Not Yesterday or Tomorrow BUT TODAY!

An Ultimate Question - The Great Commission, Part 48

Week 48, 2014

Rick Joyner

       

         Jesus was crucified between two thieves—yesterday and tomorrow. One of these was in bondage to his past—things he had done. The other was in bondage to the future—asking Jesus to remember Him when He came into His kingdom. While on the cross, Jesus honored the second thief’s amazing faith but corrected his understanding. He said, “Today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Many can only see Jesus in the past, the biblical, historical Jesus. Others focus almost entirely on His coming again. Yet to see Him as He is, we must see Him TODAY. His name is not “I was,” or “I will be,” but “I AM.” Yesterday no longer exists and neither does tomorrow. The only thing we truly have to live in is the present, and that is where we must see Him and walk with Him.

         I appreciate the wristbands that say, “What would Jesus do?” I wore one for years and still try to apply it to my life, but I think what we really need is one that says, “What is Jesus doing?” So an ultimate question should be, “What is the Lord doing in the world today?” Are we a part of this? If not, why not?

         A second ultimate question would be, “What is the Lord doing in my life today?” This really needs to be asked before asking the previous question. The Lord is doing many things in the world today, and no one is capable of being a part of them all, but we should understand them and know where we fit in.

         When the Spirit is first mentioned in Scripture, He is moving. I have never found a verse that says He has stopped. Therefore, to walk with the Lord in the present almost always involves being part of a movement. A movement is moving, going somewhere. This is the nature of the word of life—it is a river, not a lake or a pond. A river is moving, going somewhere.

         Where are we going in our spiritual lives?

I have finished my morning chores. The animals are all fed, the chickens are roaming in the newly fallen snow and I am in my comfy chair reading the desire of my heart, words of God. This Rick Joyner devotional is a weekly email sent to my inbox. Often I feel moved by the words Rick shares and today's devotional is no exception. It really is, for me, another confirmation about waiting on what Father has in store for me to do to further His Kingdom. It is not about yesterday or tomorrow but what He is doing today; what I am doing for Him today...

While I wait I will praise and glorify Him. 

Blessings,

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Making Intercession

I encourage you my brothers and sister in Christ Jesus to pray all kinds of prayer to Father. We have the promise of the Holy Spirit to intercede for us as we pray, taking our prayers and bringing to Father what we cannot say.

Below is one of my morning devotionals from My Utmost For His Highest that really encouraged me. You can check out the devotional by clicking on the link.

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 atter the unconscious part that we know nothing of; but we must see that we guard the conscious part for which we are responsible.

Blessings,
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Watching and Waiting

Our Daily Bread has some amazing devotionals and today's devotional really spoke to me and I just wanted to share it with you. 

Watching and Waiting

Isaiah 18:4 NIV

This is what the Lord says to me:

    “I will remain quiet and will look on from my dwelling place,

like shimmering heat in the sunshine,

    like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

In Isaiah 18, it appears that the whole world is set to battle God’s people. Yet what is the response of the Almighty One? “I will take My rest, and I will look from My dwelling place” (v.4). His stillness may appear to have been an acceptance of the conspiracy against them. But it wasn’t. God’s response was His reminder that He acts in His timing—at just the right time according to His will.

I think of Jesus waiting 4 days while Lazarus lay in the grave (John 11:39). Was He unaware? Did He not care? Of course He cared! He was waiting for the right time to act and to teach the lessons He wanted to teach.

The Bible records God’s “delays,” many of which seem at the time to be inexplicable from our point of view. Yet every delay flows from the depths of His wisdom and love. If nothing else, delay, if we accept it, can produce the quieter virtues—humility, patience, endurance, and persistence—qualities that are often the last to be learned.

Are you in distress? Does the Lord seem distant and detached? He is not indifferent to your plight, nor is He unmoved by your pleas. He is waiting while His purposes are achieved. Then, at the right moment, He will intercede. God is never in a hurry, but He is always on time.

Turn not aside, discouraged one;

Stir up your gift, pursue your goal;

In God’s own time you’ll see Him work;

He’ll give you hope and lift your soul. —D. DeHaan

God is worth waiting for; His time is always best.

Blessings,

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