DAY 18 “Let not a
wise man glory in his wisdom. Let not a mighty man glory in his might.
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches,
but let him who glories
glory in this, that he UNDERSTANDS AND KNOWS ME. That I AM the Lord, exercising
lovingkindness,
in judgement and righteousness
in the earth. For in these I delight, says the Lord.”
Jeremiah 9: 23, 24
Philosophers, generals and
business entrepreneurs should not glory in their gifts or achievement.
The greatest of once born
man are not even in a kindergarten when it comes to spiritual realities.
The believer should glory in that he knows God loves, God judges, and God
is always righteous in His dealings. In the days of Jeremiah judgement
was accelerating toward Israel and Judah, just like judgement comes to
a sin-sick society like England now. The church in its long march to
accommodate worldly values
and techniques does not understand true agapé love nor does it know
judgement. Even a stork knows her appointed times (Jeremiah 8: 7). Even
creation groans in a divine protest ministry against sin, selfishness and
spiritual devastation … and is more in tune with God’s agenda than the
apostate church.
To glory in our efforts means
we have a small God, who we don’t really need. Those who know a big God
in our society understand the serious issue of impending judgement. Jeremiah
knew an extremely good God of the new covenant, but also knew the wicked,
deceitful heart of God’s ancient people.
There was no balm in Gilead
because of the curse of false prophets and the corruption of the priesthood.
The man who glories in the Lord, who exalts His character and is able to
warn church and nation that the Chaldeans are coming, is the true prophet
and priest! This is no mere history lesson, but amazing relevance because
the new Babylonian system of today is Islam. In the 7th century B.C. we
see politically EXIT ASSYRIA AND ENTER BABYLON. At the end of the 20th
century we have witnessed EXIT COMMUNISM, ENTER ISLAM. Not an atheistic
system against Christ, (Communism), but a religious system instead of Christ
and His Church, (Islam). Let’s make it our ambition to really KNOW the
God whom we serve and love Him. The word of God is our map when it comes
to knowing God and His ways. It causes us to worship Him aright and to
know true experience in the glory.
DAY19 “… but let him
who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me. That I am
the Lord exercising lovingkindness, judgement and righteousness in the
earth…”
Jeremiah 9: 23, 24
We will delight in Father’s
love, and the critical moments of judgement, and His righteousness, when
we obey God’s voice. The weeping prophet told God’s people to amend their
ways. Our part is to repent, to renounce, to forgive, to be open to inner
healing and deliverance. Then we will encounter God, have our lives transformed
and go and seek the lost – in that order!
In Jeremiah 6: 13 – 15 we
see the covetousness of materialism choking the seed of the word of God
so there only exists superficial healing. The abominations of Baal worship
included Molech (today’s abortion sin) and Ashteroth (today’s pornography
sin). God was to punish their idolatry and will do again in Europe… soon.
Unless we repent we will know the Lord in judgement. This was the note
in Ezekiel’s prophecy.
We fail to delight in the
three qualities of God of lovingkindness, judgement and righteousness because
of a rising tide of false prophecy in the churches (see Jeremiah 5: 30,
31). We are called in the New Testament to discern…
| False spirits |
(1 John 4: 1 – 6) |
| False workers |
(2 Corinthians 11: 13 –
15) |
| False apostles |
(Revelation 2: 2) |
Our ears are uncircumcised
i.e. not open to truly hearing the Shepherd’s voice, because our hearts
have been taken over by listening to the counterfeit religious voice of
divination. Remember even the apostle Paul nearly got it wrong in Acts
16, and Peter certainly did in Galatians 2. If men of that calibre get
it wrong, we need to seek God on our knees, bowing our head, and bowing
our necks in humility, seeking discernment as if it is precious silver.
The problem in Jeremiah’s
day, and it is the same today, is that God’s people have become confused
and refused the ancient,
timeless paths that bring
a deep seated rest to the soul.
God seeks a discerning remnant
who will understand and know His plans and pursuits. The good way of Jeremiah
6: 16 is the gospel of holiness that links love, judgement and righteousness.
Most churches will not mention eternal judgement or the judgement seat,
and bring a gospel of sentiment minus the truths of deliverance and righteousness.
Run in horror from those who deny the true power and the real glory of
the full gospel.
DAY 20 “… but let
him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me. That I
am the Lord exercising lovingkindness, judgement and righteousness in the
earth…”
Jeremiah 9: 23, 24
Prophets must know and understand
God in the depths of their heart. The child Samuel knew the glory of His
presence surround the prophetic judgement of Eli’s household. Once he had
quieted his heart and gave the divine voice his full attention, God spoke
of the radical change that was coming (see 1 Samuel 3: 11 – 14). To hear
and obey God is to give God glory. The hardened heart is a condition of
sin that prevents God’s people from the Promised Land of today - Romans
8 living. The key to hear God’s voice is focus which comes from worship
(Psalm 95: 6 – 8), and meditation (Psalm 62: 1, 5).
The hardened heart is a condition
of sin that prevents God’s people from the Promised Land of today -Romans
8 living
To incline your ear in Proverbs
4: 20, means to bow your head and bow your neck in humble submission. When
God asked
Solomon what he wanted in
a dream, it was after the sacrifice of a thousand bulls at Gibeon. We need
to ask for what Solomon
desired: a hearing heart,
after we have laid our lives on the altar. A close reading of 2 Chronicles
1 reveals the divine order: the foundation of repentance precedes the glory.
Great glory followed for Solomon in terms of honour and riches, but also
in the cloud of glory that entered the temple, knocking the priests to
the floor. In the stillness of the sanctuary, God wants to speak to His
sheep. He invites us into the secret place of His tabernacle, Psalm 27:
5. The sequel of the rest and worship is truly amazing. He sets us high
upon a rock and our head shall be lifted above our enemies – we are now
in a position to offer the sacrifice of joy. It is only those who dwell
in the secret place who live victoriously. In the stillness we find direction,
strength, determination to be His warrior people. HE wants to trust His
prophetic remnant with the things to come. John 16: 13 tells us the Holy
Spirit will reveal things to come and God can do nothing except reveal
His secrets to His prophets (Amos 3: 7). It will take on our part TIME
and FULL ATTENTION, HUMILITY and QUIETNESS. Will we pay the price to be
in on His agenda? Let’s pray,
“O Sovereign Lord, You
know all the details of the end-times. I desire ears to hear what the Spirit
is saying to the church and to the nation. Deliver me from second-hand
junk spiritual food and microwaved Christianity. Help me to wait with undivided
attention upon Your holy voice. For Jesus sake and His glory.
Amen.”
Day 21 “Hear and give
ear, do not be proud…Give glory to the Lord your God before He causes darkness…”
Jeremiah 13: 15, 16
Giving God glory is declaring
His virtues. God doesn’t have to feel good about Himself due to our praise.
Rather, he invites us into the atmosphere of heaven, BEFORE the days of
darkness when no one can work the works of God (see John 9: 4). Praise
is our duty
and sacrifice and seal of
victory. David did it seven times a day.
God doesn’t have to feel
good about Himself due to our praise. Rather, he invites us into the atmosphere
of heaven…
We may not be able to prevent
God’s wrath by praise in terms of a nation or a locality, but we can BY
PRAISE…
ENCOUNTER GOD
TRANSFORM OUR LIFE
And reach out to others IN
HIS STRENGTH. We must repent of the pride of our own agendas or we will
become captive to our enemies (Jeremiah 13: 18, 19).
Pride is the very ground
of deception and hinders the glory of God in the church. Pride will cause
us to refuse to hear God’s words, so we walk in the imaginations of our
deceived hearts, and we then serve and worship other gods (Jeremiah 13:
9, 10). It’s time to get down on our knees again and cry out to the Living
God!
Great darkness and the valley
of the shadow of death is falling on the UK. Judgement comes because of
sexual sin (13: 22). Promiscuity these last 40 years has brought the judgement
of a full tide of pornography (13: 26, 27). If the believer has a strong
life of praise and worship he or she will stay in the Spirit and escape
the gross works of the flesh. Madame Guyon gave this beautiful
illustration. Look at the
early morning sky when the sun rises. The stars disappear as the light
increases. And so, it is with us: works of the flesh will disappear as
we focus on the God of glory, and stay filled with the Holy Spirit!
Praise helps us open up and
receive an increase in the fruits of the Spirit. Praise Him today on your
knees or face and He will come to you and speak His consoling words in
the midst of a world accelerating to darkness.
“O Lord I want to enter
new levels of praise and worship in these days of encroaching darkness.
I know an obedient heart to Your Word is an essential component of worship.
Help me to worship You in Spirit and truth. It is forever bright in heaven
so allow my heart to be set apart by Your holy blood to hear Your voice.”
DAY 22 Jesus
spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, “Father the
hour has come, GLORIFY Your Son that
Your Son may also GLORIFY
You.”
John 17: 1
The High Priestly prayer
of Jesus is words given to Him by the Father, and given back to God in
the depths of His immersion into heaven. He lifted up His eyes into the
heavenlies and no doubt saw the throne of His Father as He prayed. The
whole chapter is bathed in the sublime… a sacred hush descends and we are
riveted to the greatest example of prayer in the Bible. Here is our passport
to the Promised Land of faith and victory, our avenue to Romans 8, our
access card to the unsearchable riches of Christ.
The hour has come, and Jesus
always walked in complete synchronization with the Father’s will. He was
going to fulfill the climax of that determined purpose by returning to
His glory home via the cruel, criminal Cross. He was never intimidated
by religious leaders – fear always hinders glory – nor was he afraid of
the Roman system. He knew with inward unshakeable conviction His hour had
come. See John 2: 4, 12: 23, 27 and the wonderful 13: 1, where the verse
encourages us that Jesus loved His followers to their psychological limits,
not merely to the end of time. No future, no fear, no fault of mine can
separate me as a new creation from the embracing, relentless, secure grip
of the Father’s love. In times of crisis we need to meditate on and declare
the words at the end of
Romans 8. God so often will
turn up powerfully at the very moment when we feel at our lowest, provided
we have a reaction of prayer pouring out of our hearts.
“The hour has come…” signifies
our Lord’s impeccable sense of timing. Morris Cerullo has called the essential
key to spiritual warfare “timing”. May we know in our relationship with
Jesus Christ the sense of timing. Jeremiah laments that God’s people don’t
know the time (Jeremiah 8: 7), and Moses tells us to number our days with
a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90: 12). We glorify God when we are aware of divine
timing. Our Lord was to glorify the Father, i.e. to clarify and fully express
the nature of God… even on the Cross, a Roman gibbet of excruciating pain.
This was the first of eight desires in the remarkable John 17 chapter.
The first desire was to glorify the relationship between Father and Son.
Jesus wanted to reflect the Father’s nature 100% in the climax of the Father’s
will for Him. Let us pray,
“O Lord Jesus who glorified
the Father as Your first aim, make it my priority to do the same, even
when I am going through suffering for Your sake. Amen.”
DAY 23 “… that He
should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.”
John 17: 2
There are three wonderful
gifts God gives to man for us to, in some small measure, share and reflect
the glory of God. Eternal life is given on the basis of repentance from
dead works, at the start of our Christian life. Two other gifts are essential
for our growth in grace in order that we may give God glory.
(a) The revelation
of the Name (v 6).
His name is Jehovah and our
new creation will share His provisions, healings, victories, righteousness,
leadings, grace and presence. The revelation of the character of Jesus
is vital to our discipleship. Some groups stress the provisions (Jehovah-Jireh),
while others may soak in His presence (Jehovah-Shammah). Others are always
using the sword of the
Spirit in the name of Jehovah-Nissi:
our banner or victory (Exodus 17: 15). Others see the vital necessity of
working out the moral righteousness from His righteousness that He has
worked in us (see Jeremiah 23: and 2 Corinthians 5: 21). May the fruit
of the Spirit, the virtues of Jesus Christ be found in us. We are in the
Spirit when we flow in His character or Name.
(b) The words which
Father gave the Son (v 8).
The SAME words Father gave
the Son… the Son gives to the disciples!
This WORD is:
• full of divine power
• able to save the soul
• creating faith
• used as a sword against
evil agencies, also
• COMES TO US WHO BELIEVE
(John 17: 20)
Holiness comes from imbibing
His character. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. We walk by two legs:
holiness and faith. Eternal life extends the inheritance and blessing by
holiness and faith. GLORY is produced by eternal life, the name of Jehovah,
and His words of spirit and life. As we obey the word in the Spirit of
Christ, glory is shed on our way. Let’s pray,
“Father I bow down and
worship You because, in Your Son, You’ve given me all I need for a glorious
life of giving the glory back to You. Thank you again for eternal life,
the Name above every name and Your Word
DAY 24 “And this is
eternal life: that they may KNOW You, the only true God…”
John 17: 3
As we read and discover John
17 on our knees, may the Holy Spirit attend our thoughts and prayers, bringing
us into a revelation knowledge of Father and Son.
There are three movements
to this great chapter; each subject is the relationship with the Father:
(a) v 1 –
5 The Christ Himself
(b) v 6 – 19
The chosen hearers (disciples)
(c) v 20 – 26
The church history (us)
In the first section our Lord
states His mission on the earth is complete; but His greatest task, a heavenly
ministry of intercession, is yet to begin. He successfully glorified the
Father on earth by finishing the work God sent Him to accomplish.
The second desire of His
heart is found in verse 5,
“And now O Father,
glorify Me together with Yourself with the glory which I had with You before
the world was.”
Father I’m coming back but ONLY
by the way that spells out salvation for ruined humanity… is what our Lord
is saying
In John 17: 1 the desire
was relational whereas this desire is personal. He wants to return to the
eternal or “excellent glory” of 2 Peter 1: 17. He is missing being next
to the Father’s side… alongside Him with the cherubim and seraphim and
archangels. So He prays “Glorify Me” rather than “Glorify Your Son” (17:
1). The first desire centered on the Son glorifying the Father – a perfect,
full, sufficient sacrifice. Here, in the second desire there is an eternal
longing. In the first prayer the Lord knows He has been given authority
to lay down His life and has authority to take it again – so men could
receive eternal life. The second desire was for His obedience to the
Cross, so He could rightfully
recapture the glory that He had emptied Himself of, by becoming a servant.
Father I’m coming back but ONLY by the way that spells out salvation for
ruined humanity… is what our Lord is saying. The true grace that produces
the true glory only comes through the Cross. Luther said, “The flesh always
wants to be exalted before it is crucified.” There are no short cuts to
the exaltation of living in heavenly places. For us Romans 6: 6, “… our
old man is crucified with Him” always comes before our realized position
of being made alive together, raised together, and seated together in heavenly
places in Ephesians 2: 6. This is the road-map toward glorious living.
Let us pray:
“O Father I realize that
to be a choice vessel reflecting the glory of God, I must submit to the
death-friendly instrument of the Cross, where the present working of death
annihilates my self-life, so that eternal life may flow out to others.
In Jesus name – by His grace and grip. Amen.”
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