Listening to God John 6:66-69

John 6:66-69

".Many of [Jesus'] disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. So Jesus said to the twelve, 'You do not want to go away also, do you?' Simon Peter answered Him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.'"

Many of Jesus' disciples chose to leave Him. Why? They had a hard time accepting some of the things Jesus taught.

As you grow in your faith, you may be tempted to turn away because Jesus' lessons are difficult. When that temptation comes, don't turn away from God. Think about life - there is nowhere else to go! No other way of life meets you at your point of deepest inner need. No other way of life has its foundation in truth. No other way ends in meaning and purpose.

You must learn to trust God with the great times AND the hard times, the easy lessons and the difficult lessons!

Remember, with Jesus, there is no middle ground - no grey area. Either He is Lord of your life or not!

The more that people understand the power of Jesus' message, the more they divide into two camps - honest seekers and followers who want to understand more; and those who reject Jesus because they don't like what He teaches. Simon Peter saw that Jesus' words, however challenging, led to life.

Written by John North of Ambassadors For Christ. You can hear John Weekday mornings at 6.05am on FM103.2 and in our Audio Lounge.

What Worship Does

What Worship Does

“You who fear the LORD, praise Him!”
Psalm 22:23 NKJV

Worship humbles the smug and lifts the deflated.

Worship adjusts us, lowering the chin of the haughty, straightening the back of the burdened.

Worship properly positions the worshiper. And oh how we need it! We walk through life so bent out of shape. Five-talent folks swaggering: “I bet God’s glad to have me.” Two-talent folks struggling: “I bet God’s sick of putting up with me.” So sold on ourselves that we think someone died and made us ruler. Or so down on ourselves that we think everyone died and just left us.

Treat both conditions with worship.

1 of 365 devotionals in Grace for the Moment, Volume 2 Originally printed in Cure for the Common Life

Living for God

Living for God

Matthew 5:13-16

"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."

Let your light shine!

What light? The life of Jesus Christ in you! Jesus repeatedly pointed to Himself as the light of the world (Matthew 4:16; John 8:12; 9:5; 12:35). Now He says to the disciples and to us today, "You are the light of the world".

How can this be true? Because Jesus is now living in you! Jesus is still on this earth, carrying out His ministry to people. If this is true, then where is He? What is His body? We are! Believers around the world are called in Scripture: "the body of Christ" (Ephesians 4:12). Jesus wants to shine His light on people around you. That's why He's put you in that job, that course, that neighbourhood.

Jesus is calling you today to let Him shine through you.

Written by John North of Ambassadors For Christ. You can hear John Weekday mornings at 6.05am on FM103.2 and as an mp3 download in the Audio Lounge.

The Holy Spirit -Galatians 5:22-25

The Holy Spirit

Galatians 5:22-25
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”

The Christian life only works when we allow the Holy Spirit to live His way of life through us!
We can achieve a measure of goodness in our activities through our own strength; but it is only surface goodness. We live that way to meet up to other’s expectations, or to assuage our own conscience, or to try and live up to a moral standard; but that goodness does not flow from who we are — our inner life. We are still fallen beings, full of selfishness and pride and independence.
The restoration of our inner lives is accomplished by the Holy Spirit. His inner life overflows with goodness and the fullness of God’s character. As we say to Him, “I can’t live that way, but You can, and You are in me”, He not only changes the way we act, but changes our very inner being to be more like Christ. Then the godly life just flows from you, instead of draining you.
God wants you, rather than trying hard to live for Him, to allow Him to live supernaturally through you.

The Holy Spirit -Ephesians 1:13-14

The Holy Spirit

Ephesians 1:13-14
“In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”

Our experience of the Holy Spirit here in this life is a foretaste of how wonderful heaven will be!
In today’s verses, the Lord is telling you that when you heard the message of the gospel and put your faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and you were born again, something else very significant happened too. God put a seal of authenticity on your salvation, a guarantee that one day you would experience the fullness of glory in heaven. That seal, that guarantee is the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit in your life.

In Romans 8:23, Paul refers to it as “the first fruits of the Spirit” which make us long for glory. Like eating the first apples of the season gives you an idea of what the season will be like, experiencing the Spirit is a little taste of what heaven will be like. The presence of God, the glory of God, the love of God, victory over sin, closeness to God — all these things the Spirit wants to fill your life with now!

Romans 8:14- The Holy Spirit

Romans 8:14
"For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God."

Expect the Holy Spirit to lead you!

In Acts 8:29, when Philip was walking on the Gaza road and a chariot went by, it says, "Then the Spirit said to Philip, 'Go up and join this chariot.'" As Philip followed the leading of the Holy Spirit, it led to a wonderful opportunity to talk to one of the leading government officials of Ethiopia about Christ, and the man put his faith in Jesus!

When the great Council of Jerusalem met in Acts 15:28, James came out of the council meeting and said, "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials."

The Holy Spirit wants to lead you in two ways. As you make yourself available to God for Him to use you in other people's lives in this world, the Spirit will guide you so that you are fulfilling His plan for you, just as He guided Philip. The main thing is your availability to Him.

And in your own personal spiritual life, the Spirit wants to lead you into the great life-changing truths. He wants to transform you from the inside out! God's message to you today: make your life, your mind, your heart totally available to God, and you can expect the Holy Spirit to guide you in life!

Isaiah 58:13-14

Isaiah 58:13-14
"If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honourable, and honour it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word, then you will take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

It honours and pleases God greatly when we set aside special time just for Him and do not allow anything else to steal our attention!

"Desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word." There is no intrinsic value in self-denial. Christianity is not a religion of asceticism, but of the fullness of life that God brings us.

But there is still great value in having times where we purposely deny ourselves the normal pleasures of life for no other purpose than honouring God as more important than ourselves and our comfort. Making the Lord's day special or taking a day to fast and focus on God - these kinds of things serve notice on our flesh that it is not in control, that God is the most important thing in our lives.

How can you deny yourself in a way that honours God this week?

Isaiah 40:28-31

Isaiah 40:28-31

"Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary."

Learning to "wait for the Lord" is one of the most important patterns to establish in your life!

There is a source of inner strength that the secular world knows nothing about, and that source is God Himself. God has set up life in such a way that we are not able to face life victoriously without Him. Neither do we have the strength to minister to others in the way He desires, without His enabling.

Are you wearing out? Have you come to the end of your own strength? Are you "stumbling badly"? God wants you to learn to "wait for the Lord". He wants you to wait for His leading before moving forward, even with something good. He wants you to wait for His provision, to wait expectantly for His anointing on your ministry. Learn to pray and ask God for His enabling in your life.

Isaiah 40:15-18

Isaiah 40:15-18
“Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales; behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust. Even Lebanon is not enough to burn, nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before Him, they are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless. To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him?”

God is more significant than everything else that exists put together!
As Isaiah gropes for a way to compare all the nations of the earth to God, he keeps going to greater extremes to find a fitting comparison. Compared to God they are “like a drop from a bucket…a speck of dust on the scales…fine dust…not enough to burn…as nothing before Him…less than nothing…meaningless”.
Finally when he cannot make the comparison any more extreme, he says, “To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him?”
How foolish we are to ever put God on the sideline in our lives, to view Him as a convenient aspect of life. He is so much more important than anything else in our lives that there is not even any way to express it meaningfully.
Put God first, and your life will be as it should be: less stressed, more balanced, joyful and meaningful.

Isaiah 30:9-11

Isaiah 30:9-11

“For this is a rebellious people, false sons, sons who refuse to listen to the instruction of the LORD; who say to the seers, ‘You must not see visions’; and to the prophets, ‘You must not prophesy to us what is right, speak to us pleasant words, prophesy illusions. Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel’.”

Not all the things you need to hear from your Bible teachers are pleasant!

The Apostle Paul tells us that in the last days, people will pursue Bible teachers who “tickle their ears”. That is, the Bible teachers who are popular will be those who simply tell you what you like to hear (2 Timothy 4:3).

But God wants you to know that what you like to hear is not always what you need to hear. When you are choosing your Bible teachers, make sure you choose those who are willing to teach what is unpopular, who don’t only teach the “feel good” truths of the Bible. It is healthy for your spiritual life to be convicted and challenged about how you live.

You need to go beyond the surface, elementary teachings of Scripture and get into the in-depth study of the Bible that will make you a mature believer, able to discern what is right and wrong, and able to teach and counsel others.

Isaiah 29:13-14

Isaiah 29:13-14

"Then the Lord said, 'Because this people draw near with their words and honour Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote; therefore behold, I will once again deal marvellously with this people, wondrously marvellous; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed."

What God cares about is not your outward religious activities, but the condition of your heart towards Him!

If things are not too good in your daily inner relationship with God, you don't like for other believers to know about it; so you continue to use spiritual language that makes it seem like things are good. The danger is that it gets easy to live in this way, and we can come to convince even ourselves that this outward show is the real thing.

God is showing us today that just as He can astound us by His marvellous blessings, in the same way, He will astound us with His "marvellous" messing-up of our fake Christian life in order to let us see that it is our heart that matters.

Don't let yourself be satisfied to outwardly look like things are great between you and God. Don't settle for fake when the real thing is marvellous. Do whatever it takes to keep your heart sensitive and responsive to Him.

Isaiah 14:27

Isaiah 14:27

"For the LORD of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?"

God does what He plans, and nothing can keep Him from it!

Think about who God is. He's the Supreme Being of the universe, the Creator of everything besides Himself, the Author of life. He's omnipotent, all powerful. If God decides to do something, what could possibly thwart His purpose? Nothing!

Some Christians are afraid of God's power, as if it could mean disaster for them. But only those who are opposed to God's purpose need to fear His power. If you're building your life around God's purposes in this world, then you can be sure that all of God's power stands behind you, ready to support His work through you.

If you don't have a clear sense of what God's purpose is for you, then build your life around the purposes of God that are true for everyone. He wants you to honour Him with your life, to speak of Him to others, to give Him the credit for what He does in your life, and to pursue a deeper relationship with Him each day.

God is reassuring you through this verse today that He's dependable; His promises are reliable; and you don't need to be nervous about following His will in your life. If He is for you, who can be against you?

Isaiah 6:6-7

Isaiah 6:6-7

“Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, `Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven’.” (please read vv. 5-7)

Brokenness and confession from me lead to forgiveness and restoration from God!

The angel touched Isaiah’s lips with a coal from the sacrificial altar. God gave the people of Israel the sacrificial system as a symbol of what Christ would do for them at the cross. Jesus had not yet come and so God gave them the symbol of the substitutionary death of an animal as payment for their sins. But really it was the great sacrifice of Jesus for us that would make a way for our sins to be “taken away” and “forgiven”.

After Isaiah’s heart cry of brokenness and despair over his own sin, “then” came God’s forgiveness.

God’s reminding you today that He doesn’t want you to downplay your sin and make it seem not so bad. What He responds to in your life is open confession and grief in your heart about your sin against Him. And He’s also assuring you that when you see your sin the way He sees it and come to Him with it, He’s so ready to restore your relationship with Him to relational closeness.

Written by John North of Ambassadors For Christ. You can hear John Weekday mornings at 6.05am on FM103.2 and downloadable in the Audio Lounge.

Isaiah 6:5- His personal Encounter with God!

Isaiah 6:5

"Then I said, `Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.'"
(please read vv. 1-5 again)


You'll only really understand yourself when you have a personal encounter with God!

Isaiah's immediate response to his personal encounter with God wasn't great joy, excitement and vigour. No, Isaiah was devastated. He'd thought quite well of himself. He had a good self-image.

But suddenly that self-image was shattered by his exposure to God. In the face of God's presence, holiness and glory, Isaiah suddenly realised that he wasn't the centre of his own existence, that his sense of his own goodness was a delusion in the face of God's holiness. Here was this unfallen, perfect angel covering his face in the presence of God. What hope did Isaiah have?

Isaiah fell before his great God a broken man, aware of his weaknesses, failings and sins. That is just where he needed to be; it was where God wanted him. That brokenness was God's goal in Isaiah's life.

It is God's goal in your life too. Brokenness comes first; anointing comes later. Tears come first; joy comes later. Confession comes first; healing comes later. God comes first; then He makes you what you need to be. But you'll never find that brokenness until you encounter God Himself.

Written by John North of Ambassadors For Christ. You can hear John Weekday mornings at 6.05am on FM103.2 and downloadable in the Audio Lounge.

Isaiah 6:1-2

Isaiah 6:1-2

"I saw the Lord.Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew." (please read vv.1-5 again)

A personal encounter with God removes all your pride!

There are many different kinds of heavenly beings, which we lump together and call "angels". The Bible talks about angels, archangels, principalities, powers, cherubim and seraphim. These that Isaiah saw were the seraphim, which means "burning ones". Their name implies that they have a brilliance and glory about them.

These are probably the same beings that appeared to the shepherds at the birth of Jesus. When the first one appeared, Luke tells us (Luke 2:9) that "an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened".

The appearance of one of these angels brought awe and fear to those who saw them, and yet the far greater brilliance and glory of God causes even these great and amazing beings to cover their faces. They also covered their feet, a sign of deep humility before God.

If you find yourself thinking that maybe your opinion is almost as significant as God's opinion, or placing a low value on God's place in your life, then you need to set aside some time simply to ask God to reveal Himself to you in a greater way.

Isaiah 6:1

Isaiah 6:1

“In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.” (please read vv.1-5 again)

God’s glory always accompanies His presence!

The “train” of a robe is the long part of the robe that trails behind the king. It represents the king’s glory and majesty.

When Isaiah saw the Lord in all His beauty and greatness and magnificence, the train of God’s robe filled the temple. That is, there was an overwhelming sense of the glory of God!

This is the same thing that happened when Solomon first dedicated the temple. 2 Chronicles 5:13-14 tells us: “Then the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.”

When you have a personal encounter with God, you too will begin to see His glory — the evidence of His presence — in everything. In the circumstances of your life, in the Bible, in your prayer life, in your worship, in your fellowship with other believers, in your ministry to others, in God’s provision of your needs.

At every turn you will find reasons to honour and praise God for His kingly presence filling every corner of your life.

Isaiah 5:20

Isaiah 5:20

Isaiah 5:20

“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”

There is such a thing as absolute truth, despite how `good’ and `sweet’ popular opinion may seem!

God is not just a power that can be bent in whatever way suits us. God will not be what we want Him to be or what we think He should be. He will not behave according to our plans; nor will He adjust His morality to fit our expectations.

Remember, God was here long before humanity existed. God is who He is, not who we want Him to be.

Our job is not to decide what God is like, but to find out what He is like. He has a moral nature that defines morality in His universe. He has revealed His moral guidelines in the Bible and in His Son Jesus.

When we start redefining what God has said about morality, or sexuality, or spirituality, or marriage, or love, or any other area of right and wrong, we are setting ourselves against who God is and how He has revealed Himself.

Today the Lord is reminding us to go to His word for our guidance on the issues of life. It makes life so much simpler and ultimately sweeter when we trust God’s wisdom and obey Him.

Written by John North of Ambassadors For Christ for FM103.2. You can hear John Weekday mornings at 6.05am on FM103.2 and in our Audio Lounge.

Isaiah 3:10-11

Isaiah 3:10-11

Isaiah 3:10-11

"Say to the righteous that it will go well with them,
For they will eat the fruit of their actions.
Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him,
For what he deserves will be done to him."

God cares what you do!

Salvation - being forgiven for your sins and welcomed into God's family forever - is a free gift. It was purchased for you by Jesus when He went to the cross for you.

You don't earn your salvation by being good enough. You don't lose it by being bad enough. It's entirely dependent on what Jesus did, not what you do. You simply receive God's gift by faith. No wonder the Apostle Paul exclaims, "thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" (2 Corinthians 9:15).

But God is reminding us today that although salvation is a free gift, it does not mean that God doesn't care how we live after we're saved. Just the opposite - the terrible price Jesus had to pay for our forgiveness shows just how much God hates sin.

Today, Isaiah is telling us one of the basic truths about how God has set up this universe. Those who do what's right will ultimately be blessed for it and those who do what's wrong will experience negative consequences. Any actions that seem to have escaped their consequences in this life will find justice in the next. It's never a mistake to do what is right.

Written by John North of Ambassadors For Christ. You can hear John Weekday mornings at 6.05am on FM103.2 and in our Audio Lounge.

Use doubt to Deepen your Faith

Use Doubt To Deepen Your Faith

John 20:26-29

"Then He said to Thomas, 'Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing! Thomas answered and said to Him, 'My Lord and my God!'" (vv. 27-28)

Imagine what it must have been like for the other disciples, being in that room, hearing Thomas say he wasn't going to believe something was true until he saw it for himself? And can you imagine what it must have been like seeing Jesus appear in that room eight days later, speaking directly to Thomas about his doubts?

Jesus didn't lecture Thomas for having doubts because He knew the doubts would result in a strong belief.

The Lord is reminding us through Thomas that some people need to doubt before they will believe. Doubt can be healthy if it leads to questions. Then, if questions are honestly researched they can lead to answers. If the answers are accepted, then doubt has done its work. But when doubt results in stubbornness, and stubbornness becomes a lifestyle, that doubt is useless and harms the hope for faith.

When you have doubts, that's OK. But don't let doubts grow into stubbornness. Use those doubts to deepen your faith, as you search for the truth.

And notice that Thomas never reached his hand out to touch Jesus, he accepted Jesus as Lord by faith. Have you?

living in a temporary world...

Living in a Temporay World

2 Peter 3:11-12

“Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!”

One of the most foundational beliefs we hold as Christians is also one of the things we forget most easily, and that is the truth that this world is temporary!

God is allowing the fallenness of this world to continue because He is not finished with the people in the world. But one day God will come and close down this world and everything in it. Everything temporary will be destroyed. The only things that will make it out of this world are the spiritual things: people, the Word of God, the spiritual fruit of our lives, the things of God.

When that day comes, it will be so obvious to us that we have wasted so much of our lives and so much of our energy on things that really don’t matter. We will wish that we had lived full-on for God, that we had focused our lives on the things that last forever.

In today’s passage God is reminding you to live today for what will matter then! What sort of person ought you to be?