David and Gary Wilkerson.

Jeremiah the prophet was a man who set his heart to seek the Lord, and the Word of God came to him. Over and over we read of the prophet, “The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.”

Many commentators call Jeremiah the weeping prophet, and that was certainly true of him. But he also brought us the happiest, most praiseworthy gospel in all the Old Testament. After all, he foretold the coming glory of the New Covenant: “I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good” (Jeremiah 32:40). “I will satiate the soul of the priests with abundance, and My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, says the Lord” (31:14).

Now, that’s good news! The New Covenant is full of mercy, grace, joy, peace and goodness. But, the history behind each of Jeremiah’s words here includes a deep brokenness.

Jeremiah wrote, “O my soul, my soul! I am pained in my very heart! My heart makes a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war” (4:19).

Jeremiah was weeping with holy tears that were not his own. Indeed, the prophet actually heard God speak of his own broken heart. First, the Lord warned Jeremiah that he was going to send judgment on Israel. Then he told the prophet, “I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, and for the dwelling places of the wilderness a lamentation” (9:10). The word for “lamentation” here means weeping. God himself was weeping over the judgment to come upon his people.

The Lord shares with us his very mind and thoughts. We are living in life-and-death times right now and I urge you to set your heart to seek God with all diligence and determination. Then go to his Word with ever-increasing love and desire. He will be faithful to his Word and guide you into all that he wants to reveal to you.

Claiming power in Christ’s name is not some complicated, hidden theological truth. Libraries are full of books written solely on the subject of the name of Jesus which the authors wrote to help believers understand the deep implications hidden in Christ’s name. Yet, most of these books are so “deep,” they go right over the heads of the readers.

I believe the truth we are meant to grasp about Jesus’ name is so simple that a child could understand it. It is simply this: when we make our requests in Jesus’ name, we are to be fully persuaded that it is the same as if Jesus himself were petitioning the Father. How could that be true?

We know that God loved his Son. He spoke with Jesus and taught him during his time on earth, and God not only heard every request his Son made but he answered them. In short, the Father never denied his Son any request.

Today, all who believe in Jesus are clothed in his Sonship. And the heavenly Father receives us as intimately as he receives his own Son. Why? It’s because of our spiritual union with Christ. Through his crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus has made us one with the Father. “That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us … I in them, and You in Me” (John 17:21 and 23).

Simply put, we are now family — one with the Father, and one with the Son. We have been adopted, with the full rights of inheritance possessed by any child. This means all the power and resources of heaven are made available to us — through Christ. And because we are clothed in Christ’s Sonship, we know our requests are also heard by the Father. He answers our requests, just as he answered those of the Son.

What an incredible authority we have been given when we pray in Jesus’ name.