My Personal Devotion of the day(probably one of my favorites)

November 2, 2006 My Utmost For His Highest
AUTHORITY AND INDEPENDENCE
Oswald Chambers
"If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments." John 14:15 (R.V.)
Our Lord never insists upon obedience; He tells us very emphatically what we ought to do, but He never takes means to make us do it. We have to obey Him out of a oneness of spirit. That is why whenever Our Lord talked about discipleship, He prefaced it with an IF - you do not need to unless you like. "If any man will be My disciple, let him deny himself," let him give up his right to himself to Me. Our Lord is not talking of eternal positions, but of being of value to Himself in this order of things, that is why He sounds so stern (cf. Luke 14:26). Never interpret these words apart from the One Who uttered them. The Lord does not give me rules, He makes His standard very clear, and if my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without any hesitation. If I hesitate, it is because I love some one else in competition with Him, viz., myself. Jesus Christ will not help me to obey Him, I must obey Him; and when I do obey Him, I fulfill my spiritual destiny. My personal life may be crowded with small petty incidents, altogether unnoticeable and mean; but if I obey Jesus Christ in the haphazard circumstances, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God, and when I stand face to face with God I will discover that through my obedience thousands were blessed. When once God's Redemption comes to the point of obedience in a human soul, it always creates. If I obey Jesus Christ, the Redemption of God will rush through me to other lives, because behind the deed of obedience is the Reality of Almighty God.

My verses of the Day:
Overcome By Faith: 1 John 5:3-5 "This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God."

My personal Thoughts on this Devotion
Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Hebrews 5:7-9 During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. Salvation is free through Grace (undeserved kindness) of God and His unconditional love. Is God's grace cheap? Becoming a disciple, following Jesus Christ requires personal cost, giving up your selfish "me" and become like Christ. What does it mean to become like Jesus Christ? That is the REAL question. Jesus will not dwell in spiteful and proud and selfish thoughts. Jesus treasures my pure and loving thoughts, my humble and lovely thoughts. I am to think like Jesus. "His yoke is easy and His burden is light!”, with this quote from the Bible, it is important to agree that true salvation restores the right of a Creator-creature relationship. "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you" (Psalm 55:22). "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2). We have the responsibility "for each one should carry his own load" (Galatians 6:5). The cost of discipleship is a price I am gladly pay for the privilege of walking in fruitfulness with others who are in the same burdensome. We all have to come to the understanding that while God wants us to be Spirit-filled that God's loving desire that we should reflect His own holiness and goodness.

Quotes from: "My Utmost For His Highest" Devotional

Are we partakers of Christ's sufferings? Are we prepared for God to stamp our personal ambitions right out? Are we prepared for God to destroy by transfiguration our individual determinations?

An average view of the Christian life is that it means deliverance from trouble. It is deliverance in trouble, which is very different.

We are not true to one another as facts; we are true only to our ideas of one another. Everything is either delightful and fine, or mean and dastardly, according to our idea.

To choose to suffer means that there is something wrong; to choose God's Will even if it means suffering is a very different thing. No healthy saint ever chooses suffering; he chooses God's will, as Jesus did, whether it means suffering or not.

God does not give us overcoming life: He gives us life as we overcome.

It is not true to say that God wants to teach us something in our trials: through every cloud He brings, He wants us to unlearn something.

The sufferings of Christ are not those of ordinary men. He suffered "according to the will of God," not from the point of view we suffer from as individuals.

Our position is not ours until we make it ours by suffering.

WHAT IS THAT TO THEE?
"Lord, what shall this man do? . . What is that to thee? Follow thou Me." John 21:21,2

One of our severest lessons comes from the stubborn refusal to see that we must not interfere in other people's lives. It takes a long time to realize the danger of being an amateur providence, that is, interfering with God's order for others. You see a certain person suffering, and you say - He shall not suffer, and I will see that he does not. You put your hand straight in front of God's permissive will to prevent it, and God says - "What is that to thee?" If there is stagnation spiritually, never allow it to go on, but get into God's presence and find out the reason for it. Possibly you will find it is because you have been interfering in the life of another; proposing things you had no right to propose; advising when you had no right to advise. When you do have to give advice to another, God will advise through you with the direct understanding of His Spirit; your part is to be so rightly related to God that His discernment comes through you all the time for the blessing of another soul.

Most of us live on the borders of consciousness - consciously serving, consciously devoted to God. All this is immature, it is not the real life yet. The mature stage is the life of a child which is never conscious; we become so abandoned to God that the consciousness of being used never enters in. When we are consciously being used as broken bread and poured-out wine, there is another stage to be reached, where all consciousness of ourselves and of what God is doing through us is eliminated. A saint is never consciously a saint; a saint is consciously dependent on God.

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Oswald Chambers http://www.myutmost.org/11/1107.html
THE UNDETECTED SACREDNESS OF CIRCUMSTANCES
"All things work together for good to them that love God." Romans 8:28
The circumstances of a saint's life are ordained of God. In the life of a saint there is no such thing as chance. God by His providence brings you into circumstances that you cannot understand at all, but the Spirit of God understands. God is bringing you into places and among people and into conditions in order that the intercession of the Spirit in you may take a particular line. Never put your hand in front of the circumstances and say - I am going to be my own providence here, I must watch this, and guard that. All your circumstances are in the hand of God; therefore never think it strange concerning the circumstances you are in. Your part in intercessory prayer is not to enter into the agony of intercession, but to utilize the common-sense circumstances God puts you in, and the common-sense people He puts you amongst by His providence, to bring them before God's throne and give the Spirit in you a chance to intercede for them. In this way God is going to sweep the whole world with His saints.

Am I making the Holy Spirit's work difficult by being indefinite, or by trying to do His work for Him? I must do the human side of intercession, and the human side is the circumstances I am in and the people I am in contact with. I have to keep my conscious life as a shrine of the Holy Ghost, and then as I bring the different ones before God, the Holy Spirit makes intercession for them.

Your intercessions can never be mine, and my intercessions can never be yours, but the Holy Ghost makes intercession in our particular lives, without which intercession someone will be impoverished.

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My thoughts:
A wise Christian will watch for opportunities to do good, to speak the gospel to the lost and pray the rescuing prayer of intercession for the Holy Spirit to convict the lost to know Christ. God never gets into a position where He must answer prayer against His will. And everything that is attributed to faith might with equal truth be attributed to prayer, for faith and true prayer are like two sides of the same coin. I will remember to be thankful for all experiences (good and bad) in my life, since they all "work together for good", that is the good of being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:28-29). Because God has something better for me than what I have asked. (John 11:1-6; Luke 5:1-16; Luke 8:40-56). Also, I have to keep in mind that God may be withholding what I ask in order to do special work that He have placed me according to His plan and will (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). God knows before I ask because He is ALMIGHTY God. Romans 8:26 says that "The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for". The Holy Spirit will help me know what I pray for. Learning from great faiths in the Bible, I can see that circumstances did not control them; it is their reaction to circumstances that determined what kind of people they were and most importantly, how faithful they were. To be unafraid regardless what is going on a person's life journey, true Faith sees everything in focus and be able to trust God no matter what happens. God leads me to my destiny according to His will and glory. Often I noticed that the providential of God leads me to what I call "coincidences" in my life which perhaps God will make sure that His wills will be done at His right time and place. There are two worlds, set over against each other, dominated by two wills, the will of man (me) and the will of God, respectively. Whose will have more power? Of course, God. He directs my life lives no matter what I do. Even the bad events that happen to me are circumscribed by a loving providence and God promises to use them all for my ultimate good. There is a verse in the Bible that God promises that there won’t be anything so bad happen to me that I am not able to bear it. God does everything--He governs everything. Faith is accepting God's Will. There is confusion between the determined Will of God and my responsibility as a Christian. In Isaiah 55:8-9 God says, "My thoughts are completely different from yours, and my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."

In 1 John 5:14-15 says "And we can be confident that he will listen to us whenever we ask him for anything in line with his will. And if we know he is listening when we make our requests, we can be sure that he will give us what we ask for".

Faith in God is accepting God's will, God's power, and God's timing. God knows what He's doing, and He knows when to do it. Often I want to run ahead of God because I feel that He doesn't seem to be working fast enough for me. I often forget God is adjusting my history to His purposes. He knows what He's doing. I have to learn to trust His will, His power to do His will, and His timing to do it when the time is right--and not until then. That's the essence of real faith. God carries out His will in His perfect power and timing. Faith is keeping my eyes on Jesus Christ that I should not worry about my problems. If I look at my problems, I will probably only be looking for the immediate solutions to my problems without God and that I should not do.

QUOTES
It matters little what form of prayer we adopt or how many words we use. What matters is the faith which lays hold on God that is what gives Christian prayer its boundless confidence and its joyous certainty. Dietrich Bonhoeffer .

The best prayers have often more groans than words. John Bunyan

We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet not so small) gifts. How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully receive from Him the little things? Dietrich Bonhoeffer

When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians, the devil smiles. When he stops studying the Bible, the devil laughs. When he stops praying, the devil shouts for joy. Corrie ten Boom

When I say 'hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come," I should be adding in my mind the words "in and through me," and so giving myself to God afresh to be, so far as I can be, the means of answering my own prayer. And when I say "thy will be done," I should mean this as a prayer that I, along with the rest of God's people, may learn to be obedient. J.I. Packer

Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?-- Corrie Ten Boom

Those who know God the best are the richest and most powerful in prayer. Little acquaintance with God, and strangeness and coldness to Him, make prayer a rare and feeble thing. --E. M. Bounds

God's answers are wiser than our prayers. –Unknown

The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men…Men of prayer." --E. M. Bounds

So when we sing, 'Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,' we are not thinking of the nearness of place, but of the nearness of relationship. It is for increasing degrees of awareness that we pray, for a more perfect consciousness of the divine Presence. We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts. --A.W. Tozer

We have to pray with our eyes on God, not on the difficulties. - Oswald Chambers

God's timing is infallible. He takes every factor and contingency into account. We often want to pluck unripe fruit, but He will not be pressured into premature action. If He in His wisdom delays the answer to our prayer, that delay will in the long run prove to be for our good (Hebrews 12:10). It will be either because He has some better thing for us, or because there is something He desires to achieve in our lives that can be affected in no other way. J.Oswald Sanders, Guidelines for Disciples, pg 126

Tepid praying does not move God's arm. J.Oswald Sanders, Guidelines for Disciples, pg 124

The mature disciple will not stumble because of apparently unanswered prayer. He will not, however, adopt a fatalistic attitude; he will examine his prayers and seek to discover the cause of failure" J.Oswald Sanders, Guidelines for Disciples, pg 124-125

Thomas Aquinas wrote, "The function of God's angels is to execute the plan of divine providence, even in earthly things."

John Calvin wrote that "angels are the dispensers and administrators of the divine beneficence toward us."

Scripture verses:
God governs the world (Isa. 40:22-24), the nations (Isa. 40:15-17), and us (Proverbs 16:9).

Proverbs 20:24 A man's steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand his own way?

Proverbs 21:1 The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.

Jeremiah 10:23 I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps.

Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

James 4:14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

Matthew 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny ? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.


My additional thoughts regarding the Old Testament stories:
The book of Esther show how God controls history through providence. There isn't a miracle in the book and the name of God isn't mentioned but at the same time, without anyone realizing that God is always in control of every single event in this world. The king mentioned in Esther favored Esther and Mordecai, spared all the Jewish people, made Mordecai the Prime Minister and hanged Haman on the gallows he build himself for the Jewish people and preserved the nation Israel. Hadassah, "myrtle" in Hebrew (Esther 2:7), or Esther, "star" or "Ishtar" in Persian. One of the greatest and most essential attributes of God is His sovereignty; God rules over all things and controls all things. God also uses providence to accomplish His will in the world. You won't find the word providence in the Bible. It's like the word Trinity. God directs and uses events to accomplish His own Will which meant: "the providence of God." Romans 8:28 says, "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." All things are controlled by God to work together to fulfill His eternal purpose for His Will. When you can't explain the trouble you're experiencing, you need to understand the providential power of a sovereign God who controls everything in the universe for our good and His glory. Everything that happens in your life (including trials) somehow fits into the plan of God.

JPPT1974 said:

We should never, ever, be in the way of God
As that is HIS way!

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I agree !!! Great quote. Can I use it?

My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers
http://www.myutmost.org/11/1108.html
THE UNRIVALLED POWER OF PRAYER
"We know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." Romans 8:26

We realize that we are energized by the Holy Spirit for prayer; we know what it is to pray in the Spirit; but we do not so often realize that the Holy Spirit Himself prays in us prayers which we cannot utter. When we are born again of God and are indwelt by the Spirit of God, He expresses for us the unutterable.

"He," the Spirit in you, "maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God," and God searches your heart not to know what your conscious prayers are, but to find out what is the prayer of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit of God needs the nature of the believer as a shrine in which to offer His intercession. "Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost." When Jesus Christ cleansed the temple, He "would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple." The Spirit of God will not allow you to use your body for your own convenience. Jesus ruthlessly cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and said - "My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves."

Have we recognized that our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost? If so, we must be careful to keep it undefiled for Him. We have to remember that our conscious life, though it is only a tiny bit of our personality, is to be regarded by us as a shrine of the Holy Ghost. He will look after the unconscious part that we know nothing of; but we must see that we guard the conscious part for which we are responsible.

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My thoughts:
Prayer basically means “transferring my “will” to God’s will”. God may be witholding what I ask in order to do special work that He have placed me according to His plan and will (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). Remember, God knows before I ask because He is ALMIGHTY God. Romans 8:26 says that "The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for". The main thing is my heart is to be right when I pray. God always answer my prayer. Do I like some of His answers? No, just like I didn't like my parents' answers when I was a kid. God does promise that He will answer prayers but His answers can vary and often we missed His true answers. Sometimes, the answer will be NO for one reason: "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives" (James 4:3). This also may include that He will not give grace as well. God will not respond to self-centered requests unless it is according to His good and perfect will (His plans). Mature Christians will not be discouraged for a "no" answer because it is more than likely that the answer is delayed because of His plans. The cause of failure is not failure itself but rather, other reasons why God chose to wait or look for grace that He have provided or any other answers He already gave that we may be over-looking. God does answer in a different way. The answer may not be the one I like or accept but God will give it to me anyway. Often He will give me the promised compensating grace (Sufficient of Grace). Humility is putting God first in my prayers while pride is putting God last in my prayers. I am the clay and God is my potter. Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? In Him I am chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, so that the work of God might be displayed in my life. For God knows how I was formed, He remembers that I was dust, that He can turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay. Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, "He did not make me"? Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"? I will NOT say that! Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made and I DO know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. God is able to make all grace abound to me, so that in all things at all times, having all that I need, I will abound in every good work REGARDLESS. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. God created my inmost being and knitted me together in my mother's womb. As I do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so I cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things. This is what the LORD says— "He who made you, Who formed you in the womb, and Who will help you and that before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart." In Him I was chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will. The LORD said to Moses, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD ?" I was born this way so that the work of God might be displayed in my life and I know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God. The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD. In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps. Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth. Why, I do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is really my life? For me or for God? John 9:1-3 "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life."

I should ask God for help. Psalm 40:13 God will not hear my prayers if I am willfully sinning. Micah 3:4 Prayer should be private. Matthew 6:6 Jesus taught me how to pray. Matthew 6:9-13 I should pray with an attitude of humility. Luke 18:9-14 I should pray in Jesus' name. John 16:23-24 I should pray all the time. Ephesians 6:18 I should pray without doubting. James 4:3 I should pray with the right motives. James 4:3 I should pray according to God's will 1 John 5:14-15. We have to understand that God controls everything including our freewill. The "freewill" is always subject to God's sovereignty and His divine freewill. The key is that God is ALWAYS in control even in our own freewill. Jesus gave an example about God's will when He revealed His holiness when He cried in His agony, "Not my will, but thine, be done" (Luke 22:42). So, by following Christ's example, we are to follow God's will. In Daniel 9: 2-3, God’s Sovereignty doesn’t eliminate the need for prayer. In Daniel 9: 2 explains that effective prayer is always consistent with God’s will. In Daniel 9:16-19, God’s glory must be the ultimate goal of every prayer request we make.

Additional Thoughts, the bottom line is this: I am saying what "ACCORDING to the WORD of GOD" which is the Bible. I either follow the Word of God to the word or I don't. I will not allow negative circumstances control my life. I am deaf, I have multiple sclerosis, other circumstances in my life. As a Christian, I am happy that God have taught me with those circumstances. The Beatitudes of Jesus Christ are one of the wonderful examples that God is able to provide us. Matthew 5:3-5 (NLT) "God blesses those who realize their need for him, for the kingdom of Heaven is given to them. God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. God blesses those who are gentle and lowly, for the whole earth will belong to them." My quotes from my journal: “Okay, I have hearing loss and multiple sclerosis, and those are the ways of life for me. I take silence and pain as they come and I have learned master them in my life. My disabilities do not have me. I have the disabilities and I accept them because I know who I am from the inside.” “Everything has its wonders, even silence and pain, and I learn, whatever disabilities and difficulties I may be in, I am happily content.” Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Hebrews 5:7-9 During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into my life, so also through Christ my comfort overflows. "Is there sufficient grace to help me in every issue of life?"

God is saying "You should not have self-confidence and trust in yourself in the sense you believe you're capable of anything eternal that only I can provide grace and power." Only God can overcome situation as long as I trust in His GRACE. The question here is, when God given me the grace to handle the sufferings of life, did I allowed Him? That's the issue.

In Corinthians, Paul’s thorn was not his main focus but rather something far more deeper. The thorns are not necessarily evil, but rather the works of self-righteousness. God answer to my prayers because He knows what I need rather than I know what I need. My trouble should not lie in my own focus, but rather in HIM. God is not here to get my circumstances straightened out so that I can become happy. Grace of heart is a gift from God and this has nothing to do with the thorns because God is changing me internally so that He to lift me above my present thorns and He will lead me into His will. It is a choice God give me within the parameters of His omnipotence. Grace is having all sufficiency in everything I may have an abundance for every good deed. The right perspective is to understand that in the trouble of life this is part of it trying to discern what God is doing in the trouble of it. James says count it all joy when you fall into various trials because trials will bring perfecting work. Peter says after you've suffered a while the Lord will make you perfect. God uses suffering to reveal my own spiritual condition. In the midst of the sufferings, what kind of Christian do I see myself? God answers not by removing the pain, because the pain was productive, rather God gave Grace to endure our pain. In this life it is inevitable and it is useful because it produces the evidence of my true spiritual condition, humility and intimacy with God and allows God to put Himself on display in His grace.

My Scripture Quotes
Proverbs 20:24 A man's steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand his own way?

Jeremiah 10:23 I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps.

Isaiah 48:17 This is what the LORD says— your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.

3 John 1:2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.

Romans 5: 1-5 (NIV) "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."

Quotes:
Mark Pickup said it perfectly when he was healthy at one point, “I have been more service to God disabled than during my able-bodied years. This didn’t happen despite my disability but because of my disability.” Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick."

Joni Tada: "Sometimes God will use suffering and affliction to sandblast us to the core and get us seriously thinking about larger than life issues of heaven and hell, I just don't know that we would think about these issues were it not for an ice-cold splash of suffering waking us out of our spiritual slumber. God's purpose in redeeming us is not to make our lives happy, healthy, and free of trouble. It is not an escape from our physical pains. His purpose is to make us more like Christ. He will chose to allow spinal cord injury or multiple sclerosis or blindness or stroke or Alzheimer's or whatever to not only teach us, but also our loved ones, about what it means to become more like him."

SACRAMENTAL SERVICE
Today's Devotion Website
"Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ. . . ." Colossians 1:24

The Christian worker has to be a sacramental "go-between," to be so identified with his Lord and the reality of His Redemption that He can continually bring His creating life through him. It is not the strength of one man's personality being superimposed on another, but the real presence of Christ coming through the elements of the worker's life. When we preach the historic facts of the life and death of Our Lord as they are conveyed in the New Testament, our words are made sacramental, God uses them on the ground of His Redemption to create in those who listen that which is not created otherwise. If we preach the effects of Redemption in human life instead of the revelation regarding Jesus, the result in those who listen is not new birth, but refined spiritual culture, and the Spirit of God cannot witness to it because such preaching is in another domain. We have to see that we are in such living sympathy with God that as we proclaim His truth He can create in souls the things which He alone can do.

What a wonderful personality! What a fascinating man! Such marvellous insight! What chance has the Gospel of God through all that? It cannot get through, because the line of attraction is always the line of appeal. If a man attracts by his personality, his appeal is along that line; if he is identified with his Lord's personality, then the appeal is along the line of what Jesus Christ can do. The danger is to glory in men; Jesus says we are to lift Him up.

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My spiritual thoughts of the day.

While it is still true that some Christians get into trouble through their faults instead of through their likeness to the character of Christ. Faith rests upon character of God. A word is only as good as the character of the one who is a Christian and act like Christ. Creditbility is behaving like Christ when you have the title: "Christian". The cross is a symbol of the selfless, others-centered life of Christ. Love alone can make our conduct acceptable to God. Our Christian testimonies (action, words and motives) are important to God because it is motive that gives to every holy act that glorifies God. Creditbility is evangelism. The cross is a symbol of the selfless, others-centered life of Christ. Love alone can make my conduct acceptable to God. My Christian testimonies (action, words and motives) are important to God because it is motive that gives to every holy act that Glorifies God.

My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers.

FELLOWSHIP IN THE GOSPEL

"Fellow labourer in the gospel of Christ." 1 Thessalonians 3:2

After sanctification it is difficult to state what your aim in life is, because God has taken you up into His purpose by the Holy Ghost; He is using you now for His purposes throughout the world as He used His Son for the purpose of our salvation. If you seek great things for yourself - God has called me for this and that; you are putting a barrier to God's use of you. As long as you have a personal interest in your own character, or any set ambition, you cannot get through into identification with God's interests. You can only get there by losing for ever any idea of yourself and by letting God take you right out into His purpose for the world, and because your goings are of the Lord, you can never understand your ways.

I have to learn that the aim in life is God's, not mine. God is using me from His great personal standpoint, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him, and never say - Lord, this gives me such heart-ache. To talk in that way makes me a clog. When I stop telling God what I want, He can catch me up for what He wants without let or hindrance. He can crumple me up or exalt me, He can do anything He chooses. He simply asks me to have implicit faith in Himself and in His goodness. Self pity is of the devil, if I go off on that line I cannot be used by God for His purpose in the world. I have "a world within the world" in which I live, and God will never be able to get me outside it because I am afraid of being frost-bitten.

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My thoughts on this devotion:
Thorn and Sanctification
Some of us fail to understand the true nature of the Christian life which is unpredictable and expanding called "sanctification". God does not desire to destroy our wills, but to sanctify them. The primary work of Christ in redemption is to justify and sanctify believers. Christians fail by formalizing faith in measure (works) because true Christian life means sanctifying effects of cross carrying and practical obedience. During the sanctification process, Christians need spiritual training which is forming spiritual fruits that we need to arm themselves spiritually to wrestle against the world, the devil and the flesh. One of the biggest problems in the Christian life in their sanctification process is lack of motivation to enjoy real intimate communion with a holy God in an eternal sense rather than temporal sense.

My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers
THE SUPREME CLIMB

"Take now thy son ." Genesis 22:2

God's command is - Take now, not presently. It is extraordinary how we debate! We know a thing is right, but we try to find excuses for not doing it at once. To climb to the height God shows can never be done presently, it must be done now. The sacrifice is gone through in will before it is performed actually.

"And Abraham rose up early in the morning and went unto the place of which God had told him" (v. 3). The wonderful simplicity of Abraham! When God spoke, he did not confer with flesh and blood. Beware when you want to confer with flesh and blood, i.e., your own sympathies, your own insight, anything that is not based on your personal relationship to God. These are the things that compete with and hinder obedience to God.

Abraham did not choose the sacrifice. Always guard against self-chosen service for God; self-sacrifice may be a disease. If God has made your cup sweet, drink it with grace; if He has made it bitter, drink it in communion with Him. If the providential order of God for you is a hard time of difficulty, go through with it, but never choose the scene of your martyrdom. God chose the crucible for Abraham, and Abraham made no demur; he went steadily through. If you are not living in touch with Him, it is easy to pass a crude verdict on God. You must go through the crucible before you have any right to pronounce a verdict, because in the crucible you learn to know God better. God is working for His highest ends until His purpose and man's purpose become one.

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My thoughts for Today's Devotion.
Christian's submission to God is to be accepted by God, and must be sincere from the heart. Whatever is done out of habit is not approved. "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." (Colossians 3:17). In regards to offering, Jesus spoke the issues of a person's heart and a Christian's motive. God is not impressed by our works such as tithing. In 1. Samuel 16:7, The Lord said to Samuel, "Don't judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord don't make decisions the way you do. People judge by outward appearance (i.e. works), but the Lord looks at a person's thoughts and intentions (heart)." (NLT) "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'This is the first and greatest commandment. Reading the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah was saying to the people of Israel, "God grows weary of your sacrifices and offerings when your hearts and minds are not in tune with Him!".

God looks into my heart for our spiritual obedience rather than perfection. We will never be perfect as long as we live in our body. Like David's experiences, God meets us in our heart rather than our mind therefore we need to focus on the "heart of the matter". Every wrong act or practice begins with a "thought". Even though, our actions may "appear to be right" but we need to understand that Christians are always engaged in a spiritual warfare. Proverbs 4:23, it says "Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do."

THE TRANSFIGURED LIFE
My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers for November 12, 2006 "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2 Corinthians 5:17

What idea have you of the salvation of your soul? The experience of salvation means that in your actual life things are really altered, you no longer look at things as you used to; your desires are new, old things have lost their power. One of the touchstones of experience is - Has God altered the thing that matters? If you still hanker after the old things, it is absurd to talk about being born from above, you are juggling with yourself. If you are born again, the Spirit of God makes the alteration manifest in your actual life and reasoning, and when the crisis comes you are the most amazed person on earth at the wonderful difference there is in you. There is no possibility of imagining that you did it. It is this complete and amazing alteration that is the evidence that you are a saved soul.

What difference has my salvation and sanctification made? For instance, can I stand in the light of 1 Corinthians 13, or do I have to shuffle? The salvation that is worked out in me by the Holy Ghost emancipates me entirely, and as long as I walk in the light as God is in the light, He sees nothing to censure because His life is working out in every particular, not to my consciousness, but deeper than my consciousness.

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My thoughts on this Devotion: Over the years, I always thought: Why do I not act like Christ-like manner at times? I have learned and realized that Christ in me does not mean that I am no longer without sin. My old sinful nature is not ripped out from my heart. Christ is in my heart and with the help from the Holy Spirit, Christ changing me from the inside and lives through me. So the answer is YES....if a Christian is not careful and forget. This is where Paul is talking about in Romans 7.

Old Creature (Following flesh's desires) = Self-Centered

New Creature (Following God's desires) = God-Centered

From our old creature, we learned worldly desires and causing us to think more worldly (still do). We are still sinners but forgiven sinners when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. There does come a time when the Holy Spirit says, "Today this disciple is going to be tested." Tested is NOT the same as temptation. We should all be aware that every day is a day of testing. As a NEW creature, this is a daily sanctification process of repenting throughout my Christian life. I will never be perfect and at the same time we desire NOT to sin. This is an "inward" relationship with the Holy Spirit and His conviction in my heart to repent which is why I am to pray as I breath because I will sin accidently.

A disciple must understand that God is both holy and loving; that I am a sinner, are made in the image of God; that Christ's death was the substitute payment for my sin; and that because of Jesus' payment, I am granted access to the heart of God. Sin by accident as part of our sinful nature: Those who are in Christ Romans 7:18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. Galatians 5:17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.

I just need to be looking at my adequacy in the Holy Spirit, which will always be in my. This is God's design, and it pleases Him to do so that I can rely on the Holy Spirit. "Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."--Matt. 26:41.

Biblically, As a Christian, I am no longer "in the flesh": "You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him" (Rom 8:9). The Greek word for "dwells" is okv (oike), which means "I inhabit." "If Christ is in us, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness" (Romans 8:10).

In other words, my human body is subject to death (and is already dying) because of sin, however my spirit is alive in Christ and growing. I have eternal life in my possession, even though my body is dying because of sin. However, as a Christian, my spirit are fully alive and thriving "because of righteousness"--because HE is justified and therefore already has "passed out of death into life" (John 5:24). "My temorary body is decaying at the same time, my inner being is being renewed day by day" (2 Cor 4:16). "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." Galatians 5:25.

FAITH AND EXPERIENCE
My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers.
November 13th.

"The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20

We have to battle through our moods into absolute devotion to the Lord Jesus, to get out of the hole-and-corner business of our experience into abandoned devotion to Him. Think Who the New Testament says that Jesus Christ is, and then think of the despicable meanness of the miserable faith we have - I haven't had this and that experience! Think what faith in Jesus Christ claims - that He can present us faultless before the throne of God, unutterably pure, absolutely rectified and profoundly justified. Stand in implicit adoring faith in Him, He is made unto us "wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." How can we talk of making a sacrifice for the Son of God! Our salvation is from hell and perdition, and then we talk about making sacrifices!

We have to get out into faith in Jesus Christ continually; not a prayer meeting Jesus Christ, nor a book Jesus Christ, but the New Testament Jesus Christ, Who is God Incarnate, and Who ought to strike us to His feet as dead. Our faith must be in the One from Whom our experience springs. Jesus Christ wants our absolute abandon of devotion to Himself. We never can experience Jesus Christ, nor ever hold Him within the compass of our own hearts, but our faith must be built in strong emphatic confidence in Him.

It is along this line that we see the rugged impatience of the Holy Ghost against unbelief. All our fears are wicked, and we fear because we will not nourish ourselves in our faith. How can any one who is identified with Jesus Christ suffer from doubt or fear! It ought to be an absolute pæan of perfectly irrepressible, triumphant belief.

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Our spiritual outlook is to be on God and trust that God's glory that will be revealed. It takes a great faith for someone to endure the pain, hardship, illness, or whatever is happening in someone's life. We have to remind ourselves that if we frequently relive our reasons for discouragements, we will lose our positive spiritual direction. We just press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God called us heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:14). The Christian walk is a fight of Faith, we have to understand that living (walking) by faith, we accept purpose and plans of God however He sees fit. Faith believes them and adjusts its life to those facts and walks on that basis. It is a life of FAITH, not of intellect and reason, but a life of knowing Who makes us "go." Reading Hebrews helped me understood that I am to be aware of obstacles and hindrances I would meet during my life, to throw me off balance that hinders doing the Will of God that could entangle my life easily if I do not submit myself to God's power of grace. 1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

In my office, I have this cute cartoon. It is showing a cute person wearing the Armor of God and shooting arrows (devil's schemes). A quote under the cartoon states: "Look at it this way...... Without these trials, testing of your faith, working of patience, and fighting a good fight.......LIFE COULD BE BORING." (see 1 Peter 1:7)

In term of "obedience" we are to present our bodies "as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God." Give ourselves to God as a living sacrifice and let Him have us--all of us. God looks into our hearts for our spiritual obedience rather than perfection. Do we really obey God from our hearts? Do we make every efforts to obey God from our hearts? We are focus on our faith based on obedience to holiness, adding to our faith and fruit of the spirit through grace. There is a misunderstanding "living by faith" (Galatians 2:20) to mean that focusing on "our effort" based on works rather than obedience to holiness, adding faith and fruits through grace.

DISCOVERING DIVINE DESIGNS
My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers
"I being in the way, the Lord led me. . ." Genesis 24:27

We have to be so one with God that we do not continually need to ask for guidance. Sanctification means that we are made the children of God, and the natural life of a child is obedience - until he wishes to be disobedient, then instantly there is the intuitive jar. In the spiritual domain the intuitive jar is the monition of the Spirit of God. When He gives the check, we have to stop at once and be renewed in the spirit of our mind in order to make out what God's will is. If we are born again of the Spirit of God, it is the abortion of piety to ask God to guide us here and there. "The Lord led me," and on looking back we see the presence of an amazing design, which, if we are born of God, we will credit to God.

We can all see God in exceptional things, but it requires the culture of spiritual discipline to see God in every detail. Never allow that the haphazard is anything less than God's appointed order, and be ready to discover the Divine designs any where.

Beware of making a fetish of consistency to your convictions instead of being devoted to God. I shall never do that - in all probability you will have to, if you are a saint. There never was a more inconsistent Being on this earth than Our Lord, but He was never inconsistent to His Father. The one consistency of the saint is not to a principle, but to the Divine life. It is the Divine life which continually makes more and more discoveries about the Divine mind. It is easier to be a fanatic than a faithful soul, because there is something amazingly humbling, particularly to our religious conceit, in being loyal to God.

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My thoughts:
Learning from great faiths in the Bible, I can see that circumstances did not control them; it is their reaction to circumstances that determined what kind of people they were and most importantly, how faithful they were. To be unafraid regardless what is going on a person's life journey, true Faith sees everything in focus and be able to trust God no matter what happens. God leads us to our destiny according to His will and glory. (Just as Corrie ten Boom did). Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. James 4:14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Matthew 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny ? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. I trust God's will more than I trust my OWN will.

One of the greatest and most essential attributes of God is His sovereignty, God rules over all things and controls all things. God also uses providence to accomplish His will in the world. You won't find the word providence in the Bible. It's like the word Trinity. God directs and uses events to accomplish His own Will which meant: "the providence of God." Romans 8:28 says, "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." All things are controlled by God to work together to fulfill His eternal purpose for His Will. When you can't explain the trouble you're experiencing, you need to understand the providential power of a sovereign God who controls everything in the universe for our good and His glory.

We should understand that God, just because He is almighty, needs no support from us and He is still able to do what He wills to do. Often I noticed that the providential of God leads us to what I call "coincidences" in their lives which perhaps God will make sure that His wills will be done at His right time and place. There are two worlds, set over against each other, dominated by two wills, the will of man and the will of God, respectively.

Whose will have more power?

Of course, God. He directs our lives no matter what we do.

thankful4god said:

Thank you JimfromOhio. Very thought provoking and soul searching - I look at myself again and again. Nice to meet you!

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You are welcome and nice to meet you too.

WHAT IS THAT TO THEE?
My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers.
"Lord, what shall this man do? . . What is that to thee? Follow thou Me." John 21:21,2

One of our severest lessons comes from the stubborn refusal to see that we must not interfere in other people's lives. It takes a long time to realize the danger of being an amateur providence, that is, interfering with God's order for others. You see a certain person suffering, and you say - He shall not suffer, and I will see that he does not. You put your hand straight in front of God's permissive will to prevent it, and God says - "What is that to thee?" If there is stagnation spiritually, never allow it to go on, but get into God's presence and find out the reason for it. Possibly you will find it is because you have been interfering in the life of another; proposing things you had no right to propose; advising when you had no right to advise. When you do have to give advice to another, God will advise through you with the direct understanding of His Spirit; your part is to be so rightly related to God that His discernment comes through you all the time for the blessing of another soul.

Most of us live on the borders of consciousness - consciously serving, consciously devoted to God. All this is immature, it is not the real life yet. The mature stage is the life of a child which is never conscious; we become so abandoned to God that the consciousness of being used never enters in. When we are consciously being used as broken bread and poured-out wine, there is another stage to be reached, where all consciousness of ourselves and of what God is doing through us is eliminated. A saint is never consciously a saint; a saint is consciously dependent on God.

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There are times when I cannot discern whether it is my cost of the cross or chastisement from God or both. I just need to cling to Him and I have faith in Him. My spiritual outlook is to be on God and trust that God's glory that will be revealed. I have to remind myself that if I frequently relive my past failures that I will lose my positive spiritual direction. I need to focus in following God today and tomorrow. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.* Philippians 3:14

For me to think and to be aware that I think is to be conscious about my life. Life without thinking and consciousness means having no meaning my spiritual relationship with God and fellow believers. My thoughts are the product of my thinking and it is not my thinking that shapes my character, but the Holy Spirit that leads my thoughts and shapes my character. My true moral and spiritual state can be revealed by the Spirit through prayer and studying the Word. The final judgment of my heart is God's. The reason is for me to work along with the Holy Spirit so that I can make changes in my life as the circumstances demand. That God already knows me thoroughly (Psa. 139:1-6) and He knows what is best for me. I will trust Him even though I will not always understand Him since He is God. I just need to remember of who He is that I can fully trust Him. Because I know that my suffering produces perseverance, character; and hope. Romans 5:1-5 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Jim's Spiritual Motivation
To this end I labor, struggling with all God's energy, which so powerfully works in me, for it is God who works in me to will and to act according to His good purpose. All-surpassing power is from God and not from me. God who is able to do immeasurably more than all I ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within me, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus. (See: Eph 3:20-21; 2 Cor. 4:7; Phil. 2:13 and Col. 1:29)

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