A HEALING WORD FROM HEAVEN - David Wilkerson

Jesus was drawn to an impotent man lying by the pool of Bethesda. "And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?" (John 5:5-6). This unnamed crippled man has many faces and represents multitudes of impotent Christians who feel hopeless.

Impotence comes in many forms: physical, spiritual, mental—or all of these at once. Mentally and spiritually you may be that man lying by the pool. You are in a situation that seems hopeless and you see no way out. No one really understands the depth of your suffering; not a single friend or loved one seems to have the time, love or energy to really touch the hurt in you.

Take a good look at that impotent man and think of the years of struggle, the hurts heaped upon him by uncaring, insensitive people. How often he must have lifted a withered hand to those rushing by to get their own needs met, crying, "Someone, help! Please! I can't do it on my own!"

Multitudes of Christians are spiritually helpless and impotent because of a lingering battle with some besetting sin that has robbed them of spiritual life and vitality. They lie helpless on the bed of depression and despair, always hoping for a miracle, always waiting for someone to stir things up and make something happen. They drag themselves to meeting after meeting, counseling sessions, seminars, waiting for that one great, life-changing miracle. But nothing changes.

I believe God's great love is revealed in response to a cry from the heart—and I believe Jesus came to this man in answer to a deep and agonizing cry to the Father. The Bible has much to say about this cry from the heart. "In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God; he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears" (Psalm 18:6). A cry to God from the heart will always be answered by a merciful, healing word from heaven!

from: http://www.worldchallenge.org/view/devotions

In Heavenly Love abiding - Anna Letitia Waring (1850)

In Heavenly Love abiding,
No change my heart shall fear,
And safe is such confiding,
For nothing changes here.
The storm may roar without me,
My heart may low be laid,
But God is round about me,
And can I be dismayed?

Wherever He may guide me,
No want shall turn me back;
My Shepherd is beside me,
And nothing can I lack.
His wisdom ever waketh,
His sight is never dim, —
He knows the way He taketh,
And I will walk with Him.

Green pastures are before me,
Which yet I have not seen;
Bright skies will soon be o'er me,
Where the dark clouds have been.
My hope I cannot measure,
My path to life is free,
My Savior has my treasure,
And He will walk with me.

Source - http://www.hymnary.org/text/in_heavenly_love_abiding

The Father loves you (must hear)

The Father loves you - Audio mp3 compilation 

The Gospel is the Power of God by Zac Poonen

Humble Yourself And Be A Servant by Zac Poonen

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THOSE WHO HAVE FAILED by Zac Poonen

There is a clear message that comes through in seven of Jesus' parables:

1. In Matthew 20:1: The laborers who came at the 11th hour, having wasted 90% of their life (11 out of 12 hours) were rewarded first.

2. In Luke 15:22: The younger son who lost 50% of his father's wealth (his share) and dishonored his father's name still got "the best robe" in the house and the "ring" - both of which the elder brother did not get.

3. In Luke 7:41: The one who had sinned more (and was forgiven more) ended up loving more (thus being closer to the Lord).

4. In Matt.21:28: The son who was rebellious at first ended up doing all the will of God finally unlike his brother.

5. In Luke 15:3: The lost sheep got closer to the Shepherd than the other sheep - being carried on the Shepherd’s shoulders.

6. In Luke 14:10: The one who took the last place at the wedding feast, got the most prominent place

7. In Luke 18:9: The crooked tax-collector who was externally much worse than the Pharisee got ahead of the latter - God declared him righteous.

All these parables bring forth one message - that many who start off badly finally end up winning the prize. It is how we finish the race that matters and not how we began. Those who don't get discouraged and who don't condemn themselves because of the bad start they have made in their lives (like Paul) will end up ahead of many others who started well. This should encourage all who have made a mess of their lives not to give up but to press on.Paul had made a mess of his life. But he decided to do just "one thing" with the rest of his life: Press on to become like Jesus - forgetting past failures and only looking ahead to become like Jesus in the short time that is left (Phil.3:13,14). This included fulfilling the ministry that God had called him to as well. In the final analysis, we will discover (as Paul did) that everything else on earth is actually "rubbish" (Phil.3:8). When we "set our mind on things above" and take our seat "in the heavenly places in Christ", only then can we see the correct (eternal) value of everything on earth.

The Way To Find Rest In Your Soul by Zac Poonen

Power through being broken by Zac Poonen

How To Determine God’s Will - George Muller

It is most important to determine God’s will before making decisions so that you can be confident that you are always in the center of God’s will.  When we are in the center of His will, we will receive great blessings and answers to our prayers.  George Müller shares 6 ways that he was able to determine God’s will was for his life.

1. I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the trouble with people generally is just here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the Lord’s will, whatever it may be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what His will is.
2. Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If so, I make myself liable to great delusions.
3. I seek the Will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.
4. Next I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God’s Will in connection with His Word and Spirit.
5. I ask God in prayer to reveal His Will to me aright.
6. Thus, through prayer to God, the study of the Word, and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly. In trivial matters, and in transactions involving most important issues, I have found this method always effective.

I know that my Redeemer liveth - Jes­sie B. Pounds - Hymn

I know that my Redeemer liveth,

And on the earth again shall stand;

I know eternal life He giveth,

That grace and power are in His hand.

I know, I know, that Jesus liveth,

And on the earth again shall stand;

I know, I know, that life He giveth,

That grace and power are in His hand.

I know His promise never faileth,

The Word He speaks, it cannot die;

Though cruel death my flesh assaileth,

Yet I shall see Him by and by.

I know my mansion He prepareth,

That where He is there I may be;

O wondrous thought, for me He careth,

And He at last will come for me.

The Primary Function of the Church is to Give Light - Zac Poonen

In Revelation 1:11-20, it is written, “Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; and in the middle of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His breast with a golden girdle. And His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire; and His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been caused to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. And in His right hand He held seven stars; and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as a dead man. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades.’ Write therefore the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall take place after these things. As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”

God gives us messages not only for ourselves but also for others. When God speaks to us, it is a good habit to write down what we hear, as John was commanded to do here (v.11). He might otherwise have forgotten what God had spoken to him.

The message in this case was for the seven churches in Asia. What was known as Asia then, is today a small part of Turkey. All these 7 churches were located within a radius of 75 miles of each other. But notice that even though they were so close to each other, they were still NOT collectively called “The CHURCH in Asia”. They were called“The CHURCHES in Asia”.

This is a small point but a very important one, nevertheless. “The church in Asia” would have meant that these churches had become a denomination with a central headquarters. But “the churches in Asia” indicate that each church was a local church directly under the headship of the Lord.

The church is a work of God, built by Christ. But denominations are the work of men. All the teachings and the writings of the apostles make it clear that the will of God is for each church to be directly under the headship of Christ, and not part of a denomination.

There was no bishop or superintendent in charge of these seven churches, to whom John could send these letters for distribution to the churches. Each letter had to be sent individually to the messenger of that church - for each church was an independent unit. The Lord had given apostles to the church. John himself was one of them. But the Lord had not appointed any bishops or superintendents.

There is no such thing, for example, as “The church in India”. There are churches in India, and these are built by the Lord in different localities, each one directly under His headship.

Satan’s final aim is to build his counterfeit world “church”, Babylon. And his first step towards that goal was to group churches into denominations, many centuries ago. He knew that the task of building Babylon would have been impossible otherwise. We should not be ignorant of Satan’s schemes.

The seven golden lampstands symbolise the seven churches (see v.20). Under the old covenant, the temple hadONE seven-branched lampstand. This was because all the tribes of Israel were branches of one “denomination” with its central headquarters and leaders at Jerusalem.

But it is different under the new covenant. There are seven different lampstands, each completely separate from the other. The reason, as we saw above, was because each church was independently under the headship of Christ, although in fellowship with the other churches, through the Head.

The church being called a lampstand indicates that, in God’s eyes, its primary function is to give light. Thelampstands being golden indicate the Divine origin of a true church. It is built by the Lord and not by men.

A lampstand is not meant to be a mere decoration. Neither is a church! The light that every church should hold forth is God’s Word, which alone is a light for our path in this dark world (Psa.119:105). Instead of holding forth that light, when so-called “churches” begin to major on running schools and hospitals and on doing social work, we can be sure that they have strayed from God’s primary purpose.

When John turned around to see who was speaking, he saw Jesus (v.12,13). But he saw Him in the midst of the churches. It is through the local church that the Lord seeks to reveal Himself and to speak to others.

The first dwelling-place of God mentioned in the Bible is the burning bush that Moses saw in the wilderness(Deut.33:16). Like John at Patmos, Moses also turned aside at that time to see that marvellous sight. And that’s when God spoke to him (Exod.3:3).

Today the church is God’s dwelling place. God desires every church to be aflame with His Spirit like that burning bush was. When people look at a local church, they should be able to see the life of Christ revealed through the members of that church. Then God can speak to people through the church.

YOU CAN HAVE AS MUCH OF JESUS AS YOU WANT by Gary Wilkerson

My father, David Wilkerson, taught me a lesson when I was a little boy and I believe it is the most important lesson I have ever learned. “Gary,” he said, “you can have as much of Jesus as you want.”

Every one of you reading this article can have as much of Jesus as you want! God does not just randomly say, “I’m picking you and not you.”

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied (filled)” (Matthew 5:6, ESV). This verse is speaking of the man or woman who says, “I want all that Jesus has to offer. I am going to be ravenous in my spiritual hunger to get everything He has to give.”

The Bible says that God is looking for men and women whose hearts are completely His that He might show Himself strong. “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him” (2 Chronicles 16:9, NKJV).

God does not want 10 percent or 75 percent of His church to be consecrated, to live a set-apart, sacred life. He wants 100 percent of His body, His believers, to be sold out wholeheartedly.

It is not God who is holding back the anointing of His Spirit, it is our lack of response to what He is pouring out. God has rent the heavens and come down and manifest His Holy Spirit in these last days. The man or woman who responds to what God is willing to give will rise up and say, “In this last hour I choose to be filled with God’s Spirit. I choose to live a consecrated life. I will not be dissuaded from this; I will not be held back. Nothing can keep me from the destiny that God has for me of being on fire for Him, totally filled with His Spirit.”

from: http://www.worldchallenge.org/view/devotions

JESUS AND THE EPHESIAN CHURCH by David Wilkerson

In John’s amazing vision as recorded in the first three chapters of Revelation, he sees Jesus walking in the midst of the seven New Testament churches of Asia. Christ's eyes are aflame, and He is wearing priestly clothes. It is clear that He has come to judge these churches in righteousness.

Peter writes, "Judgment must begin at the house of God" (1 Peter 4:17). And now, as Jesus appears among the seven churches, He begins to judge them according to both the good and bad He beholds. These judgments appear in Revelation 2 and 3, both red letter chapters, meaning every word comes directly from Jesus' lips.

Now, these seven churches were actual congregations in real localities: Ephesus, Smyrna, Laodicea, and so on. Yet John hears God's voice speaking not only to these particular churches, but to the church universal — indeed, to every believer who looks for Jesus' soon return.

Jesus begins His judgments by listing the many good things about the churches that bless Him, and He compliments each church on these things. But He also sees several things that grieve Him deeply and He issues a warning to each church.

His first message is to the Christians at Ephesus, a church founded on the godly teaching of the apostle Paul. Jesus' judgment of the Ephesians is, "Thou hast left thy first love" (Revelation 2:4).

When Jesus uses the words first love here, He is not speaking of the immature love we experience when we are first saved. Rather, He is talking about exclusive love: "I once occupied first place in your heart but now you have lost the exclusivity of your love for Me. You have allowed other things to take My place."

It is significant that of all the sins Jesus points out in these seven churches — adultery, covetousness, lukewarmness, false teachings, Jezebels in authority, dead worship, spiritual blindness — the first sin He names is the one that grieves Him most: a loss of affection for Him. Our God is a jealous lover and He will not allow anything to come before our love for Him.

from: http://www.worldchallenge.org/view/devotions

BACK TO YOUR FIRST LOVE by David Wilkerson

“Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love” (Revelation 2:4).

I believe this warning to the Ephesian church is intended for every Christian living in these last days. Simply put, the Lord is telling us, "It's not enough for you to be a caring, giving, diligent servant who grieves over sin and preaches truth. It's not enough for you to uphold moral standards, endure suffering for My sake, or even be burned at the stake for your faith. This is all part of taking up My cross.

"You can do all these things in My name, but if your affection for Me does not increase in the process of doing them, if I am not becoming more and more the one great delight of your heart, then you have left your first love. If your affection for Me is no longer a matter of great concern to you, then I have something against you."

Consider David's words: "Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee" (Psalm 73:25). These are strong words, yet David is not saying, "I don't have human love." Rather, he is saying, "There is no one I love exclusively in my heart as I love my Lord. I desire Him above all others."

David also writes, "O God . . . my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is" (63:1). "As the hart [deer] panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God" (42:1-2).

David says, "I thirst deeply for the Lord, the way a deer thirsts after it has been chased. A deer will go past the point of exhaustion to find the water it seeks."

Likewise, Jesus is telling the Ephesian Christians, "You no longer seek Me as the deer seeks. I am no longer the chief object of your desire. You may be willing to do things for Me, but I'm not at the center of your heart anymore!"

Go back to your first love today. Ask Jesus for grace and strength to begin again to guard your affection for Him!

from: http://www.worldchallenge.org/view/devotions

I'd Rather Have Jesus - Rhea F. Miller

1. I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold;
   I’d rather be His than have riches untold;
   I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands;
   I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand
   • Refrain:
     Than to be the king of a vast domain
     And be held in sin’s dread sway;
     I’d rather have Jesus than anything
     This world affords today.
2. I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause;
   I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause;
   I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame;
   I’d rather be true to His holy name
3. He’s fairer than lilies of rarest bloom;
   He’s sweeter than honey from out the comb;
   He’s all that my hungering spirit needs;
   I’d rather have Jesus and let Him lead

The Church’s Love Story - Santosh Poonen

The Church’s Love Story - MP3

• Study Notes
• Summary: The Song of Songs

Hudson Taylor's - Union and communion (Ebook can be downloaded from CCEL - http://www.ccel.org/ccel/taylor_jh/union.pdf)

Source - http://rlcfchurch.org/the-churchs-love-story/

What Brokenness Means by Zac Poonen

Bridging the Distance to God - Francis Frangipane

The Spirit of Criticism - A. B. Simpson

Nothing will more effectually arrest the working of the Spirit in the heart than the spirit of criticism. At the end of a meeting, a young minister came forward and told me of the great blessing he had received that afternoon and of the baptism of the Holy Spirit that had come into his heart and being, setting him free from the bondage of years. And then he added, "it all came through your answer to that question, 'Will a criticizing spirit hinder the Holy Spirit from filling the heart?'"

As the question was asked and answered, he said, "I was sitting in the church criticizing much of what was going on, objecting to this thing and to that thing, finding fault with the expressions of praise and testimony and feeling thoroughly unhappy. The Lord brought the answer home to my heart and convicted me of my sin. There and then I laid it down and began to see the good instead of the evil. Blessing fell upon me, and my soul was filled with joy and praise. I saw where my error lay-that for years I had been trying to see the truth with my head instead of my heart."

Scripture
Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come—1 Corinthians 4:5

Evangelism should lead to Discipleship by Zac Poonen

The purpose of evangelism (as commanded in Mk. 16:15) can be understood only as seen in the light of the commission to make disciples in every nation of the world (Matt.28:19). This is the whole plan of God for the unconverted.

The convert must be made into a disciple. Unfortunately today, even the so-called convert is not often a true convert, for in many cases he has not repented properly. In the evangelistic meeting, he was told only to believe, without even a word being mentioned about repentance. Most of today's converts are therefore like premature babies, pulled out by impatient midwives ('evangelists') in their lust for statistics, when the babies were not yet ready to be born. These premature babies then either die, or live as problem cases for the rest of their lives. The angels rejoice over sinners who repent, not over sinners who merely believe (Lk. 15:7,10).

But even where there has been a thorough repentance, and a person has been truly converted, he must then be led on to discipleship, to fulfil God's will for him. Evangelism that does not lead on to discipleship is an incomplete job. Often, it is the evangelist's desire to build his own kingdom that prevents him from working together with those who can make his 'converts' into disciples. We do not have to judge such preachers, for we are told not to judge. But they will certainly have to answer to the Lord for hindering their converts from becoming disciples.

Let us look at the commission in Mk. 16:15 along with the one in Matt. 28:19,20, and try and understand the whole purpose of God.

The first step of leading people to repentance and faith must culminate in water baptism (as Jesus made plain in Mk. 16:16). Those evangelists who do not preach water baptism for fear of offending unconverted bishops, etc., are not preaching the way Peter preached it on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:38).

Further, in Matthew 28:19, the Lord commands us to make disciples. This involves leading these converts to be detached from an inordinate love for their relatives that hinders them from following the Lord (Lk. 14:26), to be detached from material possessions (Lk. 14:33), and leading them to take up the cross daily for the rest of their lives (Lk. 14:27). These are the three minimum requirements for becoming a disciple.

Matt. 28:19 then repeats the necessity of water baptism. Although baptism is repeated in both commissions, it is rare indeed to find an evangelist today who has the courage to preach it. They fear men more than they fear God; preferring to be interdenominational and thus great in the eyes of men, rather than preach the whole counsel of God and be great in His eyes.

Matt. 28:20 goes on to say that this disciple must then be taught every single thing that Jesus commanded - and not only that, but be taught to obey and practice every single command of Jesus. One has to only look through Matthew chapters 5, 6 and 7 to see some of the things that Jesus commanded - which most believers do not even bother to obey.

So we see what a tremendous task it is to fulfil both commissions together. The need now is for those who have been gripped by the necessity of proclaiming the whole counsel of God, and who are wholeheartedly obedient themselves (as far as they have light) to all that Jesus commanded, and who passionately desire to build the body of Christ.

Jesus said that His disciples would be identified by one mark - their love for one another. Mark that! It is not by large numbers that the disciples are identified, or by their wealth; but by their fervent mutual love. The evangelistic healing meeting that draw thousands to hear the message must lead on to the establishment of a local church in that locality, where the disciples love one another.

Yet, the sad thing is that in the places where repeated evangelistic, healing crusades are held year after year, it is difficult to find even one church about which it can be said that the members therein do not fight with one another or backbite against one another, etc., leave alone love one another. One can understand if the new converts are still unable to live a victorious life. But what shall we say if strife and immaturity characterise even the elders of the churches in our land?

This is the clearest indication that the great commission of Matt. 28:19,20 - discipleship and total obedience to the commandments of Jesus - has been totally ignored. The commission of Mk. 16:15 (faith and water baptism) alone is obeyed, and that too in many cases only partially (water baptism being left out).

In Mk. 16:15-20, the emphasis is on evangelism, the message being confirmed by signs and wonders done by the Lord. In Matt. 28:19,20, the emphasis is on discipleship, the disciple's life being manifested by total obedience to Jesus' commandments. Multitudes of Christians are taken up with the former; very, very few with the latter. Yet the former without the latter is as incomplete and worthless as half a human body. But who has eyes to see this?

In Jesus' ministry, we read that great multitudes followed Him, because of His evangelistic, healing ministry. He immediately turned around and taught them about discipleship (Lk. 14:25,26). Would that today's evangelists would do the same, either themselves or along with apostles, prophets, teachers and shepherds who can complete the work they have begun.

When Jesus preached discipleship to the multitudes, it soon dwindled down to a handful of eleven disciples (Compare Jn. 6:2 with Jn. 6:70). The remaining folk found the message too hard, and left (Jn. 6:60,66). But it was with those eleven disciples that God accomplished His purposes in the world and carried on the work that Jesus began.

Today we are to carry on the same ministry as His Body on earth. After the evangelist has gathered the multitude, we are to lead the converts to discipleship and obedience. Thus and thus alone will the body of Christ be built.

Being Full of Faith - Zac Poonen

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Avoiding Hasty Actions - Zac Poonen

In 2 Samuel 6, we see how even good intentions cannot save us from missing God’s will, if we are not exact with God’s Word. David was taking the ark back to Jerusalem - which was a good thing. But he didn’t do it the way God had commanded in the Law. God had commanded the Levites to carry the ark on their shoulders; but David modified that command and placed the ark on a cart and let the oxen pull the cart. There he was imitating the Philistines who had adopted that method a few years earlier (1 Sam.6:8-12).

There are Christian leaders doing the same thing today. They run their churches according to the management techniques of worldly businesses rather than according to the teachings of God’s Word.

As the oxen carried the ark, they stumbled. When Uzzah saw that, he reached out his hand and held the ark to prevent it from falling. And God killed Uzzah, immediately, “for his irreverence” (v.7). It is sad, but true, that when God’s shepherds make a mistake, the sheep suffer too. David had made a mistake and Uzzah suffered for it. And David learnt there that God is very strict with His servants. Uzzah had the best of intentions. Yet “the anger of the Lord burned against Uzzah” (v.7). Uzzah had been taught from childhood that only the Levites could touch the ark; but he took God’s commandment lightly in that moment and suffered for it.

The error of Uzzah can be repeated today. When we see things going wrong in our church, we can reach out our hands “to steady God’s ark”; and God may smite us, because even though our intentions may have been good, we went outside our “boundaries”. We may have done what our reason told us was right; but we did not wait on the Lord to find out His will. We acted in haste.

Jesus said, “I will build my Church” (Matt.16:18). Building the church is the Lord’s business, not ours. He has never delegated that task to any of us. So when we say, “I am building the church in such-and-such a place”, that is arrogant conceit. If ever we begin to think that the Body of Christ is our own private business, we will certainly make the mistake that Uzzah made, one day or the other. If we see the church shaking, let us go to God and tell Him, “Lord, YOU are building the church, not me. Preserve Your church.” And when we feel that things are not going as they should, let us ask ourselves whose work it is and who is in charge of it. Is it the Holy Spirit or we? At times, we may feel that something has to be done immediately. But if we act without listening to the Holy Spirit, we will always act in the flesh. And our actions, even if done with good intentions, will cause more confusion than if we had done nothing. So we must say, “Lord, You are in charge here. The government is on Your shoulders. And I want to listen to You. Tell me what YOU want me to do.”

There are many types of fools described in the book of Proverbs. But finally, the greatest fool of all is described thus, “Do you see a man who is HASTY in his words (or his matters)? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Prov.29:20).

The one who is hasty - hasty to say something or to do something - feels absolutely confident that he knows what is best for any situation. He doesn’t have to consult God at all. He can act on his own. Such a man is the greatest fool in the world.

It was prophesied about Jesus that, “He will delight in the fear of the Lord and He will not judge by what His eyes see or His ears hear” (Isa.11:3). Jesus could not avoid seeing many things because His eyes were not blind. Neither could He avoid hearing many things because He was not deaf. But He feared His Father so much that He would never make a judgment or form an opinion merely on the basis of what He saw or heard. As He once said of Himself, “The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father doing” (Jn.5:19).

When the Pharisees came to Jesus with the woman caught in adultery, Jesus did not reply to their question for some time. He was waiting to hear from His Father. When He heard, He spoke. It was just one sentence: “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone” (Jn.8:7). That accomplished more than an hour-long sermon would have done!

When someone comes to us with a complicated problem, if we give him advice based on our cleverness and our past experience, the problem may only become more complicated. But one word of wisdom from the Father can work wonders.

And so, the next time we see “the oxen stumbling and the ark about to fall”, let us not be eager to put our names at the top of the list of fools!! Let us not be quick to judge by what our eyes see and what our ears hear, and act in irreverence. Instead, let us put our faces in the dust before the Lord and say, “Lord, I lack wisdom here. What do You want me to do?”

It is so difficult to acknowledge that we lack wisdom, especially when we know that the others in the church are younger and more immature than us. But if we humbly acknowledge our need, God will give us wisdom in abundance.

Everything Outside of Christ is Rubbish by Zac Poonen

Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ - Madam Guyon

"Oh my God, let me be wholly Yours."

"Let me love You purely for Yourself,, for You are infinitly lovely."

"Oh my God, be my all! Let everything else be as nothing to me."

Sometimes you may bear the cross in weakness; at other times you may bear the cross in strength. But whether you bear it in weakness or in strength, bear it! Both weakness and strength should be the same to us since we bear the cross in the will of God.

If you love Him, you will love everything about Him.

What is there for you to fear? Dear Child of God, why do you not instantly cast yourself into the arms of Love?

The only reason He extended those arms on the cross was so He might embrace you. Tell me, what possible risk do you take in depending solely upon God? What risk do you run by abandoning yourself completely to Him? The Lord will not deceive you (that is unless to bestow on you more abundance than you ever imagined). 

However, those who expect all of these things from the Lord by self effort will hear the Lord's rebuke" You have wearied yourselves in the multiplicity of your ways, and have not said, Let us rest in peace." (Isaiah 57:10)

"Oh my God, let me be wholly Yours."

"Let me love You purely for Yourself,, for You are infinitly lovely."

"Oh my God, be my all! Let everything else be as nothing to me."

Madam Guyon 1685 Grenoble, France
Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ vol 2

Source - http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=47440&forum=34

Fellowship in the Gospel - Oswald Chambers

. . . fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ . . . —1 Thessalonians 3:2

After sanctification, it is difficult to state what your purpose in life is, because God has moved you into His purpose through the Holy Spirit. 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, thinking, “God has called me for this and for that,” you barricade God from using you. As long as you maintain your own personal interests and ambitions, you cannot be completely aligned or identified with God’s interests. This can only be accomplished by giving up all of your personal plans once and for all, and by allowing God to take you directly into His purpose for the world. Your understanding of your ways must also be surrendered, because they are now the ways of the Lord.

I must learn that the purpose of my life belongs to God, not me. God is using me from His great personal perspective, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him. I should never say, “Lord, this causes me such heartache.” To talk that way makes me a stumbling block. When I stop telling God what I want, He can freely work His will in me without any hindrance. He can crush me, exalt me, or do anything else He chooses. He simply asks me to have absolute faith in Him and His goodness. Self-pity is of the devil, and if I wallow in it I cannot be used by God for His purpose in the world. Doing this creates for me my own cozy “world within the world,” and God will not be allowed to move me from it because of my fear of being “frost-bitten.”

God's Word Sustains the Inner Man - Paul West

Source - http://understandingmortification.wordpress.com/

An ever-increasing conformity to Christ in the inner recesses of the heart and mind – this is the only asset worth clinging to in this ruined world. It is surely the only thing worth fighting for; transcending the interests of politics, wealth, power and sex. There is nothing in the world the devil can use to bargain an exchange for the partaking of Christ’s divine nature. Gold becomes ridiculous; money is worthless trash; the finest palace on earth is a slum; the most seductive women are to be pitied on account of their lost souls. If you aspire to make anything out of your life for God, and to live at a level as never an earthly king dreamt, then allow the Holy Spirit to sculpt the image of Christ into your soul by yielding to His mortifying chisel day after day.

Let him correct you, and bow to His correction. Bow to it immediately when God convicts you of sin in the inward parts. Every wayward thought; every impulse of lust; every critical thought; every selfish motive must be garnered and then diffused through God’s grace. Intentions – no matter how noble – must come under the microscope. A yielding must take place to where our thoughts are first run through a filter of grace before they are verbalized and released. Power is offered to us by God for this! But this power must be asked for, and the application is accomplished by importunate prayer. If you begin this prayer today, you will have put something in motion so tremendous that it makes even the angels in heaven peer at God’s children in awe.

The nature of Christ living through redeemed man is the greatest treasure in the entire universe, and, even more amazingly, it is but the down-payment of something even greater that awaits us: the earnest of glory in a perfect, sinless body and mind with our Father for all eternity. He affords us a foretaste here. Many are the afflictions of the righteous on earth, but God delivers us out of them all. We get sick, our loved ones die, we are mistreated by unbelievers, we are maligned by false brethren, and, above all, we are attacked daily by spiritual evil through our flesh and the world's system. But despite all this, we are still more than conquerors and need never lose the joy of the Lord, for He alone has overcome the world; He alone has risen from the dead; His Spirit breathes life into ours and animates the life of God within our vessels of clay.

God’s grace is given unto us to fight and win the race. The true grace of God is employed through the Holy Spirit so we make no fleshly provision, or become unequally yoked with the subjects of darkness. Grace is waiting to be won by our prayers to protect our hearts and minds from the inauguration of strongholds. The victorious life of God is rejuvenated and renewed in our own spirits through prayer. Pray, then, often for this power; pray throughout the day in your heart with spontaneous desire, with thirst and craving, as the single most coveted blessing you can possible ask for. From the overcoming ocean of God's grace in your life, all the other rivers of life will automatically flow: rivers of ministry to bless others; rivers compassion for the small and weak; rivers of gentleness and humility toward your neighbor; and rivers of unfeigned love for a lost world.

Perhaps you have been taught that full victory over the lusts of the heart, over anger and critical thinking is not possible in this life, but I want to tell you in Jesus’ Name that victory is assured if you can but lay hold of God’s New Covenant promise through faith. Victory, however, does not mean that there will not be a struggle. You will still fight the flesh and devil every day, but you will begin to battle them from inside the strength of God and gain the victory through the power of grace. You will be blessed in enduring temptation, where in the past you were accustomed to yielding and defiling your conscience.

The Word of God is like a grain factory where seeds are made available for the baking of Bread. This Bread is Christ, and it is His Life in us which sustains the inner man. The holy grain is gathered and brought into our hearts for baking through meditation and our inward obedience to the light of the Spirit’s voice. This baking process produces Bread which nourishes and protects our spirits from the entrapments of wickedness through the impartation of Christ’s glorious nature. This is why we should read the New Testament slowly; we need to take our time with the baking; we must give the Bread of Life allowance to rise within our hearts and season us with grace.

The power of God is given to overcome sin at the heart-level and become progressively conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. This is His ultimate will for you. This is what He wants you to pray for. It is far greater than any conceivable item of creation; it is the pearl of great price, and it is worth your entire life to aspire toward. Do not waste another day! Ask God to begin the process of fostering Christ’s divine nature in your life today. Come with all your weakness and failure and misery. Your only requirement is poverty in spirit and a thirst to have your heavy burden removed. A river is waiting to burst forth from your bosom, and God is impartial as through whom it proceeds.

Mastery of the Subject - Paul West

Source - http://understandingmortification.wordpress.com/2012/10/27/mastery-of-the-subject/

Very often, a believer will fail a test of God and hesitate in getting back up. The believer was perhaps living a life of victory, clean before God and enjoying the resources of Christ’s Life, when a temptation of some sort hit and suddenly took them down. They thought they were strong; they thought they could stand up to it and resist. They had been walking in the Spirit that morning; by the evening, however, they are cast down and find themselves once again in the dregs of a besetting sin. Because they loathe themselves to such a degree, they have a great reluctance to be recovered before God. This is because they feel their Christianity is just not “working” and therefore any continuation of it is futile.

These children, in their depression, must be encouraged with the truth of all-loving, all-wise Father who allows certain things to happen for the furtherance of their good. This is not to say that God condones or causes sinful acts. We know from scripture that God will allow the tempter of souls to strike at the hearts of His children – and always for a specific purpose. The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness specifically to be tested by Satan; Jesus foretold of Peter’s allowance to be sifted by request of Satan; Satan asked to destroy all which righteous Job held in possession, and God granted it. If the enemy had asked to sift someone like Peter (who was strong in the faith, but weak in the flesh), the enemy will also ask to sift someone like you and me. And God may allow it in time. When He permits the enemy to strike, a strong presentation to engage in evil will suddenly come to your mind. It will come as a rebellion against the light God has already given you on the matter. Previously, you could hold your ground against it and resist it with power – but suddenly it’s coming in like a tsunami and you’re not ready. Your mind is weak; the flesh is howling for release; the voice of your conscience is quickly fading.

When you fail God, you fail against the will of your inner man. If you could push a button to stop the temptation, you would do it in a heartbeat. You don’t want to sin, but in those dire moments you feel yourself helpless, overpowered and flesh-dominated. It is never the Lord’s will that we fail during these times of testing, but if we are going to fail, He already knew it and still permitted our testing. It is hard for us to wrap our minds around this concept because we are so used to processing information in patterns of human logic. It’s difficult for us to compute God allowing something to happen to us knowing it will cause us to sin. Didn’t God already know Peter would deny the Christ, yet allowed the ordeal to happen all the same? Yes. The Lord is not an earthly teacher. An earthly teacher, when she gives a test, does not know her pupils’ results until after the test is taken. But God knows the results beforehand, and still administers the test in order to teach His children the subject matter in a much more effective way.

The reason He allows such tests is to show us that only Christ can pass them. When we fail a test, it is because we took the test ourselves. The great end of all God’s testing in allowing the devil to sift us is to show that only Christ can pass. When we take a test and fail, our eyes are usually blind to the fact that we took the test ourselves. There is a reluctance to look up to God because of our sense of hopelessness. A defeatist mindset encompasses us and we begin to see ourselves as worthless subjects. Ah – but this is precisely the reason this Teacher of teachers gave us the test! To foster within us this very understanding of our inability to master the subject matter. An earthly teacher introduces the subject matter to her students for them to display it comprehensibly on the test; God, in contrast, uses the test’s incomprehensibility to demonstrate the subject matter to His children. And the subject matter is the grace of Jesus Christ.

The problem is when the failed student stays down when God would have him get up and continue on. God wills that after each test-failure we would approach the blood of Christ through confession of our failure and be restored. He calls us to look into His Word to see where we had gone astray. In this regard the Word of God is like a mirror which sits upon a wash-basin filled with Christ’s blood. Our loving Father’s only requirement for His failing child? Look, confess, and wash. That is His remedial program. When you fail any test, you return to this basin. The more you come to it, the more you will be transformed with the wisdom which comes from above.

So, my dear reader, never stay down after you flunk a test in God’s school. Pick yourself up after you fall and go to the mirror of God’s Word and wash in the fountain of Christ’s blood. There was a purpose God allowed the enemy to tempt your heart and wound your soul. Perhaps you had been growing too proud; perhaps you were beginning to leave your first love; perhaps you had forgotten how God had cleansed you from your former sins. Whatever the case was, do not stay down. Come up and confess. Get cleaned up! The subject matter you were unprepared for was the employment of the grace of Jesus Christ. The test’s purpose – as with every one of God’s tests – is to teach you that you cannot pass any of them but for the grace of the life of Jesus in you.

May the mastery of this subject be a consuming passion in our daily life.

Brother Paul

The Trial of Faith - Oswald Chambers

If you have faith as a mustard seed . . . nothing will be impossible for you —Matthew 17:20

We have the idea that God rewards us for our faith, and it may be so in the initial stages. But we do not earn anything through faith— faith brings us into the right relationship with God and gives Him His opportunity to work. Yet God frequently has to knock the bottom out of your experience as His saint to get you in direct contact with Himself. God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of emotional enjoyment of His blessings. The beginning of your life of faith was very narrow and intense, centered around a small amount of experience that had as much emotion as faith in it, and it was full of light and sweetness. Then God withdrew His conscious blessings to teach you to “walk by faith” (2 Corinthians 5:7). And you are worth much more to Him now than you were in your days of conscious delight with your thrilling testimony.

Faith by its very nature must be tested and tried. And the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God’s character must be proven as trustworthy in our own minds. Faith being worked out into reality must experience times of unbroken isolation. Never confuse the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life, because a great deal of what we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive. Faith, as the Bible teaches it, is faith in God coming against everything that contradicts Him— a faith that says, “I will remain true to God’s character whatever He may do.” The highest and the greatest expression of faith in the whole Bible is— “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15).

Cry of my heart

It is the cry of my heart to follow You
It is the cry of my heart to be close to You
It is the cry of my heart to follow
All of the days of my life 

Teach me Your holy ways, O Lord

So I can walk in Your truth
Teach me Your holy ways, O Lord
And make me wholly devoted to You

Open my eyes so I can see

The wonderful things that you do
Open my heart up more and more
And make me wholly devoted to You.

The Key of the Greater Work - Oswald Chambers

. . . I say to you, he who believes in Me, . . . greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father —John 14:12

Prayer does not equip us for greater works— prayer is the greater work. Yet we think of prayer as some commonsense exercise of our higher powers that simply prepares us for God’s work. In the teachings of Jesus Christ, prayer is the working of the miracle of redemption in me, which produces the miracle of redemption in others, through the power of God. The way fruit remains firm is through prayer, but remember that it is prayer based on the agony of Christ in redemption, not on my own agony. We must go to God as His child, because only a child gets his prayers answered; a “wise” man does not (see Matthew 11:25).

Prayer is the battle, and it makes no difference where you are. However God may engineer your circumstances, your duty is to pray. Never allow yourself this thought, “I am of no use where I am,” because you certainly cannot be used where you have not yet been placed. Wherever God has placed you and whatever your circumstances, you should pray, continually offering up prayers to Him. And He promises, “Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do . . .” (John 14:13). Yet we refuse to pray unless it thrills or excites us, which is the most intense form of spiritual selfishness. We must learn to work according to God’s direction, and He says to pray. “Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:38).

There is nothing thrilling about a laboring person’s work, but it is the laboring person who makes the ideas of the genius possible. And it is the laboring saint who makes the ideas of his Master possible. When you labor at prayer, from God’s perspective there are always results. What an astonishment it will be to see, once the veil is finally lifted, all the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you have been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ.

Source - http://utmost.org/the-key-of-the-greater-work/

First Love – Love for the Lord and Love for One Another - Zac Poonen

In Revelation 2:2-3, The Lord commends the messenger at Ephesus for his toil and perseverance and for his efforts to keep the church pure from evil men. No doubt he had fought a battle against worldliness to keep it from entering the church. Not only that, he had also striven to keep the church pure in doctrine. He had tested those who claimed to be apostles and had proved their claims to be false.

The messenger in the church at Ephesus had also "endured" for the sake of the Lord's name without giving up (Rev 2:3). What a wonderful man this messenger was, according to the standards of most believers. And what a wonderful church the Ephesian church appeared to be - one that toiled, persevered, kept away evil men, kept out false doctrine and exposed deceivers - thus emphasising both purity of life and purity of doctrine. One would have thought that such a church had everything that the Lord wanted to find in a church. But alas it was not so. It lacked the main thing that the Lord looked for. It had left its first love - love for the Lord and love for one another (Rev 2: 4).

What the Lord said to them was essentially this: "In the midst of all your zeal and your activity, you have lost sight of ME. You have lost that fervent devotion that you once had for Me. You have kept yourself from evil and you have steered clear of doctrinal error. But remember how you loved Me fervently when you were first converted and how you did everything out of love for Me then. Now everything has degenerated into a dry routine. You're still going to the meetings, reading your Bible and praying. But it has all become a ritual." The church here had become like a wife who once served her husband joyfully out of love for him, but who now considers the same tasks a drudgery - because the fire of love has gone out of her marriage. In the olden days, she used to wait eagerly for her husband to come back from the office every evening. But not now. She is still faithful to him, but she has lost her first love.

What does a true husband desire from his wife first of all? Is it her love or her labours? Certainly, it is her love. It is the same with the Lord. He desires the love of our hearts first and foremost. When that is gone, everything that we do becomes dead works. Good works become dead works when love for God is not the motivating force behind them.

The believers here had also lost their fervent love for each other. They were no longer able to bear with each other's weaknesses or to overlook each other's sins. They had lost their first love for one another too. The messenger had lost his first love - and gradually the church too had become like its messenger.

This was not a small error. It was a great fall - for the Lord says, "Remember therefore from where you have fallen." We usually think of a believer as having fallen only when he falls into adultery or theft or smoking etc. When we become sensitive to the voice of the Spirit, however, we will recognise that even a slight loss of devotion to the Lord and a slight cooling off in love for others is also evidence of backsliding.

There was only one solution for this problem. "Repent and do the deeds you did at first", says the Lord (Rev 2:5).

Source - http://www.cfcindia.com/web/mainpages/word_for_the_week.php?display=10_02&year=12

The Secret of the Christian Life - Watchman Nee

For to me to live is Christ. Philippians 1.21.

God does not make you a Christian in the way a person teaches a monkey how to dress, eat, and move. To teach a monkey to live like a man would be such a burden to it that it would rather remain as it is than learn to be a man.

Jesus Christ is our life to do everything in us. God never demands Christians to do this or to do that. For Paul says, "For me to live is Christ"—and having Christ living in him, Paul is able to endure beatings, persecutions, many perils, imprisonment in Jerusalem, and transference to Rome. It is not by his being like Christ nor imitating Christ, but by Christ living in him that he finds strength for all such things. As a monkey cannot be transformed into a man, so a Christian cannot imitate Christ.

DON'T LOSE YOUR FIRST LOVE

http://www.newcovenantcf.org/features-mainmenu-47/268-dont-lose-your-first-love.html

In Revelation 2:1-7, Jesus has a word for the church of Ephesus.  This was a church that had the privilege (a few decades earlier) of having the apostle Paul stay with them for 3 years (Acts 20:31).  Now, several years later, Jesus commends them because they persevered through some very hard times (Rev 2:3), and were strict on evil men/false teachers and they preserved good doctrine (v 2, 6).  Yet, all of this was useless because they had forgotten the greatest commandment – to love God with all their heart (Matt 22:37).

But I have this against you, that you have left your first love (Rev 2:4).

Despite all the good teaching, the history of fellowship with godly apostles, and the difficult trials that they successfully endured; they still lost their longing for God.  This tells me how seriously I must aim to maintain my devotion to the Lord.

Recently I had a point where I felt myself growing cold toward my First Love. When I realized this, this verse came to mind (Rev 2:4), but I forgot what Jesus had said to the Ephesian church after verse 4.  I knew that Jesus did give them some direction on exactly what to do.  Since I couldn't remember what it was, I turned to Revelation 2 and read the solution that Jesus gave in the next verse:

Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place--unless you repent. (Rev 2:5)

This verse tells me that if I lose my first love, I need to remember where I’ve fallen from, and do the things I used to do – back during times when I’ve truly longed for Him more than I currently do.  I picture it as a married couple who remember back to the early days when they would desire to spend all their time together, hold hands as they walked down the street, and talk to each other about anything and everything.   Similarly, I can remember many of the times I had with God in the early days - how eager I was to get away from the ‘rat race’, and just spend time with Him.  I realized that these were the "deeds" that Jesus was referring to - the effortless passion and choices to be in fellowship with Him that I had in the early days.

I never want to lose that hunger for God.  So I must take Jesus’ advice and repent and remember where I’ve fallen from.  I need to “do the deeds I did at first,” coming back to the basics – being a child who is needy for his Father and longing to be with Him.  Every believer should be like a child in this way, but over time we must learn to do it with consistency.  Children often have a wonderful eagerness, but a terrible inconsistency because they are immature.  Maturity is marked by consistency.  My desire is to always maintain the eagerness of a little child who is attached to his Father and always wants to be around Him, but also to have the consistency of a mature adult.

Another thing that I realized is that distraction plays a huge part in keeping my love for the Lord stoked.  The moment I start to become too interested in something else, it distracts me from what’s really important.  If the devil can’t make us fall into situations that are sinful, he’ll prod at us with worldly activities and cares which are lawful, but not profitable - to the point that we are overindulging and totally distracted from the things of God.

These are the thorns that Jesus talked about that choke the word (Matt 13:22).  And these surprisingly are not always just obvious things like worshiping sports or becoming obsessed with work or some hobby (though these can be thorns as well for some people).  In my experience they can even be seemingly profitable things like becoming so caught up with studying certain things in the Bible - like the end times, apologetics, politics, or prying into certain other mysteries that God chose not to reveal to us (Deut 29:29).  I remember hearing about groups of people who would have debates on such pointless issues like how many angels could fit on the head of a pin!  Maybe it seems like godly debate because ‘angels’ are in the bible and we can feel godly talking about them, but the devil knows the answer to this question much better than us, and it did NOTHING to preserve his love and loyalty to God!

We also can be people who can have “Christian” distractions, who are caught up with serving in some areas (music, ministry, etc).  These are wonderful things, but they can make us lose our first love if they are not put in second place where they should be.  The story of Martha and Mary clearly teaches this to us (Lk 10:38-42).  Any distraction that draws us away from simple longing for God should be cut back, or taken out altogether until we can be disciplined enough to be rooted and grounded in God’s love most of all.

I also wanted to make it clear that we do not measure our love for God primarily by our emotional feelings for Him.  Sometimes we may experience feelings of euphoria for our Lord, where we are determined by the grace of God to give up everything for Him.  Other times we may weep bitterly in prayer or during a song.  It’s true that we may have emotional extremes when seeking God, but we all know from experience that it’s only a matter of time before these emotions calm down.  It’s not that emotional feelings for the Lord are bad… it’s just that they are unreliable.  If I choose only to follow God when I’m on an emotional high, I will have a very pitiful Christian experience.  It will be similar to the Israelites in the wilderness who wanted to follow God at certain times, and then at other times they desired to go back to Egypt and back into slavery!  So our emotions should not define our love for God, but the bible does tell us what real love for God is:

For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.  (1 John 5:3)

What does keeping God’s commandments have to do with loving God?  For many years this was confusing to me because I noticed that I could often obey God without even thinking about Him.  I realized that it’s possible to obey God’s commands simply because I know it’s the right thing to do.  So how can we tie in our obedience of God's commands with our love for Him?

Recently God has given me some light on this, and it has changed my view of sin and obedience.  He has allowed my heart to see more clearly that even though Christ paid for every one of my sins on the cross, sin still grieves Him and causes Him pain whenever I commit it.  Every sin that is committed (breaking God’s commands) is so evil to God that it deeply hurts Him and grieves Him (Ephesians 4:30).  Jesus suffered the wrath of God on the cross, so that He could forever take on the punishment that I deserve.  But God still deeply grieves even today every single time I sin.  Sin was not free 2000 years ago, and sin is not free now!  It hurt Jesus when He was on the cross, and it still hurts God today every time we sin.

I can know my love for God is pure when I don’t want to grieve Him.  Thus, my love for God is defined by me having a hatred of sin, which is a desire to not grieve God even one bit.  Real love is choosing rather to suffer ourselves, than to let the Object of our affection suffer instead (our Lord).  This is exactly what Jesus said His love was like: “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

• I'd rather take the pain that comes with denying my self-will and not getting my way, than to grieve God.
• I’d rather hold my tongue and let my ego be killed, than to lash out in anger and gain some satisfaction in my flesh, but cause God to grieve at the same time.
• I’d rather do work which I’m not required to do and be a servant cleaning up someone else’s mess, rather than rebel against my co-workers and have an “it’s not my job” attitude.  A little bit of extra work may make me tired, but I should prefer that to disappointing my Father in Heaven.

God suffered and gave up what was most valuable to Him for me.  And I want to give up something of value to Him.  From God's Word, I see that what is of real value to God is to choose to suffer in the flesh myself (by not getting my way) so that God can be glorified.

So as individuals and as a church, let us have the same attitude as David who had the right heart when he said, “I won’t give to God that which costs me nothing.” (2 Sam 24:24).