Spiritual Commitment: Level of Decision

June 8, 2016

“… the Lord will not be with you!” (Numbers 14:43)

When pilots are landing a large commercial jet they reach a point where they must commit to their landing.  They call that point of no return the LD – the “level of decision.”

God is very patient and full of mercy and grace.  However, Numbers Chapter 14 tells us there is an LD in our journeys of faith.  There is a point where we either do, or do not, commit to doing the will of God.

God will lean on us like an elephant to get us to see and do His will. He reaches a point, however, where He will let us have it our way.  When God lets us do our own thing we suffer great loss.  For starters, we forfeit the present purpose of our salvation.  We all know we are not saved by good works but we can lose the opportunity to do the works for which God has saved us (Ephesians 2:10).

When the Israelites chose not to do the will of God, Moses said: “The Lord will not be with you!”  Perhaps the saddest word in the Hebrew Old Testament is the word “Ichabod” that means “the glory has departed” and teaches that God sometimes withdraws anointing power from His people.

There is such a thing as the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God for your life and mine (Romans 12:1, 2).  The book of Numbers solemnly presents two options: after being delivered from our “Egypt” we can go around in circles for 40 years, or we can commit to doing the will of God.

Are you making a wise commitment in your spiritual LD?

Dick Woodward, 06 December 2013

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Providential Benedictions

April 21, 2015

“…For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”  (Matthew 6:13)

[In the “Our Father” Disciples Prayer]  Our Lord teaches us to begin our prayers with a God first mindset and conclude our prayers with that same focus.  We begin our prayers looking through the grid: “Your name be reverenced, Your Kingdom come,” and “Your will be done (in earth and) on earth, just as it is willed and done in heaven.”  We are to conclude our prayers the same way.

Jesus wants us to conclude our prayers by making this commitment to our Heavenly Father: “Yours is the Kingdom.”  By this confession, He means for us to pledge to God that the results of our Heavenly Father’s continuously answering our prayers will always belong to Him.

As we face challenges of life every day, we should be poor in spirit enough to confess that we need the power of God: “Yours is the power.”  When I have entered into a challenging day, I have confessed this thousands of times in my journey of faith and ministry by saying, “I can’t, but He can.”

Finally, we are to conclude our prayers by confessing: “Yours is the glory.”  When we apply this third providential benediction, we are simply confessing, “Because I didn’t but He did, all the glory goes to Him.” Jesus prescribes that we conclude our prayers every time we pray by making this solemn commitment to God:  The glory for everything that happens in my life because You have answered my prayer(s), will always go to You.”

The essence of this benediction is:  “Because the power always comes from You, the result will always belong to You, and the glory will always go to You.”

“Amen” simply means, “So be it.”

Dick Woodward, from A Prescription for Prayer

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A Prescription for Burnout

January 30, 2015

“This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory.  And his disciples believed in him.” (John 2:11)

Jesus goes to a wedding and when they run out of wine, He creates more wine. In addition to the record of a miracle, this story is a formula for regeneration and a prescription for renewal.  There is tired and there is tired of.  Disciples of Jesus not only get tired – they get tired of.  We call this “burnout.”

I’m convinced this first miracle presents a prescription for burnout.  If you are experiencing the need of renewal consider this prescription.  Mary tells Jesus they have no wine.  Since wine is a symbol of joy in the Bible let this represent your confession that you need renewal because you are tired of, dry, and burned out.

Then block out some time to fill your human vessel with the Word of God as symbolized by the vessels being filled with water.  While you are filling up on the Word of God do whatever the Holy Spirit tells you to do.  Then realize that your renewal is not just to give you an experience, it is for the benefit of those God wants to touch and bless using you as His channel.

Let these four principles we learn from this miracle that first brought glory to Jesus and faith to His disciples bring renewal to you as you serve Jesus.  Our Lord often invited His apostles to come apart and rest awhile.  If you don’t come apart to rest at times and take this prescription of Jesus for your burnout – you will come apart.

Let Jesus turn your water into wine. 

Dick Woodward, 16 November 2011

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Examining our Hearts

September 2, 2014

“Search me, Oh God, and know my heart.  Try me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.”  (Psalm 139:23-24)

David showed great spiritual wisdom when he prayed this prayer.  He asked God to take the lid off his mind and show him the thoughts that should not be there.  He then asked God to take the lid off his heart because he wanted to see the motives that should not be in his heart.  He prayed this prayer of self-examination because he wanted to walk in the everlasting way.  Another way of saying the same thing is that David wanted God to purify his thoughts and  motives because he wanted to be the man God created and re-created him to be…

Paul closes his second letter to the Corinthians with a verse that has a cluster of challenges regarding how they are to think of themselves. If you compare several translations of this verse (2 Corinthians 13:5), you will realize that these challenges can be summarized and paraphrased into just three:  “EXAMINE yourself, whether you are in the faith; PROVE yourself that you are an authentic disciple of Christ.  And KNOW yourself, how that Jesus Christ is in you.” …

Paul wrote to the Colossians that God called him to share a spiritual secret with the Church: Christ in our hearts is our only hope of bringing glory to God.  (Colossians 1:24-29)  In this great passage he writes that sharing this secret is his life’s work and is worthy of all his life’s energies.   “Christ in you the hope of glory.”  He exhorts us to know by experience that Christ is in us and we are in Christ.

Dick Woodward, from A Prescription for Your Self

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Spiritual Secrets & Glorious Realities

August 22, 2014

“…  And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory.” (Colossians 1:27 NLT)

The most important teaching in the New Testament is that Jesus Christ died for our sins.  The most dynamic teaching in the New Testament is that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and He lives in us.  According to the Apostle Paul, the glorious reality that the risen Christ lives in us gives us the assurance that we can glorify God.

To glorify God means to do that which pleases God.  At the end of His perfect life Jesus made the statement, “I have glorified You on the earth.  I have finished the work You gave me to do.” (John 17:4)  In one of His most profound metaphors, Jesus taught that it is possible for us to be at one with Him the way a branch is at one with a Vine.  (John 15:1-16)

It is only because I am in Him and He is in me, like a branch is in a Vine, that I can hope and pray to come to the end of my life exclaiming, “I have glorified You on the earth.  I have finished the work You gave me to do.”

This means the Risen Christ is a Vine looking for branches today.  Are you willing to be one of those branches?  When you become one, or if you already are a branch, are you finding and finishing the work He wants you to do for Him that glorifies His Father God?

Dick Woodward, 24 May 2010

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The Attitude of Ingratitude

December 3, 2013

“…although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, and they were not thankful…”  (Romans 1:21)

The fall of the human race is described in Genesis 3 and more briefly in the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans.  A good way to find the application of this teaching is to think of the phrase: “Like it was, like it is.” God describes the fall like it was because He wants us to understand that fall like it is — especially in our own lives.

Paul tells us there were two causes of the fall of man: “When they knew God they did not glorify Him as God” and “They were not thankful.”  According to David when we enter into the presence of God the first thing we know is that He is God and we are His (Psalm 100).

Jesus taught that the new birth is not an end in itself but a means to an end. The end is the Kingdom of God. When we are born again we make Him our King (John 3: 3-5).  When we do not understand this, we think the end to which the new birth is the means is all about us and what God does for us. Your new birth experience can be retarded because you are not giving Him His rightful place in your life as your God.

There are many positive effects of gratitude in your life.  Imagine that if the sin of ingratitude can cause the fall of the human race, think of the negative effects of ingratitude in your life.

Are you experiencing negative consequences in your own private fall because you have an attitude of ingratitude?

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Why Believe?

February 1, 2013

“Without faith it is impossible to please God.  He that would come to God must believe that He is and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

The author of these words is telling discouraged believers why they should not throw away their faith.  He writes that they must believe because without faith we cannot come to God, we cannot please God, and we cannot experience the beautiful reality that God rewards those who diligently seek Him.

When Jesus died on the cross a great veil in the Temple that separated sinners from the divine presence of God was supernaturally torn from top to bottom.  The significance of that miracle was, and is, that we can now go directly into the presence of God.  We no longer need the intercession of a priest.  The door into a relationship with God has been wide open since our High Priest Jesus opened it for us 2,000 years ago.  How could we not come to God through that door by faith?

We must believe because we are not only saved by faith – we are to live by faith.  As we live by faith our chief purpose in life is to glorify God.  To glorify God means to please God and we cannot please God without faith.  As we live our life in this world the greatest fact of life we know is that God is, and He blesses, enables, and rewards those who come to Him by faith.

The author then gives us what we call A Hall of Faith which exhibits for all time great examples of people who did not throw away their faith.  In spite of great challenges they believed that God is, they came to Him, they pleased Him and God rewarded their faith.

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