Does a stronghold have a strong hold on you? Do you feel nothing but despair? Do you think thoughts of defeat? A stronghold is a false premise that denies God's promise. 2 Corinthians 10:5 says "it sets itself up against the knowledge of God." It attempts to magnify the problem and minimize God's ability to solve it.
God could never forgive me- That's the stronghold of guilt.
Bad things always happen to me- That's the stronghold of self-pity.
I have to be in charge- The stronghold of pride.
I don't deserve to be loved- The stronghold of rejection.
Most Christians don't recognize strongholds. But we don't have to be among them. Our weapons are from God and have divine power to demolish strongholds. Isn't that what you want? Keep God at center stage. Turn off the computer and open the Bible more! And turn to God for help.
From Glory Days
Acts 2:1-21
The Holy Spirit Comes
On the day of Pentecost[a] all the believers were meeting together in one place. 2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. 3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages,[b] as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.
5 At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. 6 When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers.
7 They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, 8 and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! 9 Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, 10 Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” 12 They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other.
13 But others in the crowd ridiculed them, saying, “They’re just drunk, that’s all!”
Peter Preaches to the Crowd
14 Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this. 15 These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that. 16 No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel:
17 ‘In the last days,’ God says,
‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your young men will see visions,
and your old men will dream dreams.
18 In those days I will pour out my Spirit
even on my servants—men and women alike—
and they will prophesy.
19 And I will cause wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below—
blood and fire and clouds of smoke.
20 The sun will become dark,
and the moon will turn blood red
before that great and glorious day of the Lord arrives.
21 But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
will be saved.’[c]
Footnotes:
2:1 The Festival of Pentecost came 50 days after Passover (when Jesus was crucified).
2:4 Or in other tongues.
2:17-21 Joel 2:28-32.
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Read: 1 Samuel 16:1-7
Samuel Anoints David as King
Now the Lord said to Samuel, “You have mourned long enough for Saul. I have rejected him as king of Israel, so fill your flask with olive oil and go to Bethlehem. Find a man named Jesse who lives there, for I have selected one of his sons to be my king.”
2 But Samuel asked, “How can I do that? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.”
“Take a heifer with you,” the Lord replied, “and say that you have come to make a sacrifice to the Lord. 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you which of his sons to anoint for me.”
4 So Samuel did as the Lord instructed. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town came trembling to meet him. “What’s wrong?” they asked. “Do you come in peace?”
5 “Yes,” Samuel replied. “I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Purify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” Then Samuel performed the purification rite for Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice, too.
6 When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Surely this is the Lord’s anointed!”
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
INSIGHT:
David is often used as an example of the best and the worst of human behavior. Even though his sins are recorded in the pages of Scripture, the final verdict on his life is that he was a man “after God’s own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14; Acts 13:22). What we often miss is the reason that he is given this high acclaim. David’s nearness to the heart of God is reflected most by his repentance after he sinned. Acknowledging that God’s way is right (exemplified in the act of repentance) is the clearest demonstration of love for Him. J.R. Hudberg
An Inside View
By Jennifer Benson Schuldt
The Lord looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16:7
Retired physicist Arie van’t Riet creates works of art in an unusual way. He arranges plants and deceased animals in various compositions and then x-rays them. He scans the developed x-rays into a computer and then adds color to certain parts of his pictures. His artwork reveals the inner complexity of flowers, fish, birds, reptiles, and monkeys.
An inside view of something is often more fascinating and more significant than an exterior view. At first glance, Samuel thought Eliab looked like he could be Israel’s next king (1 Sam. 16:6). But God warned Samuel not to look at Eliab’s physical traits. He told Samuel, “People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (v. 7). God chose David, instead of Eliab, to be Israel’s next king.
When God looks at us, He is more interested in our hearts than our height, the state of our soul than the structure of our face. He doesn’t see us as too old, too young, too small, or too big. He zeroes in on the things that matter—our response to His love for us and our concern for other people (Matt. 22:37-39). Second Chronicles 6:30 says that God alone knows the human heart. When the God who has done so much for us looks at our heart, what does He see?
Dear God, help me to value what You value. As I follow Your example, I pray that You will be pleased with what You see in my heart.
The true measure of a person is what’s in the heart.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Is God’s Will My Will?
This is the will of God, your sanctification… —1 Thessalonians 4:3
Sanctification is not a question of whether God is willing to sanctify me— is it my will? Am I willing to let God do in me everything that has been made possible through the atonement of the Cross of Christ? Am I willing to let Jesus become sanctification to me, and to let His life be exhibited in my human flesh? (see 1 Corinthians 1:30). Beware of saying, “Oh, I am longing to be sanctified.” No, you are not. Recognize your need, but stop longing and make it a matter of action. Receive Jesus Christ to become sanctification for you by absolute, unquestioning faith, and the great miracle of the atonement of Jesus will become real in you.
All that Jesus made possible becomes mine through the free and loving gift of God on the basis of what Christ accomplished on the cross. And my attitude as a saved and sanctified soul is that of profound, humble holiness (there is no such thing as proud holiness). It is a holiness based on agonizing repentance, a sense of inexpressible shame and degradation, and also on the amazing realization that the love of God demonstrated itself to me while I cared nothing about Him (see Romans 5:8). He completed everything for my salvation and sanctification. No wonder Paul said that nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).
Sanctification makes me one with Jesus Christ, and in Him one with God, and it is accomplished only through the magnificent atonement of Christ. Never confuse the effect with the cause. The effect in me is obedience, service, and prayer, and is the outcome of inexpressible thanks and adoration for the miraculous sanctification that has been brought about in me because of the atonement through the Cross of Christ.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The sympathy which is reverent with what it cannot understand is worth its weight in gold. Baffled to Fight Better, 69 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
When You Need to Know God's Will - #7507
It's not uncommon for me to meet a truck driver who says, "Yeah, as I travel across the country I know what station you're on and we listen to that program. I listen to Christian radio across the country." Well, that's nice to hear. And so I've learned from truckers, of course, that CB radio is very important to them. Actually, a few years ago, there was a national craze of CB radio. And we actually picked up some words in our vocabulary from that time. The CB invasion left us with words like a policeman is called a "Smokey." Your name is your "handle." When everything's OK, you're supposed to say, "10/4 good buddy." I like the phrase that CB'ers use when they want to see if you're tuned in. They say something like this, "You got your ears on?"
I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "When You Need To Know God's Will."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 1 Samuel 9. In this chapter, God wants to introduce a young man named Saul to his destiny. He's about to become, by God's choosing, the first king of Israel. Now, God needs to get him to His representative, Samuel, so Saul can find out what his assignment's going to be. And we see what made Saul a man that God would turn to - to be Israel's king. It's a trait that will serve you well if you need to know God's will right now, and I'll bet you do.
First Samuel chapter 9, some excerpts, "Now the donkeys belonging to Saul's father, Kish, were lost. And Kish said to his son, Saul, 'Take one of the servants with you and go out and look for the donkeys.'" Well, they went out and looked, and looked, and looked. And it says, "When they reach the district of Zuph, Saul said to the servant who was with him, 'Come, let's go back or my father will stop thinking about the donkeys and start worrying about us.' But the servant replied, 'Look, in this town there's a man of God. He's highly respected, and everything he says comes true. Let's go there now. Perhaps he will tell us the way to take.'"
Well, they begin to do that. Saul says, "'Let's go.' So they set out for the town where the man of God was. And as they were going up the hill to the town, they meet some girls coming out to draw water. And they asked them, 'Is the prophet here?'" And the story goes on to say that they asked the advice of these girls in finding where Samuel was.
Now, let's stop. There's a valuable trait here. Maybe you saw it in Saul. He's got his ears on "good buddy." Everywhere he goes he's listening for the advice that will lead him to God's will. He listens to his servant's advice. He's not too proud to seek the advice of a man of God. In fact, he'll even seek information from some little girls. A person is leadable by God when his ears are always open to a word from the Lord; when He's always tuned to the Lord's channel.
You never know where God's direction's going to come from. It might come from someone who works for you or with you. It might come from a Christian, or maybe through an unbeliever. Maybe it'll come from a godly stranger. It could come from a child, as part of it did here for Saul. Maybe from a radio program you just happened to pick up, an article you read, or a family member.
Maybe you're wondering, as it says in this passage, what way to take. You say, "Well, I'm just not sure what God wants right now." Well, get your spiritual ears on and listen for His voice everywhere you go, with everyone you're meeting.
You know, Jesus said several times in John 10, "My sheep listen to My voice and they follow Me." And He said, "They know my voice." You've got to be able to recognize the voice of God speaking to you throughout the day. You know how you do that? You recognize voices you listen to a lot don't you; the people you hear all the time? They don't even have to tell you who it is. You need to be spending time in God's Word on a regular basis so you know how to recognize the voice of God.
Look, it's not the whole answer to finding God's will. But it is the next step. I mean, each of these people had something to say from God - the people that were in Saul's pathway. They gave him the clue as to the next step in God's plan. That's how God leads you. Take a step, see a step. Take a step, see a step.
You never know who God's going to use to show you that next step. So, always stay tuned to His channel, waiting for the message He wants to give you. Got your ears on?
