MONDAY 13 JUNE
Isaiah 65:1-9
God finds those who don’t seek Him
God was very disappointed with His chosen people the Jews. They had turned away from Him to follow other Gods. This made Him angry. He knew if they forsook their relationship with Him they would be destroyed. This saddened Him very much. However, God had other plans. When His own people disowned Him He would seek others. After all He is the Creator of all people and He wants them all to come to Him and be saved and given a permanent place in His kingdom.
In this emerging multi-cultural society we are discouraged from evangelizing people from other religions. This is not what God wants! He longs for everyone. There is only one way to Him and that is through Jesus. As Jesus Himself said, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6).
Today, history is repeating itself. The western Christian nations who have had a faith in God for centuries are tending to turn away from Him like the Israelites did in Isaiah’s time, but the Third World countries are turning to God. God is seeking out people by sending mighty revivals.
People in Korea, China, India, Africa and many other Third World countries are coming to the Lord in millions. God is revealing Himself to them in miraculous ways. They are finding Him even when they have not been seeking Him. This must please God very much.
There are many people who live in your street, or close to you, who have not yet been found by God. Even though they are not seeking God, God is seeking them. Let’s pray for them, witness to them and let ourselves be used by God to get these people into His Kingdom.
PRAYER: Father, you love everyone you have made. You want them all to come to you and be saved. Fill us with the Holy Spirit and give us power to witness to them by our lives as well as our words. May all who do not seek you be found by you, through Jesus our Saviour. Amen.
TUESDAY 14 JUNE
Psalm 22:20-29
Dominion belongs to the Lord
Today we are reminded once again that God is very much in charge of His whole creation. When we turn to Him and follow Him, we can expect tremendous help from Him.
The first thing He does for us is to protect us from falling into the hands of the enemy, who is Satan. Once God is looking after us Satan can’t touch us. We are safe. If we want to go on enjoying God’s protection we must declare our strong allegiance to Him. We show this by openly praising Him and by telling others how great it is to know the Lord!
God’s dealings with men are not hypothetical. They are real and practical! As we revere Him and praise Him, we soon see the evidence of His help and protection.
He looks after the poor. They are well fed and very satisfied. He motivates the rich to give their all and share with those who are in need. The more He does for people the more they want to praise Him. He is so wonderful that His good name soon spreads until eventually people from every nation in the world come to hear Him and are given the opportunity to turn to Him.
When the crowds were praising Jesus on the first Palm Sunday the Pharisees told Jesus to stop them, but He said He couldn’t and even if He could, the very stones would cry out. Down through the ages people have tried to stop churches proclaiming their allegiance to God. The more they have tried to stop them the more they have been heard. We see this especially in Russia and China where strong attempts were made to blot out the Christian religion.
PRAYER: Father God we thank you so much that you are in control of all things. Keep us safe from the enemy’s power. Inspire us to praise you and proclaim your name until all the nations and all the people bow their knees to you, through Jesus our fantastic Saviour. Amen.
WEDNESDAY 15 JUNE
Galatians 3:10-14 23-29
All Sons of God
Paul makes it extremely clear that there is only one way to be saved and that is through faith in Jesus Christ. All those who try to save themselves by obeying the law are under a curse because they are trying to do the impossible! No one can keep the law. We need another way to be put right with God. Jesus provided that other way! He became a curse for us by hanging on the cross so that we may be freed from the curse of the law!
Jesus put us into a right relationship with God when He died for us.
Because the Israelites were descended from Abraham, God promised to bless them in a mighty way. Jesus made this promise available to all people. As they put their faith and trust in Jesus, the promises made for the Jews become theirs too! They can now receive the promise of the spirit. Praise the Lord! When we receive the Spirit we receive the Spirit of Sonship and we all become sons of God. As sons we inherit tremendous blessings from God.
When we have faith in Jesus and are baptised into Christ, Paul says we are clothed with Christ. In other words we become like Jesus in every way. Because we are all like Jesus, we are all one. There are no distinctions. The things that divide humans such as gender, race, and social status no longer divide us. He has made us one. We are all descendents of Abraham and we will receive all the promises made to Abraham as our inheritance.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, as we put our faith and trust in you we are put right with God and are made one with you. Help us to fully clothe ourselves with you and become absolutely one with each other by receiving the Holy Spirit you give to all who trust you and obey you. Amen.
THURSDAY16 JUNE
1 Kings 19:1-18
God speaks to us and provides for us
Because we are sons of God and have a very special relationship with God, it’s only natural for us to know that God will provide for us and He will speak to us. This was Elijah’s experience. As we look at our story today we see He was very stressed and burnt out after the spiritual battle on Mount Carmel. As well as that he was under persecution from the King’s wife. It made him very unhappy.
Even though he was unhappy with himself, God was very happy with Elijah. He provided food for him and then led him to Mount Sinai where He was to give him spiritual refreshment. This came by God speaking to him not in the wind, earthquake or fire, but in the still small voice.
We can all have similar experiences to Elijah. If we surrender our whole life to Jesus and give away more than we need to live on, we will find that God will provide for us. He did this for my family and I when we felt called by Him to give Him all of our salary in Emerald in 1974-75. He promises to make us rich enough to be generous on all occasions. If we give, He will give to us (see 2 Corinthians 9:10-11).
As well as God providing, God will speak to us. Every now and then we need to stop everything to “be still and know that I am God”. If we do, God will speak. It’s so wonderful when He does. It’s not always with words that He speaks. He communicates Himself to our spirits and makes us 100% sure of His presence.
PRAYER: Father, when we become your sons you show us your love by providing for us and speaking to us. Give us the faith to let go of everything so we can trust in you to provide for us and help us to make time to let you speak to us and communicate yourself to our spirits, making us so sure of your presence, through Jesus our wonderful Saviour. Amen.
FRIDAY 17 JUNE
Luke 8:40-56
Don’t be afraid, just believe
Jesus’ power will heal you
The power of Jesus to save and to heal is readily available to all. Jesus gave out this power all through His ministry on earth. He made it available for us when He died on the cross and rose again from the dead! When Jesus healed the lady with the bleeding problem He knew that power had gone out from Him. He taught that power was received by faith. When the lady said to herself, “If only I can touch His garments I’ll be healed”, and as she touched him, her faith was so strong and she was healed. Jesus reminded her that it was her faith that enabled her to receive His power to heal her.
Jairus was all upset and agitated because his daughter was dying. When he heard she was already dead he was gripped with fear. Then Jesus spoke to him, “Don’t be afraid, just believe and she will be healed”. The synagogue ruler found himself trusting these words of Jesus and as a result his daughter was raised from the dead.
Let us never forget that this amazing grace, this enormous power, is available to us right now. Let’s just turn to Jesus, put all our faith in Him and let His healing power flow into our lives.
PRAYER: Jesus, we know that if only we reach out and touch you, you will give us your healing power. Help us to get closer to you, really believing your word in the Bible and trust in you to answer all our prayers. We know you can heal the sick and the dead. Keep us ever trusting in you. Amen.
SATURDAY 18 June
Luke 8: 26-39
Tell how much God has done for you
The power of Jesus is so strong that it can push out all evil. When we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “deliver us from evil”, we can be sure that Jesus always will. Because “He in us is greater than He in the world” (1John 4:4) we can be absolutely sure that if “we resist the devil he will flee from us” (James 4:7).
In our society we don’t come across many people who are demon possessed like the young man in today’s reading. When I was in India in 1997, I had the experience of casting out an evil spirit from a young lady. As I began to pray in Jesus’ name, she went into convulsions on the floor and then went all rigid. I kept praying and trusting in Jesus’ power against all evil. Soon she was at peace and in her right mind.
Doreen Irvine, the author of the books, “Witchcraft to Christ” and “Set Free to serve Christ”, had over 40 evil spirits cast out of her before she got right with Jesus. Now she draws on His power to help dozens of people to be set free from evil influences. When I heard her speak in England I was filled with new faith in Jesus to heal and deliver us from the enemy.
Every time we experience God’s power we need to go home and tell everyone we see what God has done so they will all come to Him and receive the faith to be helped by Jesus in many wonderful ways.
PRAYER: Jesus, we thank you that you are in our hearts and that your power in us is so much stronger than all the power of evil. Help us to keep on resisting the devil so he will flee from us and tell everyone how great is your power over all evil. Amen.
SUNDAY 19 June
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE
In the Gospel Story today we see how Jesus drove out several evil spirits from a man whose life had been devastated by the power of these demons over him. Because Jesus’ power was so much stronger than this evil power, He was able to set him free and completely heal his body, mind and spirit.
Since the Fall of Mankind Satan has had a devastating affect on us all. He has prevented us from keeping all God’s laws. This put a curse on us as Paul describes in our second reading today when he quotes Deuteronomy 27:26 which Says, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law.”
Because it is impossible for anyone to keep the whole law we are all under a curse.
What I have said so far is the bad news. It makes us very depressed. But we have some very good news. Jesus has completely defeated Satan and so has removed the curse from us. On the cross Jesus became a curse for us. He redirected all Satan’s curses from us to himself. When he died these curses died with Him and we have been set completely free!
Does this mean that absolutely everyone is freed from the curse? The whole world would be perfect if this was the case. There would be no more fights and no more wars.
Only those who choose to accept all that Jesus has done for us on the cross are set free from this terrible curse. Only those who put all their faith and trust in the power Jesus released when He died on the cross are put right by God. As the Bible says, “The righteous will live by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4, Galatians 3:11).
Because Jesus completely defeated Satan all of us who go on and on trusting in Jesus have been set completely free from his evil influence!
In practical terms it means that we do not have to be controlled by all those negative influences in our lives like worry, anxiety and fear. Trust in Jesus, “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you” (1Peter 5:7).
PRAYER: Father God we thank you so much that Your Son Jesus completely defeated Satan and removed the curse of sin from us. Help us all to have faith and believe all Jesus has done for us so we can be set free from all evil influences and from fear anxiety and worry. Through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen.