Dec 10, 2022
The word ‘compassion’ means sympathy, pity, an inner moving or yearning that moves one into doing something about a situation. Unfortunately, sometimes compassion fails to be the undergirding reason why people move toward the mountains of human need. Instead, our motive may be to prove a theological point or even an inner obligation to prove the existence of God to ourselves if not to anybody else. Other times it may be an attempt to earn favor with God. Then there are those who attend churches that make them feel obligated to become involved in their social programs.
I don’t know about you, but I would rather be filled with the compassion of God. I would rather give because my heart is stirred by the Holy Spirit to help those who are in need. I would rather move in the compassion of Christ instead of the compulsion of religion. There is a difference.
I thank God that it was not out of obligation but rather out of compassion that Jesus gave his life for you and me. I am grateful that the cross was not just some legal proving ground for him to say, “I am going to do my part; now you must do yours.” No, it was the absolute compassion of Jesus that caused his arms to be nailed wide open to ‘whosoever will come’ and receive the supply of his life. The provision of Christ’s life was open to us through a compassionate Savior, and it will always be open to the world through the Church that has embraced his heart of compassion for its generation. As scripture says, “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering” (Colossians 3:12, NKJV).
Compassion is an inner moving of the heart, born of God, that compels us to cry, “Lord, you must release through my hands whatever is needed in this situation. It is not right that your creation should be in such a state. It is not right that your children should be hungry, that the house of God should be in bondage, that somebody should not know the freedom that Christ has fully purchased for them on Calvary. God Almighty, release it through my hands!”
Dec 9, 2022
God’s prophet wrote, “Many people shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; he will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.’…” (Isaiah 2:3, NKJV), and “Even them I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer…” (Isaiah 56:7).
The message of the Holy Spirit today to all God’s people is “Get back to the mount. Get back into his holy presence.” Many are now hearing that call and making time for prayer and seeking God. Others, however, go about their way, too busy with kingdom details to climb the holy hill.
Isaiah saw both the glory of an awakened ministry and the tragedy of blind watchmen, asleep. While some watchmen shake themselves and go back to the mount of God to hear a fresh word from heaven, others will be lost in endless activities and self-advancement.
“His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yes, they are greedy dogs, which never have enough. And they are shepherds who cannot understand; they all look to their own way, every one for his own gain, from his own territory” (Isaiah 56:10-11). Isaiah said they got that way — self-centered and preoccupied with the works of their own hands, spiritually dead — because they “forsook the Lord and forgot his holy mountain” (see Isaiah 65:11).
Ministers of God, we had better listen to the warning of the prophet Isaiah when he said, “For the Lord God will slay you, and call his servants by another name” (Isaiah 65:15). The Spirit is raising up an army of ‘mountain men’ who will spend time alone with God, shut up in his holy presence, hearing his voice, getting new vision and returning with joy to deliver “those who wail because of broken spirits” (see Isaiah 65:13-14).
Oh, yes! They shall return but with power and dominion. God’s refining fire is going to awaken new and godly principles in us. For too long, we have been dead to the godly principles needed to save the church from chaos. No longer will the Lord be satisfied with a general good in his house; he now seeks the fire of Christ in the heart.
Dec 7, 2022
I wonder how many of God’s people today can sincerely cry out to our blessed Lord, “Glorify me with thyself! Bring me into oneness. I yearn to be closer, more intimate. Master, it is you that I want. More than signs or wonders, I must have your presence!”
When Jesus prayed for all believers, he said, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word; that they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you; that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me” (John 17:20-21, NKJV). He was talking about a very intimate kind of love, a love that permits no distance or separation from the object of its affection. It desires a complete oneness, an eternal union. This divine love between our Lord and the Father was so all-important to him that he eagerly longed for the day all his children could behold it with their own eyes.
Glory be to the hallowed name of Jesus Christ for such a glorious thought! Christ is so overjoyed with the glory of his intimate relationship with his Father that he yearns to bring all God’s children into heaven to behold it.
Won’t that be something when we, the redeemed, are brought into God’s great banquet hall to the heavenly feast and are permitted to behold the love of the Father for his dear Son and our blessed Savior? I see on that glorious day our Lord’s prayer answered, when he looks to his blood-purchased children and joyfully proclaims, “See, children? Did I not tell you the truth? Have you ever beheld such great love? You now see my Father’s love for me and my love for him.” What a joy to know we serve a Savior who is loved.
Is it not terrifying to contemplate that Lucifer cut himself off from such glory? He is without love. He has no father. Surely, this was his greatest loss. It is the great loss of all Satan’s children, to exist without a witness or sense of a heavenly Father’s love. In contrast, God’s children are embraced in oneness with Jesus while still on earth. God loves us as he loves his own Son, and this truth ought to give us great peace and hope.
Dec 2, 2022
God’s Word boldly declares, ”I am crucified with Christ: it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me…” (Galatians 2:20 NKJV), and “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
You may say, “I know I’m in Christ by faith. I realize I am a new creature, but I still struggle terribly with a habit. It makes me so discouraged.” Satan would love to convince you that God has given up on you. He wants you to think God sees you as dirty, filthy with sin. It’s all a lie. What you’re experiencing is the flesh battling against the Spirit in you. This battle is common to all believers, and when you’re in the middle of it, Satan wants to convince you that the “old man” is still in control.
Here is the truth. No matter what your condition, God does not waver in his love for you. He never stopped loving Adam’s race, despite all its wickedness, idolatry and lustful ways. He has preserved us throughout history to the last days when he stepped in with his rescue plan. God made it possible at the cross to redeem every one of us, Adam and all his descendants.
We must stand firm in the knowledge that our standing with God is based on one thing: we are victorious because of the cross. This victory doesn’t come through any good thing you or I do. As Paul says, “So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body isdead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness” (Romans 8:8-10).
Our victory comes solely through repentance, faith, belief and trust in God’s care for us. Our part is to stand firmly on the position he has graciously given us in Christ. His Word assures us, “You may fail at times. But when I look at you, I see only my Son, Jesus. You’re going to come through this battle victorious, with no guilt and no condemnation.”
Dec 1, 2022
Where can you find Christians wholly devoted to the Lord who have easy, trouble-free lives? Show me a Spirit-led, God-filled follower of Christ, and I’ll show you one who is chased, chastened, often baffled, and well-acquainted with deep waters and fiery furnaces.
Those who seek to avoid difficulties seldom get the revelation of God’s fullness. They attempt to use faith to exempt themselves from crisis, not realizing they are robbing themselves of the greatest opportunity to find out what they are made of. Then one day when trouble inevitably shows up, they cave in, having no proven source of inner strength.
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul prayed, “that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man” (Ephesians 3:16 NKJV). He was saying that the Lord needs Christians who are not tossed about by every wind and wave of doctrine; who have discernment; who aren’t seeking out the next charismatic teacher with a “new revelation”; and who do not depend on others for their happiness and spiritual strength. He needs people who have been tested and demonstrate that the very life of God is in them. They draw their sustenance from their inner man who has been reborn through grace in Christ Jesus.
We can learn valuable lessons from King David’s experience when he and his men came upon the utter devastation left behind by the Amalekites at Ziklag. Although his heart was anguished, “David strengthened himself in the Lord his God”(1 Samuel 30:6). It is imperative that we also know how to encourage ourselves in the Lord so that we are prepared when trouble comes our way.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, I beseech you to open your eyes to the mighty power of God at work in you, and to appropriate the completeness of the Lord Jesus Christ. No matter what fiery furnace we may be cast into, our God will walk us through it.
