Devotions

What do you do when you’re overwhelmed? What do you do when it seems the odds are against you or you don’t have enough resources? Do you go home at night and continue being stressed, anxious and fearful?

If you want to see victory in your life, you will have to fight for it; and in the fight, God will supply the strength and resources that you need. You will come out of the fight as a worshiper of Jesus Christ. 
In 2010, my father, David Wilkerson, turned the leadership of World Challenge over to me. In the beginning, Dad was there to support and encourage me. If I ever got in the midst of a battle that I wasn’t quite sure how to handle, I’d call Dad. In April 2011, he passed away in an auto accident, and I found myself without that particular resource to help lead World Challenge. Sometimes, when challenging things happen, I feel a little bit of fear. What if I don’t have what it takes? What if I don’t handle this situation well? 

One day, as these doubts filled my mind, the Holy Spirit came over me, and confidence dropped into my heart. I realized that if God was leading me, he was saying, “This is the way you should go.” All I had to do was trust him. I don’t have to look at the black or red lines and see where the finances are; I have to look to heaven for his answers. At World Challenge, that is what we are doing. We are working harder and reaching more people, all because we will not let the enemy cause fear to come into our lives.

Some of you are in a battle right now. It might be financial, or it could be relational like problems with your children. Whatever the battle, I have a good word for you: Don’t give up in the battle! Don’t give up interceding. Don’t let limited resources cause you to think that somehow God is limited in power. 

Remember apostle Paul’s encouragement to the believers in Galatia: “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9, ESV).

God’s Word tells us that Christ paid for the sins of humanity with his own blood on the cross. He lived a sinless life, keeping the law at every point; and he fulfilled the law, removed the curse, ransoming us from the claims of hell and the devil, and will present us before the Father with perfect righteousness.  

The Word goes on to tell us we can have Christ’s perfect righteousness attributed to us, and God will consider us perfectly righteous in Jesus if only we believe what he has accomplished for us. Please understand that I am speaking of those who have repented of their sins. 

Oh, how my flesh recoils at the simplicity and ease of it all. The flesh cries, “No way! It can’t be that easy. I have to help; I must pay something. After all, I still have problems in my life. I still struggle with sin. I can’t expect him to consider me righteous because I still have so many things needing improvement. I need to clean up my act first.” 

Certainly, we may shed tears. We have to be humbled and broken, but a river of tears alone will not save anyone. A lifetime of struggles will not save anyone. Scripture says that our salvation must be by grace through faith. No flesh shall glory in God’s presence. 

• “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith’” (Romans 1:17, NKJV). 

• “For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith” (Galatians 5:5).

• “And be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith” (Philippians 3:9).

My faith has to rise above all my fears, satanic lies, feelings, and circumstances and rest in what God’s Word declares. His Word says that by repentance and faith in Christ, he looks upon me as having the perfect righteousness of Jesus. He accepts me “in the beloved” as holy and righteous.

Oh, what a wonderful thing the power of faith is! 

We will never be justified or accepted as righteous before God unless we stand before him with Christ’s perfect righteousness as our own. That is the only righteousness God will ever recognize. So how can we receive Christ’s perfect righteousness? 

The heavenly Father imputes it to us through our faith. “Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works” (Romans 4:6, NKJV). Paul quotes David as saying, “The richest, most blessed, most peaceful man on earth is the one who understands he has a perfect righteousness imputed to him without works.” 

The word impute means “to regard or esteem, to consider, to attribute to a person something he does not have, to reckon or credit to one’s account.” When Jesus imputes his righteousness to us, God looks upon it as our very own. No, we did not earn it. Christ did it all, and he credits it to our account. 

“[Abraham] did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God…And therefore ‘it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead” (Romans 4:20-24).

This righteousness has to be imputed to us. It is not ours by infusion. In other words, God doesn’t just pour it into us. No, it is never our righteousness; nothing we have done or accomplished. It is always his righteousness, imputed to us and credited to our account. 

This imputation comes by faith alone. We can’t work for it or merit it in any way. Rather, because of our faith in Jesus and his redeeming work, the Lord credits the righteousness of Christ to us, and we are reckoned as perfect in him. It is a perfect righteousness that is of faith and not of works.

• “Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace…” (Romans 4:16). 

• “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10).

• “Even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference” (Romans 3:22).

Beloved, by confessing our sins and having faith in him, we stand before God with an imputed righteousness.

Understanding how God justifies his people is not for babies; it is a truth for full-grown believers. Many Christians are still babies, drinking milk and refusing to go on to the meat of the Word of righteousness. All they understand is forgiveness of their sins. 

“For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Hebrews 5:13-14, NKJV).

Babies need milk and constant attention. They are comforted when their mother is in the room, and they often cry out in fear when she leaves. Babies must be able to see, hear, feel and touch their mothers to feel secure. 

Likewise, the believer who remains on milk lives in constant dread of his salvation. He is never at ease with the heavenly Father. Instead, he’s always uptight, thinking God is ready to send him to hell every time he fails. He does not understand his position in Christ and, therefore, never knows the peace of God. He cannot believe that God is fully committed to save and keep him. 

Paul says in the Word that there is meat available to us, spiritual food that will cause us to grow into maturity, to become men and women in Christ, and to develop into full stature as believers. Beloved, this meat is the truth concerning Christ’s perfect righteousness. Understanding it allows you to remain secure in your salvation. You don’t have to fear that God will forsake you whenever you slip and fall. No, you will have victory! 

If you do not have this truth, the devil will wreak havoc on your feelings. He will lie to you and push you around. Unless you have this truth as a foundation under everything you believe, nothing will be right in your doctrine, your theology or your life. You can’t even obey God until you understand it. 

You must be convinced that nothing you can ever do will produce an acceptable righteousness before God. It has to come from another source. When I stand at the judgment seat, I have no other plea but the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Psalm 1 has great news for you. “He [the blessed man] is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (Psalm 1:3, ESV).

Christ is our living water; all we have to do is be planted near him and drink from his stream. “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”’ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:37-39). 

Planting ourselves by the Lord’s stream actually produces delight. When we abide near his living water, we see clearly that his law is life-giving. We thirst for more of it and make it our delight. 

As we draw on his powerful stream, we see our roots expanding, anchoring us, and shooting strength to our branches. Christ’s constant stream helps us through not only daily temptations but also through the roughest seasons of life.  

What is your soul’s condition when you have financial troubles, when your marriage is in a difficult place, when your job is tenuous or when your children struggle in ways that don’t seem to have a solution? Are you quick to despair? Do you revisit all your failures?

When you are planted beside living water, you can draw on his strength to see you through. You’ll be reminded of previous trials that the Lord brought you through. In this way, “In all that he does, he prospers.” We prosper by knowing his peace despite all outward circumstances; that is how we thrive in life. 

Most of all, we delight in his Word with an increasing hunger for it. In turn, his life-giving Word generates delight in our souls.  

^{This devotion was drawn from chapter 1 of Gary Wilkerson’s new book The Altar of Our Hearts. This book is available for purchase in the World Challenge bookstore.}