May 29

Untroubled Relationship

“In that day you will ask in My name … for the Father Himself loves you …” (John 16:26–27).

“In that day you will ask in My name …,” that is, in My nature. Not—“You will use My name as some magic word,” but—“You will be so intimate with Me that you will be one with Me.” “That day” is not a day in the next life, but a day meant for here and now. “… for the Father Himself loves you …”—the Father’s love is evidence that our union with Jesus is complete and absolute. Our Lord does not mean that our lives will be free from external difficulties and uncertainties, but that just as He knew the Father’s heart and mind, we too can be lifted by Him into heavenly places through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, so that He can reveal the teachings of God to us.

“… whatever you ask the Father in My name …” (16:23). “That day” is a day of peace and an untroubled relationship between God and His saint. Just as Jesus stood unblemished and pure in the presence of His Father, we too by the mighty power and effectiveness of the baptism of the Holy Spirit can be lifted into that relationship—“… that they may be one just as We are one …” (John 17:22).

“… He will give you” (John 16:23). Jesus said that because of His name God will recognize and respond to our prayers. What a great challenge and invitation—to pray in His name! Through the resurrection and ascension power of Jesus, and through the Holy Spirit He has sent, we can be lifted into such a relationship. Once in that wonderful position, having been placed there by Jesus Christ, we can pray to God in Jesus’ name—in His nature. This is a gift granted to us through the Holy Spirit, and Jesus said, “… whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.” The sovereign character of Jesus Christ is tested and proved by His own statements.

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.

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   May 28

    Unquestioned Revelation

“In that day you will ask Me nothing” (John 16:23).

When is “that day”? It is when the ascended Lord makes you one with the Father. “In that day” you will be one with the Father just as Jesus is, and He said, “In that day you will ask Me nothing.” Until the resurrection life of Jesus is fully exhibited in you, you have questions about many things. Then after a while you find that all your questions are gone—you don’t seem to have any left to ask. You have come to the point of total reliance on the resurrection life of Jesus, which brings you into complete oneness with the purpose of God. Are you living that life now? If not, why aren’t you?

https://fromtimetoeternity.com/daily-devotion-133

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                              May 27

The Life To Know Him

“… tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49).

The disciples had to tarry, staying in Jerusalem until the day of Pentecost, not only for their own preparation but because they had to wait until the Lord was actually glorified. And as soon as He was glorified, what happened? “Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear” (Acts 2:33). The statement in John 7:39—“… for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified”—does not pertain to us. The Holy Spirit has been given; the Lord is glorified—our waiting is not dependent on the providence of God, but on our own spiritual fitness.

https://fromtimetoeternity.com/daily-devotion-132/

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                        May 26

Thinking of Prayer as Jesus Taught

“Pray without ceasing …” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

Our thinking about prayer, whether right or wrong, is based on our own mental conception of it. The correct concept is to think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts. Our blood flows and our breathing continues “without ceasing”; we are not even conscious of it, but it never stops. And we are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect oneness with God, but if we are obeying Him, He always is. Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life of the saint. Beware of anything that stops the offering up of prayer. “Pray without ceasing …”—maintain the childlike habit of offering up prayer in your heart to God all the time.

https://fromtimetoeternity.com/daily-devotion-131/

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          May 25

The Good or the Best?

“If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left” (Genesis 13:9).

As soon as you begin to live the life of faith in God, fascinating and physically gratifying possibilities will open up before you. These things are yours by right, but if you are living the life of faith you will exercise your right to waive your rights, and let God make your choice for you. God sometimes allows you to get into a place of testing where your own welfare would be the appropriate thing to consider, if you were not living the life of faith. But if you are, you will joyfully waive your right and allow God to make your choice for you. This is the discipline God uses to transform the natural into the spiritual through obedience to His voice.

https://fromtimetoeternity.com/daily-devotion-130/

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The Delight of Despair

“When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead” (Revelation 1:17).

It may be that, like the apostle John, you know Jesus Christ intimately. Yet when He suddenly appears to you with totally unfamiliar characteristics, the only thing you can do is fall “at His feet as dead.” There are times when God cannot reveal Himself in any other way than in His majesty, and it is the awesomeness of the vision which brings you to the delight of despair. You experience this joy in hopelessness, realizing that if you are ever to be raised up it must be by the hand of God.

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May 23

Our Careful Unbelief

“… do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on” (Matthew 6:25).

Jesus summed up commonsense carefulness in the life of a disciple as unbelief. If we have received the Spirit of God, He will squeeze right through our lives, as if to ask, “Now where do I come into this relationship, this vacation you have planned, or these new books you want to read?” And He always presses the point until we learn to make Him our first consideration. Whenever we put other things first, there is confusion.

https://fromtimetoeternity.com/daily-devotion-128/

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               May 22

The Explanation for Our Difficulties

“… that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us …” (John 17:21).

If you are going through a time of isolation, seemingly all alone, read John 17. It will explain exactly why you are where you are—because Jesus has prayed that you “may be one” with the Father as He is. Are you helping God to answer that prayer, or do you have some other goal for your life? Since you became a disciple, you cannot be as independent as you used to be.

https://fromtimetoeternity.com/daily=devotion-127/

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