Apr 29, 2023
“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.
Apr 28, 2023
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!
Apr 26, 2023
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.
Apr 25, 2023
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.
Apr 24, 2023
One of our directors recently went to Turkey to check on our partners who have been affected by the terrible earthquake there. Let me say from personal experience, when you see devastation like what they are currently living in, the overwhelming human loss and suffering, there are images and memories that will never leave you.
You hardly need me to tell you that there is much suffering in the world, though. Everyone has been touched by anguish in some way. Whole books have been written on this single topic. It would be impossible to touch on every aspect of such a complex subject, but I wanted to reflect for a moment on those who suffer because of circumstances outside their control. Their pain doesn’t come as the consequences of their own sin or from others sinning against them; it’s simply from living in a fallen world.
Like Jesus’ disciples, though, we can be tempted to offer simple answers for pain. Like them, we ask, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” I believe God’s response to us is the same as it was to his disciples. “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:2-3, ESV). Sometimes we can suffer in ways that have nothing to do with our sins, like with natural disasters; but God still has a purpose for pain.
This is why Peter later wrote, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7).
Pain can rock us to our core. It can prompt us to harden our hearts to protect ourselves. Sometimes, it can shake us to the point of jettisoning our faith. Let nothing I say trivialize the magnitude of suffering.
However, suffering is never neutral. It will either draw us closer to God or harden us to his voice. As Charles Spurgeon said, “The same sun which melts wax hardens clay.” We can suffer well if we invite Christ into our pain and lives.
