Body

Devotions

God’s Blessing is Invincible

Jim Cymbala

I am convinced that God intends to bestow his blessings upon every church and every believer who earnestly prays for them.

We see in the Bible that God’s blessing is a reflection of his incredible love for his creation. While it is invisible in its essence, his blessing is invincible, overcoming everything that earth or hell can throw against it. This blessing is rooted in the ancient instructions God gave to Moses to be carried out by the high priest of Israel:

The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them, “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.”’ So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them” (Numbers 6:22-27).

This practice of conferring a priestly blessing in the name of the Lord is what separated Israel from the people around them for all the centuries of its history. Only God’s covenant people enjoyed the divine blessing. A nation favored and protected by the Lord, they knew that God had promised to listen to their prayers and be attentive to their problems. The God of the universe had turned his face toward them so that they could receive his supernatural grace.

What a privilege to live under the Lord’s favor, to daily experience his blessing! What enemy could intimidate them when God was with them in power?

I have good news for you! God is still a blessing God. In fact, the Bible could be characterized as a book revealing the Lord’s intense desire to bless every man and woman he has created. If this surprises you, just consider the fact that love always desires to bless the object of its affection — and remember that you are deeply loved by the Father.

Jim Cymbala began the Brooklyn Tabernacle with less than twenty members in a small, rundown building in a difficult part of the city. A native of Brooklyn, he is a longtime friend of both David and Gary Wilkerson.

A Place of Perfect Rest

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

There exists a place in Christ where there is no anxiety about the future, no fear of calamity, affliction or unemployment. And there is no fear of falling or losing one’s soul. This place of total confidence in God’s faithfulness is called a place of perfect rest by the writer of Hebrews.

Such perfect rest was offered to Israel, but the people’s doubt and unbelief kept them out of God’s rest: “Those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:6). The Israelites lived in constant fear and dread, always waiting for the next crisis to happen. As a result, they were desolated in their trials.

If Israel had entered into God’s rest, his work in his people would have been complete. But because they didn’t, the Lord continues to search in every generation for a people who will enter: “There remains therefore a rest for the people of God” (4:9).

God is telling us, “This offer of rest is for you today! There still exists a place in me where all doubt and fear no longer exist, a place where you’ll be prepared for whatever may come.” Thus, his Word urges, “Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it” (Hebrews 4:1).

Today, multitudes of God’s people know nothing of this rest in Christ. As they hear the awful reports of tragedies, calamities, and deaths, they are filled with fear and dread. Their constant prayer is, “Oh, God, please don’t take one of my loved ones. I could never handle the grief.”

Yet, if you are at rest in the Lord, you won’t succumb to such fear. You will not panic or fall apart when you’re hit with some unexpected crisis. And you won’t lose hope, accusing God of bringing on your troubles. Yes, you will endure pain that is common to every human being but you will be at rest in your soul, because you know God is in control of everything concerning you.

A Life that Satan Cannot Destroy!

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

As Jesus lay silent in the grave after his crucifixion, Satan and his hordes gloated. They thought they had won an irreversible victory but all along, God’s foreordained plan was being put into action — a plan for resurrection life!

The Lord sent his Holy Spirit down into the very bowels of death and there he quickened the body of Jesus, raising him from the dead. Then out of the grave stepped our blessed Savior, right through the thick stone. And he emerged with this testimony:

“I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death” (Revelation 1:18). Christ was saying here, “I am the one who has eternal life. I was dead, but look, I’m alive, now and forever. I hold the very keys to life and death in my hands!”

The moment Jesus walked out of death’s prison, he became the resurrection and the life, not only for himself but for all who would believe on him from that day on. He has brought forth to us a resurrection life totally beyond death’s power.

Because of this, there is no longer any reason for a Christian to fear death or to see it as an enemy. Our Lord has conquered it completely: “Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death” (Acts 2:24).

If you have received Jesus as your Savior and Lord, then he resides in you as a mighty power of resurrection life. And the same resurrection power that brought him up out of the grave will sustain you, as well. “Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?” (2 Corinthians 13:5). You have within your being all that is in Christ, a powerful life-force that Satan cannot destroy!

A Testimony the World Longs to See

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

If you tell the world that Jesus is your Lord and Savior, a God who can perform the impossible, they will watch to see how you react in impossible situations. And the devil looks on, too, hoping your faith will fail.

The Psalmist writes, “Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You in the presence of the sons of men!” (Psalm 31:19). What is this great goodness that God lays up for those who trust in him through trying times? It is an impenetrable, glorious testimony to the world that your faith can survive any situation.

We see this kind of testimony in Daniel. His jealous co-governors devised a plot against him, convincing King Darius to ban prayer for thirty days. Daniel was fully aware of the penalty for continuing to pray, yet he knew the Lord would see him through. Just as his peers predicted, Daniel disobeyed the ban and kept praying three times a day.

Although King Darius respected Daniel, he was forced by his own decree to cast this devout man into the lions’ den. The king assured Daniel, “Your God, whom you serve continually, He will deliver you” (Daniel 6:16). Yet, that night the king couldn’t sleep (6:18).

We know how God responded to Daniel’s faith — he shut the mouths of the hungry lions! In the morning King Darius was up early, anxious to see if God had answered Daniel’s prayers. You can imagine the king’s joy when he heard Daniel’s voice praising God (6:21-22).

Because of this great demonstration of God’s keeping power, King Darius wrote a decree that impacted an entire kingdom: “Men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. For He is the living God” (6:26-27).

The world still longs to see a testimony of God’s great power in the lives of those who proclaim his name — those who believe what they preach and never doubt his Word.  

Are We Willing to Have Our Faith Refined?

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

Beloved, God is searching for a people who will trust him fully. The Lord did not save us so we could bask endlessly in his goodness, mercy and glory. He had an eternal purpose in choosing each one of us and that purpose goes beyond blessings, fellowship and revelation. The fact is, God still reaches out to lost humankind, searching for a believing people he can shape into his greatest evangelistic tool.

God was searching for such a people in Gideon’s day. When Gideon issued a call for volunteers to fight the Midianites, thousands of Israelites responded. But the Lord told Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands … Proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart’” (Judges 7:2-3).

God was telling Gideon, “If anybody is afraid, tell him to go home now. I will not allow my army to be infected by fear.” God was actually turning away volunteers for his army; at one point, some 22,000 doubters were sent home. Gideon eventually reduced the number of volunteers to 10,000 but God told him there were still too many and the Lord finally settled on 300 battle-tested soldiers. 

This ought to tell us something. As the Lord seeks gospel messengers he can send out to the world, he is not going to recruit churches whose pews are filled with fearful, doubting, untested people. He will not look for powerful, efficient religious organizations or highly educated seminarians. God uses organizations and the highly educated, of course, but in themselves none of these has the resources needed to be God’s tried and tested messengers.

So, what is needed to reach a lost and hurting world? God is seeking those who are willing to be tested, tried by fire, those whose faith he can refine and bring forth as pure gold.