Month: June 2018

Is Your Mind Stayed On God?

rste104343 June 18, 2018 No Comments

Is Your Mind Stayed on God?

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“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You because he trusts in You” (Isaiah 26:3).

Is your mind stayed on God or is it starved? Starvation of the mind, caused by neglect, is one of the chief sources of exhaustion and weakness in a servant’s life. If you have never used your mind to place yourself before God, begin to do it now. There is no reason to wait for God to come to you. You must turn your thoughts and your eyes away from the face of idols and look to Him and be saved (see Isaiah 45:22).

Your mind is the greatest gift God has given you and it ought to be devoted entirely to Him. You should seek to be “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ …” (2 Corinthians 10:5). This will be one of the greatest assets of your faith when a time of trial comes because then your faith and the Spirit of God will work together. When you have thoughts and ideas that are worthy of credit to God, learn to compare and associate them with all that happens in nature—the rising and the setting of the sun, the shining of the moon and the stars, and the changing of the seasons.

You will begin to see that your thoughts are from God as well, and your mind will no longer be at the mercy of your impulsive thinking, but will always be used in service to God.

“We have sinned with our fathers … [and] … did not remember …” (Psalm 106:6–7). Then prod your memory and wake up immediately. Don’t say to yourself, “But God is not talking to me right now.” He ought to be. Remember whose you are and whom you serve. Encourage yourself to remember, and your affection for God will increase tenfold. Your mind will no longer be starved but will be quick and enthusiastic, and your hope will be inexpressibly bright.

My Utmost for His Highest

Copyright © 1992 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. Original edition copyright © 1935 by Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc. Copyright renewed 1963 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

United States publication rights are held by Discovery House Publishers, which is affiliated with RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512.

Devotional, Evangelism

Is Your Ability To See God Blinded?

rste104343 June 17, 2018 No Comments

Is Your Ability To See God Blinded?

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“Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things …” (Isaiah 40:26).

The people of God in Isaiah’s time had blinded their minds’ ability to see God by looking at the face of idols. But Isaiah made them look up at the heavens; that is, he made them begin to use their power to think and to visualize correctly. If we are children of God, we have a tremendous treasure in nature and will realize that it is holy and sacred. We will see God reaching out to us in every wind that blows, every sunrise and sunset, every cloud in the sky, every flower that blooms, and every leaf that fades if we will only begin to use our blinded thinking to visualize it.

The real test of spiritual focus is being able to bring your mind and thoughts under control. Is your mind focused on the face of an idol? Is the idol yourself? Is it your work? Is it your idea of what a servant should be, or maybe your experience of salvation and sanctification? If so, then your ability to see God is blinded. You will be powerless when faced with difficulties and will be forced to endure in darkness. If your power to see has been blinded, don’t look back on your own experiences, but look to God. It is God you need. Go beyond yourself and away from the faces of your idols and away from everything else that has been blinding your thinking. Wake up and accept the ridicule that Isaiah gave to his people, and deliberately turn your thoughts and your eyes to God.

One of the reasons for our sense of futility in prayer is that we have lost our power to visualize. We can no longer even imagine putting ourselves deliberately before God. It is actually more important to be broken bread and poured-out wine in the area of intercession than in our personal contact with others. The power of visualization is what God gives a saint so that he can go beyond himself and be firmly placed into relationships he never before experienced.

My Utmost for His Highest

United States publication rights are held by Discovery House Publishers, which is affiliated with RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512.

Devotional, Evangelism

Are You Exhausted Spiritually?

rste104343 June 16, 2018 No Comments

Are You Exhausted Spiritually?

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“The everlasting God … neither faints nor is weary” (Isaiah 40:28).

Exhaustion means that our vital energies are completely worn out and spent. Spiritual exhaustion is never the result of sin, but of service. Whether or not you experience exhaustion will depend on where you get your supplies. Jesus said to Peter, “Feed My sheep,” but He gave him nothing with which to feed them (John 21:17).

The process of being made broken bread and poured-out wine means that you have to be the nourishment for other people’s souls until they learn to feed on God. They must drain you completely —to the very last drop. But be careful to replenish your supply, or you will quickly be utterly exhausted. Until others learn to draw on the life of the Lord Jesus directly, they will have to draw on His life through you. You must literally be their source of supply until they learn to take their nourishment from God. We owe it to God to be our best for His lambs and sheep, as well as for Him.

Have you delivered yourself over to exhaustion because of the way you have been serving God? If so, then renew and rekindle your desires and affections. Examine your reasons for service. Is your source based on your own understanding or is it grounded in the redemption of Jesus Christ? Continually look back to the foundation of your love and affection and remember where your Source of power lies. You have no right to complain, “O Lord, I am so exhausted.” He saved and sanctified you to exhaust you. Be exhausted for God, but remember that He is your supply. “All my springs are in you” (Psalm 87:7).

My Utmost for His Highest

United States publication rights are held by Discovery House Publishers, which is affiliated with RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512

Devotional, Evangelism

The Cost Of Sanctification

rste104343 June 15, 2018 No Comments

The Cost of Sanctification

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“May the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely …” (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

When we pray, asking God to sanctify us, are we prepared to measure up to what that really means? We take the word sanctification much too lightly. Are we prepared to pay the cost of sanctification? The cost will be a deep restriction of all our earthly concerns and an extensive cultivation of all our godly concerns. Sanctification means to be intensely focused on God’s point of view. It means to secure and to keep all the strength of our body, soul, and spirit for God’s purpose alone. Are we really prepared for God to perform in us everything for which He separated us? And after He has done His work, are we then prepared to separate ourselves to God just as Jesus did? “For their sakes I sanctify Myself …” (John 17:19). The reason some of us have not entered into the experience of sanctification is that we have not realized the meaning of sanctification from God’s perspective. Sanctification means being made one with Jesus so that the nature that controlled Him will control us. Are we really prepared for what that will cost? It will cost absolutely everything in us which is not of God.

Are we prepared to be caught up in the full meaning of Paul’s prayer in this verse? Are we prepared to say, “Lord, make me, a sinner saved by grace, as holy as You can”? Jesus prayed that we might be one with Him, just as He is one with the Father (see John 17:21–23). The resounding evidence of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life is the unmistakable family likeness to Jesus Christ and the freedom from everything which is not like Him. Are we prepared to set ourselves apart for the Holy Spirit’s work in us?

My Utmost for His Highest

United States publication rights are held by Discovery House Publishers, which is affiliated with RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512.

Evangelism, Missionary

Spiritual Dejection “

rste104343 June 14, 2018 No Comments

Spiritual Dejection

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“We were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened” (Luke 24:21).

Every fact that the disciples stated was right, but the conclusions they drew from those facts were wrong. Anything that has even a hint of dejection spiritually is always wrong. If I am depressed or burdened, I am to blame, not God or anyone else. Dejection stems from one of two sources—I have either satisfied a lust or I have not had it satisfied. In either case, dejection is the result.

Lust means “I must have it at once.” Spiritual lust causes me to demand an answer from God, instead of seeking God Himself who gives the answer. What have I been hoping or trusting God would do? Is today “the third day” and He has still not done what I expected? Am I, therefore, justified in being dejected and in blaming God? Whenever we insist that God should give us an answer to prayer we are off track. The purpose of prayer is that we get a hold of God, not of the answer. It is impossible to be well physically and to be dejected because dejection is a sign of sickness. This is also true spiritually. Dejection spiritually is wrong, and we are always to blame for it.

We look for visions from heaven and for earth-shaking events to see God’s power. Even the fact that we are dejected is proof that we do this. Yet we never realize that all the time God is at work in our everyday events and in the people around us. If we will only obey, and do the task that He has placed closest to us, we will see Him. One of the most amazing revelations of God comes to us when we learn that it is in the everyday things of life that we realize the magnificent deity of Jesus Christ.

My Utmost for His Highest

United States publication rights are held by Discovery House Publishers, which is affiliated with RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512.

Evangelism, Missionary

Come To Me

rste104343 June 13, 2018 No Comments

COME TO ME

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June 11, 2018I that God for allowing me to share His word with you. Lord help me as

I share your word concerning the relief you have provided for us in our burdensome condition.

In Jesus name, Amen.

Greeting my friends, grace, and peace to you in the name of God our Father and His Son

and The Holy Spirit.

Everyone at some point in life takes inventory of their life. Some look and blame others for what

They see. Some like what they see and still others feel heartbroken and hopeless. They don’t

Like what they see, and they know that they are powerless to change their condition. I once asked

A young man if he knew where he was going after he dies? He told me to hell.

Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart:

and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matt 11:28-30).

Whatever your problem Jesus says to you come to me. Jesus doesn’t say do this or do that and

Then come to me. He says come to me. Whatever your problem is, come to me. The trouble is that

You have a stubborn heart. The last thing you want to do is come to Jesus. This one simple childlike

Thing “come to me”. Jesus makes Himself the test of your genuineness. At the most unexpected moments

in your life, Jesus whispers “come to me,” and you are immediately drawn to him. Personal contact

with the Lord Jesus Christ changes everything.

The attitude you need to have when you come is one where your will has made the determination to give

up everything and deliberately commits it to Jesus. When you do this Jesus says I’ll give you rest. He is saying

that He will sustain you. He will cause you to stand firm. He is not saying I will hold your hand, I will put you

to bed, I will sing you to sleep. In essence, He is saying I will get you out of bed, I will get you out of your listlessness

and exhaustion. I will get you out of your condition of being half dead while you are still alive.

I will penetrate you with the spirit of life, and you will be sustained with the perfection of vital activity.

We become weak and pitiful and we talk about suffering as if that is the will of God for us. Where is the majestic vitality

and power of the Son Of God in that? Jesus didn’t save you for you to suffer and be pitiful.

God has plans for you and the work has already been prepared. If you think you are going to hell,

It doesn’t have to end that way. Jesus says to you come to me. There is nothing too hard for God (Gen 18:14).

My friends if you have made the decision to come to Jesus Contact me, Blog this post. God Bless You.

Reginald Stevens

Devotional, Evangelism, Missionary

The Compelling Majesty Of His Power

rste104343 June 11, 2018 No Comments

The Compelling Majesty of His Power

https://fromtimetoeternity.com/the-compelling-majesty-of-his-power/

“The love of Christ compels us …” (2 Corinthians 5:14).

Paul said that he was overpowered, subdued, and held as in a vise by “the love of Christ.” Very few of us really know what it means to be held in the grip of the love of God. We tend so often to be controlled simply by our own experience. The one thing that gripped and held Paul, to the exclusion of everything else, was the love of God. “The love of Christ compels us … .” When you hear that coming from the life of a man or woman it is unmistakable. You will know that the Spirit of God is completely unhindered in that person’s life.

When we are born again by the Spirit of God, our testimony is based solely on what God has done for us, and rightly so. But that will change and be removed forever once you “receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you …” (Acts 1:8). Only then will you begin to realize what Jesus meant when He went on to say, “… you shall be witnesses to Me … .”

Not witnesses to what Jesus can do—that is basic and understood—but “witnesses to Me … .” We will accept everything that happens as if it were happening to Him, whether we receive praise or blame, persecution or reward. No one is able to take this stand for Jesus Christ who is not totally compelled by the majesty of His power. It is the only thing that matters, and yet it is strange that it’s the last thing we as Christian workers realize. Paul said that he was gripped by the love of God and that is why he acted as he did. People could perceive him as mad or sane—he did not care. There was only one thing he lived for—to persuade people of the coming judgment of God and to tell them of “the love of Christ.” This total surrender to “the love of Christ” is the only thing that will bear fruit in your life. And it will always leave the mark of God’s holiness and His power, never drawing attention to your personal holiness.

My Utmost for His Highest

United States publication rights are held by Discovery House Publishers, which is affiliated with RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512

Missionary, Uncategorized

Emergency/Time is Short

rste104343 June 7, 2018 No Comments

Time Is Short

My friend’s grace and peace to you in the name of God our Father and The Lord Jesus Christ. If You are not saved and you think that you are beyond being saved listen to what God said,

https://fromtimetoeternity.com/emergencytime-is-short/

Devotional, Evangelism