Be Encouraged with my Utmost for His Highest (October 2024)

31 October 2024

THE TRIAL OF FAITH

Oswald Chambers

Today, in your business and life though He slays you, yet will you trust Him? This is the trial and the test of your faith.

"If you have faith as a mustard seed. Nothing will be impossible for you." (Matthew 17:20).

We think God rewards us for our faith, which 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 the 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.

For example, during the early years of my business, my faith was tried and tested every Friday for payroll, but I trusted HIM; years later, I still trust Him at another level.

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 with 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. The actual trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God but that God’s character must be proven trustworthy.

Faith being worked out into reality must experience times of unbroken isolation.

Be encouraged and 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, 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 Bible's highest and most significant expression of faith is — “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15).

Be encouraged though He slays you, yet will you trust Him?

This is your question today.

30 October 2024

Faith

Oswald Chambers

Today, in business and life, did you know that your faith must be tested and tried before it can become real in your life?

Without faith, it is impossible to please God. —Hebrews?11:6

Is there a truth that God has revealed that you can prove in your practical experience what you believe to be true?

Faith in active opposition to common sense is mistaken enthusiasm and narrow-mindedness, and common sense in opposition to faith demonstrates a mistaken reliance on reason as the basis for truth.

The life of faith brings the two of these into the proper relationship.

Be encouraged because common sense and faith are as different from each other as natural life is from spirituality and impulsiveness is from inspiration.

Be encouraged to learn nothing that Jesus Christ ever said is common sense but is revelation sense and is complete, whereas common sense falls short.

Yet faith must be tested and tried before it becomes real in your life.

“We know that all things work together for good…” (Romans 8:28) so that no matter what happens, the transforming power of God’s providence transforms perfect faith into reality.

Faith always works personally because God's purpose is to see that perfect faith is made real in His children.

For every detail of common sense in life, there is a truth God has revealed by which we can prove in our practical experience what we believe God to be.

Faith is a tremendously active principle that always puts Jesus Christ first.

The life of faith says, “Lord, You have said it; it appears to be irrational, but I’m going to step out boldly, trusting in Your Word” (for example, see Matthew 6:33).

Be encouraged. Turning intellectual faith into your possession is always a fight, not just sometimes.

God brings us into particular circumstances to educate our faith because the nature of faith is to make the object of our faith genuine to us.

Until we know Jesus, God is merely a concept, and we can’t have faith in Him.

But once we hear Jesus say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9), we immediately have something real, and our faith is limitless.

Faith is the person in the right relationship with God through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Is there a truth that God has revealed that you can prove In your practical experience what you believe to be true?

Did you know your faith must be tested and tried before it can become real?

This is your question today.

29 October 2024

Substitution

Today, in your business and life, do you know that you have the victory because HE was made to die for your sins as a substitute?

"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The modern view of Jesus's death is that He died for our sins out of sympathy for us. Yet the New Testament view is that He took our sin on Himself not because of sympathy but because of His identification with us. He was “made…to be sin….”

Be encouraged and know your sins are removed because of the death of Jesus, and the only explanation for His death is His obedience to His Father, not His sympathy for us.

We are acceptable to God not because we have obeyed or promised to give up things but because of the death of Christ and for no other reason.

We say that Jesus Christ came to reveal God's fatherhood and lovingkindness, but the New Testament says that He came to take “away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

And the revealing of the fatherhood of God is only to those to whom Jesus has been introduced as Savior.

In speaking to the world, Jesus Christ never referred to Himself as One who revealed the Father, but He spoke instead of being a stumbling block (see?John 15:22-24).?John 14:9, where Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father,” was spoken to His disciples.

That Christ died for me, and therefore, I am entirely free from penalty, is never taught in the New Testament.

Be encouraged because what is taught in the New Testament is that “He died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:15)— not, “He died my death”— and that through identification with His death, I can be freed from sin and have His very righteousness imparted as a gift to me.

The substitution taught in the New Testament is twofold— “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us,?that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

The teaching is not Christ for me unless I am determined to have Christ formed in me (see?Galatians 4:19).

Do you know you have the victory because He was made to die for your sins as a substitute?

This is your question today.

28 October 2024

Justification By Faith

Oswald Chambers

Today, in business and life, do you realize you are saved by believing?

"If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son so much more, having been reconciled, we will be saved by His life" (Romans 5:10).

Be encouraged. The Spirit of God brings justification with a shattering, radiant light, and I know that I am saved, even though I don't know how it was accomplished.

The salvation that comes from God is not based on human logic but on the sacrificial death of Jesus

We can be born again solely because of the atonement of our Lord.

Sinful men and women can be changed into new creations, not through the repentance of their belief, but through the beautiful work of God in Christ Jesus, which preceded all of our experience [sce 2 Corinthians 5:17-19).

The unconquerable safety of justification and sanctification is God Himself.

Be encouraged. QWe do not have to accomplish these things ourselves. They have been achieved through the atonement of the Cross of Christ.

Be encouraged to learn the supernatural becomes natural to us through the miracle of God. There is the realization of what Jesus Christ has already done. It is finished!" (John 19:30).

Do your obedience, consecration, and dedication make you right with God?

Are you justified only because you are sorry for your sins?

Are you justified only because you repented?

You are made right with God because Christ died. That’s it.

When you turn to God and, by belief, accept what He reveals, the miraculous atonement by the Cross of Christ places you into a right relationship with God.

Did you know that your salvation is not based on human logic?

This is your question today.

27 October 2024

The method of missions

Oswald Chambers

Today, in your business and life, do you know the power of His indwelling Spirit?

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations..." (Matthew 28:19).

Jesus Christ did not say, "Go and save souls" (the salvation of souls is God's supernatural work), but He said, "Go . . make disciples of all the nations…”

Yet you cannot make disciples unless you are a disciple yourself. When the disciples returned from their first mission, they were filled with joy because even the demons were subject to them.

But Jesus said, in effect. "Don't rejoice in successful service. The great secret of joy is that you have the right relationship with Me* (see Luke 10:17-20).

The missionary's great essential is remaining faithful to the call of God and realizing that his only purpose is to disciple men and women to Jesus.

Remember that there is a passion for souls that does not come from God but from our desire to make converts to our point of view.

The challenge to the missionary does not come from the fact that people are difficult to bring to salvation, that backsliders are difficult to reclaim, or that there is a tarrier of callous indifference.

No, the challenge comes from the perspective of the missionary's relationship with Jesus Christ: "Do you believe that you can do this?" (Matthew 9:28).

Be encouraged. Our Lord unwaveringly asks us that question, which confronts us in every situation.

The one great challenge to us is, do I know my risen, Lord?

Be encouraged as you ask, are you wise enough in God's sight, but foolish enough according to the world's wisdom, to trust in what Jesus Christ has said?

Or am I abandoning the great supernatural position of limitless confidence in Christ Jesus, which is God's only can as a missionary?

If you follow any other method, you depart perpetually from the methods prescribed by our Lord-All- all authority has been given to Me. “Go, therefore” (Matthew 28:18-19)

Do you know the power of His indwelling spirit?

Do you trust Him?

Become wise enough yet foolish enough to trust Him.

Do you rejoice in successful service?

The secret of joy is found in your relationship with Him.

Do you falter in service?

Do you fault to find in service?

Do you know His indwelling Spirit?

Do you remain true to the call of God?

This is your question today.

26 October 2024

What is a missionary?

Oswald Chambers

26 OCTOBER 24

Today, in business and life, have you ever considered your definition of success, what a missionary is, and what inspires you?

"Jesus said to them again, * .. As the Father has sent Me, I also send you”(John 20:21).

The missionary is someone sent by Jesus Christ just as God sent him.

The significant controlling factor is not the people's needs but Jesus's command.

The source of our inspiration in our service to God is behind us, not ahead of us.

Be encouraged. Today tends to put the inspiration out, sweep everything together in front of us, and make it conform to our definition of success.

But in the New Testament, the inspiration is put behind us: the Lord Jesus Himself. The goal is to be faithful to Him--to carry out His plans.

Personal attachment to the Lord Jesus and His perspective must not be overlooked. In missionary work, the great danger is that God's call will be replaced by the people's needs, to the point that human sympathy for those needs will overwhelm the meaning of being sent by Jesus.

The needs are so enormous, and the conditions so difficult, that every power of the mind falters and fails.

We tend to forget that the one great reason underneath all missionary work is not primarily the elevation of the people, their education, nor their needs, but is first and foremost the command of Jesus Christ-"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. " (Matthew 28:19)

When looking back on the lives of men and women of God, the tendency is to say, "What wonderfully keen and intelligent wisdom they had, and how perfectly they understood all that God wanted!"

But the keen and intelligent mind behind them was the mind of God, not human wisdom at all. We give credit to human wisdom when we should give credit to the divine guidance of God exhibited through childlike people who were "foolish' wisdom and His supernatural equipment.

Enough to trust God's wisdom and His supernatural equipment.

Remember, a missionary is someone sent by Jesus Christ, just as God sent him.

Be encouraged that the source of your inspiration is the Lord Himself, and your goal is to be faithful to Him and to carry out His plans.

We tend to put the inspiration out in front to sweep everything together in front of us

Do you give credit to human wisdom or the divine guidance of God, which is behind a human’s wisdom?

Are you allowing the call of God to be replaced by the needs of the people?

These are your questions today.

25 October 2024

Submitting to God’s purpose

Oswald Chambers

Today, in business and life, are you learning to be God’s man or woman amid many meager and worthless things?

I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some" (1 Corinthians 9:22).

Be encouraged. A Christian worker must learn to be God's man or woman of great worth and excellence amid a multitude of meager and worthless things.

Never protest by saying, "If only I were somewhere else!" All of God's people are ordinary people who have been made extraordinary by the purpose He has given them.

Unless we have the proper purpose intellectually in our minds and lovingly in our hearts, we will very quickly be diverted from being useful to God. We are not workers for God by choice.

Many people deliberately choose to be workers, but they have no purpose for God's almighty grace or His mighty Word in them.

Paul's whole heart, mind, and soul were consumed with the great purpose of what Jesus Christ came to do, and he never lost sight of that one thing. We must continually confront ourselves with one central fact- (1 Corinthians 2:2).

Jesus Christ and Him crucified."I chose you..." (John 15:16). Keep these words as a wonderful reminder in your theology.

It is not that you have gotten God, but that He has called you. God is bending, breaking, molding, and doing precisely as He chooses.

And why is He doing it? He is doing it a lot with only one purpose--that He may be able to say.

This is My man, and this is My woman. We must be in God's hands to place others on the Rock of Jesus Christ, just as He has placed us.

Be encouraged and never choose to be a worker, but once God has placed His call upon you, wow be to you if you “turn aside … to the right or the left.” (Deuteronomy (28:4).

He will do with you what He never did before His call came to you, and He will do with you what He is not doing with other people. Let Him have His way.

Do you protest by saying, if I were someone else or somewhere else?

Do you think you are a worker of God by chance or by choice?

Be encouraged and remember all of God’s people are ordinary people who have been made extraordinary by the purpose he has given them.

Many people choose to be workers, but they have no purpose for God’s almighty grace or his Word in them.

Are you learning to be God’s man or woman amid many meager and worthless things?

This is your question today.

24 October 2024

The proper perspective

Oswald Chambers

Today in business and life, are you, like Paul, a blatant rebel against Jesus?

"Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ." (2 Corinthians 2:14.

The proper perspective of a servant of God must not simply be as near to the highest as he can get, but it must be the highest.

Be encouraged and careful to maintain God's perspective. Remember that it must be done every day, little by little.

Don't think on a finite level. No outside power can touch the proper perspective.

Be encouraged to learn the proper perspective to maintain that we are here for only one purpose- -to be captives marching in the procession of Christ's triumphs.

We are not on display in God's showcase. We are here to exhibit only one thing -the "captivity of our lives to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10.5).

How small all the other perspectives are! For example, the ones that say,

"I am standing all alone, battling for Jesus," or "I have to maintain the cause of Christ and hold down this fort for Him."

But Paul said, in essence, “I am in the procession of a conqueror, and it doesn't matter what the difficulties are, for I am always led in triumph." Is this idea being worked out practically in us?

Paul's secret joy was that God took him as a blatant rebel against Jesus Christ and made him a captive – and that became his purpose.

It was Paul's joy to be a captive of the Lord, and he had no other interest in heaven or earth.

It is a shameful thing for a Christian to talk about getting the victory. We should belong so entirely to the Victor that it is always His victory, and "we are more than conquerors through Him.." (Romans 8:37).

"We are to God the fragrance of Christ. (2 Corinthians 2:15). We are encompassed with the sweet aroma of Jesus, and wherever we go, we are a wonderful refreshment to God.

Are you careful to maintain God’s perspective?

Did you know that you are here for only one purpose?

Did you know that you are here only to exhibit the obedience of Christ?

Are they not on display in God’s playbook?

Did you know that your proper perspective is to maintain that you are here for only one purpose: to be captives marching in the procession to exhibit only one thing, the captivity to the obedience of Christ every day, little by little?

Are you, like Paul, a blatant rebel against Jesus?

This is your question today.

23 October 2024

Nothing Of The Old Life

Oswald Chambers

Today, in business and life, have you reached a point where if God withdraws all His blessings from you, will you still trust Him?

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. —2 Corinthians 5:17

Our Lord never tolerates our prejudices — He opposes them and puts them to death.

We tend to think that God has a special interest in our prejudices and are very sure that He will never deal with us as He has with others.

We even say, “God has to deal with other people very strictly, but of course, He knows that my prejudices are all right.”

But we must learn that God accepts nothing of the old life!

Be encouraged. Instead of siding with our prejudices, He is deliberately removing them from us.

It is part of our moral education to see our prejudices put to death by His providence and to watch how He does it.

God does not respect anything we bring to Him. He wants only one thing from us: our unconditional surrender.

Be encouraged. When we are born again, the Holy Spirit begins to work His new creation in us, and there will come a time when nothing will remain of the old life.

Our old, gloomy outlook disappears, as does our old attitude toward things, and “all things are of God” (2 Corinthians 5:18).

How will we get a life that has no lust, no self-interest, and is not sensitive to the ridicule of others?

How will we have the type of love that “is kind…is not provoked, [and] thinks no evil”? (1 Corinthians 13:4-5).

Be encouraged. The only way is to allow nothing of the old life to remain and to have only simple, perfect trust in God—such a trust that we no longer want God’s blessings but only want God Himself.

Have we reached the point where God can withdraw His blessings from us without affecting our trust in Him?

Once we truly see God at work, we will never be concerned again about what happens because we are actually trusting in our Father in heaven, whom the world cannot see.

Do you think that God will put up with your prejudices?

How do you get a life that has no lust?

How do you get a life that has no self-interest?

How do you get a life that is not sensitive to the ridicule of others?

How do you have the type of love that is kind, not provoked, and thinks no evil?

When you are born again, The Holy Spirit begins to work His new creation in you, and old things are passing away as you become a new creature.

Once you truly see God at work, you will never be concerned about what may happen to you because you are trusting in a God the world can not see.

Have you reached a point where you can no longer trust God if He withdraws all His blessings from you?

This is your question today.

22 October 2024

The witness of the Spirit

Today, in your business and life, do you ever wonder why doesn’t God reveal Himself to you?

"The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit . . ." (Romans 8:16).

We are in danger of getting into a bargaining spirit with God when we come to Him-we want the witness of the Spirit before we have done what God tells us to do.

Why doesn't God reveal Himself to you? He cannot. It is not that He will not, but He cannot because you are in the way as long as you won't abandon yourself to Him in total surrender.

Yet once you do, God immediately witnesses to Himself. He cannot witness to you, but He instantly witnesses His nature in you.

Be encouraged if you receive the witness of the Spirit before the reality and truth that comes from obedience. Otherwise, it would simply result in sentimental emotion.

But when you act based on redemption and stop the disrespectfulness of debating with God, He immediately gives His witness.

As soon as you abandon your reasoning and arguing, God witnesses what He has done, and you are amazed at your total disrespect for keeping Him waiting.

If you are debating whether God can deliver from sin, let Him do it or tell Him He cannot.

Do not quote this or that person to Him. Obey Matthew 11:28, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden."

Come, if you are weary, and ask, if you know you are evil (see Luke 11:9-13).

The Spirit of God witnesses the redemption of our Lord and nothing else.

He cannot witness our reason. We are inclined to mistake the simplicity that comes from our natural, commonsense decisions for the witness of the Spirit, but the Spirit witnesses only to His nature and to the work of redemption, never to our reason.

If we are trying to make Him witness to our reason, it is no wonder that we are in darkness and uncertainty.

Throw it all overboard, trust in Him, and He will give you the witness of the Spirit.

Be encouraged to learn that we want to witness the spirit before we do what He has asked us to do.

The Spirit of God witnesses the redemption of our Lord Himself and nothing else. He can not witness our reason.

We must abandon ourselves to Him in total surrender.

Are you debating whether or not God can deliver from sin?

Will you abandon your reasoning and argument?

Do you ever wonder why doesn’t God reveal Himself to you?

This is your question today.

21 October 2024

Impulsiveness or discipleship

Oswald Chambers

Today, in business and life, do you find yourself getting into a panic?

“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith …”. (Jude 20).

There was nothing of the nature of impulsive or thoughtless action about our Lord, but only a calm strength that never got into a panic.

Most of us develop our Christianity along our nature, not God's nature.

Impulsiveness is a trait of the natural life, but our Lord always ignores it because it hinders the development of a disciple's life.

Watch how the Spirit of God gives a sense of restraint to impulsiveness, suddenly bringing us a feeling of self-conscious foolishness, which makes us instantly want to vindicate ourselves.

Impulsiveness is all right in a child but is disastrous in a man or woman- an impulsive adult is always a spoiled person. Impulsiveness needs to be trained into intuition through discipline.

Did you know that you can train your impulsiveness through discipline?

Impulsiveness Is a trait of natural life, and our Lord always ignores it because it hinders the development of the disciple's life.

Be encouraged to learn that discipleship is built entirely on the grace of God. Live twenty-four hours daily as a saint, going through drudgery and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus.

Be encouraged and watch how the Spirit of God gives a sense of restraint to impulsiveness.

Did you know that walking on water is easy for someone with impulsive boldness, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is different?

Therefore, did you know that impulsiveness needs to be trained through intuition discipline?

Are you impulsive and thoughtless?

These are your questions today.

20 October 2024

Is God's will, my will?

Oswald Chambers

Today, In business and life, is God’s will your will, or do you expect your will to be God’s will?

This is the will of God, your sanctification… —1 Thessalonians 4:3

Be encouraged. Sanctification is not a question of whether God is willing to sanctify me—it is a question of whether it is my will.

Am I willing to let God do in me everything made possible through the atonement of the Cross of Christ?

Am I willing to let Jesus become sanctification to me and to let His life be exhibited in my human flesh? (see?1 Corinthians 1:30).

Beware of saying, “Oh, I am longing to be sanctified.” No, you are not. Recognize your need, but stop longing and make it a matter of action.

Be encouraged. Receive Jesus Christ to become sanctification for you by absolute, unquestioning faith, and the great miracle of the atonement of Jesus will become real in you.

All that Jesus made possible becomes mine through God's free and loving gift based on what Christ accomplished on the cross.

And my attitude as a saved and sanctified soul is profound, humble holiness (there is no such thing as proud holiness).

It is a holiness based on agonizing repentance, a sense of inexpressible shame and degradation, and the amazing realization that God's love demonstrated itself to me while I cared nothing about Him (see Romans 5:8).

He completed everything for my salvation and sanctification. No wonder Paul said that nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).

Sanctification makes me one with Jesus Christ and, in Him, one with God, and it is accomplished only through Christ's magnificent atonement.

Be encouraged. Never confuse the effect with the cause. The effect in me is obedience, service, and prayer. It is the outcome of inexpressible thanks and adoration for the miraculous sanctification in me because of the atonement through the Cross of Christ.

Is God’s will your will, or do you expect your will to be God’s will?

This is your question today.

19 October 2024

The Unheeded Secret

Oswald Chambers

Today, in business and life, do you have any idea of how or where God is going to engineer your future circumstances and the stress and strain that He will place on you?

"Jesus answered, 'My kingdom is not of this world' " (John 18:36).

Be encouraged. Today's great enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ is the idea of practical work that has no basis in the New Testament but comes from the world's systems.

This work insists upon endless energy and activities but no private life with God.

The emphasis is put on the wrong thing. Jesus said, "The kingdom of God does not come with observation.

For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:20-21). It is a hidden, obscure thing.

Be encouraged. An active Christian worker too often lives to be seen by others, while the innermost, personal area reveals the power of a person's life.

We must eliminate the plague of the spirit of this religious age in which we live. In our Lord's life, there was none of the pressure and the rushing of tremendous activity that we regard so highly today, and a disciple is to be like His Master.

The central point of the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a personal relationship with Him, not public usefulness to others.

It is not the practical activities that strengthen this Bible training. Its entire strength lies in the fact that here, you are immersed in the truths of God to soak in them before Him.

And if you waste your time in overactivity instead of being immersed in the great fundamental truths of God's redemption, you will snap when the stress and strain do come.

But if this time of soaking before God is spent in getting rooted and grounded in Him, which may appear impractical, then you will remain faithful to Him whatever happens.

The secret is not a secret, for it is the kingdom of God within you. It is a hidden, obscure thing. It is your innermost personal area that reveals your power from within.

Do you know the great enemy of your Lord?

Did you know daily that your emphasis is placed on the wrong things?

Did you know the kingdom of God is within you?

Do you know Christian workers who often live to be seen by others while not knowing it’s their personal innermost life that reveals their power?

The great enemy of the Lord is the idea of practical work that has no basis in the New Testament. This comes from the systems of the world.

This work consists of and insists upon endless energy and activities but no private life with God.

Do you have any idea of how or where God is going to engineer your future circumstances and the stress and strain that He will place on you?

These are your questions today.

18 October 2024

The Key To The Missionary’s Devotion

Oswald Chambers

Today, in business and life, are you faithful to your Lord and your devotion to Him?

".. they went forth for His name's sake “. (3 John 7).

Our Lord told us how our love for Him should manifest itself when He asked, "Do you love Me?" (John 21:17).

And then He said, "Feed My sheep." He said, "Identify yourself with My interests in other people," not "Identify Me with your interests in other people."

First Corinthians 13:4 8 shows us the characteristics of this love; it is the love of God expressing itself.

The actual test of my love for Jesus is efficient, and all the rest is sentimental talk.

Faithfulness to Jesus Christ is the supernatural work of redemption that has been performed in me by the Holy Spirit- "the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit . . ." (Romans 5:5).

And it is that love in me that effectively works through me and comes in contact with everyone I meet. I remain faithful to His name, even though the commonsense view of my life may seemingly deny that and appear to declare that He has no more power than the morning mist.

The key to the missionary's devotion is that he is attached to nothing and no one except our Lord Himself.

It does not mean being detached from the external things surrounding us. Our Lord was amazingly in touch with the ordinary things of life, but He had an inner detachment toward God.

Be encouraged because external detachment often indicates a secret, growing inner attachment to the things we stay away from externally.

A faithful missionary must concentrate on keeping his soul entirely and continually open to the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The men and women our Lord sends out on His endeavors are ordinary human people but people who are controlled by their devotion to Him, which has been brought about through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Do you know how to show and demonstrate a missionary’s devotion?

Do you love your Lord?

Do you feed His sheep?

Are you open to the nature of the Lord?

Do you identify yourself with Him?

Do you identify yourself with His interest in other people, or do you recognize Him with your interest in other people?

Be encouraged. The love of God has been poured out in you and is demonstrated through you by your love for others.

Are you faithful to your Lord in your devotion to Him?

These are your questions today.

17 October 2024

The key to greater work

Oswald Chambers

Today, in business and life, do you know the key to greater work?

"..I say to you, he who believes in Me, greater works than these he will do, because one goes to My Father" (John 14:12).

Prayer does not equip us for more significant works — prayer is the greater work.

Yet, we think of prayer as some commonsense exercise of our higher powers that prepares us for God's work.

In Jesus Christ's teachings, 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 agony.

Be encouraged to go to God as His child because only a child gets his prayers answered; a "wise" man does not (see Matthew 11:25).

Be encouraged. Prayer is the battle, and it makes no difference where you are. However God may engineer your circumstances, you must pray.

Never allow yourself this thought, "I am of no use where I am." you certainly cannot be used where you have not yet been placed.

Be encouraged wherever God has placed you and whatever your circumstances. You should continually offer prayers to Him.

And He promises, "Whatever you ask in My name, I will do...

." (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 laborers into His harvest."

(Matthew 9:38).

Nothing is thrilling about a laboring person's work, but the laboring person makes the ideas of the genius possible.

And it is the laboring saint who makes the ideas of his Master possible.

From God's perspective, there are always results when you labor at prayer.

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.

Do you think of prayer as a commonsense exercise?

Do you think that prayer does not matter?

Did you know that the way fruit remains firm is through prayer?

Did you know that prayer is a battle?

Did you know you cannot be used where you have not been placed?

This is your question today.

16 October 2024

The key to the Master's orders

Oswald Chambers

Today, in your business and life, did you know that prayer is the key to the masters’ orders?

"Pray the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His harvest.”

(Matthew 9:38).

The key to the missionary's difficult task is in God's hand, and that key is prayer, not work—that is, not work as the word is commonly used today, which often results in shifting our focus away from God.

The key to the missionary's difficult task is also not common sense nor the key to medicine, civilization, education, or even evangelization.

The key is not following the Master's orders but prayer. "Pray the Lord of the harvest . . ."

In the natural realm, prayer is not practical but absurd.

We must realize that prayer is foolish from a commonsense point of view.

From Jesus Christ's perspective, there are no nations but only the world.

How many of us pray without regard to the persons but concerning only one Person -Jesus Christ?

He owns the harvest that is produced through distress and conviction of sin. This is the harvest for which we must pray that laborers be sent to reap it.

We stay busy at work while people around us are ripe and ready to be harvested; we do not reap even one of them but waste our Lord's time in over-energized activities and programs.

Suppose a crisis came into your father's or your brother's life- are you there as a laborer to reap the harvest for Jesus Christ?

Is your response, "Oh, but I have a special work to do!"

No Christian has exceptional work to do. A Christian is called to be Jesus Christ's own, "a servant who is not greater than his master" (John 13:16), and someone who does not dictate to Jesus Christ what he intends to do.

Our Lord calls us to do no exceptional work- He calls us to Himself.

Be encouraged as you pray to the Lord of the harvest," and He will engineer your circumstances to send you out as His laborer.

What is the key to the Missionary’s task?

Be encouraged and remember the key to following the Master’s orders is prayer. In the natural realm, prayer is foolish from a common sense point of view.

We stay so busy at work with many activities and programs, wasting our Lord’s time, while so many near us need our prayers.

Did you know that prayer is the key to the masters’ orders?

This is your question today.

15 October 2024

The key to the missionary's message

Oswald Chambers

Are you preaching the gospel in your business and life today?

"He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but for the whole world” (1 John 2:2).

The key to the missionary's message is the propitiation of Christ Jesus's sacrifice for us, which completely satisfied God's wrath.

Look at any other aspect of Christ's work, whether it is healing., saving, or sanctifying, and you will see that there is nothing limitless about those.

But- "The Lamb of God who takes away the world's sin!"-that is limitless (John 1:29).

The missionary's message is the limitless importance of Jesus Christ as the propitiation for our sins, and a missionary is immersed in the truth of that revelation.

Be encouraged. The real key to the missionary's message is the "remission-ary" aspect of Christ's life, not His kindness, His goodness, or even His revealing of the fatherhood of God to us. " . repentance and remission of sins should be preached . .. to all nations.." (Luke 24:47).

The most significant message, which is of limitless importance, is that "He is the propitiation for our sins. . ."

The missionary's message is not nationalistic, favoring nations or individuals. It is "for the whole world."

Be encouraged when the Holy Spirit comes into you; He does not consider your partialities or preferences; He brings you into oneness with the Lord Jesus.

A missionary is bound by marriage to the stated mission and purpose of his Lord and Master.

He is not to proclaim his point of view but is only to reveal "the Lamb of God."

It is easier to belong to a faction that tells what Jesus Christ has done for me and more accessible to become a devotee of divine healing, a particular type of sanctification, or the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

But Paul did not say, "Woe is me if I do not preach what Christ has done for me," but, "Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!" (1 Corinthians 9:16).

And this is the gospel: "The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"

The missionary is someone who is immersed in the truth of this revelation.

Are you preaching the gospel through your daily living?

This is your question today.

14 October 2024

The key to the missionary's work

Oswald Chambers

Today, in business and life, do you know the key to the missionary’s work?

"Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:18-19).

The key to the missionary's work is the authority of Jesus Christ, not the needs of the lost.

We are inclined to view our Lord as someone who assists us in our endeavors for God.

Yet our Lord places Himself as the absolute sovereign and supreme Lord over His disciples.

He does not say that the lost will never be saved if we don't go. He says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.."

He says, "Go based on the revealed truth of My sovereignty, teaching and preaching out of your living experience of Me."

"Then the eleven disciples went .. to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them" (28:16).

If you want to know Christ's universal sovereignty, you must know Him yourself.

It would help if you took time to worship the One whose name I bear. Jesus says, "Come to Me; that is the place to meet Me. “All you who labor and are heavily laden are" (Matthew 11:28)—and how many missionaries there are!

We dismiss entirely these beautiful words of the universal Sovereign of the world, but they are the words of Jesus to His disciples meant for here and now.

"'Go, therefore . . . " To "go" means to live. Acts 1:8 is the description of how to go.

Jesus did not say in this verse, "Go into Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, but you shall be witnesses to Me in [all these places]."

He takes upon Himself the work of sending us, "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you...(John 15:7)-that is the way to keep going.

Where we are placed is indifferent because God sovereignly engineers our goings.

None of these things move me, nor do I count my life dear to myself to finish my race with joy and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus... (Acts 20:24).

That is how we keep going until we are gone from this life.

Are you willing to go, therefore?

Are you willing to teach?

Are you willing to go and make disciples?

Will you abide in Him and allow His Word to abide in you?

Do you know the key to the missionary’s work?

These are your questions today.

13 October 2024

Individual discouragement and personal growth

Oswald Chambers

Today in business and life, do you at times feel the call of God while, like Moses, asking the question, “Who am I that I should go?”

(Exodus 3:10-11)

“...when Moses was grown . . . he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens" (Exodus 2:11).

Moses saw the oppression of his people and felt confident that he was the one to deliver them, and in the righteous indignation of his own spirit, he started to right their wrongs.

After he launched his first strike for God and for what was right, God allowed Moses to be driven into empty discouragement, sending him into the desert to feed sheep for forty years.

At the end of that time, God appeared to Moses and said, "... bring My people... out of Egypt.

In the beginning, Moses realized that he was the one to deliver the people, but he first had to be trained and disciplined by God.

He was right in his perspective, but he was not responsible for the work until he had learned true fellowship and oneness with God.

Do you see the oppression of your people?

Do you feel that you are the one to deliver them?

Do you feel you are being trained and disciplined for the journey and the task?

Can you say, “I know this is what God wants me to do?”

Be encouraged if you are experiencing discouragement; there is a time of tremendous personal growth ahead.

Be encouraged and realize that after you attempt to right a wrong and launch your first strike for what is right, like Moses, God may allow you also to be driven into empty discouragement, sending you into a spiritual desert to feed his people for forty years.

Sure, we may have God's vision and a clear understanding of what God wants, but when we come to do it, there comes that wilderness experience.

Are you willing to learn through individual discouragement and personal growth that your effort for God shows nothing but disrespect, but your individuality is to be rendered radiant through your relationship with God so he may be well pleased?

Has God chosen you, then allowed you to be driven into empty discouragement and driven you into the wilderness to feed the sheep while getting into God’s stride?

This is your question today.

12 October 2024

Getting out into God's stride

Oswald Chambers

Today in business and life, will you give up because the pain is so intense, or will you walk in His stride right now?

"Enoch walked with God ..." (Genesis 5:24).

The actual test of a person's spiritual life and character is not what he does in the extraordinary moments of life but what he does during ordinary times when nothing tremendous or exciting happens.

A person's worth is revealed in his attitude toward the ordinary things of life when he is not under the spotlight (see John 1:35-37 and 3:30).

It is painful work to get in step with God, and keeping pace with Him means getting your second wind spiritually.

In learning to walk with God, there is always the difficulty of getting into His stride, but once we have done so, the only characteristic that exhibits itself is the very life of God Himself.

The person is merged into a personal oneness with God, and God's stride and His power alone are exhibited.

It is difficult to get into stride with God because as soon as we start walking with Him, His pace surpasses us before we have even taken three steps.

He has different ways of doing things; we must be trained and disciplined in His ways. It was said of Jesus- "He will not fail nor be discouraged . . .(Isaiah 42:4) because He never worked from His standpoint, but always worked from the standpoint of His Father.

And we must learn to do the same. Spiritual truth is realized through the atmosphere surrounding us, not intellectual reasoning. God's Spirit changes the atmosphere of our way of looking at things, and things begin to be possible, which before were impossible. Getting into God's stride means nothing less than oneness with Him. It takes a long time to get there, but keep at it.

Don't give up because the pain is intense right now, and before long, you will find that you have a new vision and a new purpose.

Be encouraged to learn that getting into God’s stride means nothing but oneness with Him. It is always challenging to get into God's stride when learning to walk with Him, but once we have done so, the only characteristic that exhibits the self is God's life.

What is the actual test of your spiritual life and character?

What is the value of your true worth?

How do you learn how to walk with God?

Be encouraged. The answers are not found in the extraordinary moments in life but in what you do during the ordinary times when nothing tremendous or exciting is happening. This is where your worth is revealed in your attitude.

Spiritual truth is learned through the atmosphere surrounding us, not intellectual reasoning.

Will you give up because the pain is so intense, or will you continue walking in His stride right now?

This is your question today.

11 October 2024

God's silence – then what?

Oswald Chambers

Today, in business and life, sometimes you feel like you asked God for bread, but he gave you a stone.

When he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was for two more days. — John?11:6

Has God trusted you with a silence, one that is full of meaning?

God’s silences are his answers. Think of those days of absolute silence in the home at Bethany as Lazarus lay sick and dying, tended by Mary and Martha (John 11).

Is there anything similar to those days in your life?

Can God trust you as he trusted Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, or are you still asking for a visible answer?

If you refuse to go on without specific blessings, God will give them to you. But His silence is the sign that he is bringing you into a marvelous understanding of himself.

Are you mourning before God because you have not had an audible response?

You will find that God has trusted you in the most intimate way possible—with a silence that is not of despair but of pleasure because He saw that you could handle a more significant revelation.

If God has given you silence, praise him. He is bringing you into the great flow of His purpose.

Precisely when the answer will manifest itself is God’s sovereign choice.

Time is nothing to God. Perhaps you’ve grown impatient, thinking, “I asked God to give me bread, and he gave me a stone.” He did not.

Soon, you will find he gave you the bread of life.

A wonderful thing about God’s silence is that the contagion of His stillness gets into you, and you become perfectly confident: “I know God has heard me.”

His silence is proof that he has. As long as you believe that God will bless you in answer to a prayer, he will.

But He will never give you the grace of silence. When Jesus Christ is bringing you into the understanding that prayer isn’t for blessings but for glorifying the Father, He will give you the first sign of his intimacy—silence.

Are you confident that God has heard you, and can God trust you with His silence?

Are you mourning before God because you have not had an audible response?

Do you feel like you asked God for bread but received a stone instead?

These are your question today.

10 October 2024

How will you know?

Oswald Chambers

Today, in your business and life, did you know that all of God’s revealed truths are sealed until they are opened to you only through your obedience?

Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father…that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.” —Matthew 11:25

We do not grow into a spiritual relationship step by step— we either have a relationship or we do not.

Be encouraged. God does not continue to cleanse us more and more from sin— “But if we walk in the light,” we are cleansed “from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

It is a matter of obedience; the relationship is instantly perfected once we obey.

But if we turn away from obedience for even one second, darkness and death are immediately at work again.

God’s revealed truths are sealed until they are opened to us through obedience.

Be encouraged. You will never open them through philosophy or thinking. But once you obey, a flash of light comes immediately.

Be encouraged. Let God’s truth work into you by immersing yourself in it, not worrying about it.

The only way to know God's truth is to stop trying to find out and be born again.

If you obey God in the first thing He shows you, He instantly opens up the following truth.

You could read volumes on the work of the Holy Spirit when five minutes of total, uncompromising obedience would make things as clear as sunlight.

Don’t say, “I will understand these things someday!”

You can understand them now. And it is not study that brings understanding to you, but obedience.

Even the slightest bit of obedience opens heaven, and the most profound truths of God immediately become yours.

Yet God will never reveal more truth about Himself until you have obeyed what you already know.

Be encouraged and beware of becoming one of the “wise and prudent.” “If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know…” (John 7:17).

Did you know that God’s revealed truths are sealed until they are opened to you only through your obedience?

This is your question today.

9 October 2024

Building on the atonement

Oswald Chambers

Today, in business and life, can you save and sanctify yourself?

“... present . . . your members as instruments of righteousness to God" (Romans 6:13).

I can not save and sanctify myself; I cannot make atonement for sin or redeem the world. I cannot right what is wrong, purify what is impure, or make holy what is unholy.

That is all God's sovereign work. Do I have faith in what Jesus Christ has done?

He has made the perfect atonement for sin. Am I in the habit of constantly realizing it?

Our greatest need is not to do things but to believe something.

The redemption of Christ is not an experience; it is the great act of God which He has performed through Christ, and I have to build my faith in it.

If I construct my faith on my own experience, I will live the most unscripturally isolated life, with my eyes focused solely on my holiness.

Beware of that human holiness that is not based on the atonement of the Lord. It has no value for anything except a life of isolation- -it is useless to God and a nuisance to man.

Measure every kind of experience you have by our Lord Himself. We cannot do anything pleasing to God unless we deliberately build on the foundation of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.

The atonement of Jesus must be exhibited in practical, unassuming ways in my life.

Every time I obey, God's absolute deity is on my side, so God's grace and my natural obedience are in perfect agreement.

Obedience means that I have entirely placed my trust in the atonement, and my obedience is

immediately met by the delight of the supernatural grace of God.

Be encouraged, but beware of human holiness that denies the reality of natural life. It is a fraud.

Be encouraged and continually bring yourself to the trial or test of the atonement and ask, "Where is the discernment of the atonement in this and in that?"

Can you save and sanctify yourself?

Can you make atonement for sin?

Can you redeem the world?

Can you right what is wrong?

Can you purify what is impure?

Can you make holy what is unholy?

These are your questions today.

8 October 2024

Coming to Jesus

Oswald Chambers

Today, in your business and life, isn’t it humiliating to be told to come to Jesus?

Come to Me… —Matthew 11:28

Isn’t it humiliating to be told that we must come to Jesus? Think of the things about which we will not come to Jesus Christ.

Be encouraged. If you want to know how real you are, test yourself with these words— “Come to Me….”

In every dimension in which you are not real, you will argue or evade the issue altogether rather than come; you will go through sorrow rather than come; and you will do anything rather than come to the last lap of the race of seemingly unspeakable foolishness and say, “Just as I am, I come.”

As long as you have even the slightest spiritual disrespect, it will always reveal itself in your expectation that God will tell you to do something very big, yet all He is telling you to do is to “Come….”

“Come to Me….”

Be encouraged. When you hear those words, you will know that something must happen to you before you can come.

The Holy Spirit will show you what you must do and involve anything that will uproot whatever prevents you from getting through to Jesus.

And you will never get any further until you are willing to do that very thing.

Be encouraged. The Holy Spirit will search out that one immovable stronghold within you, but He cannot budge it unless you are willing to let Him do so.

How often have you come to God with your requests and gone away thinking, “I’ve received what I wanted this time!”

And yet you go away with nothing, while all the time God has stood with His hands outstretched to take you and for you to take Him.

Just think of the invincible, unconquerable, and untiring patience of Jesus, who lovingly says, “Come to Me….”

Are you willing to allow the Holy Spirit to search that one stronghold within you?

This is your question today.

7 October 2024

The nature of reconciliation

Oswald Chambers

Today in business and in life, can you redeem yourself?

For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. — 2?Corinthians?5:21

Sin is a fundamental relationship; it is not wrong doing, it is wrong being, deliberate and emphatic independence of God.

The Christian religion bases everything on the positive*, radical nature of sin.

Other religions deal with sins; the Bible alone deals with sin.

The first thing Jesus Christ faced in men was the heredity of sin, and it is because we have ignored this in our presentation of the Gospel that the message of the Gospel has lost its sting and its blasting power.

Be encouraged. The revelation of the Bible is not that Jesus Christ took upon Himself our fleshly sins, but that He took upon Himself the heredity of sin which no man can touch.

God made His own Son to be sin that He might make the sinner a saint.

All through the Bible it is revealed that Our Lord bore the sin of the world by identification, not by sympathy.

He deliberately took upon His own shoulders, and bore in His own Person, the whole massed sin of the human race — “He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin,” and by so doing He put the whole human race on the basis of Redemption.

Jesus Christ rehabilitated the human race; He put it back to where God designed it to be, and anyone can enter into union with God on the ground of what Our Lord has done on the Cross.

Be encouraged. A man cannot redeem himself; Redemption is God’s “bit,” it is absolutely finished and complete; its reference to individual men is a question of their individual action.

A distinction must always be made between the revelation of Redemption and the conscious experience of salvation in a man’s life.

Can you redeem yourself?

This is your question today.

6 October 2024

The Nature of Regeneration

Oswald Chambers

Today, in business and life, do you believe you were called and set apart before birth?

"When it pleased God . ..to reveal His Son. in me.” (Galatians 1:15-16).

If Jesus Christ will regenerate me, what is the problem He faces?

I have a heredity in which I had no say or decision; I am not holy, nor am I likely to be, and if all Jesus Christ can do is tell me that I must be holy, His teaching only causes me to despair.

But if Jesus Christ is truly a regenerator who can put His heredity of holiness into me, I can begin to see what He means when He says that I have to be holy.

Be encouraged to learn that redemption means that Jesus Christ can put into anyone the hereditary nature that was in Himself, and all the standards He gives us are based on that nature. His teaching is meant to be applied to the life He puts within us.

Be encouraged to properly agree with God's verdict on sin as judged on the Cross of Christ.

The New Testament teaches about regeneration when a person is hit by his sense of need.

God will put the Holy Spirit into his spirit, and his heart will be energized by the Spirit of the Son of God.. until Christ is formed in you”(Galatians 4:19).

The moral miracle of redemption is that God can put a new nature into me through which I can live a new life.

When I finally reach the edge of my need and know my limitations, Jesus says, 'Blessed are you . .." (Matthew 5:11).

But I must get to that point. God cannot put into me the responsible moral person I am, the nature in Jesus Christ, unless I know my need for it.

Just as the nature of sin entered the human race through one man, the Holy Spirit entered the human race through another Man (see Romans 5:12-19).

And redemption means that I can be delivered from the heredity of sin and that through Jesus Christ, I can receive a pure and spotless heredity—namely, the Holy Spirit.

Did you know that just as the nature of sin entered into the human race through one man, the Holy Spirit entered into the human race through another Man?

Redeeming means that we can be delivered from the heredity of sin and that through Jesus Christ, we can receive a pure and spotless heredity, namely the Holy Spirit.

Do you believe you were called and set apart before you were born?

This is your question today.

5 October 2024

The nature of degeneration

Oswald Chambers

Today, in business and life, do you ever feel you are your god?

"Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned…” (Romans 5:12).

Be encouraged. The Bible does not say that God punished the human race for one man's sin but that the nature of evil, namely, my claim to my right to myself, entered the human race through one man.

But it also says that another Man took upon Himself the sins of the human race and put them away—an infinitely more profound revelation (see Hebrews 9:26).

The maturity of sin is not immorality and wrongdoing but the nature of self-realization, which leads us to say. "I am my god."

Be encouraged. This nature may exhibit itself in proper morality or improper immorality. Still, it always has an everyday basis- my claim to my right to myself when our Lord faced people with all the forces of evil in them or people who were clean-living. Moral and upright, He paid no attention to the moral degradation of one nor the moral attainment of the other.

He looked at something we do not see, namely, the nature of man (see John 2:25).

Sin is something I am born with and cannot touch – only God feels sin through redemption.

It is through the Cross of Christ that God redeemed the entire human race from the possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin.

Be encouraged to know God nowhere holds a person responsible for having the heredity of sin and does not condemn anyone because of it.

Condemnation comes when I realize that Jesus Christ came to deliver me from this heredity of sin, yet I refuse to let Him do so.

From that moment, I began to get the seal of damnation. "This is the condemnation (and the critical moment), that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light….”

(John 3:19).

Do you love darkness rather than light and feel you are your god?

4 October 2024

The vision and the reality

Oswald Chambers

Today in business and life, have you ever considered turning back while experiencing the bumps and bruises on the road to be shaped, and will you let the vision be turned into character?

Called to be saints. — 1?Corinthians?1:2

Thank God for the sight of all you have never yet been. You have had the vision, but you are not there by any means.

It is when we are in the valley, where we prove whether we will be the choice ones, that most of us turn back.

Be encouraged. We are not quite prepared for the blows that must come if we are going to be turned into the shape of the vision.

We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to have the vision “batter’d to shape and use” by God?

The batterings always come in commonplace ways and through commonplace people

Be encouraged. There are times when we do know what God’s purpose is; whether we will let the vision be turned into actual character depends upon us, not upon God.

If we prefer to loll on the mount and live in the memory of the vision, we will be useless in the ordinary stuff of which human life is made up.

We have to learn to live based on what we see in the vision, not in ecstasies and conscious contemplation of God, but in actualities in the light of the vision until we reach veritable reality.

Be encouraged. Every bit of our training is in that direction. Learn to thank God for making His demands known.

The little “I am” always sulks when God says do. Let the little “I am” be shriveled up in God’s indignation — “I AM THAT I AM…hath sent me.”

He must dominate. Is it not penetrating to realize that God knows where we live and the kennels we crawl into?

He will hunt us up like a lightning flash. No human being knows human beings as God does.

Have you ever considered turning back while experiencing the bumps and bruises on the road to be shaped?

This is your question today.

3 October

THE PLACE OF MINISTRY

Oswald Chambers

Today in business and life, when you find yourself powerless in certain situations, remember, “This kind of unclean spirit comes out only by prayer and fasting “ (Mark 9:29).

This kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting. — Mark?9:29

“Why could not we cast him out?”

The answer lies in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This kind can come only through concentration and redoubled concentration on Him.

Be encouraged. As were the disciples, we can never remain powerless by trying to do God’s work without concentrating on His power but by ideas drawn from our own temperament.

We slander God by our eagerness to work for Him without knowing Him.

Be encouraged when confronted with a difficult case. Nothing happens externally, yet you know that emancipation will be given because you are concentrated on Jesus Christ.

This is your line of service — to see that there is nothing between Jesus and yourself. Is there?

If there is, you must get through it, not by ignoring it in irritation or by mounting up, but by facing it and getting through it into the presence of Jesus Christ. Then that very thing, and all you have been through in connection with it, will glorify Jesus Christ in a way you will never know until you see Him face to face.

We must be able to mount up with wings like eagles but also know how to come down.

Be encouraged. The power of the saint lies in the coming down and the living down. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me,” said Paul, and the things he referred to were mostly humiliating things.

It is in our power to refuse to be humiliated and to say — “No, thank you, I much prefer to be on the mountaintop with God.”

Can I face things as they actually are in the light of the reality of Jesus Christ, or do things as they efface altogether my faith in Him, and put me into a panic?

Can you do the humiliating things through Christ who strengthens you?

This is your question today.

2 October 2024

THE PLACE OF HUMILIATION

Oswald Chambers

Today, in business and life,

when you were on the mountaintop, you could believe anything, but what about when faced with the valley and a place of humiliation?

"If You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us" (Mark 9:22).

After every time of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they are, where it is neither beautiful, poetic, nor thrilling.

Be encouraged. The dismal drudgery of the valley measures the height of the mountaintop, but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God.

We see His glory on the mountain, but we never live for His glory there. In the place of humiliation, we find our true worth to God- that is where our faithfulness is revealed.

Most of us can do things if we are always at some heroic level of intensity simply because of the natural selfishness of our hearts.

But God wants us to be at the drab everyday level, where we live in the valley according to our relationship with Him.

Peter thought it would be wonderful for them to remain on the mountain, but Jesus Christ took the disciples down from the hill and into the valley, where the true meaning of the vision was explained (see 9:5-6, 14-23).

"If you can do anything. ..." It takes the valley of humiliation to remove the skepticism from us.

Look back at your own experience, and you will find that until you learned who Jesus was, you were a skillful skeptic about His power.

When you were on the mountaintop, you could believe anything, but what about when you were faced with the facts of the valley?

You may be able to testify regarding your sanctification, but what is a humiliation to you right now?

Be encouraged. The last time you were on the mountain with God, you saw that all the power in heaven and on earth belonged to Jesus.

When you were on the mountaintop, you could believe anything, but what about when faced with the valley and a place of humiliation?

This is your question today.

1 October 2024

THE PLACE OF EXHALATION

Oswald Chambers

Today, in business and life, It is a beautiful thing to be on the mountaintop with God, but are you willing to go down and lift the demon-possessed people in the valley?

“.. Jesus took . .. them up on a high mountain apart by themselves." (Mark 9:2).

Be encouraged. We have all experienced times of exaltation on the mountain when we have seen things from God's perspective and have wanted to stay there. But God will never allow us to stay there.

The actual test of our spiritual life is exhibiting the power to descend from the mountain. If we only have the power to go up, something is wrong.

It is wonderful to be on the mountain with God, but a person only gets there so that he may later go down and lift the demon-possessed people in the valley (see 9:14-18).

We are not made for the mountains, sunrises, or other beautiful attractions in life. Those are intended to be moments of inspiration.

We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life, where we must prove our stamina and strength.

Yet our spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mountain.

We could talk and live like perfect angels if we could only stay on the mountaintop.

Be encouraged to learn that those times of exaltation are exceptional and have meaning in our life with God, but we must beware to prevent our spiritual selfishness from wanting to make them the only time.

We are inclined to think that everything that happens will be helpful to teaching.

It is to be turned into something even better than teaching, namely, character.

The mountaintop is not meant to teach us anything. It is intended to make us something.

Be encouraged. There is a terrible trap in always asking, "What's the use of this experience!" We can never measure spiritual matters in that way.

The moments on the mountaintop are rare and meant for something in God's purpose.

Do you remember your last mountaintop experience?

Be encouraged to take the actual test of your spiritual life in exhibiting the power to descend from the mountain.

It is a wonderful thing to be on the mountaintop with God, but are you willing to go down and lift the demon-possessed people in the valley?

This is your question today.