Devotions

Jesus went up to Jerusalem at Passover and entered the temple (see John 2:13-17). What he saw appalled him. Merchants had taken over the house of God! He came seeking a house of prayer, and what he found was a preoccupation with the promotion, display and sale of religious merchandise. The religious leaders were counting their profits. Men of God had become peddlers of religious merchandise, running about promoting their goods.

Tables had been set up everywhere in God's house to promote and sell sheep, oxen, doves, candies, incense and other merchandise for religious purposes. Money changing hands made the loudest noise in the house, money that was being made on God and religion.

What terrible pain caused our Lord’s compassionate heart to boil with holy anger? His great suffering caused his meek spirit to rage with righteous indignation. Can you picture that moment? With a whip in hand, our Lord stormed into the temple and began flailing in all directions, overturning the tables piled high with merchandise. He scattered the promoters, pitchmen and hucksters.

“Out!” he thundered. “Take these things away! Do not make my Father’s house a house of merchandise!” (John 2:16, NKJV). It was probably one of the most painful experiences in all his ministry, but he could not stand by and permit his Father's house to become a den for religious thieves.

Are we willing to fellowship with Christ in this aspect of his sufferings today? Do we share his hurt at seeing God's house once again being turned over to merchandisers? Will we be outraged by the horrible commercializing of the gospel? Will we feel his rage against spiritual hucksterism enough to withdraw from all such activities? Do we feel his hurt enough to renounce ministries that grind out merchandise just for the sake of making money?

Can we share his suffering at this point enough to stand against those who would turn God's house into a theater or entertainment center for promoters? Can we grieve over all the profiteering on the name of Jesus? Can we get our eyes off the cash and back on the cross?

In recent months, I have read many sad, pitiful letters from believers who are still bound by sinful habits. Multitudes of struggling Christians write, “I can’t stop gambling… I’m in the grips of an alcohol addiction… I’m having an affair, and I can’t break it off… I’m a slave to pornography.” In letter after letter, these people say the same things. “I love Jesus, and I’ve begged God to free me. I’ve prayed, wept and sought godly counsel. I just can’t break free. What can I do?”

I’ve spent much time seeking the Lord for wisdom on how to answer these believers. I pray, “Lord, you know your children’s lives. Many are devoted, Spirit-filled saints, yet they don’t have your victory. They don’t know freedom. What’s going on?”

At one point, I studied the biblical passages containing God’s promises to his people. I was reminded that the Lord pledges to keep us from falling, to present us faultless, to justify us by faith, sanctify us by faith, keep us holy by faith. He promises that our old man is crucified by faith and that we are translated into his kingdom by faith.

The one thing common to all of these promises is this phrase: “by faith.” Indeed, all these things are matters of faith, according to God’s Word. So I came to the only clear conclusion about these struggling Christians’ problems; somewhere at the root of their bondage is unbelief. It all boils down to a simple lack of faith.

Are you struggling to gain victory by your willpower? Are you fighting the battle in your old nature? Paul points out, “Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness” (Romans 4:4-5, NKJV).

Your victory must come not through weeping or striving but by faith that Jesus Christ has won the battle for you. Indeed, Paul says there is only one condition attached to God’s promises: “If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard” (Colossians 1:23).

Christ surrendered everything to his Father in order to be a totally obedient Son. We are to do likewise. We are to be totally dependent on the Father, just as Christ was.

What is the struggle that you have for your people or for yourself? Are you struggling over the fact that you’re not getting much (or any) recognition, or your church isn't growing enough, or you're struggling to be known? Are you struggling to be recognized, or are you struggling to find a place in ministry? Are you struggling for your coworkers to recognize your authority? Is your struggle a numerical struggle, a building struggle, a growth struggle or a budget struggle?

Paul never said that he struggled with those things. He said, “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you” (Colossians 2:1, ESV). He was essentially saying, “I want to see a difference in your life. I want to see God move in your life. I want my agony not to be about the stuff I'm going through, but that agony in my heart is to see you grow, mature and come to the fullness that's in Christ Jesus. That’s the struggle I have for you.”

Making a name, building a personal kingdom, proving something to someone else or even proving something to yourself — that struggle isn’t the struggle of a faithful shepherd. For a faithful shepherd, it’s not about ourselves, our ministry or our position in ministry. The struggle should have everything to do with being faithful to the people God has called us to serve.

Paul said essentially, “I struggle with all his energy that he powerfully works in me. Because I'm doing this for you, there are some hindrances coming my way to keep me from doing what God's called me to do: To build you up.” If you have this struggle as a leader, there’s good news. This is God’s work. If you’re struggling on your own, you won’t have enough energy to survive much less thrive.

If you're struggling with the Holy Spirit's energy moving into you and powerfully working through you, you can adore God through all the things you suffer and endure. You can go through all kinds of hardships, accusations or disappointments because you have the Holy Spirit's power. It's not your own energy at work; it's the energy of the Holy Spirit. This is how Paul wrote, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

The word ‘compassion’ means sympathy, pity, an inner moving or yearning that moves one into doing something about a situation. Unfortunately, sometimes compassion fails to be the undergirding reason why people move toward the mountains of human need. Instead, our motive may be to prove a theological point or even an inner obligation to prove the existence of God to ourselves if not to anybody else. Other times it may be an attempt to earn favor with God. Then there are those who attend churches that make them feel obligated to become involved in their social programs.

I don’t know about you, but I would rather be filled with the compassion of God. I would rather give because my heart is stirred by the Holy Spirit to help those who are in need. I would rather move in the compassion of Christ instead of the compulsion of religion. There is a difference.

I thank God that it was not out of obligation but rather out of compassion that Jesus gave his life for you and me. I am grateful that the cross was not just some legal proving ground for him to say, “I am going to do my part; now you must do yours.” No, it was the absolute compassion of Jesus that caused his arms to be nailed wide open to ‘whosoever will come’ and receive the supply of his life. The provision of Christ’s life was open to us through a compassionate Savior, and it will always be open to the world through the Church that has embraced his heart of compassion for its generation. As scripture says, “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering” (Colossians 3:12, NKJV).

Compassion is an inner moving of the heart, born of God, that compels us to cry, “Lord, you must release through my hands whatever is needed in this situation. It is not right that your creation should be in such a state. It is not right that your children should be hungry, that the house of God should be in bondage, that somebody should not know the freedom that Christ has fully purchased for them on Calvary. God Almighty, release it through my hands!”

_{Carter Conlon joined the pastoral staff of Times Square Church in 1994 and was appointed Senior Pastor in 2001. In May of 2020 he transitioned into a continuing role as General Overseer of Times Square Church, Inc.} 

God’s prophet wrote, “Many people shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; he will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.’...” (Isaiah 2:3, NKJV), and “Even them I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer...” (Isaiah 56:7).

The message of the Holy Spirit today to all God's people is “Get back to the mount. Get back into his holy presence.” Many are now hearing that call and making time for prayer and seeking God. Others, however, go about their way, too busy with kingdom details to climb the holy hill.

Isaiah saw both the glory of an awakened ministry and the tragedy of blind watchmen, asleep. While some watchmen shake themselves and go back to the mount of God to hear a fresh word from heaven, others will be lost in endless activities and self-advancement.

“His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yes, they are greedy dogs, which never have enough. And they are shepherds who cannot understand; they all look to their own way, every one for his own gain, from his own territory” (Isaiah 56:10-11). Isaiah said they got that way — self-centered and preoccupied with the works of their own hands, spiritually dead — because they “forsook the Lord and forgot his holy mountain” (see Isaiah 65:11).

Ministers of God, we had better listen to the warning of the prophet Isaiah when he said, “For the Lord God will slay you, and call his servants by another name” (Isaiah 65:15). The Spirit is raising up an army of ‘mountain men’ who will spend time alone with God, shut up in his holy presence, hearing his voice, getting new vision and returning with joy to deliver “those who wail because of broken spirits” (see Isaiah 65:13-14).

Oh, yes! They shall return but with power and dominion. God’s refining fire is going to awaken new and godly principles in us. For too long, we have been dead to the godly principles needed to save the church from chaos. No longer will the Lord be satisfied with a general good in his house; he now seeks the fire of Christ in the heart.