Devotional 171209

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. Praise God for such a balmy weather. It feels so warm under the sun. Our God is doing amazing thing each day for us. Each day is a new day in Christ. As I meditate on the message of Christmas, I am reminded once again the greatest miracle of mankind is the incarnation of our Creator God through a woman’s womb. It is totally unbelievable. None can fully fathom this impossible gesture of love that God has demonstrated to us. He humbled Himself by making himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death (Phil 2:7-8). This is how He made us the object of His love until today.

"The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14). The Gospel of God creates a sense of need of the Gospel. Paul says - "If our gospel be hid, it is hid" - to those who are blackguards? No, "to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not." The majority of people have their morality well within their own grasp; they have no sense of need of the Gospel. It is God Who creates the need of which no human being is conscious until God manifests Himself. Jesus said - "Ask, and it shall be given you," but God cannot give until a man asks. It is not that He withholds, but that is the way He has constituted things on the basis of Redemption. By means of our asking, God gets processes into work whereby He creates the thing that is not in existence until we do ask. The inner reality of Redemption is that it creates all the time. As the Redemption creates the life of God in us, so it creates the things belonging to that life. Nothing can satisfy the need but that which created the need. This is the meaning of Redemption - it creates and it satisfies.

"I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me." We preach our own experiences and people are interested, but no sense of need is awakened by it. If once Jesus Christ is lifted up, the Spirit of God will create a conscious need of Him. Behind the preaching of the Gospel is the creative Redemption of God at work in the souls of men. It is never personal testimony that saves men. "The words that I speak unto you; they are spirit and life."

There are many moral people but not necessarily spiritual in accordance to God. They want to prove that they can be “perfect” and “good” in accordance to their standard. Just as Jesus said to this moralist, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments” (Matt 19:17). The man said he had obeyed all commandments but he still had no assurance that he was good enough. Jesus continued to say, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (v 21). The man left with discouragement because he was very wealthy.

There are a lot of high A or driven type of person like this man, who think they can accomplish all things by their will power. They want to be in control, and they even want to control God. But at the end, they suffered in great disappointment with themselves. This is our assumption that a successful person is a good person or vice versa. But according to our Lord Jesus, only God is good and perfect. We can approach perfection but surrendering ourselves to the Holy Spirit, who increase His reign within us day by day. After all, this is what it means by filling with the Holy Spirit. Are you filling with the Holy Spirit, or is He taking over the command center of your life each day?

Love you under His reign,
Lawrence