January 24
“I delight to do thy will, O my God” (Psalm 40:8).
The joy of Lord which is our real strength in all our circumstances and experiences and
responsibilities, is the secret of true spiritual growth.
It is quite possible to remain a spiritual babe for many years instead of for only a few months
and, sad to say, many do. But God wants every one of His children to come to full growth and
responsibility. God’s intention is that you should grow daily. As you read and meditate on
God’s word you get to know Him, and so you have a growing hunger to be in His presence. It
is by spending time with God that you grow in the knowledge of Him.
As we begin to delight in the Lord, we begin to have a real pleasure in doing His will. “I delight
to do thy will, O my God!” (Psalm 40:8). Sometimes the Lord keeps us waiting months or
years to know His will, and as we wait we learn valuable lessons. We learn how to exercise
the authority of His name; we learn to understand the hidden mysteries of His word; and from
this we pass on to the place where we are willing to suffer shame for him. As we go through
all these experiences we grow into spiritual manhood, and that means that we are ready to
bear the spiritual responsibility that God has for us and is waiting to share with us.
Daily Devotionals
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The purpose of God | January 25
January 25
“To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known
by the church the manifold wisdom of God” (Eph. 3:10).
The most wonderful day for David was when God committed to him in detail the whole pattern
for the temple (1 Chron. 28:19). God could not have revealed this to him at the beginning of
his life. God had to wait for David to grow spiritually before He could give him this revelation.
Many people today speak of ‘the church’ or ‘the Body of Christ’ very freely, but very few really
understand the meaning of these words. Very few understand God’s true thought for the
church. In spite of their ‘spiritual’ talk many show by the strife and jealousy in their lives that
they do not really know that which they profess to know. The purpose of God is to reveal His
power and wisdom to principalities and powers in heavenly places as it is expressed in the
fellowship of the church.
Recent Devotions
Body of Christ | January 21
“For as the body is one, and hath many members, so also is Christ” (1 Cor. 12:12).
Because of the entrance of sin through Adam’s disobedience, he brought so much loss to himself and all
mankind. Now all that is being recovered by the Lord Jesus Christ. In this great work of recovery God wants
us to be His co-workers, just as the members of a human body help to fulfil all the purposes, plans and
desires of the head. That is why we are called the Body of Christ. God has exalted His Son, “And hath put
all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the
fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Eph. 1:22, 23). In other words, the Church is called the Body of Christ
because it has to contain the fullness of God.
Those who are not born again will never understand this mystery, even though they may read many books
and hear many sermons. The heavenly mystery of the Body of Christ cannot be understood with human
wisdom because we need spiritual wisdom to understand spiritual matters. A carpenter knows all about
carpentry, a goldsmith about gold, a blacksmith about iron, and a farmer about fields. We require human
wisdom for all these matters. In the same manner we need divine wisdom to understand divine things.
How can we receive this divine wisdom? It is written that Christ “is made unto us wisdom” (1 Cor. 1:30).
The living presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in us, is our wisdom. You should not think that Bible knowledge
is wisdom. Many people have learnt several portions of the Bible by heart and yet are not familiar with
divine truths. Let me say it again, unless the life of the Lord Jesus Christ flows into you, you can never
know the mystery of the Body of Christ.
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In some cases babies are still born. The body is there, but there is no life in it. Without life the body is
useless, and is fit only for burial. Even though you love a person very much, you will not keep his lifeless
body. It will be of no use, so it has to be buried. In Eph. 1:23 saved children of God are called “The Body
of Christ”. This means they have received the life of Christ. It is therefore evident that only those who
have received the gift of eternal life can become members in the Body of Christ.
Recent Devotions
Our true wisdom
January 21
Paul says: “In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing” (Romans 7:18).
A threshing-floor is the place where you separate the wheat from the chaff. All were saying
what a wise man David was, but throughout his history, there often appeared little else but
chaff in his brain. Through his failures God said to him: “Look at the chaff”. Only after being
brought to many ‘threshing-floors’, was David’s brain delivered from the chaff. Though he
was a king, he had to be rebuked by God many times, and had to pay a great price for
deliverance.
We have all of us to pay a heavy price to be God’s servants. We have to be prepared to be
delivered from our chaff, and first of all from the chaff in our brain! What is that chaff? In
God’s sight it is all that we have secured through our own intellectual ability. In Isaiah 40:6
we read: “All flesh is grass”. He is the grain of wheat – He is our true wisdom. All our
experiences are designed to teach us to depend on that wisdom alone.
Recent Devotions
Resurrection of Jesus Christ
Jan 21
O death, where is thy sting? …
—1 Corinthians 15:55
Death is the most democratic experience in life for we all participate in it. We think of its happening only to other people. We don’t like to grow old, and we don’t like to die. The Bible teaches that death is an enemy of man and God. But it also teaches that this enemy, death, will ultimately be destroyed forever; that in fact it has already been defeated at the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Death, for a Christian, brings permanent freedom from evil. It also means the believer will be like Jesus. We shall be like Christ in love. So much of self is involved in what we do here; but one day, in Christ, we will have perfect love. What a glorious time it will be when we get to heaven!