Devotions

“The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

Right now, Satan’s powers of darkness throughout the world are rejoicing. These demonic forces have infiltrated high places of human power: the media, political offices, high courts. It’s happening even in religious denominations.

All these demonic principalities have an agenda. They work to erode moral values and pull down the saving power of the gospel. It seems every institution, every agency is now infiltrated and dominated by these ungodly spiritual powers. Yet, we know how this war ends: at the cross, in the victory of Jesus Christ.

There definitely will be times of war — wars that will not involve the vast Body of Christ worldwide but will be private — battles and struggles known only to you. These are wars of the flesh and they bring a burden you can’t share with anyone. They are lonely wars, just about Jesus and you.

Too often as a Christian you may convince yourself that the right thing to do is to grit your teeth through your battles. But God doesn’t want you to put on a false front. He knows what you’re going through and he wants to share it with you.

When King David committed adultery and then fell into a private war of condemnation and regret, he didn’t try to fix things on his own. So what did he do? First, he cried out to the Lord: “Oh, Lord, help me quickly! I’m about to fall, so hurry and deliver me. Your Word promises that you’ll deliver me, so do it now” (see Psalm 70). 

Next, David made a decision: “Live or die, I will magnify the Lord in this battle.” “Let God be magnified” (Psalm 70:4). And he threw himself fully on the mercy of the Lord: “If I say, ‘My foot slips,’ Your mercy, O Lord, will hold me up … Your comforts delight my soul” (Psalm 94:18-19).  

Beloved, you can make this your testimony. Look at all your distresses, adversities, anxieties and temptations, and say in faith, “By God’s grace I will not go down.” And he will say to you, “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

“Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided. So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left” (Exodus 14:21-22).

This is one of the greatest manifestations of God in all of world history. No event recorded by humankind has ever matched this one as a picture of God’s glory. Try to imagine it: towering walls of water that grew higher by the minute, dividing a sea in two.

The Israelites crossed over on dry land to the other side. Once they were safely there, they turned back to see their Egyptian oppressors crushed by the towering waves crashing down on them. God had miraculously delivered his people to victory, and now they danced with joy and shouted with praise.

“Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord, and spoke, saying: ‘I will sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously! … The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation; He is my God and I will praise Him; my father’s God, and I will exalt Him’” (15:1-2).

So what followed for Israel? Unbelievably, three days after their incredible victory, they were utterly discouraged. They thirsted for water in the wilderness and God had led them to the pool at Marah. But the water was bitter! “Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter” (15:23). And as the people spat the water out of their mouths, their faith was shattered. In just three days’ time, they had gone from the greatest mountaintop victory of all time to the lowest valley of despair.

What was going on? At the Red Sea and at the pool of Marah, God was proving his people: “There He tested them” (15:25). Simply put, God was with his people in their spiritual high, yet he was with them just as much in their low time. They just had to keep following the Lord until they finally made it to the Promised Land.

God is telling you in your dry spells, “I want you to learn to move on in faith because I am leading you somewhere!” 

“Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down” (Isaiah 24:1, KJV). The prophet Isaiah warns us that in the last days God is going to “turn the world upside down.” According to this prophecy, sudden judgment is coming upon the earth, and it will change everything in a single hour. Within that short span, the whole world will witness fast-falling destruction upon a city and a nation, and the world will never be the same.

 “The city of confusion is broken down; every house is shut up, so that none may go in … In the city desolation is left, and the gate is stricken with destruction” (Isaiah 24:10,12). Isaiah prophesies that the city is under judgment and cast into confusion. Every house is shut up, with no one coming or going.   

What good can come of prophetic messages? Be reminded that Jesus warned Jerusalem of sudden devastation to come upon that city. It was going to be burned to the ground, with over a million people murdered. Christ explained his warning: “I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe” (John 14:29). He was saying, in essence, “When it happens, you’ll know there is a God who loves you and forewarned you.”

In days of prosperity, nobody wants to hear a message like Isaiah’s. But we cannot ignore it because it is here at our door. In such times, Paul says, when we have knowledge that sudden destruction is coming, we are not to tremble or sorrow as the world does. Instead, we are to comfort one another in faith, knowing that God rules over every aspect of our lives.

“Be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation” (1 Thessalonians 5:8). Paul instructs, “Arm yourself with faith build up your belief now, before the day comes. Learn your song, and you’ll be able to sing it in your fire.”

This is the hope of our most holy faith: our Lord causes a song to come out of the darkest of times. Start now to build up your holy faith in him and learn to praise his majesty quietly in your heart. When you sing your song, it will strengthen and encourage your brothers and sisters. And it will testify to the world: “Our Lord reigns over the flood!”

We all fail, and we will continue to fail. But many in the Body of Christ think of themselves as total failures in everything. They feel they can’t do or say anything right and they condemn themselves repeatedly.

These burdened believers go to church hoping to hear something they can latch on to that might heal them of ongoing failure. But we don’t have to “get fixed” in order to earn his blessing. He has already blessed us! Jesus says, “You toil and spin in a way that flowers never do — yet God graces even plants with beauty and life. Don’t you know you’re infinitely more valuable in the Father’s eyes? You don’t have to worry and strive to please him. He enables you to be exactly who he wants you to be — because he loves you” (see Matthew 6:28-30).

Paul saw the Galatian Christians laboring under this kind of burden. He wrote to show them how God’s way is with his children: “God sent His Son … to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because we are his children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, ‘Abba, Father.’ Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir” (Galatians 4:4-7).

We are not slaves to any system of performance. Instead, Paul says, God has drawn us to himself tenderly, as his “own child.” Plus, Paul uses a word for “adopt” here that has two meanings. One meaning is strictly legal. But the other means “to put into place, to cause to belong.” Our heavenly Father doesn’t just legally adopt us, showing acceptance and approval. He gives us his attention, his affection, even his authority. And he blesses us with his own nature: “You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23).  

When Jesus went to the cross, it was a demonstration of his great love for us. He stood in our place because we’re so valuable to him. God wants to show you how powerfully you belong in his family. He has made you an heir not to an earthly burden, but to a great heavenly inheritance!

Jesus was performing amazing miracles! He cast out a legion of demons from a demoniac; a woman was instantly healed of a hemorrhage that had plagued her for years; a twelve-year-old girl, the daughter of a Jewish ruler, was raised from the dead. Whenever Jesus performed such mighty works, he told those he delivered, “Your faith has made you well” (Mark 5:34; 10:52; Luke 7:50; 8:48; 17:19; and 18:42).

Jesus had lived for the first thirty years of his life in Nazareth and he went back to be among his own people. But in his hometown, he was met with the worst kind of unbelief. They all knew of Jesus’ great works, yet to them, such things happened elsewhere —in other cities, other places, other communities — not in Nazareth.

Elsewhere, people were rejoicing because of Jesus’ wonder-working power and there was great excitement. But the people of Nazareth could not receive for themselves. Why? Because they were spiritually dead. True, they were sincerely religious, and they knew Jesus and his family as good people. But they would not acknowledge Christ as God in flesh.

Beloved, this is the tragedy of many Christians today, as well as many churches. They hear of great moves of God elsewhere, with many mighty works being done and multitudes experiencing deliverance. But no one asks, “Why not here? Why not now?”    

An entire generation of evangelicals has grown up acknowledging Jesus the man but they don’t acknowledge Christ as God here, God now in their own lives. Scripture tells us the Lord is no respecter of persons and he desires to do for anyone the same great works he does “elsewhere.” Yet, wherever faith wavers, God’s hands are tied: “[Jesus] could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them” (Mark 6:5).

Make no mistake: God’s power was readily available in Nazareth. Jesus stood in their midst, full of might and power, wanting to deliver, heal, revive and do mighty works. But, he declared, “I can’t work here.” Why? Because of their unbelief (see 6:6). Jesus was shocked at his own people, but he moved on.

The Lord chooses not to respond to unbelief. But the Lord is loving, full of mercy, and anxious to help you in your time of need. So just say to him, “Lord, I see what you have done in the lives of others so do it here also, not just elsewhere.”