Devotions

“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, NKJV).

I climbed the steps to the platform, constructed on the roof of a concession stand overlooking multiple soccer fields. As I looked out over the sea of Nigerian faces, I could not see the edge of the crowd in any direction. I cued our praise band, and as it and the choir struck their first note, a tremendous wind suddenly hit the stage. Lightning flashed around us, and above our heads torrents of rain came at us from all four directions at once.

A large partition behind the choir risers came crashing down in the wind and injured several people. I turned and saw the havoc that was happening in the choir and the fear that was sweeping over the platform as the wind, rain and lightning continued under a clear starry night sky.

Our entire team did the most important thing that we could ever do: we prayed. There was no doubt that we were engaging in a spiritual struggle with the powers of darkness. As the storm raged, I asked Michael, an American missionary our church supported, to step up to the one working microphone and rebuke the storm.

“In the name of Christ Jesus,” Michael cried out, “wind and rain, stop!”

The moment Michael shouted those words, the wind, rain and lightning stopped as suddenly as they had begun. I was told a witch came into the crowd not far from the platform where I was to speak and began to curse the people who had come to worship. Rather than succumb to fear, the believers cried out to God. God, I am told, responded by paralyzing the witch where she stood and striking her dumb. Still in an attitude of prayer, the believers around her then led her to Christ.

After preaching a message of pure salvation for over an hour, I issued a challenge: “If you want forgiveness for your sins…simply raise your hand.” No fewer than one hundred thousand people raised their hands to receive their Savior that night.

Back in my hotel room hours later, I got on my knees to thank the Lord. I had barely begun to pray when I heard the Lord say, “Don’t limit me. Don’t limit what I can do.”

This devotional is drawn from Carter Conlon’s book It’s Time to Pray.

_{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.} 

The Bible declares emphatically that not one tear of his children falls to the ground. David wrote, “You number my wanderings; put my tears into your bottle; are they not in your book? When I cry out to you, then my enemies will turn back; this I know, because God is for me” (Psalm 56:8, NKJV). The tears of the godly are so precious to him, he preserves them. If God preserves my tears, will he not preserve me?

It is almost too fantastic to take it all in. What strikes me in such a word is that if he counts every tear of mine, then how precious is my blood to him, my livelihood, my needs? Christ assured his disciples, “Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6-7).

Until we are persuaded in our minds that God takes special notice of each and every affliction which we endure, it is impossible we can ever obtain such confidence so as to believe that he would put our tears into his bottle. Can we believe that truth — that the God who numbers every hair on our heads and bottles every tear — will he not then interpose on our behalf? Hear this word in your spirit: Every tear you have shed over past sins, every tear shed in times of afflictions and stress, every tear shed over lost souls is written in his book.

You may say, “I don’t weep. I seldom shed tears.” I believe in soul tears, which only God sees, inward, silent tears shed often in times of trouble and need. Not one of your tears has been wasted. Not one is in vain.

Even at the end of time, God will attend to our tears once more. “I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.’” (Revelation. 21:4). To believe in God is to believe this incredible truth!

In his psalms, David wrote, “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire; my ears you have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering you did not require” (Psalm 40:5-6, NKJV).

This may well be interpreted as an allusion to the custom of masters boring the ear of a slave who refused his offered freedom (see Exodus 21:6). What marked the bondservant is that he pledged to give himself wholly to his master. This is not to suggest we should all quit our jobs to enter full-time ministry. Too many nowadays are getting out of God's will by going out presumptuously, leaving the responsibilities of raising a family to “go out by faith.” This is mistaken mindset!

The greater thing is to stay put and give the Lord more quality time where you are. It is a matter of putting Christ at the center of everything so that family, job and all things revolve around him. Christ becomes the focus of our thoughts and we spend time in his presence, hearing his voice, obeying his commands.

The bondservant is more a giving rather than a taking soul. This servant is not interested in reward or personal gain. His wages are the glory and honor he bestows on his master. The true bondservant who is committed to lifelong service is marked by the Lord in some special way. What marks the bondservant?

Scripture says, “Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And he called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn at his side; and the Lord said to him, ‘Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.’” (Ezekiel 9:3-4).

You can't miss the servants of God because they bear in their bodies the marks of Christ. The mark of a broken, contrite spirit is that it weeps over the abominations done against the Lord. God does not drill the ear with an awl; rather he breaks the heart with his hammer.

Another mark on this bondservant is a circumcision made without hands. It means that all self-made plans, schemes and dreams are abandoned, and the concerns and burdens of the Lord become supreme.

When I speak of our servanthood to God, some people protest. Would you remind me that you are a son, and not a servant? Then I would kindly remind you that Paul commanded the church, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:5-7, NKJV). He could have come the first time with a sword on a white horse, trampling every foe, yet Christ chose to come as a humble bondservant, fully committed to his Father's interests.

For a dedicated servant such as we are called to be to our Lord, there is no dilemma. This is what Paul meant when he said, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ.” Paul’s decision was never in doubt. His master was his whole world, and he was bound to him with an eternal bond of love. He could not possibly leave his master or his house.

A servant’s life revolves around his love for his lord, so Paul considered all else as “dung” that he might win the master. He was the kind who would be willing to be accursed if others could come to know the love of his lord. He valued intimacy with his master above any earthly blessing. Who cares for flocks, for corn, wine and oil, or any earthly wealth when you could have endless communion and fellowship with Christ?

This is how Jesus told his disciples, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). In essence, he was saying, “If you love me, you will obey me.”

Christ is enough! Nothing in this world is worth losing the sense of his presence. All the wealth and prosperity of the entire earth is not to be compared to a single day spent with him. The pleasures at his right hand far exceed any ecstasy known to man. To know him, to be where he is seated in heavenly places, is more than life itself. To serve him, to be led by him, to come and go as he alone commands is life on the highest plane. Love makes it easy to obey from morning to night.

God's ways seem paradoxical to the human mind. He says, “To live, you must die. To find your life, you must lose it. To become strong, you must first become weak.”

One of the greatest paradoxes of all is this: To be truly free, you must become bound. To gain the greatest liberty in God, one must give up all rights and become a lifelong bondservant to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a glorious servanthood that leads to the highest form of freedom. It is a voluntary surrender born out of love and affection, causing one to consider servitude even greater than liberty.

In a time when God's people are obsessed with claiming their rights, taken with the Lord's blessings and benefits, it would profit us all to allow the Holy Spirit to open our eyes to a place in God beyond anything we've yet discovered. It is in perfect divine order to receive all the good things from the hand of God, and no child of the Lord should feel guilty about the blessings and benefits poured upon him.

Yet we need to see there is something better than blessings and prosperity, something far more rewarding than all the other manifold benefits he daily gives us.

A bondservant is one who has entered a sacrament of service with his master. It is beautifully described in the following Scripture: “If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years; and in the seventh he shall go out free and pay nothing. …But if the servant plainly says, ‘I love my master… I will not go out free,’ then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the doorpost, and his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever” (Exodus 21:2-6, NKJV).

This is a picture of God's concern for servants, but it also clearly portrays in type and shadow the bondservants of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the master in this account, and we are the servants whose freedom has been purchased. The cross is God's Sabbath, the year of release for all prisoners, captives, slaves and servants, and we who were sold under the Law have been set free by grace! We are freed from sin, yet bondservants to Christ, all our days, by choice.