Body

Devotions

Clothed With Power

Gary Wilkerson

Scripture shows us four ways the Holy Spirit moves in our lives. First, as Jesus says, no one comes to know him unless they are born again of the Spirit. Therefore, God’s Spirit dwells in every Christian. Second, we are called to abide in the Spirit, to remain intimate with him in prayer. Third, we are to be continually filled with the Spirit, constantly drinking from his well of living water. None of this means the Spirit leaves us but, rather, that we have a part in our relationship with him.

Finally, there is an outpouring of the Spirit that fills us with power, something that is beyond our ability to generate. You may wonder, “If I’m born of the Spirit, and the Spirit abides in me, and I continually drink of the Spirit, why would I need the Spirit poured out on me?” Because it helps us understand our need for God. We could never do the works of his kingdom in our own passion or zeal. It must come from him.

Sometimes we get it backwards in the Church. We think God chooses the fiery person, the one who will get everyone else zealous for God. But the Lord isn’t looking for a fiery heart; he’s looking for a hungry heart — one he can fill with his very own mind, heart and Spirit. That means even the meekest among us qualifies.

Note the word Jesus uses to describe the outpouring of the Spirit: “Stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). This suggests an external move of the Spirit in our lives, something that comes from outside us. All other moves of the Spirit in us are internal — being born again, abiding, drinking our fill. But this is an action God does for us. We depend on him to bring it to us.

Sitting in Unbelief

Carter Conlon

I am convinced that God is initiating something truly significant in this hour; he has decreed a moment of mercy for America. No matter how set against Christ people’s hearts have been in the past, God is now presenting an open window. And so I do not want to spend all my prayer life crying out, “Please, Lord.” Instead, I want to pray, “Yes, Lord,” and find out what my part is. “Yes, Lord, what do you want me to do? Yes, Lord, what do you want me to say? Yes, Lord, where do you want me to go?

When God chose Rebekah to become Isaac’s bride, she had to move from where she was and go to where God was calling her in order for his plan to be fulfilled (see Genesis 24:58). Similarly, God is speaking to people today, telling them to get up and out of certain things. So rather than constantly saying, “Please, Lord, give me the grace to get out of this relationship. Give me the grace to cease this practice,” it is time to start saying, “Yes, Lord, you have called me to something deeper. You have called me to be a person who can boast of you to the point where others cannot help but bow their heads and worship. So I am no longer going to say, ‘Please, Lord’ while merely sitting in unbelief. I am going to agree with you, get out of where I should not be, and go to where you are calling me!”

Perhaps you already know what God is asking you to do. If he has spoken to your heart, begin with those things. If the Lord is asking you to forgive, then forgive. If he is asking you to speak truth, then do so. Until you obey what he has already told you to do, the other leadings of the Lord will remain hidden.

Carter Conlon joined the pastoral staff of Times Square Church in 1994 at the invitation of the founding pastor, David Wilkerson, and was appointed Senior Pastor in 2001. 

The One to Turn to

David Wilkerson

David often wrote about brokenness in his psalms. He spoke of God’s nearness to those who are broken: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit” (34:18).

What incredible promises our Lord has given to those who are broken in spirit. He pledges to dwell with all who have been broken and revive their hearts.

There is a physical brokenness that is the result of human despair. I’m talking about bereavement, emotional pain, anguish that comes from physical afflictions. Yet the brokenness spoken of here is something other than human despair. It speaks of spiritual brokenness.

The truest picture of spiritual brokenness is found in Luke 19. In this passage Jesus is riding on a colt into Jerusalem:

“Now as he drew near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you had known, even you, especially in this your day [times], the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes” (Luke 19:41-42).

What was the source of Jesus’ agony? We are told that Christ “came to his own and they received him not” (see John 1:11). Jesus was crying, “If only you had accepted the things I said to you! It would have brought you my peace, my blessings, my hope and my purpose for your lives.”

Here is the difference between us, who have found refuge in Christ, and the multitudes who are lost: they have rejected their rescue. But every believer knows there is One we can turn to. We have a source to go to for strength and comfort, because we believe Jesus is who he claimed to be.

Jesus is Lord of All

David Wilkerson

When Paul appeared in court he heard outlandish charges leveled against him: “This man is a political zealot. He’s a troublemaker, stirring up the Jewish population worldwide. And he is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes and provokes great crowds against Rome. He is guilty of sedition!”

This was all a trap set by his opponents, yet Paul saw an even bigger trap: Satan himself was trying to get him off his central message of Jesus.

As a skilled debater, Paul easily could have engaged his opponents. But he refused to become entangled in their political fight. He made that choice for the sake of the gospel he preached.

Eventually, Paul was taken before King Agrippa to defend himself. But in the royal court, Paul chose to preach Christ. At his own peril, he boldly told Agrippa his dramatic story: “King, I heard the Lord’s voice! He knocked me off my horse and told me his name. He said he was Jesus” (see Acts 26:13-14).

The king was stirred by Paul’s message. He refused to rule on the apostle, instead decreeing that he be sent to Rome to appear in Caesar’s court. During the night before Paul’s transfer, the Lord stood beside him and said, “Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome” (Acts 23:11).

That was all the encouragement Paul needed. When he appeared before the highest political leader of the day, Paul would still stay on message: “Jesus is lord of all!”

This is how we become a testimony of hope in a world without any. When someone asks us, we can answer in confidence and faith, “Jesus is my hope and peace. I do not need this world, I just need him.”

We See Jesus

David Wilkerson

Paul wrote, “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).

He lived in a time when factions in the church abounded on the left and right, and they fought bitterly. Paul responded to the conflict by saying, “I have nothing to do with this. I am here for one purpose: to live and preach Christ crucified and risen. As a servant of the Lord, I refuse to get entangled in such things.”

Paul was then compelled to write to his young associate Timothy with the following warning: “The Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons. These people are hypocrites and liars, and their consciences are dead” (1 Timothy 4:1-2, NLT). Paul’s warning here is clear: Men will appear preaching another gospel.

Right now, a false Christ is being preached even in some evangelical churches. Theirs is a Christ who calls for no repentance. It is a Christ who embraces immorality and same-sex marriage. It is a Christ of acceptance of false religions, all supposedly in the name of tolerance and love.

Today the church we see is often not as it should be. What is our response to this travesty? We see the real Jesus – the unchangeable Christ – standing victorious over it all! All other human-invented gospels will not offer one ounce of comfort in the hour of need.

As Paul instructed, we can’t let these kinds of issues distract us. We are not to be “corrupted from the simplicity [devotion] that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3). All around us the world is breaking down, but we see Jesus! We must trust that he is standing with us in our pain, our suffering, our crises, all things.