God Accomplishes What Concerns You

Psalms 138:7-8

 

David was a man who walked through trouble on a regular basis. His psalms express the struggles and disappointments he faced, yet in the end, he always turned his focus back to God. The key to his victorious attitude was his strong faith in the Lord.

 

David was confident in God's purpose. That's why he could say, "The Lord will accomplish what concerns me" (v. 8). The only way we can walk through trouble and not be defeated is by keeping our focus on the Lord and His purpose. He has promised to do a good work in our lives, but sometimes the only way He can complete it is in valleys of hardship.

 

He relied on the Lord's power. When troubles arise, we, too, can trust God to deliver us, but it may not be by escape. Sometimes He sustains us through the difficulty, walking with us every step of the way.

 

David believed the promises of God. Throughout these two verses, he repeatedly reminds himself what the Lord will do. We also need to have some specific promises from Scripture that will anchor us in times of trouble. The truths of the Bible are our most valuable possession when the storms of life assail us. Self-reliance or advice from others will never equal the help God's Word offers us.

 

God assumes responsibility for accomplishing what concerns you in times of trouble. Your job is to believe that He will fulfill His purpose, His power is adequate, and He'll keep every promise. When the trial has achieved His goal, He'll remove it. Until then, keep walking with your eyes on Him.

~Dr. Charles F. Stanley~

The Rule of the Heavens # 56

The Universal Range of the Eternal Purpose (continued)

"The creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption" (Romans 8:21). Christ's work in His Cross has effected in the ultimate, the redemption of the whole creation. But more, the redemption of the whole heavenly range surrounding the creation; and the heavenlies are going to be cleared, and the very atmosphere is going to be purged, and the Person of Christ in sovereignty embraces that for coming government, and the work of Calvary involves that. So that the vessel of the testimony is called not merely into relationship to the salvation of a few men and women, the vessel of the testimony will go on in relation to the whole work of Calvary, the full work of redemption, the  entire range of the significance of the Person of Christ, and that vessel will not only be in relation to the earth, the redemption of and the redeemed earth and the new creation, it will be related to the whole range of heavenly realms, lower and higher, in the ages to come. That is the vessel and that is its calling, that is its ministry. It is called to a tremendous thing, and it is important for us to see the cosmic nation of the Cross, the cosmic significance of the Person and work of Christ, and then the cosmic relationship and vocation of the vessel of the testimony.

At present it is the taking out of the nations a people of His Name. There will be developments by stages, but the ultimate issue, ultimately, when God's day of probation is finally closed and the testimony has been for ever decided according to an attitude taken, and evil and evil ones have been swept from God's world, then the vessel, the Church, the Body, will be the instrument of administration; administrative in relation to the throne and the whole of that range of redemption's work.There will be things beyond the Church; there will be nations which will walk in the light of that City, which is the Church; but at present the Church is the thing upon which the Lord's heart is set as the vessel, not only for purposes in this age, which are limited comparatively, but for the unlimited ranges of influence and usefulness in the ages to come (Revelation 21:22-27). Now I have only spoken out of the Word and you hardly need that I quote Scripture, it is floating in your mind as I go on. In the ages to come He is going to show by us the exceeding riches of His grace, and it is now unto principalities and powers He is making known His manifold wisdom by the Church. You see what we mean by the cosmic range of things; and the vessel is called in relation to that, something very great, very wide, very far-reaching (Ephesians 1:21; 2:7; 3:10).

We said that in speaking of the vessel we are here regarding it from the personal and collective, or corporate standpoint - in this sense - that we must not forget that while the vessel in the thought and mind of God is a corporate thing, a Body, a collective thing, it is made up of living members, and every living member of that Body is in itself a vessel and has its peculiar responsibility to the whole. It is related, and therefore, everything for that vessel is relative; and yet we must not fall into the snare of allowing our individual and personal responsibility to be lost sight of by the corporate conception of things. We must realize that we, individually, have a responsibility as a vessel, although our responsibility as vessels is related to the whole. And so we are vessels as part of a vessel. That is what I want to get at, so that we lay a safe emphasis upon the individual place in the vessel for the testimony.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 57 - (Paul a Type of the Whole Vessel)

You Are Irresistible!

And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke. - Acts 6:8, 10

Have you ever been with someone or just watched a person who was irresistible? Some people have a charisma that attracts others to them and the reasons for the attraction are not always obvious. I remember taking a Bowling class in college to fulfill one of my elective course requirements. On the first day I thought the instructor was a bit over-zealous as he enthusiastically explained the course curriculum. What is there to get excited about in a Bowling class? But to my surprise it was not long before I found this class to be a refreshing break and actually looked forward to going to it. Why? Not because I love bowling, but because the instructor shared his joy in such a way that I found myself attracted to his energy and enthusiasm.

We need to realize how often we affect those around us just by our expressions and attitude. It is amazing to think about how contagious our attitudes and behaviors can be to others. As Christians, we are to be lights in this dark world. We are called to share the good news of Jesus Christ and to proclaim His love, joy and peace to everyone. If we truly have His Spirit, as Stephen did, then we will be irresistible to those listening to us.

Think about your behavior and attitude today as you go about your activities, especially how you express yourself. A smile goes a long way, and there is something contagious about laughter. Before you start your day, stop and ask the Lord to fill you with His wisdom and Spirit. Ask for His joy to be your strength and for His peace to prevail over all of your circumstances. And, if you keep smiling long enough, eventually people will want to know your secret. Then you get to tell them all about Jesus because He is truly the only reason any of us can smile and have real joy.

~Daily Disciples Devotional~

The Rule of the Heavens # 55

The Primary Object of Divine Need (continued)

That brings together the testimony of Jesus, that is, as to Who the Lord Jesus is and what He is in the appointment of God the Father, the position that He holds, and what is related to Him as to the history and consummation of the universe. The testimony of Jesus, Sovereign Lord, and the vessel as eternally foreknown, foreordained, chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, brought into being in time, and as seen by the Scripture, joined with Him in His heavenly position for that testimony not only to men, but to men by reason of having dealt with the spiritual powers and intelligences back of men.

Now then, we are able to speak a little more about the vessel of the testimony and we are looking at the matter of the vessel as mainly a corporate and collective thing, that is the Body of Christ; but specifically at present that company which is moving, and which the Lord is seeking to bring into that advanced position with Himself, in relation to the heavenlies. Not all the members of the Church which is His Body are there, or are going to be there, but the Lord will from His people obtain a company which will be the vanguard of the whole, and which will go on with Him and take the heavenly place and be His instrument for the breaking through and leading a way for the others. That is the peculiar vessel upon which the heart of the Lord is set, and we believe that we are here in relation to, not God's second or third thing, but God's first thing. It would be very good if one could take that for granted, that everyone here is here because their hearts are wholly bent upon God's first thing, and they will never be content with anything less than that. Well, God's first thing is taking the heavens with Him against those forces which are no opposed to Him in the heavens.

The Universal Range of the Eternal Purpose

I think just one word here extra of a very general character might put us into line with the whole purpose of God. That is, that we should remind ourselves of the cosmic nature of everything in the purpose of God and in the Person of Christ, and in the work of Christ. That word cosmic may not convey to all of you what it is intended as used, but the intention in using it is to indicate the range of God's purpose, and the range of everything relative to the Person and work of the  Lord Jesus. The range is not just the limited compass of a few saved people. It is not just the salvation of so many individuals, and it is not just the salvation of a company out from the nations. All these may be stages, steps toward the ultimate; but God has swept the ultimate from the beginning and it is cosmic in its range; that is, it embraces the whole world with all the nations, every inch of territory and all the realm surrounding and encompassing the world; how far beyond that we do not know, only by fragmentary suggestions; but we do know that the whole world and the whole encompassing realm of the lower heavenlies, and super-heavenlies are involved in this purpose of God in the Person of the Lord Jesus  and His work. The fall was not just the fall of man; it was the fall of a creation. It was not two people who fell and involved their progeny; it was the fall of a whole creation,and every part of that creation was involved in that fall, touched by that fall. Sin and death, which are the two issues of the fall, were shot through the whole creation and everything is touched by sin and death; and the very atmosphere, air, heavenly realms around the creation is saturated with this spiritual defilement and occupied by sinful elements and death elements, fallen intelligences, "the prince of the power of the air." That was the range of the fall. Redemption is cosmic. It is not just the redemption of man, let alone a few men, it is the redemption of the whole cosmos. While we do NOT believe in Universalism, so called, that even the devil himself is going to be redeemed and saved and put back in a place of honor. We do NOT believe nothing like that!

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 56)

Genuine Repentance

2 Corinthians 7:8-10

 

Because we desire to be more like Jesus, we make resolutions, ask Him to help us, and try to behave differently. Yet despite our best efforts to do things God's way, we slide back into old habits. Frustrated, we may ask Him, "Why can't I change?" The reason is, overcoming sinful attitudes and behaviors starts with genuine repentance, which has three aspects.

 

Conviction. The Holy Spirit will reveal the areas in which we've sinned and convict us of wrongdoing. Through Scripture, the Spirit shows us God's standard and what needs to change. Repentance begins with understanding where we have gone astray.

 

Contrition. The next step--grieving over our iniquity--is followed by confession to the Lord. Genuine sorrow arises from the knowledge that we've sinned against Him. In contrast, human unhappiness often comes from being caught misbehaving. Other times we are miserable because of where our choices led us, or feel shame that people know about our sin. True contrition is followed by humble confession.

 

Commitment to act.  Real repentance is complete when we wholeheartedly pledge to turn from our old behavior and move toward righteous ways. God knows we won't live perfectly, but He looks for a surrendered heart that diligently seeks to obey Him.

 

Paul used strong language when telling us to turn from iniquity: "Put to death... whatever belongs to your earthly nature" (Col. 3:5 niv). What sin are you struggling to overcome? Have you genuinely repented, committing to turn from it permanently? Let the Holy Spirit empower you to change.

~Dr. Charles F. Stanley~

The Rule of the Heavens # 55

A Primary Object of Present Divine Needs (continued)

That brings together the testimony of Jesus, that is, as to Who the Lord Jesus is and what He is in the appointment of God the Father, the position that He holds and what is related to Him as to the history and consummation of the universe. The testimony of Jesus, Sovereign Lord, and the vessel as eternally foreknown, foreordained, chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, brought into being in time, and as is seen by the Scripture, joined with Him in His heavenly position for that testimony not only to men, but to men by reason of having dealt with the spiritual powers and intelligences back of men.

Now then, we are able to speak a little more about the vessel of the testimony and we are looking at the matter of the vessel as mainly a corporate and collective thing, that is the Body of Christ; but specifically at present that company which is moving, and which the Lord is seeking to bring into that advanced position with Himself, in relation to the heavenlies. Not all the members of the Church which is His Body are there, or are going on there, but the Lord will from His people obtain a company which will be the vanguard of the whole, and which will go on with Him and take the heavenly place and be His instrument for the breaking through and leading a way for the others. That is the peculiar vessel upon which the heart of the Lord is set, and we believe that we are here in relation to, not God's second or third thing, but God's first thing. It would be very good if one could take that for granted, that everyone here is here because their hearts are wholly bent upon God's first thing, and they will never be content with anything less than that. Well, God's first thing is taking the heavens with Him against those forces which now are opposed to Him in the heavens.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 56 - (The Universal Range of the Eternal Purpose)

A Message From Isaiah

I will go before you and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel. Isaiah 45:2-3

One morning a few years ago, I woke up with the word “Isaiah” in my mind. I personally do not know anyone named Isaiah so I wondered why this name was on my heart. As I opened my Bible that morning, I literally turned to the first page of Isaiah. I immediately began wondering what message the Lord might have for me in this book. Since then, God has given me more messages from the book of Isaiah than I can count, and Isaiah now holds some of my most treasured sections of Scripture. One of my personal favorites is chapter 45.

When I first read that the Lord will make my “crooked places straight” and will “cut the bars of iron,” I knew these were messages of freedom. Then to hear that the Lord calls me by my name, this made the message even more personal, as if He was speaking to me directly. I have come to understand that He isspeaking to me directly. I took Him at His word and I began to pray:

Lord, please go before me and straighten out those parts of my life that are out of order or where I do not see the path before me. And please break the gates and cut the bars that keep me locked up, that have held me captive. I desire those treasures You have for me in the freedom that You want to give me. You are God and there is none other. I need You to be my God today and forever.

These verses are just a snapshot of this great book. Through Isaiah I learned how to pray God’s Word back to Him and through praying God’s Word, I have seen His personal touch on my life in more ways than I could have ever imagined. Maybe today is the day for you to open your Bible to the book of Isaiah. Who knows how many messages God has for you there? He knows and you will soon find out. May God go before you and bless you.

~Daily Disciples Devotional~