Devotions

Some believers can tell you all about their spiritual growth, and you can clearly see the changes in their lives. They testify to you about how the Holy Ghost has vanquished the enemy for them, and you rejoice with them in their victory.

Yet these kinds of Christians are the exception. Most believers are totally unaware of any spiritual progress in their lives. They pray, read the Bible and seek the Lord with all their hearts. There’s no obstruction to spiritual growth in them, but they can’t discern any growth in themselves. I’m an example of this type of believer. I know I walk in the righteousness of Christ, yet I never sense that I’m making progress. In fact, I occasionally get down on myself whenever I do or say something un-Christlike. I wonder, “I’ve been a Christian for years. Why don’t I ever learn?”

I think the Thessalonian Christians were stunned when they heard Paul’s glowing assessment of them. “We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other” (2 Thessalonians 1:3, NKJV).

Rest assured that if you have the fear of God in your heart, you’re going to emerge from your life’s storms much stronger. When you’re doing battle with the enemy, you’re calling forth all the grace and power of God. Even though you may feel weakened, that grace and power are strengthening you. For one, you’re becoming more urgent in your praying. Second, you’re being stripped of all pride. The storm is actually putting you on “spiritual guard” in every area of your life!

Paul knew that spiritual growth is often a secret, hidden thing. Scripture likens it to the unseen growth of flowers and trees. “I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall grow like the lily and lengthen his roots like Lebanon. His branches shall spread; his beauty shall be like an olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon” (Hosea 14:5-6).

God is telling us, “Go to the lilies! Just try to watch them grow. I’m telling you by day’s end you won’t see any growth whatsoever. But know this; I water the lily every morning with the dew I send, and it’s going to grow.” The same is true of most spiritual growth, especially in the middle of trials. It’s imperceptible to the human eye.

Take heart, friend; I’ve got good news for you. You are growing in your struggle. In fact, you may be growing by leaps and bounds because of your struggle.

Anyone can keep his joy when he’s riding high in the Holy Ghost, not being tried or tempted. God wants us to keep ourselves in his love at all times, especially in our temptations.

The apostle John tells us very simply how we can keep ourselves in God’s love: “we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16, NKJV). The word ‘dwell’ here means “to stay in a state of expectancy.” In other words, God wants us to expect his love to be renewed in us every day. We’re to live every day in the knowledge that God has always loved us and will always love us.

In reality, most of us flit in and out of God’s love according to our emotional ups and downs. We feel safe in his love only if we’ve done well, but we’re unsure of his love whenever we’re tempted or have failed him. That’s especially the time we’re to trust in his love.

Jeremiah 31 offers a wonderful illustration of God’s love. Israel was in a backslidden state. The people had grown fat and prosperous and were indulging in all kinds of wickedness. Suddenly, their lusts turned sour. They lost all pleasure in fulfilling their sensual appetites. Israel cried out, “You have chastised me, and I was chastised, like an untrained bull; restore me, and I will return, for you are the Lord my God. Surely, after my turning, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck myself on the thigh; I was ashamed, yes, even humiliated, because I bore the reproach of my youth” (Jeremiah 31:18-19).

Listen to God’s response to Israel. “…’For though I spoke against him, I earnestly remember him still; therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him,’ says the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:20).

God was telling his people, “I had to chasten you and speak hard words of truth to you. Even then you sinned against me, doing so despite the grace and mercy that I extended to you. You turned against my love, rejecting me. Nevertheless, my heart of compassion was moved deeply toward you. I remembered you in your struggle, and I will surely have mercy on you. I’ll freely forgive and restore you.”

One thing that can keep us going in the coming hard times is an understanding of God’s glory. Now, this may sound like a lofty concept best left to theologians, but I’m convinced the subject of God’s glory has very real value for every true believer. By grasping it, we unlock the door to an overcoming life.

The glory of God is a revelation of our Lord’s nature and being. You may recall from the Old Testament that Moses got a literal glimpse of God’s glory. Before then, the Lord had sent out Moses with no explanation of himself other than the words, “I AM.” Moses wanted to know something more of God, so he pleaded with him, “Lord, show me your glory.”

God responded by taking Moses aside and putting him in the cleft of a rock. Scripture says that he revealed himself to Moses in all his glory (see Exodus 34:6–7).

I believe this passage is essential to our understanding of who our Lord is. The revelation of God’s glory has powerful effects on those who receive it and pray for an understanding of it. Up to this point, Moses had viewed the Lord as a God of law and wrath. He trembled with terror in the Lord’s presence, petitioning him, crying out to him, pleading with him on behalf of Israel. This had been the basis of his face-to-face relationship with the Lord.

At the first sight of God’s glory, Moses was moved to worship. “Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped” (Exodus 34:8, NKJV). Do you see the incredible truth scripture is showing us here? True worship arises from hearts that are overcome by a vision of God. It’s based on the revelation that God gives us of himself, his goodness, his mercy, his readiness to forgive. If we’re to praise God both in spirit and in truth, our worship must be based on this awesome truth about him.

Once we receive a revelation of God’s glory, our worship can’t help but change. Why? Seeing his glory changes the way we live! It affects our countenance and behavior, changing us from “glory to glory,” making us more like him. Each new revelation of his love and mercy brings supernatural change.

One particular time, I was stirred by the Holy Spirit, and he led me to this passage: “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jude 1:20-21, NKJV). As I read, I heard the Spirit whisper, “David, you’ve never come into the fullness and joy of my love.”

The Bible is filled with the truth of God’s love, but at times I allow myself to wonder how the Lord could ever love me. It’s a failure on my part to keep myself in the knowledge and assurance of his love.

The revelation of God’s love comes in part when we are born again. If you were to ask most Christians what they know about God’s love for them, they’d answer, “I know God gave his Son to die for me.” Few Christians, however, learn how to be kept in God’s love. We know something of our love toward the Lord; but if you were to ask most Christians to find biblical passages on God’s love for us, they could point to only a few.

Multitudes grow spiritually cold and lazy because they’re ignorant of the Lord’s love for them. They don’t know that their greatest weapon against Satan’s attacks is to be fully convinced of God’s love for them, through the revelation of the Holy Ghost.

In his final prayer on earth, Jesus said, “Father, I desire…that they may behold my glory which you have given me; for you loved me before the foundation of the world…. I have declared to them your name, and will declare it, that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:24, 26).

The implication here is that when the Father loved Jesus before eternity, he loved us too. “Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love” (Ephesians 1:4).

How long has God loved you? He’s loved you since he has existed because God is love. It is his very nature. He loved you as a sinner. He loved you in the womb. He loved you before the world began. There was no beginning to his love for you, and there is no end to it.

One of the earliest letters to the church was from the apostles to new Gentile believers, and in it, the authors said, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality” (Acts 15:28-29, ESV).

Rather than weight down new believers with endless rules like the Jews had, Paul simply commanded, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27, ESV).

It was the Holy Spirit’s inspiration speaking through them, saying, “Come on, church. Whether or not there’s a specific law about it, don’t engage in things if you’re not certain whether they’re biblically compromising.”

When I was a youth pastor, the kids would come up and always ask me a question like “How far can I go into the things of the world and still be a Christian?  Like, okay, I know I can’t have sex, but can I do this?” For adults, it’s often questions like “I know I can’t get drunk, but do three beers count as drunkenness? How about two beers? How close can I get to the world?”

That’s totally the opposite of what the Holy Spirit is calling his church into! We should be saying, “How close can I get to Jesus? What can I let go of to get closer? If there’s any former association in my life that has a sense of dabbling in the old way of living, how far can I get from this?”

In the church, we should hear the Word of the Lord and say to ourselves, “I want to be circumspect in heart. I want to be pure in my conscience. I want to obey the Word of the Lord. I will stop at nothing to win the prize for this race I am running.”