Feb 9, 2022
God wants us to know that no matter how difficult things may get for us, he will sustain all who trust in him by the power of his still, small voice, speaking to our inner man daily. This is confirmed by the prophet Isaiah. You have to understand, Isaiah delivered this word to Israel in the very worst of times. The nation was under judgment and in absolute ruin with everything breaking down.
Isaiah told Israel’s leaders, “Turn to the Lord now!”, but they wouldn’t listen. They decided they would turn to Egypt to deliver them. They thought they could rely on the Egyptians’ chariots, horses and supplies to see them through.
Despite this, God did not send all of his judgment on Israel at that point. Rather, he decided to wait patiently until the bottom fell out of every plan. Scripture says, “Therefore the Lord will wait, that he may be gracious to you; and therefore he will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him” (Isaiah 30:18).
Sure enough, everything failed, and things only got worse for the nation. Finally, when all their schemes had fallen through, Isaiah told the people, “Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left” (Isaiah 30:21, NKJV). God was basically saying, “Now, let me take over! Open your ears, and I will speak to you. I know the way out, and I will direct you. I want to guide your every move, to the right and to the left, to deliver you. I’ll lead you by my voice speaking to you, telling you what to do, down to the last detail!”
What matters is that you get to know the voice of God. He is still speaking. He made it clear, “My sheep know my voice.” There are many voices in the world today, loud, demanding voices; but there is that still, small voice of the Lord that can be known and heard by all who trust what Jesus said.
Feb 8, 2022
Jesus died on the cross to purchase peace with God for me, and he’s in heaven now to maintain that peace for me and in me. The peace we have with God through Christ distinguishes our faith from all other religions.
In every other religion besides Christianity, the sin question is never settled. Sin’s dominion simply hasn’t been broken. Therefore, “’There is no peace,’ says the Lord, ‘for the wicked.’” (Isaiah 48:22, NKJV), but we have a God who provides peace by pardoning sin. This is the very reason Jesus came to earth: to bring peace to troubled, fearful humankind. How does Jesus maintain God’s peace for me? He does it in three ways.
First, Christ’s blood removed the guilt of my sin. In this sense, Paul says, “For he himself is our peace” (Ephesians 2:14).Jesus made peace for me through his blood.
Second, Christ maintains my peace and joy in belief. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).
Third, Jesus causes me to rejoice at the hope of entering glory. “We…rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2).
Simply put, peace is the absence of fear, so a life without fear is a life full of peace. When Jesus ascended to heaven, he didn’t just bask in the glory that God bestowed on him. No, he went to the Father to maintain the hard-won peace he achieved for us at Calvary.
Our Savior is alive in glory right now, and he’s both fully God and fully human with hands, feet, eyes and hair. He also has the nail scars on his hands and feet as well as the wound in his side. He has never discarded his humanity; he is still a man in glory. Right now, our man in eternity is working to make sure we’re never robbed of the peace he gave us when he left. He’s ministering as our high priest, actively involved in keeping his body on earth full of his peace. And when he comes again he wants us to “be found by him in peace” (2 Peter 3:14).
Feb 4, 2022
The Bible tells us that Jesus makes intercession for us: “Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25, NKJV). What do the scriptures mean by this?
I believe this subject is so deep, majestic and beyond human understanding that I tremble even to address it. Through prayer and trust in the Holy Spirit’s guidance, I’m beginning to grasp just a little of this incredible subject. Recently, I’ve prayed very simply, “Lord, how does your intercession in heaven affect my life? Your Word says you appear before the Father on my behalf. What does this mean in my daily walk with you?”
The English word ‘intercession’ means “to plead on another’s behalf.” This speaks of a figure who takes your place before others to plead your cause. When you hear such a definition, do you picture Christ continually pleading to God for you, asking for mercy, forgiveness, grace and blessings? In my opinion, this image makes our heavenly Father appear tight-fisted. I simply refuse to believe that grace has to be pried out of our loving God. If we limit ourselves to such a narrow definition of intercession, we’ll never understand the deeper spiritual meaning of what Christ does for us.
The Bible declares that my heavenly Father knows my needs before I can ask him, and he often supplies those needs even before I pray. Therefore, I find it difficult to accept that God’s own Son has to plead with him for anything. Besides, the Bible says the Father has already entrusted his Son with all things: “For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and power” (Colossians 2:9-10).
I don’t claim to know everything about Christ’s intercession for us, but I do believe that whatever our high priest is doing in his intercession for us, it is a very simple matter. I believe that intercession has to do directly with the growth of his body here on earth. He is at work supplying every joint and part with might and strength so that we may be complete in him.
Feb 3, 2022
Please carefully read Ezekiel 44:15–16; the prophet is referring to a man named Zadok who served as a priest during David’s reign. The Hebrew name Zadok means “right or righteous.” This righteous man never wavered in his faithfulness to David or to the Lord. He stood by the king and by God’s Word through thick and thin. Zadok always remained loyal to David because he knew the king was the Lord’s anointed.
Because Zadok remained faithful through everything, he came to represent a ministry distinguished by its faithfulness to the Lord. Indeed, Zadok was a prime example of a true minister of God: separated from this world, shut in with the Lord and consistently hearing from heaven.
True new temple priests are faithful to stand before the Lord before they ever stand before the congregation. They spend precious hours in the Lord’s presence until they’re saturated with a message that’s been burned into their souls. When they emerge from God’s presence, they are able to speak straight to the people’s hearts because it has come directly from God’s throne.
The Lord says of the Zadok priesthood, “These ministers will enter my sanctuary and stand before me. They shall come near to my table and minister to me. I’ll be faithful to direct them, and I’ll give them my word for my people.”
Indeed, we see the “priesthood of believers” echoed throughout the books of the New Testament. John tells us, “[He] has made us kings and priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever” (Revelation 1:6, NKJV).Peter writes, “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5).
You may not have ministerial credentials from any church body. You may never have been to seminary or preached a sermon. You are still as called and ordained to serve in the Zadok priesthood as the most well-known preacher or evangelist. Both Testaments make it abundantly clear: Each of us is to hold the office of priest and perform a priest’s duties.
How are you to do this? You do it by ministering primarily unto the Lord. You offer up sacrifices of praise and service to God, turning over to him all your heart, soul, mind and strength. He’s called you to be part of his royal priesthood.
Feb 2, 2022
Faith begins with a total abandonment of oneself into God’s care, but our faith must be active, not passive. We must have full confidence that God can and will do the impossible. We see in scripture “Jesus looked at them and said to them, ‘With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible’” (Matthew 19:26, NKJV) and “For with God nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1:37).
In short, faith always says, “God is enough!”
The Lord makes men and women of faith by leading them into impossible situations. He wants to hear his servants say, “Father, you led me here, and you know best. So I’m going to stand still and believe you to do the impossible. I’ll put my life in your hands, fully trusting you.”
Our faith is not meant to get us out of a hard place or change our painful conditions. Rather, it is meant to reveal God’s faithfulness to us in the midst of our dire situation. God does at times change our trying circumstances; but far more often, he doesn’t because he wants to change us.
We simply can’t trust God’s power fully until we experience it in our crises. This was the case with Daniel and his three friends. His friends saw Christ only when they were in the midst of the fiery furnace, and Daniel experienced God’s power and grace when he was thrust into the lions’ den. If they had suddenly been pulled out of their circumstances, they never would have known the full grace of God’s miracle-working power, and the Lord would not have been magnified before the ungodly.
We think we’re witnessing great miracles whenever God ends our storms and crises, but we can easily miss the lesson of faith in such times. That lesson is that God will remain faithful to us through our hard times. He wants to lift us above our trials through faith so that we will say, “My God can do the impossible. He’s a deliverer, and he’s going to see me through.”
