Mission Control

Ephesians 1.17-19 (NIV)  ¹⁷ I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. ¹⁸ I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, ¹⁹ and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

Testimony of Hudson Taylor:
“But personal need stood first and was the greatest. I felt the ingratitude, the danger, the sin of not living nearer to God. I prayed, agonised, fasted, strove, made resolutions, read the Word more diligently, sought more time for retirement and meditation—but all was without effect… How, too, could I preach with sincerity that to those who receive Jesus, “to them gave He power to become the sons of God” (i.e. God-like) when it was not so in my own experience? Instead of growing stronger, I seemed to be getting weaker and to have less power against sin; and no wonder, for faith and even hope were getting very low.  I hated my sin; and yet I gained no strength against it.  When my agony of soul was at its height…the Spirit of God revealed the truth of our oneness with Jesus as I had never known it before “But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One.” As I read I saw it all! “If we believe not, He abideth faithful.” I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh, how joy flowed!) that He had said, “I will never leave you.” “Ah, there is rest!” I thought. “I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I’ll strive no more. For has He not promised to abide with me—never to leave me, never to fail me?”…I saw not only that Jesus would never leave me, but that I was a member of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. The vine now I see, is not the root merely, but all—root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit: and Jesus is not only that: He is soil and sunshine, air and showers, and ten thousand times more than we have ever dreamed, wished for, or needed. Oh, the joy of seeing this truth! I do pray that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened, that you may know and enjoy the riches freely given us in Christ.” [Hudson Taylor, The Exchanged Life]

Today, pray through Ephesians 1.17-19, asking the Lord to open the eyes of your heart to know Him better!  Sing and pray with the song “Your love it knows no end” (click here).

-GK

1 Timothy 1.15-17 (NLT)  ¹⁵ This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. ¹⁶ But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life. ¹⁷ All honor and glory to God forever and ever! He is the eternal King, the unseen one who never dies; he alone is God. Amen.

Testimony of CS Lewis:
“Really, a young Atheist cannot guard his faith too carefully. Dangers lie in wait for him on every side. . . .You must picture me alone in that room at Magdalen [College, Oxford University], night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. . . . I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing: the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? . . . The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.” (Surprised by Joy, chapter 14)

Today let’s spend time in worship and thanksgiving, that God has saved us sinners in His kindness, mercy, and grace. Today, spend time in prayer as you worship with the song “Thank you Jesus” (click here).

-GK

Luke 24.31-32 (NIV)  ³¹ Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. ³² They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

Testimony of St. Augustine:
“I quickly returned to the bench where . . . I had put down the apostle’s book [Paul’s Epistle to the Romans] when I had left there. I snatched it up, opened it, and in silence read the paragraph on which my eyes first fell: ‘not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh’ [Romans 13:13-14]. I wanted to read no further, nor did I need to. For instantly, as the sentence ended, there was infused in my heart something like the light of full certainty and all the gloom of doubt vanished away.” [Confessions 8.12]

“We glimpse our goal across the sea of the present age. . . . But to enable us to go there, the One who is our goal came to us. . . . No one may cross the sea of his age, unless he be carried by the Cross of Christ. . . . So do not forsake the Cross, and the Cross will carry you.” [Tractates on the Gospel of John, 2.2]

Today let’s pray that our eyes will be opened to God’s word afresh, with our hearts burning within us as the Lord speaks to us through His word. Spend time praying and reading through 1 Corinthians 2.

-GK

1 Corinthians 2:12-16  ¹² What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. ¹³ This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. ¹⁴ The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. ¹⁵ The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, ¹⁶ for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

“Thus Paul’s preaching of the cross came with “words taught by the Spirit” (v. 13), which included “explaining Spiritual things by Spiritual means” (= the things taught by the Spirit with language appropriate to the Spirit). To have the Spirit in this way means not to be subject to merely human judgments; rather, it means to have the mind of Christ (vv. 15–16; cf. 7:25, 40). Pivotal to Paul’s argument is that this revelation should be the common experience of all who have received the Spirit. Paul’s problem with the Corinthians was that they considered themselves to be people of the Spirit, yet were abandoning the cross for human wisdom and rhetoric. Hence the vital role of the Spirit, who reveals to those who love God what was formerly hidden (1 Cor 2:9–10), namely, what God in Christ has freely given us (v. 12). [Fee, Gordon. Paul, the Spirit, and the people of God. Page 80]

Today let’s pray and ask for the Spirit given revelation in our lives—to have the mind of Christ in regards to all things.  As you pray listen to this song “Living with a fire” by Jesus Culture (click here).

-GK

1 Corinthians 2.4 “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”

“They became followers of Christ (v. 5) not on the basis of Paul’s proclamation of the gospel alone, but because that proclamation was accompanied by the power of the Spirit, including a deep conviction (probably both in Paul as he preached and in them as they heard). Whether the power of the Spirit in this instance also included accompanying signs and wonders is moot (I think it did; Rom 15:18–19 indicates that such was regularly the case). The Thessalonians’ reception of the gospel was accompanied by much affliction and by the joy of the Holy Spirit (v. 6), that unquenchable joy the Spirit brings to those who have come to know the living and true God (v. 9). So also with 1 Corinthians 2:1–5…It was accompanied by a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, proved by the conversion of the Corinthians themselves (cf. 2 Cor 3:3). And it was so, Paul adds, in order that their faith might rest in “the power of God,” not in merely human wisdom. [Fee, Gordon. Paul, the Spirit, and the people of God. Page 77]

The experience of deep conviction from the Spirit is a clear evidence of God’s power at work, where sins are confronted, repented, and forgiven, which results in having a deep desire to change.

Today, bring to mind the conviction you received during this past Sunday’s message, and spend time in prayer—in repentance, in receiving His forgiveness, and having an ever-increasing desire for transformation. Listen to the song “How can it be” (click here) as you pray.

-GK