Devotions

Anytime the Holy Spirit puts something into your heart and there is a fire kindled in your soul, usually it’s because God is calling you to step out of your comfort zone in faith and move past an obstacle into a Promised Land.

Anytime that God calls you to do that, you’re going to have skeptics around you. There will usually be an outward skeptic, a demonic skeptic from Satan and an inward skeptic from your own heart. They are going to be telling you all kind of arguments against the plan that God has for you.

You see, the skeptic is always trying to move you away from the obedience to God’s plan because of difficulties, but sometimes God even uses those skeptics to make us aware that, when we cross over, the enemy nations aren’t going to lay down their arms and say, “Oh we love you, Joshua!” If you are following God’s plan, there is going to be conflict. There will be tough times, but you’re going to have to hold on to God’s promise that you would possess the land.

This is why God commissioned Joshua by saying, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9, ESV).

Maybe you are believing God for a heart change. You have been stuck spiritually for far too long, and today is your day of release into the Promised Land. There are some that are believing for a miracle in your life, a restored family relationship or the salvation of somebody who doesn’t know Jesus. There are others who are in the battle of your life in your business or finances. For some, God is calling you into a certain vocation, and you’re wondering if you’ll be able to cross into that land and possess it.

We’re going to believe today that God will break down those defenses. God will break down those skeptical ideas and help us believe in faith that he’s going to move us into that land that he’s promised us.

You will be grateful that you moved into the battle because you’re going to rise up in the Spirit of God; you’re going to take hold of the authority God has put in your heart, and you’re going to say yes to his plans. 

Our executive pastor in Detroit once had somebody break into his house at 3:00 a.m. while his family was out of town, thank God. He heard a window being broken. Some guy was breaking into his house looking for drug money. Our pastor was coming downstairs when the burglar grabbed the largest kitchen knife he could find and met our pastor on the stairs. He stabbed him in the stomach several times, then in his back near the spinal cord another 12 times, then up at the chin another six times to try to kill him.

Then the man left our pastor on the floor in his own blood and went upstairs to see what he could take. While our pastor was lying there on the floor, he was praying, “God, before I die, please don't let my children be bitter with the ministry or think that you're not with us. And God, let my wife know that I love her.”

Then he said he heard a voice that said, "They still need you."

All of a sudden, he said he held his intestines in place and somehow, by the strength of God, got up, walked out the door to his neighbors, who happened to be up at 3:30 in the morning. The doctors said they'd never seen anything like this before. He’d been stabbed 37 times, and not one of those had hit a vital organ. Meanwhile, the police entered his house looking for the would-be murderer and saw the giant puddle where he had been lying. They wrote in the police report, “We see the blood, but we don't know how he got to the neighbor's house. There are no footprints.”

So many times, we forget how much God is protecting us from, and there are so many things that we will never know about that God is already doing on our behalf. We're so ready to praise him for what we know that we have forgotten to praise him for the things we rarely see and don’t understand.

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:11-13, ESV).

^{After pastoring an inner-city congregation in Detroit for thirty years, Pastor Tim served at Brooklyn Tabernacle in NYC for five years and pastored in Lafayette, Louisiana, for five years. He became Senior Pastor of Times Square Church in May of 2020.}

The Bible tells us that Jesus makes intercession for us: “Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25, NKJV). What do the scriptures mean by this?

I believe this subject is so deep, majestic and beyond human understanding that I tremble even to address it. Through prayer and trust in the Holy Spirit’s guidance, I’m beginning to grasp just a little of this incredible subject. Recently, I’ve prayed very simply, “Lord, how does your intercession in heaven affect my life? Your Word says you appear before the Father on my behalf. What does this mean in my daily walk with you?”

The English word ‘intercession’ means “to plead on another’s behalf.” This speaks of a figure who takes your place before others to plead your cause. When you hear such a definition, do you picture Christ continually pleading to God for you, asking for mercy, forgiveness, grace and blessings? In my opinion, this image makes our heavenly Father appear tight-fisted. I simply refuse to believe that grace has to be pried out of our loving God. If we limit ourselves to such a narrow definition of intercession, we’ll never understand the deeper spiritual meaning of what Christ does for us.

The Bible declares that my heavenly Father knows my needs before I can ask him, and he often supplies those needs even before I pray. Therefore, I find it difficult to accept that God’s own Son has to plead with him for anything. Besides, the Bible says the Father has already entrusted his Son with all things: “For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and power” (Colossians 2:9-10).

I don’t claim to know everything about Christ’s intercession for us, but I do believe that whatever our high priest is doing in his intercession for us, it is a very simple matter. I believe that intercession has to do directly with the growth of his body here on earth. He is at work supplying every joint and part with might and strength so that we may be complete in him.

Please carefully read Ezekiel 44:15–16; the prophet is referring to a man named Zadok who served as a priest during David’s reign. The Hebrew name Zadok means “right or righteous.” This righteous man never wavered in his faithfulness to David or to the Lord. He stood by the king and by God’s Word through thick and thin. Zadok always remained loyal to David because he knew the king was the Lord’s anointed.

Because Zadok remained faithful through everything, he came to represent a ministry distinguished by its faithfulness to the Lord. Indeed, Zadok was a prime example of a true minister of God: separated from this world, shut in with the Lord and consistently hearing from heaven.

True new temple priests are faithful to stand before the Lord before they ever stand before the congregation. They spend precious hours in the Lord’s presence until they’re saturated with a message that’s been burned into their souls. When they emerge from God’s presence, they are able to speak straight to the people’s hearts because it has come directly from God’s throne.

The Lord says of the Zadok priesthood, “These ministers will enter my sanctuary and stand before me. They shall come near to my table and minister to me. I’ll be faithful to direct them, and I’ll give them my word for my people.”

Indeed, we see the “priesthood of believers” echoed throughout the books of the New Testament. John tells us, “[He] has made us kings and priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever” (Revelation 1:6, NKJV). Peter writes, “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5).

You may not have ministerial credentials from any church body. You may never have been to seminary or preached a sermon. You are still as called and ordained to serve in the Zadok priesthood as the most well-known preacher or evangelist. Both Testaments make it abundantly clear: Each of us is to hold the office of priest and perform a priest’s duties.

How are you to do this? You do it by ministering primarily unto the Lord. You offer up sacrifices of praise and service to God, turning over to him all your heart, soul, mind and strength. He’s called you to be part of his royal priesthood.

Faith begins with a total abandonment of oneself into God’s care, but our faith must be active, not passive. We must have full confidence that God can and will do the impossible. We see in scripture “Jesus looked at them and said to them, ‘With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible’” (Matthew 19:26, NKJV) and “For with God nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1:37).

In short, faith always says, “God is enough!”

The Lord makes men and women of faith by leading them into impossible situations. He wants to hear his servants say, “Father, you led me here, and you know best. So I’m going to stand still and believe you to do the impossible. I’ll put my life in your hands, fully trusting you.”

Our faith is not meant to get us out of a hard place or change our painful conditions. Rather, it is meant to reveal God’s faithfulness to us in the midst of our dire situation. God does at times change our trying circumstances; but far more often, he doesn’t because he wants to change us.

We simply can’t trust God’s power fully until we experience it in our crises. This was the case with Daniel and his three friends. His friends saw Christ only when they were in the midst of the fiery furnace, and Daniel experienced God’s power and grace when he was thrust into the lions’ den. If they had suddenly been pulled out of their circumstances, they never would have known the full grace of God’s miracle-working power, and the Lord would not have been magnified before the ungodly.

We think we’re witnessing great miracles whenever God ends our storms and crises, but we can easily miss the lesson of faith in such times. That lesson is that God will remain faithful to us through our hard times. He wants to lift us above our trials through faith so that we will say, “My God can do the impossible. He’s a deliverer, and he’s going to see me through.”