'Relating to God' Tagged Posts (Page 4)
Daily Devotional – His Agony and our Access
His Agony and Our Access – From Utmost.org April 5, 2016 Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples….”Stay here and watch with Me.” —Matthew 26:36, 38 We can never fully comprehend Christ’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, but at least we don’t have to misunderstand it. It is the agony of God and man in one Person, coming face to face with sin. We cannot learn about Gethsemane through personal experience. Gethsemane…
Daily Devotional – The Way to Permanent Faith
The Way to Permanent Faith – From Utmost.org April 4, 2016 Indeed the hour is coming…that you will be scattered… —John 16:32 Jesus was not rebuking the disciples in this passage. Their faith was real, but it was disordered and unfocused, and was not at work in the important realities of life. The disciples were scattered to their own concerns and they had interests apart from Jesus Christ. After we have the perfect relationship with God, through the sanctifying work…
Daily Devotional – The Glory that’s Unsurpassed
The Glory That’s Unsurpassed – From Utmost.org April 2, 2016 …the Lord Jesus…has sent me that you may receive your sight… —Acts 9:17 When Paul received his sight, he also received spiritual insight into the Person of Jesus Christ. His entire life and preaching from that point on were totally consumed with nothing but Jesus Christ— “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). Paul never again allowed anything to…
Daily Devotional – Helpful or Heartless Toward Others?
Helpful or Heartless Toward Others? – From Utmost.org April 1, 2016 It is Christ…who also makes intercession for us….the Spirit…makes intercession for the saints… —Romans 8:34, 27 Do we need any more arguments than these to become intercessors– that Christ “always lives to make intercession” (Hebrews 7:25), and that the Holy Spirit “makes intercession for the saints”? Are we living in such a relationship with others that we do the work of intercession as a result of being the children…
Daily Devotional – Holiness or Hardness toward God?
Holiness or Hardness Toward God? – From Utmost.org March 30, 2016 He…wondered that there was no intercessor… —Isaiah 59:16 The reason many of us stop praying and become hard toward God is that we only have an emotional interest in prayer. It sounds good to say that we pray, and we read books on prayer which tell us that prayer is beneficial— that our minds are quieted and our souls are uplifted when we pray. But Isaiah implied in this…
Daily Devotional – Spiritual Vision Through Personal Character
Spiritual Vision Through Personal Character – From Utmost.org March 27, 2016 Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place… —Revelation 4:1 A higher state of mind and spiritual vision can only be achieved through the higher practice of personal character. If you live up to the highest and best that you know in the outer level of your life, God will continually say to you, “Friend, come up even higher.” There is also a continuing…
Daily Devotional – Spiritual Vision Through Personal Purity
Spiritual Vision Through Personal Purity – From Utmost.org March 26, 2016 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. —Matthew 5:8 Purity is not innocence— it is much more than that. Purity is the result of continued spiritual harmony with God. We have to grow in purity. Our life with God may be right and our inner purity unblemished, yet occasionally our outer life may become spotted and stained. God intentionally does not protect us from this…
Daily Devotional – The Burning Heart
The Burning Heart – From Utmost.org March 22, 2016 Did not our heart burn within us…? —Luke 24:32 We need to learn this secret of the burning heart. Suddenly Jesus appears to us, fires are set ablaze, and we are given wonderful visions; but then we must learn to maintain the secret of the burning heart— a heart that can go through anything. It is the simple, dreary day, with its commonplace duties and people, that smothers the burning heart—…
Daily Devotional – Identified of Simply Interested?
Identified or Simply Interested? – From Utmost.org March 21, 2016 I have been crucified with Christ… —Galatians 2:20 The inescapable spiritual need each of us has is the need to sign the death certificate of our sin nature. I must take my emotional opinions and intellectual beliefs and be willing to turn them into a moral verdict against the nature of sin; that is, against any claim I have to my right to myself. Paul said, “I have been crucified…
Daily Devotional – Abraham’s Life of Faith
Abraham’s Life of Faith March 19, 2016 He went out, not knowing where he was going. —Hebrews 11:8 In the Old Testament, a person’s relationship with God was seen by the degree of separation in that person’s life. This separation is exhibited in the life of Abraham by his separation from his country and his family. When we think of separation today, we do not mean to be literally separated from those family members who do not have a personal…
Daily Devotional – The Servant’s Primary Goal
The Servant’s Primary Goal – From Utmost.org March 17, 2016 We make it our aim…to be well pleasing to Him. —2 Corinthians 5:9 “We make it our aim….” It requires a conscious decision and effort to keep our primary goal constantly in front of us. It means holding ourselves to the highest priority year in and year out; not making our first priority to win souls, or to establish churches, or to have revivals, but seeking only “to be well…
Daily Devotional – Yielding
Yielding from Utmost.org March 14, 2016 …you are that one’s slaves whom you obey… —Romans 6:16 The first thing I must be willing to admit when I begin to examine what controls and dominates me is that I am the one responsible for having yielded myself to whatever it may be. If I am a slave to myself, I am to blame because somewhere in the past I yielded to myself. Likewise, if I obey God I do so because…