Category: Devotions

The soldier’s uniform.

Anyone like me growing up in the Salvation Army as a child knew the challenges of wearing the ‘uniform’ as a witness to Christ. I knew early on the experiences of being laughed at. However, it was hardly an interpretation of the verse:
If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Matthew 16:24-25

We have not yet had the experience of inviting people to come to Christ and have to tell them that they will probably be persecuted, lose everything, be tortured, imprisoned and perhaps die.

One Christian friend working in the most insecure of places told me, “We are careful, but we are not afraid.”

A soldier wears their uniform with pride. They are not afraid of being identified with the army. We need this same fearlessness today.
Apostle Paul was arrested, beaten, whipped, mocked, called crazy and stoned.
John Wesley was pelted with rocks, rotten fruit and dead cats!

Don’t be tempted to play it easy.
Hebrews 11:27 and 12:1-2; let us persevere.

“Let us all be of one business. We live only for this, to save our own souls and the souls of those who hear us.” John Wesley.

When his wife pleaded with him to get some sleep, “How can I sleep when my land is not saved?” He would often pray all night in agonising tones, “Lord, give me Scotland or I die!” John Knox.

“O Lord give me souls, or take my soul!” George Whitfield.

“On to Calvary! On to death for the world! Let us not refuse the smiters! No halting! No rest! On, suffering, sorrowing, weeping, dying for God and man, till the hosts of hell fly from their last defence and we march on over a burning world into everlasting glory.” William Booth.

But of course we know better …

As International Missions Director my biggest challenge is to persuade Christians to give £1 per week to the work of Elim Missions.

In Nigeria, my counterparts biggest challenge is to persuade Christians not to deny Christ at their death under the hands of Boko Haram.

Acts 1:8

If you are moved by this thought as I am then please do something by helping me to enlist as many Christians to the very small challenge of £1 per week. It certainly isn’t everything. But it is an indicator of if everything is too much.
Please:
Share this devotion
Sign up for the pound by pound
Ask 10 people to sign up with you.

http://www.elimmissions.co.uk/poundbypound

Don’t let our wisdom keep us in our ivory towers of debate. Let us become foolish and lavish and generous. Wait a minute, delete that last sentence, it doesn’t apply, this is just a pound per week!
At this moment I cannot say too much but everyone knows what has been happening in the north of Nigeria with schoolchildren. We need to raise funds to continue our work which is reaching a new level of activity.
I need thousands and thousands of people to sign up to give £1 per week.
Recently an intercessor from India sent me a message of a vision she had. (She knows absolutely nothing about the pound by pound scheme as it hadn’t even been advertised when she received the vision). In the vision gold coins were slowly dropping from the sky but I hadn’t to be discouraged by the progress as they then speed up till the bag is overflowing.
So I know this is the right thing to do.

Let’s lay our lives down and give £1 a week. It doesn’t read right does it?!
Let’s give a £1 a week to help those who are laying their lives down. Neither does that!

Come on, we can do this. Surely we don’t know better!

He came and He got you.

A child was playing hide and seek with some other children. It was her turn to hide and that is what she did. But the other children were cruel. While she was hiding they ran away and left her behind.
When the little girl realised she had been abandoned by her friends, she ran home and threw herself into her father’s arms and cried, “Daddy, I was hiding and nobody tried to find me.”

In World War 2 during a time of trench battle, a lieutenant commanded his men to sneak across a field and attack the enemy. As the men obeyed and crawled across the field there was a blast of gunfire. They all ran back to their trenches as fast as they could. All except one soldier who was critically wounded on the field. The soldier cried out for his friend, George, to come and get him.
George in turn begged his lieutenant to allow him to go. After constant begging he was given permission with reluctance.
George crawled to his friend and pulled him to safety. He got his wounded friend back to the trench, but it was too late, he was dead. The lieutenant berated George, “Why did you risk your life? There was no point. You fool.”
George replied, “I was no fool. When I got to him he was still alive and the last words he said were, ‘George, I knew you’d come.”
That’s what a friend does.
That’s what Jesus has done.
In our despair and hopelessness He came.
In our hiding He came and found us.

Superficial

What causes you to weep?
Is it still those who have not accepted Jesus as their Saviour?

What causes you to go without food?
Is it still fasting for a family members salvation?

What causes you to laugh?
Is it still with joy at hearing of someone’s testimony of finding Jesus?

What do you waste time on?
Do you still shut everything off so you can lie prostrate desiring His presence?

What do you think about?
Do you still try and memorise God’s Word during the day?

What do you believe in?
Are you still saying YES to the big challenges God sets before you, knowing this is a chance for more people to know Him and for God to be glorified in your life in a greater way?

A superficial Christian will run to the next big thing, that conference, that programme, that grouping because they need a splash of water. Yet they may have lost that full-immersion experience, the passionate, radical, all-consuming, desperate desire for the reality of God in their life.

The spirit of generosity – part 3

Do you have it?

Luke 5: 1-6, 10-11

The problem was that the work of Jesus had grown so much that a large crowd were pushing in towards him to hear him more clearly. There was no where for Jesus to be elevated, no stage for him to stand on.
However, there was Simon’s failed fishing boat.
Jesus got into that boat and used it to be a successful pulpit.

Simon had the spirit of generosity which allowed Jesus to re-use what had been a failure that night.

What has failed in your life?
Where are the disappointments?
It is not that you didn’t try but for some reason that prayer wasn’t answered the way you wanted.

Some people say to me:
“I don’t do that anymore. I don’t get involved. The best days are over. I don’t believe I’m useful anymore.”
They shut down their generosity.
They no longer say yes.
They are contained, locked up, shut down.

Jesus wants to get into our boats of failure, our boats of past promises. He will re-use them.

The spirit of generosity part 2

Do you have it?

Mark 14: 13-17
Nothing much is known about this man except:
He had space prepared for Jesus.
He had swept the room clean.
He had furnished it.
He had got it ready.

This man had the spirit of generosity.
Have you made space for God?
What is the equivalent of your second storey room?
Is there space in our lives?
The spirit of generosity is where we are ready for God, we have swept out the thoughts and ambitions and we are His.

The spirit of generosity part 1

Do you have it?

What can be untied?
Luke 19: 29-34

The owner was willing to untie his new donkey for Jesus.
Had he met Jesus before and been transformed by him and was now thankful?
Had he promised Jesus everything?
Had he wanted to be used of God and maybe had prayed that day “God use me”?
Whatever the reason, this man had something precious tied up outside his home that he was willing to let go of.
What can be untied from you?
What will you never give?
What have you committed to not letting go of?
What is tied to the post?
The spirit of generosity in you will untie it.

Waste

There has been an incredible waste of amazing treasure and opportunity throughout history.

John Pembleton created what he called a brain stimulant and sold the company for 2,300 dollars. Today the company is worth 18 billion. His invention was called coca-cola.

Walter Hunt invented one of the top 50 greatest inventions in history, the safety pin. He sold his rights to the invention for just 10 dollars to pay off a gambling debt.

But the worst waste of all is this, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?”

God comes through an open heaven ….

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains would tremble before you!
As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you!
For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.
Isaiah 64: 1-3

When God comes mountains tremble!
Those things that seemed unmovable, unshakable, those things that brought fear to you as you stood in awe of their magnitude, it is them that begin to shake and appear not as mighty. For God is here!

An open heaven promises ….

Genesis 7: 11-12
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month-on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights.

An open heaven promises firstly impossibilities becoming possible. Secondly …

… What you have longed for happens!

Noah built what he had never seen and waited for something to happen that had never happened before.

– Sometimes the new has to be uncharted territory.
– Waiting is part of the journey.
– Just because it hasn’t doesn’t mean it won’t.

Heaven opens when the earth is ready, preparation prepares!