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

30 September 2024

The assigning of the call

Oswald Chambers

Today, in business and life, can you imagine what would happen if you said, I am willing to rejoice in my suffering?

"I now rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church (Colossians 1:24).

We take our spiritual consecration and try to make it into a call of God, but when we get right with Him, He brushes all this aside.

Then He gives us a tremendous, riveting pain to fasten our attention on something we never even dreamed could be His call for us.

And for one radiant, flashing moment, we see His purpose and say, "Here am I! Send me" (Isaiah 6:8).

Be encouraged. This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification but with being made of broken bread and poured-out wine.

Yet God can never make us into wine if we object to the fingers He chooses to use to crush us. We say, "If God would only use His fingers and make me broken bread and pour out wine in a special way, then I wouldn't object!"

But when He uses someone we dislike or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit to crush us, then we object.

Be encouraged. Yet, we must never try to choose the place of our martyrdom. If we are ever made into wine, we must be crushed. You cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.

I wonder what finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you? Have you been as hard as a marble and escaped?

If you are not ripe yet, and God had squeezed you anyway, the wine produced would have been remarkably bitter.

To be a holy person means that the elements of our natural life experience the very presence of God as they are providentially broken in His service.

We must be placed into God and brought into agreement with Him before we can be broken bread in His hands.

If you stay right with God and let Him do as He likes, you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.

Be encouraged when you answer the call to be willing to be squeezed and crushed like grapes to the perfection of wine. Remember, grapes become wine only after it has been squeezed.

Be willing because God can not make us until He breaks us.

Do you object when God uses someone you dislike or some set of circumstances to which you would never submit to crush you, or have you been as hard as nails and escaped the finger of God in answering the call?

This is your question today

29 September 2024

THE AWARENESS OF THE CALL

Oswald Chambers

Today, in your business and life, can you tell exactly when and where you received the call of God?

“... for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!" (1 Corinthians 9:16).

We are inclined to forget the deeply spiritual and supernatural touch of God.

Be encouraged if you can tell exactly where you were when you received God's call and can explain all about it. I question whether you have indeed been called.

The call of God does not come like that; it is much more supernatural. The realization of the call in a person's life may come like a clap of thunder or dawn gradually.

However quickly or slowly this awareness comes, it is accompanied by an undercurrent of the supernatural—something inexpressible that produces a "glow.”

At any moment, the sudden awareness- this incalculable, supernatural, surprising call that has taken hold of your life may break through-"I chose you ..." (John 15:16).

The call of God has nothing to do with salvation and sanctification. You are not called to preach the gospel because you are sanctified; the call to preach the gospel is infinitely different.

Paul describes it as a compulsion that was placed upon him.

If you have ignored, and thereby removed, the great supernatural call of God in your life, take a review of your circumstances.

Be encouraged and see where you have put your own ideas of service or your particular abilities ahead of God's call. Paul said, “Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!"

He had become aware of the call of God, and his compulsion to "preach the gospel" was so strong that nothing else was any longer even a competitor for his strength.

If God calls a man or woman, it doesn't matter how difficult the circumstances may be.

God orchestrates every force at work for His purpose. If you agree with God's purpose, He will bring your conscious level and all the deeper levels of your life, which you cannot reach, into perfect harmony.

Can you tell exactly when and where you received God's call and then explain exactly how it happened?

This is your question today.

28 September 2024

THE GO OF UNCONDITIONAL IDENTIFICATION

Oswald Chambers

Today, in your business and life, do you have the controlling passion to be perfect?

"Jesus . .. said to him, 'One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor . . . and come, take up the cross, and follow Me' " (Mark 10:21).

The rich young ruler had a controlling passion for perfection. When he saw Jesus Christ, he wanted to be like Him.

When He calls a disciple, our Lord never places anyone's holiness above everything else.

Jesus' primary consideration is the absolute destruction of my right to myself and my identification with Him, which means having a relationship with Him in which there are no other relationships.

Luke 14:26 has nothing to do with salvation or sanctification but deals solely with unconditional identification with Jesus Christ.

Very few of us truly know what the absolute "go" means: unconditional identification with, abandonment of, and surrender to Jesus.

"Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him..." (Mark 10:21). This look of Jesus will require breaking your heart away forever from allegiance to any other person or thing.

Has Jesus ever looked in this way at you? This look of Jesus transforms, penetrates, and captivates.

Be encouraged where you are soft and pliable with God, which is where the Lord has looked at you. If you are brutal and vindictive, insistent on having your way, and always sure that the other person is more likely to be in the wrong than you are, then there are whole areas of your nature that His gaze has never transformed.

"One thing you lack..." From Jesus Christ's perspective, the only good thing is oneness with Him, with nothing between.

…sell whatever you have . . ." I must humble myself until I am merely a living person. I must essentially renounce possessions of all kinds, not for salvation (for only one thing saves a person, which is absolute reliance on faith upon Jesus Christ), but to follow Jesus. come. . and follow Me." And the road is the way

He went.

The look Jesus gave the young, rich ruler required unconditional identification, but has He ever looked at you that way?

This is your question today.

27 September 2024

THE GO OF RENUNCIATION

Oswald Chambers

Today, in your business and life, is there someone or something you are placing in front of your Lord, causing Him to take the last place?

"..someone said to Him, 'Lord, I will follow You wherever You go* " (Luke 9:57).

Our Lord's attitude toward this man was severe discouragement, "for He knew what was in man" (John 2:25).

We would have said. “I can't imagine why He lost the opportunity to win that man!

Imagine being so cold to him and turning him away so discouraged!" Never apologize to your Lord. The words of the Lord hurt and offend until nothing is left to be damaged or offended.

Jesus Christ had no tenderness whatsoever toward anything that would ultimately ruin a person's service to God.

Our Lord's answers were not based on some whim or impulsive thought but on the knowledge of "what was in man."

Be encouraged if the Spirit of God brings to your mind a word of the Lord that hurts you. You can be sure that there is something in you that He wants to break to the point of death. Luke 9:58.

These words destroy the argument of serving Jesus Christ because it is a pleasant thing to do.

The strictness of the rejection that He demands of me allows nothing to remain in my life but my Lord: myself and a sense of desperate hope.

He says I must let everyone else come or go and be guided solely by my relationship with Him.

And He says, the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." Luke 9:59. This man did not want to disappoint Jesus or show a lack of respect for his father.

We put our sense of loyalty to our relatives ahead of our loyalty to Jesus Christ, forcing Him to take last place.

When your loyalties conflict, always obey Jesus Christ, whatever the cost. Luke 9:61. Is The person who says, "Lord, I will follow You, but . .. is the person who is intensely ready to go, but never goes.

This man had reservations about going. The exacting call of Jesus has no room for goodbyes, as we often use them. They are neither pagan nor Christian because they divert us from the king.

Once the call of God comes to you, start going and never stop:

I am encouraged to learn from experience when faced with how Jesus challenges excuses for their superficial nature because they mask true heart desires.

Remember, the purpose of your life is to please God.

Is there someone or something you are placing in front of your Lord, causing Him to take the last place?

This is your question today.

26 September 2024

The "go" of reconciliation

Oswald Chambers

Today in business and life if you bring your gift to the Lord and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, are you willing to first go to them and be reconciled?

If you…remember that your brother has something against you… —Matthew 5:23

This verse says, “If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you….” It is not saying, “If you search and find something because of your unbalanced sensitivity,” but, “If you…remember….”

In other words, if something is brought to your conscious mind by the Spirit of God— “First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:24).

Never object to the intense sensitivity of the Spirit of God in you when He instructs you down to the smallest detail.

“First be reconciled to your brother….” Our Lord’s directive is simple— “First be reconciled….”

He says, in effect, “Go back the way you came— the way indicated to you by the conviction given to you at the altar; have an attitude in your mind and soul toward the person who has something against you that makes reconciliation as natural as breathing.”

Jesus does not mention the other person— He says you should go. It is not a matter of your rights.

The true mark of the saint is his ability to waive his rights and obey the Lord Jesus.

“…and then come and offer your gift.” The process of reconciliation is marked.

First, we have the heroic spirit of self-sacrifice, then the sudden restraint by the sensitivity of the Holy Spirit, and then we are stopped at our conviction.

This is followed by obedience to the Word of God, which builds an attitude or state of mind that places no blame on the one with whom you have been in the wrong.

And finally, there is the glad, simple, unhindered offering of your gift to God.

This is the go of reconciliation.

Have an attitude in your mind and soul towards that person who has something against you that makes reconciliation as natural as breathing.

If you bring your gift to the Lord and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, are you willing to first go to them and be reconciled?

This is your question today.

25 September 2024

The "go" of relationship

Today, in your business and life, do you allow the slightest trace of resentment in your heart when faced with tyranny and injustice?

*Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two" (Matthew 5:41).

Be encouraged. Our Lord's teaching can be summed up in this: the relationship that He demands for us is impossible unless He has done supernatural work in us.

Jesus Christ demands that His disciple not allow even the slightest trace of resentment in his heart when faced with tyranny and injustice.

I am encouraged to learn Jesus wants us to ask, "How can I be a redemptive blessing even toward those who mistreat me?"

His challenging commands awaken us to our responsibility as God's children. We are to lead others to Jesus, even those we don't particularly like.

No amount of enthusiasm will ever stand up to the strain that Jesus Christ will put upon His servant.

Only one thing will bear the strain, and that is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ Himself-a relationship that has been examined, purified, and tested until only one purpose remains, and I can truly say

“I am here for God to send me where He will."

Be encouraged. Everything else may become blurred, but this relationship with Jesus Christ must never be.

The Sermon on the Mount is not some unattainable goal. It is a statement of what will happen when Jesus Christ has changed my nature by putting His nature in me.

Jesus Christ is the only One who can fulfill the Sermon on the Mount.

If we are to be disciples of Jesus, we must be made disciples supernaturally.

And as long as we consciously maintain the determined purpose to be His disciples, we can be sure we are not. Jesus says, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you . . " (John 15:16).

Be encouraged. That is the way the grace of God begins. It is a constraint we can never escape; we can disobey it, but we can never start it or produce it ourselves.

We are drawn to God by a work of His supernatural grace, and we can never trace back to find where the work began.

Our Lord's making of a disciple is supernatural. He does not build on any natural capacity of ours at all.

Be encouraged. God does not ask us to do the things that are naturally easy for us; He only asks us to do the things that we are perfectly fit to do through His grace, and that is where the cross we must bear will always come.

Can you honestly say I am here for God to send me where He will, and everything else may become blurry, but this relationship with Jesus must never be?

Our Heartlight prayer today:

Compassionate Father, please give me the grit and grace to act redemptively in the lives of even those who are irritants, opponents, and problems in my life. Through your Spirit, soften my heart so that I might see your goal of winning even the most difficult people in my life to Christ rather than trying to get even with them. In Jesus' holy and precious name, I pray. Amen.

Do you allow the slightest trace of resentment in your heart when faced with tyranny and injustice?

This is your question today.

24 September 2024

The "go" of preparation

Oswald Chambers

Today, in business and life, do you struggle with forgiveness and reconciliation?

"If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift' (Matthew 5:23-24).

It is easy to imagine that we will suddenly come to a point where we are entirely prepared, but preparation is not suddenly accomplished.

It is a process that must be steadily maintained. It is dangerous to become settled and complacent in our present experience level.

Be encouraged. The Christian life requires preparation and more preparation.

The sense of sacrifice in the Christian life readily appeals to a new Christian. From a human standpoint, the one thing that attracts us to Jesus Christ is our sense of the heroic, and a close examination of us by our Lord's words suddenly puts this tide of enthusiasm to the test. ". go your way. First, be reconciled to your brother.”

The “go” of preparation is to allow the Word of God to examine you closely.

Your sense of heroic sacrifice is not good enough. The thing the Holy Spirit will detect in you is your nature, which can never work in His service.

And no one but God can detect that nature in you. Do you have anything to hide from God? If you do, then let God search you with His light.

Be encouraged. If you have sin in your life, confess it.

Are you willing to obey your Lord and Master, whatever the humiliation to your rights?

Never disregard a conviction that the Holy Spirit brings to you. If it is important enough for the Spirit of God to bring it to your mind, it is what He detects in you.

You were looking for some big thing to give up, while God is telling you of some tiny thing that must go.

But behind that tiny thing lies the stronghold of obstinacy, and you say, *I will not give up my right to the very thing that God intends you to give up if you are to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Have you ever come to a point where you felt prepared?

Be encouraged. Preparation is not suddenly accomplished. It is a process that must be steadily maintained. Wow, and you thought you had arrived, right? I know I did.

This life is a process of preparation.

For example, first, be reconciled to your brother, then come with your gift. This will allow the Word of God to examine you closely.

If there is a conflict – keep it between you and the other person and love them enough to seek reconciliation regardless of fault.

Ok, ok, ok, here I must confess today.

Yes, I have a conflict with someone in my nonprofit. Yes, I am convinced that I should forgive and ask for forgiveness.

How fitting that I could not rest this morning at 2 a.m. because of this situation, only to decide to get up to prepare my UTMOST post for the day and be reminded to be reconciled. This is my WORD for the day as I encourage myself in His WORD and prayerfully encourage you also to be reconciled.

Only the Holy Spirit can detect the nature in you.

Do you have anything to hide from God?

Do you struggle with forgiveness and reconciliation?

This is your question today.

23 September 2024

The missionary's goal

Oswald Chambers

Today in your business and life, are you frustrated to learn the goal of the missionary?

"He . . . said to them, 'Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem .?” (Luke 18:31).

In our natural life, our ambitions change as we grow, but in the Christian life, the goal is given at the very beginning, and the beginning and the end are the same, namely, our Lord Himself.

Be encouraged. We start with Christ, and we end with Him"... till we all come . . . to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13), not simply to our idea of what the Christian life should be.

The goal of the missionary is to do God's will, not to be useful or to win the last.

A missionary is practical and wins the last, but that is not his goal. His goal is to do the will of his Lord.

Be encouraged to know in our Lord's life, Jerusalem was the place where He reached the culmination of His Father's will upon the cross, and unless we go there with Jesus, we will have no friendship or fellowship with Him.

I am encouraged and empowered by the thought that nothing ever diverted our Lord on His way to Jerusalem. He never hurried through certain villages where He was persecuted or lingered in others where He was blessed.

Neither gratitude nor ingratitude turned our Lord even the slightest degree away from His purpose to go "up to Jerusalem."

“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master." (Matthew 10:24).

In other words, the same things that happened to our Lord will happen to us on our way to [our] "Jerusalem."

Be encouraged. There will be works of God exhibited through us, people will get blessed, and one or two will show gratitude while the rest will show total ingratitude, but nothing must divert us from going "up to (our) Jerusalem".

"There they crucified Him ..." (Luke 23:33).

That is what happened when our Lord reached Jerusalem, and that event is the doorway to our salvation.

Be encouraged. The saints, however, do not end in the crucifixion; by the Lord's grace, they end in glory. In the meantime, our watchword should be summed up by each of us saying, "I, too, go 'up to Jerusalem."

His will is for you to go up to Jerusalem, the doorway to your salvation, understanding you will be crucified. Will you go up?

This is your question today.

22 September 2024

The missionary's master and teacher

Oswald Chambers

Today, in business and life, have you ever thought or wished that sometimes God would master and control you and make you do what He wanted?

"You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am .. I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master” (John 13:13, 16).

Having a master and teacher is different from being mastered and taught.

Having a master and teacher means that there is someone who knows me better than I know myself, who is closer than a friend, and who understands the remotest depths of my heart and can satisfy them fully.

It means having someone who has made me secure in the knowledge that he has met and solved all the doubts, uncertainties, and problems in my mind.

To have a master and teacher is this and nothing less- for One is your Teacher, the Christ ..." (Matthew 23:8).

Our Lord never takes measures to make me do what He wants. Sometimes, I wish God would master and control me to make me do what He wants, but He will not.

Sometimes, I wish He would leave me alone, but He does not. "You call Me Teacher and Lord.

"_but is He?

Be encouraged. Teacher, Master, and Lord have little place in our vocabulary. We prefer the words Savior, Sanctifier, and Healer.

The only word that describes the experience of being mastered is love, and we know little about love as God reveals it in His Word.

The way we use the word obey is proof of this. In the Bible, obedience is based on a relationship between equals, such as a son with his father.

Our Lord was not simply God's servant- He was His Son.". though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience...." (Hebrews 5:8).

If we consciously know we are being mastered, that idea proves we have no master. If that is our attitude toward Jesus, we are far from having the relationship He wants with us.

Be encouraged. He wants us in a relationship where He is so quickly our Master and Teacher that we live without conscious awareness of it—a relationship where all we know is that we are His to obey.

Who is your master and your teacher?

Have you ever thought or wished that sometimes God would master and control you and make you do what He wanted?

This is your question today.

21 September 2024

The missionary's predetermined purpose

Oswald Chambers

Today, in business and life, do you struggle to find God’s predetermined purpose for your life?

"Now the Lord says, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant" (Isaiah 49:5).

The first thing that happens after we recognize our election by God in Christ Jesus is the destruction of our preconceived ideas, our narrow-minded thinking and all our other allegiances are turned solely into servants of God's purpose.

The entire human race was created to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

Sin has diverted the human race onto another course, but it has not altered God's purpose to the slightest degree.

Be encouraged when we are born again. We are brought to the realization of God's great purpose for the human race, namely, He created us for Himself.

This realization of our election by God is the most joyful on earth, and we must learn to rely on this tremendous creative purpose of God.

The first thing God will do is force the interests of the whole world through the channel of our hearts.

The love of God, and even His very nature is introduced into us.

We see the nature of Almighty God purely focused on John 3:16.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.”

We must keep our souls open to God's creative purpose and never confuse or cloud it with our intentions.

Be encouraged; if we do, God must force our intentions aside, no matter how much it may hurt.

A missionary is created to be God's servant, one in whom God is glorified.

Be encouraged once we realize that we are made perfectly fit for God through Jesus Christ's salvation. We will understand why Jesus Christ is so strict and relentless in His demands.

He demands absolute righteousness from His servants because He has put into them the very nature of God.

Beware lest you forget God's purpose for your life.

Do you keep your soul open to God’s creative purpose, or do you cloud it with your intentions?

This is your question today.

20 September 2024

The divine commandment of life

Today, in your business and life, can you be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect when you come in contact with things and people who create confusion in a flurry of activity? Do you find that you can stay wonderfully poised amid it all?

*... be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48).

In verses 38-48, our Lord exhorts us to be generous in our behavior toward everyone.

Beware of living according to your natural affections in your spiritual life. Everyone has natural affections—some people we like and others we don't.

Yet, we must never let those likes and dislikes rule our Christian life. "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another" (1 John 1:7), even those toward whom we have no affection.

Our Lord's example here is not that of a good person or a good Christian, but of God Himself. " ..be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect."

In other words, show the other person what God has revealed.

And God will give you plenty of real-life opportunities to prove whether or not you are "perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect."

Being a disciple means deliberately identifying yourself with God's interests in other people.

Jesus says. "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

By this, all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34-35).

The true expression of Christian character is not in good-doing but in God-likeness.

Be encouraged. If the Spirit of God has transformed you within, you will exhibit divine characteristics in your life, not just good human characteristics.

God's life in us expresses itself as God's life, not as human life trying to be godly.

The secret of a Christian's life is that the supernatural becomes natural in him as a result of God's grace, and this experience becomes evident in the practical, everyday details of life, not in times of intimate fellowship with God.

Be encouraged when you encounter things that create confusion and a flurry of activity. We find, to our amazement, that we have the power to stay wonderfully poised even in the center of it all.

Our Lord is encouraging us to be generous in our behavior towards everyone.

Can you be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect when you come in contact with things and people who create confusion in a flurry of activity, and do you find that you can stay wonderfully poised in the midst of it all?

This is your question today.

19 September 2024

Are you going on with Jesus?

Oswald Chambers

Today, in your business and life, do you think that you ought to shield yourself from the struggles, strains, and suffering situations God brings?

"You are those who have continued with Me in My trials" (Luke 22:28).

Be encouraged right now. Even though the road is lonely, watch God when He changes your circumstances. Will you continue to follow Him?

Jesus Christ is with us through our temptations, but are we going on with Him through His temptations?

I am learning to encourage myself in and through the trials as I look for Christ in every one of them.

Be encouraged when many turn back from going on with Jesus from the moment we experience what He can do.

Watch when God changes your circumstances to see whether you are going on with Jesus or siding with the world, the flesh, and the devil.

We wear His name, but are we going on with Him?

"From that time, many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more" (John 6:66).

Jesus's temptations continued throughout His earthly life and will continue throughout the life of the Son of God in us. Are we going on with Jesus in the life we are living right now?

We believe that we should shield ourselves from some of the things God brings around us.

May it never be!

It is God who engineers our circumstances, and whatever they may be, we must see that we face them while continually abiding with Him in His temptations.

They are His temptations, not temptations to us, but temptations to the life of the Son of God in us.

Jesus Christ's honor is at stake in our bodily lives. Are we remaining faithful to the Son of God in everything that attacks His life in us?

Are you going on with Jesus? The way goes through Gethsemane, the city gate, and on *outside the camp" (Hebrews 13:13).

The way is lonely and continues until there is no longer a trace of a footprint to follow- but only the voice saying, "Follow Me" (Matthew 4:19).

Are you going on with Jesus?

Do you think that you ought to shield yourself from the struggles, strains, and suffering situations God brings?

This is your question today.

18 September 2024

His temptation and ours

Today, in your business and life, are you exhausted from the temptations?

"We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15).

Until we are born again, the only kind of temptation we understand is the kind mentioned in James 1:14, "Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his desires and enticed."

But through regeneration, we are lifted into another realm with other temptations, namely, the kind of temptations our Lord faced.

The temptations of Jesus had no appeal to us as unbelievers because they were not at home in our human nature.

Our Lord's temptations and ours are in different realms until we are born again and become His brothers.

Be encouraged to know that the temptations of Jesus are not those of a mere man but the temptations of God as Man.

Through regeneration, the Son of God is formed in us (see Galatians 4:19), and in our physical life, He has the same setting that He had on earth.

Be encouraged to learn that Satan does not tempt us to make us do wrong things. He draws us to make us lose what God has put into us through regeneration, namely, the possibility of being of value to God.

He does not come to us on the premise of tempting us to sin but on the premise of shifting our point of view, and only the Spirit of God can detect this as a temptation of the devil.

Temptation means a test of the possessions held within the inner, spiritual part of our being by a power outside us and foreign to us.

This makes the temptation (of our Lord explainable. After Jesus' baptism, having accepted His mission of being the One "who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29)

He "was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness" (Matthew 4:1) and into the devil's testing devices. Yet He did not become weary or exhausted. He went through the temptation "without sin," and He retained all the possessions of His spiritual nature completely intact.

I am encouraged to learn not to become weary and exhausted by the temptations. Jesus suffered temptation the same as we do—except that He didn't sin. So He can "sympathize with our weaknesses."

Did you know that you are not tempted to do wrong, but you are tempted to cause you to lose what God has put into you through regeneration to be of value to God?

Are you exhausted from the temptations?

This is your question today.

17 September 2024

Is there good in temptation?

Today, in business and life, have you ever been tempted?

“No temptation has overtaken you except as common to man…”

(1 Corinthians 10:13).

You can be encouraged to learn more about the word temptation, which has come to mean something wrong to us today, but we tend to use the word in the wrong way.

Temptation itself is not a sin; it is something we are bound to face simply by virtue of being human.

Not to be tempted would mean that we were already so shameful that we would be beneath contempt.

Yet many of us suffer from temptations we should never have to suffer simply because we have refused to allow God to lift us to a higher level where we would face temptations of another kind.

A person's inner nature, what he possesses in the inner spiritual part of his being, determines what he is tempted by on the outside

The temptation of the true

nature of the person being tempted and reveals the possibilities of his nature.

Be encouraged to know that every person determines or sets the level of his temptation because temptation will come to him by the level of his controlling, inner nature.

Remember, God can see you through it.

Temptation suggests a possible shortcut to realizing my highest goal; it does not direct me toward what I understand to be evil but toward what I know to be good.

Temptation confuses me for a while, and I don't know whether something is right or wrong.

When I yield to it, I have made lust a god, and the temptation itself becomes the proof that it was only my fear that prevented me from falling into the sin earlier.

Temptation is not something we can escape; in fact, it is essential to the well-rounded life of a person.

Be encouraged and beware of thinking that you are tempted as no one else--what you go through is the common inheritance of the human race, not something that no one has ever endured.

God does not save us from temptations – He sustains us in the midst of them (see Hebrews 2:18 and 4:15-16).

Have you ever been tempted?

This is your question today.

16 September 2024

Praying to God in secret

Today, in business and life, do you secretly pray to God in your secret place?

Do you ever wonder about the how-to of prayer? "When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place (Matthew 6:6).

I am encouraged to learn from personal experiences that it is almost impossible to continue living a very successful life and business during difficult times without definite times of secret prayer in a secret place. Keep your eyes on God.

The primary thought in religion is to keep your eyes on God, not on people.

Your motivation should not be to be known as a praying person.

Do you ever wonder how to pray?

Be encouraged as you find an inner room in which to pray where no one even knows you are praying, shut the door, and talk to God in secret. Have no motivation other than to know your Father in heaven.

It is impossible to carry on your life as a disciple without definite times of secret prayer. “When you pray, do not use vain repetitions. (6:7).

Be encouraged. God does not hear us because we pray earnestly; he hears us solely based on redemption.

God is never impressed by our earnestness. Prayer is not simply getting things from God- that is only the most elementary kind of prayer.

Be encouraged to learn prayer is coming into perfect fellowship and oneness with God. If the Son of God has been formed in us through regeneration (see Galatians 4:19), He will continue to press on beyond our common sense and change our attitude about the things we pray for. "Everyone who asks receives . . ." (Matthew 7:8).

We pray religious nonsense without even involving our will, and then we say that God did not answer, but in reality, we have never asked for anything. Jesus said," You will ask what you desire... (John 15:7).

Asking means that our will must be involved. Whenever Jesus talked about prayer, He spoke with incredible, childlike simplicity.

Then we respond with our critical attitude, saying, "Yes, but even Jesus said that we must ask." But remember that we have to ask things of God that are in keeping with the God whom Jesus Christ revealed.

Do you pray to God in secret and in a hidden place?

This is your question today.

15 September 2024

What to renounce

Today, in business and life, is there any thought in your heart about anyone that you would not like to be brought into the light?

“We have renounced the hidden things of shame...” 2 Corinthians 4:2

Have you renounced the hidden things of shame in your life? The things that your sense of honor or pride will not allow to come into the light?

Then renounce it as soon as it comes to mind- renounce everything in its entirety until there is no hidden dishonesty or craftiness about you at all.

Envy, jealousy, and strife don't necessarily arise from your old sinful nature but from the flesh, which was used for these things in the past (see Romans 6:19 and 1 Peter 4:1-3).

You must maintain continual watchfulness so that nothing arises in your life that would cause you shame.

….not walking in craftiness..." (2 Corinthians 4:2). This means not resorting to something to make your point. This is a terrible trap.

You know that God will allow you to work in only one way: the way of truth.

Then, be careful never to catch people through the other way of deceit. If you act deceitfully, God's blight and ruin will be upon you.

What may be craftiness for you may not be for others- God has called you to a higher standard.

Be encouraged and never dull your sense of being your utmost for His highest -your best for His glory.

For you, doing certain things would mean allowing craftiness to enter your life for a purpose other than what is the highest and best, and it would dull the motivation that God has given you.

Many people have turned back because they are afraid to look at things from God's perspective. The greatest spiritual crisis comes when a person has to move further in his faith than the beliefs he already accepts.

Is there something in your heart about anyone you would not like to be brought into the light, and are you being YOUR UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST?

This is your question today.

14 September 2024

Arguments or obedience?

Oswald Chambers

Today, in business and life, will you focus on arguments or obedience?

* ? the simplicity that is in Christ."

(2 Corinthians 11:3).

Simplicity is the secret to seeing things. A saint does not think clearly until a long time passes, but a saint should see clearly without difficulty.

I am encouraged to learn that in this verse, Paul expressed his concern and fear when he said, In verse 3 “But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”

Be encouraged to learn you cannot think through spiritual confusion to make things clear; to make things clear, you must obey.

In intellectual matters, you can think things out, but in spiritual matters, you will only think yourself into further wandering thoughts and more confusion.

If there is something in your life upon which God has put His pressure, obey Him.

Be encouraged and bring all your "arguments and... every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" regarding the matter, and everything will become as clear as daylight (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Your reasoning capacity will come later, but the reasoning is not how we see it.

We see like children; when we try to be wise, we see nothing (see Matthew 11:25).

Even the very most minor thing that we allow in our lives that is not under the control of the Holy Spirit is

It is entirely sufficient to account for spiritual confusion, and spending all of our time thinking about it will never make it clear.

Be encouraged. Spiritual confusion can only be conquered through obedience. As soon as we obey, we have discernment.

This is humiliating because when we are confused, we know that the reason lies in the state of our mind.

But when our natural power of sight is devoted and submitted in obedience to the Holy Spirit, it becomes the very power by which we perceive God's will, and our entire life is kept in simplicity.

Did you know that in intellectual matters, you can think things out, but in spiritual matters, will you focus on arguments or obedience?

This is your question today.

13 September 2024

After surrender, then what?

Oswald Chambers

Today in business and life, after you surrender, then what?

“I have finished the work which You have given Me to do" (John 17:4).

True surrender is not simply surrender of only our external

life but surrender of our will, and once that is done, surrender is complete.

The greatest crisis we ever face is the surrender of our will. Yet God never forces a person's will into submission, and He never begs.

He patiently waits until that person willingly yields to Him. And once that battle has been fought, it never needs to be fought again.

Surrender for Deliverance. "Come to Me . .. and I will give you rest."

(Matthew 11:28). It is only after we have begun to experience what salvation means that we surrender our will to Jesus for rest.

Whatever is causing us a sense of uncertainty is a call to our

will. "Come to Me." And it is a voluntary coming.

Surrender for Devotion. "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself. (Matthew 16:24).

The surrender here is of myself to Jesus, with His rest at the heart of my being. He says, "If you want to be My disciple, you must give up your right to yourself to Me."

Be encouraged that once this is done, the remainder of your life will exhibit nothing but the evidence of this surrender, and you never need to be concerned again with what the future may hold for you.

Whatever your circumstances may be, Jesus is sufficient (see

2 Corinthians 12:9 and Philippians 4:19).

Surrender for Death. " Another will gird you …John 21:18; also see verse 19). Have you learned what it means to be girded for death?

Be encouraged, but beware of any surrender you make to God in an ecstatic moment, as you are apt to take it back again.

Be encouraged to learn true surrender is a matter of being "united together [with Jesus] in the likeness of His death" (Romans 6:5) until nothing ever appeals to you that did not appeal to Him.

And after you surrender- then what?

Is your entire life characterized by an eagerness to maintain, surrender, unbroken fellowship, and oneness with God?

This is your question today.

12 September 2024

Going through spiritual confusion

Oswald Chambers

Today, in your business and life, during times of confusion and when God appears to be wholly shrouded, will you hang on with confidence in Him?

"Jesus answered and said, 'You do not know what you ask? " (Matthew 20:22).

I am encouraged here to learn that Jesus answered and said. To her two sons, “ye know not what ye ask..”. “Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”

Meaning His reproaches, sorrows, sufferings, and death, which, because of their disagreeableness, he compares to a bitter cup of vengeance, wrath, fury, and anger; and because they were appointed to him and allotted for him, they were his portion. Therefore, he expresses them with a "cup" because there are so many, and they are great. What can I go through today to compare to this?

Be encouraged. There are times in your spiritual life when you are confused, and the way out is not simply to say that you should not be confused.

It is not a matter of right and wrong but the importance of God taking you through a way that you temporarily do not understand.

Only by experiencing spiritual confusion will you understand what God wants for you.

The Shrouding of His Friendship (see Luke 11:5-8). Jesus gave the illustration here of a man who appears not to care for his friend.

He was saying, in effect, that is how the heavenly Father will sometimes appear to you.

You may think He is an unkind friend, but remember—He is not. The time will come when everything will be explained.

Be encouraged when there seems to be a cloud on the friendship of the heart, and often, even love has to wait in pain and tears for the blessing of fuller fellowship and oneness.

Be encouraged when God appears to be entirely shrouded. Will you hang on with confidence in Him?

The Shadow on His Fatherhood (see Luke 11:11-13). Jesus said there are times when your Father will appear as if He were an unnatural father, as if He were callous and indifferent- but remember, He is not.

"Everyone who asks receives . "(Luke 11:10). If all you see is a shadow on the face of the Father right now, hang on to the fact that He will ultimately give you a clear understanding and will fully justify Himself in everything that He has allowed into your life.

The Strangeness of His Faithfulness (see Luke 18:1-8). "When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8).

Will He find the kind of faith that counts on Him despite the confusion?

Be encouraged to stand firm in faith, believing that what Jesus said is true, although you do not understand what God is doing in the meantime. He has more significant issues at stake than what you are asking of Him.

Will you confidently trust Him during times of confusion and when God appears shrouded?

That is your question today.

11 September 2024

Missionary Weapons

Today, in business and life, can you minister in everyday opportunities God has engineered for you?

"If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet" (John 13:14)

Ministering in everyday opportunities surrounding us does not mean we select our surroundings. It means God's exceptional choice to be available for use in any of the seemingly random surroundings that He has engineered for us.

Be encouraged. Our character in our present surroundings indicates what we will be like in other surroundings.

Jesus performed the most menial of everyday tasks, which indicates that it takes all of God's power in me to accomplish even the most common assignments in His way.

Can I use a towel as He did?

Towels, dishes, sandals, and all the other ordinary things in our lives reveal more quickly than anything else what we are made of.

It takes God Almighty Incarnate in us to do the most menial duty as it ought to be done.

Jesus said, "I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you" (13:15).

Be encouraged and notice the kind of people that God brings around you, and you will be humiliated once you realize that this is His way of revealing to you the type of person you have been to Him.

Now, He says we should exhibit to those around us exactly what He has shown to us.

Do you respond by saying, "Oh, I will do all that once I'm out on the mission field"?

Talking in this way is like trying to produce the weapons of war while in the trenches of the battlefield -you will be killed while trying to do it.

We must go the "second mile" with God (see Matthew 5:41). Yet some of us become worn out in the first ten steps.

Then we say, "Well, I’ll just wait until I get closer to the next big crisis in my life." But if we do not steadily minister in everyday opportunities, we will do nothing when the crisis comes.

Have you noticed the kind of people God brings around you to help them?

That is your question today.

10 September 2024

Missionary Weapons

Oswald Chambers

Today, in your business and life, are you ready for the battle? Are you sure? When God calls you to do battle, are you spiritually fit with your missionary weapons, and can you rise to the occasion?

"When you were under the fig tree, I saw you" (John 1:48).

We worship on everyday occasions because God gives us small things to do every day.

We presume that we would be ready for battle if confronted with a great crisis, but it is not the crisis that builds something within us. It simply reveals what we are made of already.

Do you find yourself saying, "If God calls me to battle, of course, I will rise to the occasion?"

Be encouraged. Yet you won't rise to the occasion unless you have done so on God's training ground.

If you are not doing the task closest to you now, which God has engineered into your life, when the crisis comes, instead of being fit for battle, you will be revealed as being unfit.

Crises always reveal a person's true character. A private relationship of worshipping God is essential to spiritual fitness.

As Nathanael experienced in this passage, the time will come when a private "fig-tree" life will no longer be possible.

Everything will be out in the open, and you will find yourself of no value there if you have not been worshipping on every occasion in your own home.

Be encouraged. If your worship is proper in your private relationship with God, you will be ready when He sets you free. It is in the unseen life, which only God saw, that you have become perfectly fit.

And when the crisis's strain comes, God can rely upon you.

Are you saying, "But I can't be expected to live a sanctified life in my present circumstances:

I have no time for prayer or Bible study right now; besides, my opportunity for battle hasn't come yet, but when it does, I will be ready?"

No, you will not. If you have not been worshipping on everyday occasions, when you get involved in God's work, you will be useless and a hindrance to those around you.

God's training ground, where the missionary weapons are found, is the saint's hidden, personal, worshiping life.

Being encouraged to worship God privately is an essential element of spiritual fitness.

Trust me, I can personally attest a time will come when everything will be out in the open, and you will find yourself of no value if you have not been worshipping in your private time.

Are you ready for the battle?

Are you sure?

When God calls you to battle, are you spiritually fit for your missionary duties, and can you rise to the occasion?

These are your questions today.

9 September

DO IT YOURSELF

Oswald Chambers

Today, in your business and life, do you recognize the responsibility to be transformed by renewing your mind and bringing every thought into captivity?

We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience. — 2?Corinthians?10:5–6

These verses point to the strenuous nature of Christian discipleship.

Paul writes that he takes every thought captive, knowing that “every act of disobedience” to Christ will be punished.

Be encouraged. So much Christian activity today has never been disciplined as Paul describes; it has simply sprung into being on impulse.

In our Lord’s life, every project was disciplined according to the will of his Father.

There was no single impulsive movement of the Son’s own will apart from his Father’s: “Whatever the Father does, the Son also does” (John 5:19).

Think how different we are from Jesus's example. We start projects because we’ve had a vivid religious experience and felt the thrill of inspiration, not because we’re living in obedience to God’s will.

We’d instead act impulsively than be imprisoned and disciplined to obey Christ because we overvalue practical work.

Meanwhile, disciples who aren’t caught up in busy work and bring every project into captivity for the Lord are criticized and told they’re not sincere about God or souls.

True sincerity is found in obeying God, not the inclination to serve him; obeying an inclination is born of an undisciplined human nature.

Be encouraged. It’s inconceivable yet true that many Christians are motivated to work for God by their human nature, a nature that has never been spiritualized by determined discipline.

We are prone to forgetting that, as Christians, we must be committed to Jesus Christ for salvation and his point of view.

We must commit ourselves to Jesus Christ’s view of God, the world, sin, and the devil.

Be encouraged. When we do, we will understand that we are responsible for renewing our minds so that they may be transformed and brought into complete captivity for him.

Do you recognize the responsibility to be transformed by renewing your mind and bringing every thought into captivity?

This is your question today.

8 September 2024

Do it yourself

OSWALD CHAMBERS

Today, in business and life, can you determinedly demolish every pretension and let Jesus bring you to glory?

"Demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God." — ?2?Corinthians?10:5

Are you determined to cast down arguments and everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God?

There are some things over which you are not to fight but to stand still and see the glory of the Lord. Be determined.

Be encouraged. Deliverance from sin isn’t deliverance from human nature. There are certain things in human nature, such as prejudice, which the Christian has to destroy by neglect; we have to refuse flat-out to give these things air.

We have other things to hand over to God, and then we can stand still and witness the power of his salvation.

But some things must be destroyed by violence—by drawing on the divine strength imparted to us by God’s Spirit.

Any theory or idea that opposes God's knowledge must be determinedly demolished, not through fleshly effort or compromise but by drawing on God's power.

“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4).

Only when God has altered our disposition, and we have entered into the experience of sanctification can this fight begin. Our fight isn’t against sin.

We can never fight against sin; sin is Jesus Christ’s domain, which he deals with through redemption.

We must fight the war of turning our natural lives into spiritual lives. This is never quickly done, nor does God intend it to be easily done. It’s done only through a series of moral choices.

Be encouraged. God doesn’t make us holy by instantly giving us good character.

He makes us holy in the sense of imparting innocence. It’s up to us to turn that innocence into holy character by a series of moral choices.

These choices continually conflict with the entrenched habits of our natural lives—the pretensions and arguments that raise themselves against the knowledge of God.

Be encouraged. We can refuse to make the moral choice, knowing that if we do, we’ll be of no account in his kingdom.

Can you determinedly demolish every pretension and let Jesus bring you to glory?

That’s your question today.

7 September 2024

Foundations of Blessings

Oswald Chambers

Today in your business and life, are you like the Dead Sea, constantly receiving and never giving?

"The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:14).

The picture our Lord described here is not that of a simple stream of water but an overflowing fountain.

Continue to "be filled" (Ephesians

5:18), and the sweetness of your vital relationship with Jesus will flow as generously out of you as it has been given to you.

Be encouraged. If you find that His life is not springing up as it should, you are to blame something is obstructing the flow.

Was Jesus saying to stay focused on the Source so you may be personally blessed?

No, you are to focus on the Source so that out of you "will flow rivers of living water”- irrepressible life (John 7:38).

We are to be fountains through which Jesus can flow as "rivers of living water" in blessing everyone.

Be encouraged, yet some of us are like the Dead Sea, constantly receiving but never giving because of our relationship with the Lord Jesus.

As surely as we receive blessings from Him, He will pour out blessings through us.

But whenever the blessings are not being poured out in the same measure they are received, there is a defect in our relationship with Him.

Is there anything between you and Jesus Christ?

Is there anything hindering your faith in Him?

If not, Jesus says, “Out of you will flow rivers of living water."

It is not a blessing you pass on or an experience you share with others but a river that continually flows through you.

Be encouraged. Stay at the Source, closely guarding your faith in Jesus Christ and your relationship with Him, and there will be a steady flow into the lives of others with no dryness or deadness whatsoever.

Is it excessive to say that rivers will flow out of one individual believer?

Do you look at yourself and say,

"But I don't see the rivers?”

Through the history of God's work, you will usually find He started with the obscure, the unknown, and the ignored but with those who have been steadfastly faithful to Jesus Christ.

Do you receive blessings that are not poured out in the same measure as you are receiving them?

Are you like the Dead Sea, constantly receiving and never giving?

These are your questions today.

6 September 2024

The far-reaching rivers of life

Oswald Chambers

Today, in business and life, do you believe that God has developed and nourished in you mighty, rushing rivers of blessings for others?

"He who believes in Me . .. out of his heart will flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38).

A river reaches places that its source never knows. And Jesus said that if we have received "His fullness, rivers of living water" will flow out of us, reaching in blessing even "to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8), regardless of how small the visible effects of our lives may appear to be.

We have nothing to do with the outflow- “This is the work of God, that you believe . . ." (John 6:29).

God rarely allows a person to see how great a blessing he is to others.

A river is victoriously persistent, overcoming all barriers. It goes steadily on its course for a while but then comes to an obstacle.

It is blocked for a while, but it soon makes a pathway around the obstacle.

Or a river will drop out of sight for miles, only later to emerge again, even broader and greater than ever.

Do you see God using the lives of others, but an obstacle has come into your life, and you do not seem to be of any use to God?

Then keep paying attention to the Source, and God will take you around the obstacle or remove it.

Be encouraged. The river of the Spirit of God overcomes all obstacles. Never focus your eyes on the obstacle or the difficulty.

Be encouraged; the obstacle will be a matter of total indifference to the river flowing steadily through you if you remember to stay focused on the Source.

Be encouraged and never allow anything to come between you and Jesus Christ-not emotion nor experience. Nothing must keep you from the one great sovereign Source.

Please think of the healing and far-reaching rivers developing and nourishing themselves in our souls!

Be encouraged. God has been opening up wonderful truths to our minds, and every point He has opened up is another indication of the broader power of the river that He will flow through us.

Be encouraged if you believe in Jesus. You will find that God has developed and nourished in you mighty, rushing rivers of blessing for others.

Are you victoriously, persistently overcoming all barriers like the river, or have you allowed an obstacle to block you, and you do not seem to be of any use to God?

This is your questions today.

5 September 2024

Watching With Jesus

Oswald Chambers

Today, in your business and life, will you stay here and watch with Jesus, or will you love Him from a distance and fall asleep like the disciples?

Stay here and watch with Me" (Matthew 26:38).

“Watch with me.” Jesus was saying

"Watch with no private point of view at all. But watch solely and entirely with Me."

In the early stages of our Christian life, we do not watch with Jesus. We watch for Him.

We do not watch with Him through the revealed truth of the Bible, even in the circumstances of our own lives.

Our Lord is trying to introduce us to identification with Himself through a particular "Gethsemane" experience of our own.

Be encouraged when we refuse to go, saying, "No, Lord, I can't see the meaning of this, and besides, it's excruciating." And how can we possibly watch with Someone who is so incomprehensible?

How are we going to understand Jesus sufficiently to watch with Him in His Gethsemane when we don't even know why He is suffering?

Be encouraged to know we don't know how to watch with Him- we are only used to Jesus watching with us.

The disciples loved Jesus Christ to the limit of their natural capacity, but they did not fully understand His purpose.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, they slept due to their sorrow, and at the end of three years of the closest and most intimate relationship of their lives, they "all ... forsook Him and fled" (26:56).

"They were all filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4). "They" refers to the same people, but something wonderful has happened between these two events- -our Lord's death, resurrection, and ascension, and the disciples have now been invaded and "filled with the Holy Spirit."

Our Lord had said, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come

upon you (Acts 1:8).

This meant that they learned

to watch with Him for the rest of their lives.

Will you stay here and watch with Jesus, or will you love Him from a distance and fall asleep like the disciples?

This is your question today.

4 September 2024

His!

Oswald Chambers

Today, in business and life, are you His?

"They were Yours, You gave them to Me.” (John 17:6).

A missionary is someone to whom the Holy Spirit has brought the realization that "you are not your own" (I Corinthians 6:19).

To say, "I am not my own," is to have reached a high point in my spiritual stature.

Be encouraged. The true nature of that life in everyday confusion is evidenced by the deliberate giving of myself to another Person through a sovereign decision, and that Person is Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit interprets and explains Jesus's nature to make me one with my Lord, not that I might become a trophy for His showcase.

Our Lord never sent any of His disciples out based on what He had done for them.

It was not until after the resurrection that the disciples perceived through the power of the Holy Spirit who Jesus was, and He said, "Go" (Matthew 28:19; also see Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:8).

"If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:26).

He was not saying that this person could not be good and upright, but that he could not be someone over whom Jesus could write the word Mine.

Any one of the relationships our Lord mentions in this verse can compete with our relationship with Him. For example, I recall many family relationships I may have placed between God and myself. My relationship with my mom was one person, as I would go to her to go to God for me until he took her. But now ….

I may prefer to belong to my mother, my spouse, or myself, but if that is the case, then Jesus said, "You cannot be My disciple."

This does not mean that I will not be saved, but it does mean that I cannot be entirely His.

Be encouraged to know our Lord makes His disciple His very own possession. Becoming responsible for him, you shall be witnesses to Me..." (Acts 1:8).

The desire that comes into a disciple is not one of doing anything for Jesus but of being a perfect delight to Him.

Be encouraged to learn the missionary's secret is truly being able to say, "I am His, and He is accomplishing His work and His purposes through me.”

Be entirely His!

Are you His?

This is your question today.

3 September 2024

Pouring out the water of satisfaction

Oswald Chambers

Today in business and life, What blessings have you taken today that you need to pour out to God.?

"He would not drink it but poured it out to the Lord* (2 Samuel 23:16).

What has been like “water from the well of Bethlehem" to you recently--love, friendship, or maybe some spiritual blessing (23:16)?

Have you taken whatever it may be, even at the risk of damaging your soul, to satisfy yourself?

If you have, you cannot pour it out "to the Lord." You can never set apart for God something you desire for yourself to achieve your satisfaction.

Be encouraged to learn if you try to satisfy yourself with a blessing from God. It will corrupt you. You must sacrifice it, pouring it out to God- something your common sense says is an absurd waste.

How can I pour out natural love and spiritual blessings "to the Lord"?

There is only one way—I must decide to do so. Certain things others do can never be received by someone who does not know God because it is humanly impossible to repay them.

As soon as I realize that something is too extraordinary for me, that I am not worthy to receive it, and that it is not meant for a human being, I must pour it out "to the Lord."

Then, these very things that have come to me will be poured out as "'rivers of living water" all around me John 7:38).

And until I pour these things out to God, they endanger those I love, as well as myself, because they will be turned into lust.

Yes, we can be lustful in things that are not sordid and vile. Even love must be transformed by being poured "to the Lord."

If you have become bitter and sour, it is because when God gave you a blessing, you hoarded it.

Yet if you had poured it out to Him, you would have been the sweetest person on earth.

Be encouraged to pour out the water of satisfaction to God. Consider taking love, friendship, spiritual blessings, or whatever you have to satisfy yourself and submit it to God unselfishly.

If you always keep blessings to yourself and never learn to pour out anything "to the Lord," other people's visions of God will never be expanded through you.

What blessings have you taken today that you need to pour out to God.?

This is your question today.

2 September 2024

A life of pure and holy sacrifice

Oswald Chambers

Today, in your business and life, are you prepared to pour out your life for Him?

"He who believes in Me . . . out of his heart will flow..." (John 7:38).

Jesus did not say, "He who believes in Me will realize all the blessings of the fullness of God,” but, in essence, "He who believes in Me will have everything he receives escape out of him."

Be encouraged. Our Lord's teaching was always anti-self-realization. His purpose is not the development of a person--His purpose is to make a person exactly like Himself, and the Son of God is characterized by self-expenditure.

If we believe in Jesus, what counts is not what we gain but what He pours through us.

This living water quenches the thirst, but we drink only if we are thirsty. This is my revelation from this study.

God's purpose is not simply to make us beautiful, plump grapes but grapes so He may squeeze the sweetness out of us.

Be encouraged that your spiritual life cannot be measured by success as the world measures it, but only by what God pours through you, and we cannot measure that at all.

When Mary of Bethany *broke the flask . . . of very costly oil. And poured it on [Jesus'] head." It was an act for which no one else saw any special occasion; in fact, there were some who ... said, 'Why was this fragrant oil wasted?' " (Mark: 14:3-4).

But Jesus commended Mary for her extravagant devotion, saying, “Wherever this gospel is preached, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her" (Mark 14:9).

Our Lord is filled with joy whenever He sees us doing what Mary did – not being bound by a particular set of rules but being surrendered to Him.

God poured out the life of His Son "that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:17).

Are we prepared to pour out our lives for Him? "He who believes in Me . ... out of his heart will flow rivers of living water," and hundreds of other lives will be continually refreshed.

Now is the time for us to break "the flask" of our lives, to stop seeking our satisfaction, and to pour out our lives before Him.

Our Lord is asking who of us will do it for Him.

Are you prepared to break the flask and pour out your life for Him?

This is your question today.

1 September 2024

Destined to be holy

Oswald Chambers

Today, in your business and life, do you believe you are holy if you resent the preaching of the gospel when it awakens an intense resentment that reveals your unworthiness?

Does it also awaken an intense yearning and desire within you?

.. it is written, 'Be holy, for I am holy' "

(1 Peter 1:16).

We must continually remind ourselves of the purpose of life. We are not destined for happiness or health but to holiness.

Today, we have far too many desires and interests, and our lives are being consumed and wasted by them.

Many may be right, noble, and sound and may later be fulfilled, but God must decrease their importance to us.

The only thing that truly matters is whether a person will accept the God who will make him holy. No

At all costs, a person must have the right relationship with God.

Do you believe you need to be holy?

Do you believe that God can come into you and make you holy?

If your preaching convinces me that I am unholy, I will resent it.

Be encouraged to learn that preaching the gospel awakens an intense resentment because it is a passionate yearning and desire within me.

God intends only one destiny for humankind—holiness. His only goal is to produce saints.

God is not some eternal blessing machine for people to use, and He did not come to save us out of pity; He came to save us because He created us to be holy.

Atonement through the Cross of Christ means that God can put me back into perfect oneness with Himself through the death of Jesus Christ, without a trace of anything coming between us any longer.

Never tolerate, because of sympathy for yourself or others, any practice that is not in keeping with a holy God.

Be encouraged. Holiness means absolute purity of your walk before God, the words coming from your mouth, and every thought in your mind- -placing every detail of your life under the scrutiny of God Himself.

Holiness is not simply what God gives me but what God has given me that is exhibited in my life.

Do you believe you are holy if you resent the preaching of the gospel when it awakens an intense resentment that reveals your unworthiness?

These are your questions today.