spiritual power

If we will let Him, Christ will do in us and through us that which He did in and through the committed believers after Pentecost.The potential is ours. Do we dare believe that the faithful Christian believers may yet experience a great new wave of spiritual power?
- a.w. tozer

personal deliverance

This morning I read this devotional and, although it does not correspond to today’s date, it was in God’s perfect timing for me to read it. I hope it ministers to you as it did me. It comes out of O.C. Chamber’s “Utmost for His Highest” dated June 27.

The Overshadowing of God’s Personal Deliverance
. . . I am with you to deliver you,’ says the Lord — Jeremiah 1:8

God promised Jeremiah that He would deliver him personally— “. . . your life shall be as a prize to you . . .” (Jeremiah 39:18). That is all God promises His children. Wherever God sends us, He will guard our lives. Our personal property and possessions are to be a matter of indifference to us, and our hold on these things should be very loose. If this is not the case, we will have panic, heartache, and distress. Having the proper outlook is evidence of the deeply rooted belief in the overshadowing of God’s personal deliverance.

The Sermon on the Mount indicates that when we are on a mission for Jesus Christ, there is no time to stand up for ourselves. Jesus says, in effect, “Don’t worry about whether or not you are being treated justly.” Looking for justice is actually a sign that we have been diverted from our devotion to Him. Never look for justice in this world, but never cease to give it. If we look for justice, we will only begin to complain and to indulge ourselves in the discontent of self-pity, as if to say, “Why should I be treated like this?” If we are devoted to Jesus Christ, we have nothing to do with what we encounter, whether it is just or unjust. In essence, Jesus says, “Continue steadily on with what I have told you to do, and I will guard your life. If you try to guard it yourself, you remove yourself from My deliverance.” Even the most devout among us become atheistic in this regard— we do not believe Him. We put our common sense on the throne and then attach God’s name to it. We do lean to our own understanding, instead of trusting God with all our hearts (see Proverbs 3:5-6).

the Word for today

Bible in a Year
1 John 2
2 Chronicles 35
Psalms 89:38-52