Devotions

“The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). At the time these words were proclaimed, the Israelites had just returned from captivity in Babylon. Under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah, the people had rebuilt Jerusalem’s ruined walls, and now they set their sights on reestablishing the temple and restoring the nation.

The people were hungry to hear the Law of God preached to them and they were fully prepared to submit to the authority of God. Ezra the priest “read from [the Law] in the open square … from morning until midday … and the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law” (Nehemiah 8:3). What an incredible scene. Ezra preached for five or six hours and no one even noticed the time because they were so totally captivated by God’s Word.

At times Ezra was so overcome by what he read, he stopped to “bless the Lord, the great God” (see 8:6). The glory of the Lord came down powerfully, and the people raised their hands in praise to God: “All the people answered, ‘Amen, Amen!’ while lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord” (8:6).

An important result of this powerful preaching was a wave of brokenness among the hearers. As they grasped God’s Law, they began to repent (6:9). Most Christians never associate joy with repentance, but repentance is actually the mother of all joy in Jesus. I believe the Lord desires to move among his people in the same way today. But it requires a people who are anxious to hear God’s Word and obey it. 

When we set our hearts to obey God’s Word, allowing his Spirit to expose and mortify all sin in our lives, the Lord himself causes us to rejoice. “God had made them rejoice with great joy” (12:43). How do we maintain the joy of the Lord? We do it the same way we obtained his joy in the beginning: First, we love, honor and hunger excitedly for God’s Word. Second, we continually walk in repentance. And, third, we separate ourselves from all worldly influences.

If you claim to have no enemies, I would love to hear how you managed to get this far in life without having a single person oppose you. Surely at some time someone has envied you or tried to wreck your goals or interrupt your plans. And, the fact is, these things are what make someone your enemy.

Of course, every Christian faces an archenemy in Satan. Jesus tells us that he is the enemy who sows tare in our lives (see Matthew 13:39). Likewise, the apostle Peter warns us about Satan: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

Jesus makes it clear that we having nothing to fear from the devil. Our Lord has given us all power and authority over Satan and his demonic forces: “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Luke 10:19). Jesus clearly states that the battle with Satan has already been won and we have within us the power to resist any attempt by the devil to devour us.

We do have conflicts with human enemies sometimes, people we live with or work alongside. Perhaps a person has attacked you or smeared your reputation. The controversy causes you great distress and is even affecting your physical health.

You may protest to the Lord, “I’ll continue to praise and worship you, but don’t expect me to lay down this hurt.” But the Lord has clearly expressed, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). And Jesus says, “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).

We bring glory to our heavenly Father whenever we overlook hurts and forgive the sins done to us. When we forgive as God forgives, he brings us into a revelation of favor and blessing we have never known.

There seems to be a counterfeit for just about everything today. It used to be that as you walked down the streets of New York City, you encountered street vendors hawking “authentic” Rolex watches, designer purses, jewelry and other desirable wares. They looked great but they were cheap imitations of the real things.

One thing that cannot be duplicated is true spirituality. Once in a while, certain Christians become convinced, “To truly honor God, we need to go back and adopt the customs and observances of the early church.” So they institute all the known programs of the apostolic church from the disciples’ day. They install elders, deacons and bishops and then set in “divine order” the ordinances of baptism and communion precisely as the early church did — but it is all just a copy, a dead religion without the Holy Spirit.

Much of modern religion thinks that if they impart knowledge of the scriptures and biblical principles to people, they will become spiritual. People attend Bible school or seminary, where they learn the scriptures and are taught to preach, baptize and administrate. They are shaped into theologians, pastors, and missionaries, but the fact remains that no person or institution has the power to produce spirituality in someone. Only the Holy Spirit does that.

The spirituality produced by the Holy Spirit is a deep, unseen work within the heart. Paul says, “We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen” (2 Corinthians 4:18). In the context of this passage, Paul is speaking of sufferings, saying, in essence, “Only the Holy Spirit knows all the things we face. And this is where true spirituality is manifested — in the crucible of suffering.”

Not everyone who suffers becomes spiritual; many end up bitter and hard, mad at God and the world. But those who submit to the leading of God’s Spirit, facing afflictions with confidence that the Lord is producing something in them, emerge from their crucible with strong faith.

As the disciples journeyed with Jesus, they noticed that he prayed frequently. It was not uncommon for him to pray for long periods of time in the morning before the sunrise. Sometimes he spent all day in prayer; at other times he prayed all night.

Jesus was what the Scriptures call “an intercessor.” He interceded, which means he stood between God and man to bring forth on earth blessings from heaven. While he was on earth, he was the Divine Intercessor, God among us, interceding on our behalf. He loved to intercede.

The disciples were challenged and inspired by watching Jesus pray and they boldly asked him to teach them to pray. They had heard Jesus teach but they did not ask him to teach them to teach; they saw him perform miracles but they did not ask him to teach them to heal — they asked him to teach them to pray.

When Jesus’ disciples heard him praying, their emotions and spiritual passions stirred within them. They had all been brought up in the religious Jewish customs of the day, and they had prayed from the time they were little children. In other words, they were men steeped in the tradition of prayer.  But after hearing Jesus pray, they felt totally inadequate in prayer. The cry of their hearts was, “Compared to you, Jesus, we know nothing about prayer. Jesus, teach us to pray” (see Luke 11:1).   

I invite you into the presence of Jesus today. Come sit at his feet and spend time in his presence. You can be honest with him: “Lord Jesus, I don’t know how to pray but here I am. I want to learn and I offer my life to you.” If you are sons or daughters of Jesus Christ, you are “partakers of the divine nature [of God]” (2 Peter 1:4). The spirit of the Divine Intercessor dwells within every believer who longs to be filled with his power.

Every believer is probably familiar with the important role that preaching and good teaching play in extending Christ’s kingdom and helping us mature. But over the last few years, I have begun to wonder if our understanding of preaching is defined more by our life experience than by the Bible.

In most churches, a minister stands before the congregation and shares a passage of Scripture, usually in a sequential, logical manner that breaks down the meaning of the passage for everyone to understand. If the message is Scripture based and the speaker’s communication skills are of a high caliber, one would usually define that as a “fine sermon.” The same can be applied to us when we share the Word one-on-one with a friend or coworker. The recommended advice is to use your head, be as persuasive as you can, and try to bring the person to a belief in Jesus.

While all that is good, what are we going to make of the apostle Paul’s description of his method of preaching? Reminding the Corinthian church of his eighteen-month ministry there, he said: “When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Corinthian 2:1-5, emphasis added). 

What? A speaker not depending on wise and persuasive words? Isn’t that what most of us aim for when we share with others? But that was never part of Paul’s strategy as a preacher of the gospel. He boasted in the Spirit’s power resting on him. Why? In order that the Christians in Corinth might have their faith “in God’s power” and not in “human wisdom.”

Jim Cymbala began the Brooklyn Tabernacle with less than twenty members in a small, rundown building in a difficult part of the city. A native of Brooklyn, he is a longtime friend of both David and Gary Wilkerson.