Our Divine Teacher (and other devotionals)

Our Divine Teacher

1 Corinthians 2:9-16

One of the reasons that many people—including believers—don’t read the Bible is because they can’t understand it. We would expect that to be the case for those who don’t know Christ, but why do so many believers fail to comprehend the truths of Scripture? Maybe it’s because they haven’t asked for help from their divine Teacher. One of the Holy Spirit’s chief responsibilities is to enable Christians to understand the things of God.

When looking at believers who know more than we do, we’ll sometimes think, I will never be able to reach that level. The issue, however, isn’t how much knowledge you have right now, but whether you are growing in your understanding. The Spirit will teach you what you need to know, not necessarily what others know. Because He wants to make us godly people, He’ll give us enough truth each day to change our lives. He will interpret the meaning and give an application designed specifically for each person.

The Spirit’s goal is not to fill your mind with information but to bring you to a deeper level in your relationship with the Lord. He wants you to understand the truth so you will fall in love with Jesus. Then you’ll long to spend time in the Word, thereby getting to know Him even better.

But all these treasures of God’s Word could remain out of reach if you never ask the Teacher to unlock them. Each time you read your Bible, ask the Lord for understanding. A wonderfully intimate love relationship with Christ awaits those who let the Spirit reveal to them the thoughts of God.

~Dr. Charles F. Stanley~

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Hold Fast…and Kill that Lion!

BIBLE MEDITATION:
“I sought the LORD, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.”Psalm 34:4

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
The times that will most strengthen and enrich your life are those when you go barehanded, armed with only the Spirit of God, against the red lion of hell—and prevail. Remember Samson, who killed a lion with his bare hands, then ate honey out of its carcass (see Judges 14:6-9). Whatever is hounding and threatening your life right now, you must hold fast to the Word of God that promises deliverance and hope, power and strength, wisdom and guidance.

ACTION POINT:
Look beyond the physical evidence to the spiritual promise of God. Problems are opportunities for God’s power to be manifest in your life.

~Adrian Rogers~

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And the Lord looked upon him and said, Go in this thy might - Judges 6:14

The strength-giving power of a look from the eyes of Christ! Gideon was weak enough. He said, quite naturally, "My family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house" (Judges 6:15, R. V.). But from the moment of that look, accompanied by that summons, he arose in a strength that never afterward faltered. How truly "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty."

It was a look of expectation. - Gideon felt that the angel expected him to save Israel. It is a great matter to excite hope in a man. Tell him that you are anticipating some noble deed from him, and you may light a spark that will set his whole soul aglow. It is of immense importance to stir the timid and retiring with fresh conceptions of the possibilities of their lives.

It was a look of encouragement. - Those gentle, loving eyes said, as though they spoke, "I will be with thee; do not hesitate to look for Me in every hour of need." Such looks Christ still gives us across the battlefields of life; and if our eyes are fixed upon Him, we shall surely hear Him saying to us, "My grace is sufficient for thee: go in this thy might!"

It was a look of strength-giving might. - It carried help with it. On its beam new spiritual force sped from the speaker to the listener; from captain to cadet. So from the excellent glory one look from Jesus will bring reinforcement. As He looks on us He imparts His strength to us, and says, Go in this thy might. "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might."

~F. B. Meyer~

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The angel of the Lord came upon him (Peter) and a light shined in the prison; and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off (Acts 12:7).

And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God... And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and every one's bands were loosed (Acts 16:25, 26).

This is God's way. In the darkest hours of the night, His tread draws near across the billows. As the day of execution is breaking, the angel comes to Peter's cell. When the scaffold for Mordecai is complete, the royal sleeplessness leads to a reaction in favor of the favored race.

Ah, soul, it may have to come to the worst with thee ere thou art delivered; but thou wilt be delivered! God may keep thee waiting, but he will ever be mindful of His covenant, and will appear to fulfill His inviolable Word.
--F. B. Meyer

There's a simplicity about God in working out His plans, yet a resourcefulness equal to any difficulty, and an unswerving faithfulness to His trusting child, and an unforgetting steadiness in holding to His purpose. Through a fellow-prisoner, then a dream, He lifts Joseph from a prison to a premiership. And the length of stay in the prison prevents dizziness in the premier. It's safe to trust God's methods and to go by His clock.
--S. D. Gordon

Providence hath a thousand keys to open a thousand sundry doors for the deliverance of His own, when it is even come to a desperate case. Let us be faithful; and care for our own part which is to suffer for Him, and lay Christ's part on Himself, and leave it there.
--George MacDonald

Difficulty is the very atmosphere of miracle -- it is miracle in its first stage. If it is to be a great miracle, the condition is not difficulty but impossibility.

The clinging hand of His child makes a desperate situation a delight to Him.

~L. B. Cowman~

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Trust the One Who Knows You

But now, thus says the Lord, your Creator, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel, "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine!” Isaiah 43:1

God knows us by name. He calls us and says that we are His. We need to trust Him and give Him our hearts and lives. We need to be willing to come before Him, knowing that He alone cares about every hair on our head and every desire of our heart.

My husband and I went car shopping. While looking at a different make of car than either of us have ever owned, a salesman approached us. When he caught our attention, He called to us each by name. We had never been in this lot before and we had no idea how this man knew us. He then asked my husband about his job by title and place. Next, he asked about my husband’s old car.

Finally I said to him, “How do we know you?” He replied, “Your last car, you bought from me.” That was seven years ago! He then told us the kind of car we traded in for the new one. We were amazed. We literally met that man one time and it was to buy a car that same day. The car transfer was smooth, nothing out of the ordinary for him to remember us. I asked him, “How do you do that?” He said that he consistently and actively works on his memory.

I have to say that it was very eerie. My husband and I talked more about him than the car for which we were looking. When someone takes that kind of time to remember who you are, what you do and what you buy, you feel special but also humbled. We want him to sell us our next car, mostly because he gained our trust and respect.

This man remembered certain things about us but God knows all things about us. For some reason though, we do not give God our absolute trust. We second guess Him and wonder if He knows best. The Lord tells us that we are inscribed on the palms of His hands (Isaiah 49:16). His love for us is immeasurable and He knows every hair on our heads. He calls us His own and calls us to Himself. Oh, we need to be in awe of the Lord and completely trust Him. We need to cast ourselves down at His feet and be willing to let go. We need to thank Him and be all that He wants us to be. He not only knows our names but also He knit us inside our mother’s womb. Life should be all about Him but for some reason, we make Him all about us. Come to Him with a heart of repentance and receive from His lot of love. He knows your name as well as your every thought and you can trust Him.

~Daily Disciples Devotional~
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We were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1:8,9)

It is a part of the nature of things that we never learn in a vital way by information. We really only come into the good of things by being "pressed out of measure." So the Lord has to take much time to make spiritual history. When at length our eyes are open, we cry, "Oh, why did I not see it before!" But everything else had to prove insufficient before we could really be shown, and that takes time. Thus it was that we were turned in that dark hour to Romans chapter six, and, almost as though He spoke in audible language, the Lord said: "When I died, you died. When I went to the Cross I not only took your sins, but I took you. When I took you, I not only took you as the sinner that you might regard yourself to be, but I took you as being all that you are by nature; your good (?) as your bad; your abilities as well as your disabilities; yes, every resource of yours. I took you as a 'worker,' a 'preacher,' an organizer! My Cross means that not even for Me can you be or do anything out from yourself, but if there is to be anything at all it must be out from Me, and that means a life of absolute dependence and faith."

At this point, therefore, we awoke to the fundamental principle of our Lord's own life while here, and it became the law of everything for us from that time. That principle was: "nothing of (out from) Himself", but "all things of (out from) God." "The Son can do nothing of (out from) Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing: for what things soever He doeth, then the Son also doeth in like manner"(John5:19). Such a revelation, if it is to be a staggering and breaking thing, so that there is no strength left in us, requires a background of much vain effort. But then, it carries with it a great implication. While an end is written large in the Cross, and while that end is to be accepted as our end indeed, so that there can be no more of anything so far as we are concerned, Jesus lives! And that means boundless possibilities.

By T. Austin-Sparks