Devotions

I was sitting with Pastor David Wilkerson. We were preparing together for a meeting that would begin in a few minutes and be for a multitude of pastors, leaders and believers from the four corners of Quebec. 

As an interpreter, I always insisted on having this time of preparation and prayer with the guest preacher. There are sometimes such big differences in translating a word from one language to another that it has always seemed essential for me to “review” the message with the speaker. It must be said that Pastor Wilkerson always made it easy for me. I had the privilege of being his interpreter dozens of times in Quebec and Europe. He always had a detailed and powerfully inspired message typed out. He would share with me what he felt he had received from God in prayer for the people gathered. I was frequently deeply touched and even cried while preparing with him before meetings.

That evening was a little different, though. After reading what he had written, Pastor Wilkerson said, “This is not the right sermon. Since I arrived in Quebec, I have been fighting in prayer against a fortress of unbelief. We must bring a message about faith. Let us pray!” A few minutes later, the pastors organizing the event entered the room where we were and found David Wilkerson prostrate, anguishing in prayer. 

As he interceded for Quebec, I heard him confront more than seventy-five years of unbelief with prophetic words, groans and declarations of faith that will forever remain engraved on my mind and heart. 

I invite you to kneel with me at the feet of our Lord and intercede for your own life, for your spouse, your children, your calling, your ministry, your church and your destiny. Like Christ’s disciples two thousand years ago, let us stop pretending and recognize our need for God’s intervention. Let us pray with honest hearts. Lord, increase our faith! 

“The prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:15-16, ESV).

^{Claude Houde is the lead pastor of Eglise Nouvelle Vie (New Life Church) in Montreal, Canada. Under his leadership New Life Church has grown from a handful of people to more than 3500 in a part of Canada with few successful Protestant churches.}

When we allow Jesus to be Lord of all—when we cast all our cares upon him, fully trusting in his Word and resting in his love—our appearance should undergo a deep change. A quiet calm should begin to radiate from our face. Scripture gives us many examples of this: When Hannah laid down her burden, “. . . her face was no longer sad” (1 Samuel 1:18, NKJV).

When Stephen stood before hostile, angry men in the Sanhedrin, [they] “. . . saw his face as the face of an angel” (Acts 6:15). Stephen stood among unbelievers with the shine of Jesus Christ, and the difference was clear to all.

I am convinced that we have a duty to let our countenance speak of God’s faithfulness in our lives. The problem is that our facial features and body language often say just the opposite. Many believers’ faces say, “God has failed me. He doesn’t care for me anymore. I have to carry all my burdens and problems alone because God doesn’t come through for me.”

You may not consciously say such things to yourself, but they will show on your face. I want to show you from God’s Word that what you are going through is not new. 

Someone else has been exactly where you are. “My hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing; my soul refused to be comforted... I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed... I am so troubled that I cannot speak... Will the Lord cast off forever? And will he be favorable no more? Has his mercy ceased forever? Has his promise failed?... And I said, ‘This is my anguish’” (Psalm 77:2-10).

Yet the psalmist eventually comes out of his trouble with his happy countenance restored. Why? It is because, he says, “I cried out to God with my voice . . . in the day of my trouble I sought the Lord” (Psalm 77:1-2).

If this describes you, I beg you to do this: Today, this very day, get alone somewhere with the Lord and open your heart to him. Tell him you are at the end of your rope, that you can’t take it anymore, that you’re ready to lay it all on his shoulders. Have it out with God!

David boldly declared, “For I shall yet praise him, the help [health] of my countenance” (Psalm 42:11, NKJV). In the original Hebrew, the proper rendering of this verse is “God is the salvation of my face!”

I believe David is saying something important here. You see, your face is a billboard that advertises what’s going on in your heart. All the joy or turmoil that’s inside you is reflected in your countenance. When I speak of countenance, I am talking about facial expression, body language, tone of voice.

For example, when my mind is loaded down with the cares of our church—sermons, finances, relationships—I have a tendency to slouch. I look preoccupied. My brow is furrowed. Some people even tell me I look sad.

One day I was walking along 52nd Street in New York City near Hannah House, totally absorbed with church business and probably slouched over. I came upon a crack house where a woman sat on the stoop, smiling from ear to ear. I could see she was high on crack. She watched me approaching; and as I got nearer, she spoke up, “Mister, it can’t be that bad.”

I was flabbergasted! I thought, “Here is this woman, high on crack, and here I am, a man of God. She’s smiling and looking good, and I’m slouched over as if all hope is gone.” What a rebuke it was to me!

I thank God for his great salvation, for redeeming our souls, our spirits, even our bodies. That said, many of us need to get our faces saved! We need a Holy Spirit facelift because our faces are giving the wrong message to the world.

One young woman came into Hannah House with lines of sin etched deeply in her face. Her countenance was extremely hard. Two weeks after she was saved, no one could believe the change. I didn’t even recognize her. Why such a change of countenance? “A man’s wisdom makes his face shine, and the sternness of his face is changed” (Ecclesiastes 8:1).

I take “wisdom” in this verse to mean Jesus Christ. Indeed, the very presence of Christ in your heart has a direct impact on your face! It affects your walk, your talk, the very tone of your voice.

“For the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Exodus 34:14, NKJV).

Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? (see 1 Corinthians 10:22). Yes, it is possible. Paul wrote in his letters to the effect of “You have testified that you love him. You’ve even taken his name, yet has someone or something else stolen your heart?”

You can say you love Jesus; you can go to church every time the doors are open, but do you seek him when your time is your own? How many books, magazines and newspapers do you devour? How much media gets your attention, and yet you never give a thought to spending time with Christ?

Preachers search their Bibles for sermons. Sunday school teachers study it for lessons. Why do we not turn to it for recreational reading, to be refreshed by our Lord? Why don’t we open it to learn of him and to love him?

The Bible is Jesus, God’s own Word. It reveals his heart; everything about him is unmasked there. I would think that if you truly love him, if you expect to spend eternity as his bride, then you would want to learn everything possible about him.

Our Lord yearns after us, wanting our time and attention. However, he sees us spending all our time on other people and other things, and that makes him jealous. The day is coming when his jealousy will “burn” against those who turn to vain idols (see Deuteronomy 29:20). It will burst into flames of judgment.

Beloved, when that day comes, I know you want Jesus to take your hand and whisper, “At last we’re together! You have desired me so. You have given me the best of your life, your time, your attention. Come, now. Let us be one.”

How will you stand before him on that day? Everything of this world is going to burn, but what about your intimacy with him? Will you be able to stand before him knowing you shut out the world and cried out that you wanted to know him?

It is not enough for Jesus to win your heart. He has to be the satisfaction of your heart! 

There are many believers who have never been satisfied with Jesus. They're up or down according to their circumstances. That is not a suitable bride for this bridegroom. No, a certain beauty must adorn his bride in order to attract him: “So the King will greatly desire your beauty” (Psalm 45:11, NKJV). What is this beauty?

“Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” (Psalm 29:2). This beauty is beheld in God's eyes; it is what Jesus sees in us that draws him.

The Holy Spirit says to the bride of Christ, “If you will lay aside everything, forget all others and adorn yourself for him alone, then he will desire your beauty.” This means no job, no person, no relationship can come between you!

I heard a godly wife say, “The more godly my husband becomes, the more attractive he is to me.” Indeed, that is what a godly marriage is all about. Likewise, the more you give yourself in entire devotion to the Lord, the more attractive and beautiful you become to him.

“So the King will greatly desire your beauty…” (Psalm 45:11). What an incredible thought. Jesus will not be able to stay away from you. In fact, the Hebrew meaning of beauty here signifies a strong yearning and desire. In other words, Jesus will draw close to you, overflowing with desire for you!

I have performed many weddings in my lifetime, and there was never a groom who didn't smile with delight at his bride, thinking, “She's all mine!” Beloved, that is the beauty I'm talking about. Our bridegroom rejoices, saying of his bride, “I'm the apple of her eye. She'd rather spend time with me than with anyone else, and that makes her beautiful to me.”

Indeed, the bride of Christ has an inner beauty that makes her outwardly beautiful. She is “…all glorious within…” (Psalm 45:13) because she is devoted to her bridegroom. He knows beyond any shadow of a doubt, “She is all mine, devoted only to me. I am the only one in her life, the sole focus of her attention. She makes time for me, is overjoyed in my presence, and desires to be with me continually.” What beautiful devotion.