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2017 40 Days of Prayer, Day 21

The Abiding Presence of God:
A Life of Complete Dependence

Day 21

“that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” Romans 8:21

Creation Will Be Set Free

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The first chapter of the Bible describes God’s ordered creation of the universe.  The implication of the order leads the reader to conclude that the humans are the pinnacle of creation.  “Let Us make man in our own image…” articulates God’s view of people.  Humans alone possess the unique attribute of image-bearer and, therefore, are the greatest creative act by the Creator.  In Romans 8:21, Paul continued the theme of personifying creation.  All of creation awaits for the freedom that will come when God’s children receive their everlasting inheritance.  This is the hope from verse 20.  God subjected creation to the futility of fallen humanity.  God subjected the creation but there is still great hope in His redemptive act.  God will bring His adopted children into His glorious presence.  Creation rejoices over the coming freedom for the children of God.  It rejoices because when the children of God are freed from sin’s power, the rest of creation will also be freed from its slavery to corruption.

Prayer Focus

God, please hear my prayer today.   I see evidence of the futility and frustration of the creation.  The evidence of the creation’s slavery to corruption provides me one more reminder that this present world is not as it should be.  However, I have hope because of who You are.  I have hope because of what You have done to save me from the brokenness of this world.  I have hope because one day you will free me and all of Your creation from this fallen world.  Use me today as an instrument of Your peace.  The world is broken but You have redeemed the world.

From DL Moody’s Secret Power

GREEN FIELDS

When I was out in California, the first time I went down from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and dropped into the Valley of the Sacramento, I was surprised to find on one farm that everything about it was green - all the trees and flowers, everything was blooming. Everything was green and beautiful, and just across the hedge everything was dried up, and there was not a green thing there, and I could not understand it. I made inquiries, and I found that the man that had everything green, irrigated. He just poured the water right on, and he kept everything green, while the fields that were next to his were as dry as Gideon’s fleece without a drop of dew. So it is with a great many in the Church today. They are like these farms in California - a dreary desert, everything parched and desolate, and apparently no life in them. They can sit next to a man who is full of the Spirit of God, who is like a green tree, and who is bringing forth fruit, and yet they will not seek a similar blessing. Well, why this difference? Because God has poured water on him that was thirsty; that is the difference. One has been seeking this work of the Spirit, and he has received it; and when we want this above everything else God will surely give it to us.

The great question before us now is, “do we want it?” I remember when I first went to England and gave a Bible reading. I think about the first reading that I gave in that country. A great many ministers were there. I didn’t know anything about English theology, and I was afraid I should run against their creeds. I was a little hampered, especially on this very subject, about the Gift of the Holy Spirit for service. I remember particularly a Christian minister there who had his head bowed on his hand, and I thought the good man was ashamed of everything I was saying, and of course that troubled me. At the close of my address he took his hat and away he went, and then I thought, “Well, I shall never see him again.” At the next meeting I looked all around for him and he wasn’t there, and at the next meeting I looked again, but he was absent; and I thought my teaching must have given him offense. But a few days after that, at a large noon prayer meeting, a man stood up and his face shone as if he had been up in the mountain with God, and I looked at him, and to my great joy it was this brother. He said he was at the Bible reading, and he heard there was such a thing as having fresh power to preach the Gospel; he said he made up his mind that if that was for him he would have it; he said he went home and looked to the Master, and that he never had such a battle with himself in his life. He asked that God would show him the sinfulness of his heart that he knew nothing about, and he just cried mightily to God that he might be emptied of himself and filled with the Spirit, and he said, “God has answered my prayer.”

I met him in Edinburgh six months from that date, and he told me he had preached the Gospel every night during that time, that he had not preached one sermon but that some remained for conversation, and that he had engagements four months ahead to preach the Gospel every night in different Churches. I think you could have fired a cannon ball right through his church and not hit anyone before he got this anointing; but it was not thirty days before the building was full and aisles crowded. He had his bucket filled full of fresh water, and the people found it out and came flocking to him from every quarter. I tell you, you can’t get the stream higher than the fountain. What we need very specifically is power…Oh, that God may anoint His people! Not the ministry only, but every disciple. Do not suppose pastors are the only laborers needing it. There is not a mother but needs it in her house to regulate her family, just as much as the minster needs it in the pulpit or the Sunday-school teacher needs it in his Sunday School. We all need it together, and let us not rest day nor night until we possess it; if that is the uppermost thought in our hearts, God will give it to us if we just hunger and thirst for it, and say “God helping me, I will not rest until endued with power from on high.”

2017 40 Days of Prayer, Day 20

The Abiding Presence of God:
A Life of Complete Dependence

Day 20

“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope.” Romans 8:20

Creation Subjected To Futility

God directs all of human history and natural history to His own end.  He created the universe and all things in it.  He created all things as “good.”  As the Scripture says, “God saw that it was good.”  (Gen. 1:10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31)  However, He subjected the “good” of creation to the futility of sinful humanity.  This futility was not the result of the actions of Adam and Eve.  Rather, God Himself subjected the creation to the frustration.  God placed the creation under the weight of sinful humanity.  Adam and Eve’s rebellion, though completely evil on their part, has been used by God to bring about His greater plan and to bring about greater glory to His name.  God made the creation and “behold, it was very good.”  Humanity’s fall into sin damaged aspects of the “good” of God’s creation.  Since then, the whole universe experiences the futility of the fallen world.  As God said to Adam, “Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.” (Genesis 3:17)  This edict by God on Adam and by extension, the rest of us and the rest of the creation, may have been on Paul’s mind when He wrote this verse in Romans.  “Cursed is the ground.”  Cursed is the creation itself because of Adam’s actions.  The result is Adam Himself will struggle under the futility of creation.  This futility does not diminish the sovereignty of God nor does it thwart His purposes.  Since the time of the initial fall by Adam and Eve, God has orchestrated the events of people, nations, and nature itself with the goal of maximizing His own glory and accomplishing His own plans.  As Paul declared to the Athenians in Acts 17:25-26, God “Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation.”  Paul declared God’s sovereignty over creation in his statement about the futility of the creation.  Paul declared the futility to be “because of Him who subjected it.”  God knew that Adam and Eve, as our representatives, would rebel against Him.  He also knew that in their rebellion He would put in motion His eternal plan to redeem humanity and all of creation.  When we see the futility of creation, the natural consequence of our sinful and fallen world, we see the seriousness of our sin.  When we see God’s plan of salvation through the life, death and resurrection of His Son, we also see the greatness of God’s own love for us.  God’s love is greater than our sin.  God’s redemptive plan is greater than creation’s futility.

How does this relate to us?  When trials come, we know that God is sovereign and that He has a plan.  He subjects us to the futility of a sinful world.  He does this with great purpose.  We are reminded of our brokenness and sinfulness.  We are reminded that the creation, as it is today, is not as God intended in the original created plan.  We are reminded of Christ and His sufferings for us.  We are reminded that God is at work even in our trials to bring about His greater good and our greater joy.  We are reminded of the hope that is ours in Christ.  There is an abiding hope in the midst of the brokenness.  God is sovereign over all things.  He is the One who subjected the creation.  He alone has such authority.  In Paul's statement "because of Him", “Paul must be referring to God, who alone had the right and the power to condemn all of creation to frustration because of human sin.  But this decree of God was not without its positive side, for the promise of God was given in conjunction with the curse, that ‘he will bruise your head.’  The creation, then, though subjected to frustration as a result of human sin, has never been without hope.”  (Douglas Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, NICNT).  God subjects His creation and us to futility.  He does this because He continually works toward His desired end.  The purposes of God are to glorify His Son.  God glorifies His Son forever in His redemption of individuals, and the church, and even the rest of creation.  This protects our hearts from despair, knowing that our difficulties come from the hand of a loving Creator, and He is working all of these things for His greater glory and our joy.  He will not leave our trials unredeemed.  He is in the process of sovereignly moving to bring our trials to a climactic end, whereby His glory is on display and our joy is maximized.  Hope springs eternal even in the midst of trials.

Prayer Focus

Thank You, God, for the difficult times.  Use these trials to strengthen my faith and to produce character in my life.  I do not want to lose my joy because of my failure to submit my life to Your will.  I confess that I have too often allowed bitterness or frustration to keep me from seeing Your goodness in all things.  Forgive me for this denial of Your sovereign mercy.  Help me to persevere under the various trials in my life.

From DL Moody’s Secret Power

FRESH SUPPLIES

Turn to Acts 4:31, and you will find the Holy Spirit came a second time, and at a place where they were, so that the earth was shaken, and they were filled with this power. That is, we are leaky vessels, and we have to keep right under the fountain all the time to keep full of Christ, and so have a fresh supply.

I believe this is a mistake a great many of us are making; we are trying to do God’s work with the grace God gave us ten years ago. We say, if it is necessary, we will go on with the same grace. Now, what we want is a fresh supply, a fresh anointing and fresh power, and if we seek it, and seek it with all our hearts, we will obtain it.

The early converts were taught to look for that power. Philip went to Samaria, and news reached Jerusalem that there was a great work being done in Samaria, and many converts; and John and Peter went down, and they laid their hand on them and they received the Holy Spirit for service. I think that is what we Christians ought to be looking for- the Spirit of God for service - that God may use mightily in the building of His Church and hastening His glory.

In Acts 19, we read of twelve men at Ephesus, who, when the inquiry was made if they had received the Holy Spirit since they believe, answered: “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” I venture to say there are very many, who, if you were to ask them, “Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?” would reply, “I don’t know what you mean by that.” They would be like the twelve men down at Ephesus, who had never understood the peculiar relation of the Spirit to the sons of God in this life. I firmly believe that the Church has just laid this knowledge aside, mislaid it somewhere, and so Christians are without power. Sometimes you can take one hundred members into the Church, and they don’t add to its power. Now that is all wrong. If they were only anointed by the Spirit of God, there would be great power if one hundred saved ones were added to the Church.

2017 40 Days of Prayer, Day 19

The Abiding Presence of God:
A Life of Complete Dependence

Day 19

“For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.”  Romans 8:19

Creation Waits Eagerly

Paul personified creation in this passage.  Creation “longs” and “waits eagerly” (verse 19).  Creation “groans” and “suffers” (verse 22).  What produces such anxious longing and suffering within the creation?  The creation is waiting for the plan of God to come to fruition.   I know I say this often, but it bears repeating.  All creation exists for the glory of God.  God puts His glory on display throughout His creation in a variety of ways.  The sun, moon, and stars declare God’s glory (Psalm 19).  Humans display the glory of God, because we are made in God’s image (Genesis 1).  However, God is most glorified in His Son, Jesus Christ.  God’s plan culminates in redeeming rebellious sinners through the sacrificial death and resurrection of His Son.  In doing so, God sums up all of creation in His Son, which brings Him maximum glory.  “He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him…that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.” (Ephesians 1:9-10)  “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.  He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together…For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” (Colossians 1:13-20)  This is the plan of God, the summing up of all things in His Son, Jesus Christ.  God is most glorified when His Son is the focus of all creation, especially in the exaltation of Christ by the children of God.  This plan is still a work in progress.  According to Paul, the ultimate completion of this glorious plan comes when Christ brings many children of God to glory.  When Paul said “creation waits eagerly,” he is not referring to the longing of humans, for in this passage humans are distinguished from the rest of the creation.  Verse 23 says “and not only this, but also we ourselves…” wait eagerly for our adoption.  Just like the creation, we also long for the completion of this divine plan.  Therefore, creation must refer to trees, animals, stars, planets, and all other created things.  How is this possible?  How is it possible that inanimate objects long and wait for our redemption?  How is it possible that created objects groan and suffer?  Jesus hints at something similar during His triumphant entry.  When the religious leaders complain about the shouts of the crowd, Jesus responds “if these are silent even the rocks will cry out.”  Apparently, the rocks know their Creator.  According to Paul, they also know their Creator’s plan.  The creation struggles under sin’s ugly consequences.  The birds, the trees, and the mountains, all disdain what we have done to God’s creation.  They all long for God to restore the original order prior to Adam’s rebellion.  Evidence for the struggle of creation under the weight of sin is all around us.  The creation is crying out that this world is broken and needs the completed work of God to bring it into order.  The creation waits for God to bring to completion His divine plan of salvation.  Surely, if the created order longs for this redemption plan of God, we too should long for it.  This is a sad state of affairs when the birds and trees have a better grasp of the plans of God than we do.  It is truly sad when the mountains and rocks are more eager for His glory than we are.    

The Revealing of the Sons of God

The creation anticipates the ‘revealing’ of the true nature of the children of God.  We are already children of God.  We are children of God the very moment we put our trust in Christ.  However, from the observation of the created world, we do not yet appear as children of God.  We are still subjected to the futility of a broken world and we continue to struggle with suffering in this life.  The creation longs for the transformation that is still future, an eternal transformation, that will bring an end to the futility of the entire creation.  Our final step in the adoption process, a transformation that will occur at the culmination of human history, is the deep longing of the rest of the creation.  The creation longs for “the revealing of the sons of God” of which Paul described here as “not only a disclosure of what we have always been but also a dynamic process by which the status we now have in preliminary form and in hiddenness will be brought to its final stage and made publicly evident.”  (Douglas Moo, The Epistle to the Romans, NICNT, page 515)

Prayer Focus

Father, forgive me for my obsession with this world.  I hold too tightly to the temporary aspects of this life while ignoring the glorious, eternal reality You have for us.  Put an eagerness within me.  Place a longing in my heart for the culmination of Your divine plan.  I want to exalt Jesus Christ, face to face.  I long to experience Your creation without the detriments of human sin.  Please, God, help me to live with the reality that this life is temporary.  Help me to live with my hands open, freely sharing the resources You have given to me.  Forgive me for hanging on to Your resources as if they were mine.  All that I have is Yours.  Let me use these resources in such a way as to last forever.  Let Your people, as we gather in Your name, live out our faith together with divine, eternal focus.

From DL Moody’s Secret Power

WHY SOME FAIL

We read in John 20:22, “And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.” Then see Luke 24:49: “And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but wait in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.” The first passage tells us He had raised those pierced and wounded hands over them and breathed upon them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And I haven’t a doubt they received it then, but not in such mighty power as afterward when qualified for their work. It was not in fullness that He gave it to them then, but if they had been like a good many now, they would have said, “I have enough now; I am not going to wait; I am going to work.” Some people seem to think they are losing time if they wait on God for His power, and so away they go and work without earnestness; they are working without any anointing, they are working without any power. But after Jesus had said “Receive the Holy Spirit,” and had breathed on them, He said: Now you wait in Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high.” Read in the 1st chapter of Acts, 8th verse: “But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” Now, the Spirit had been given them certainly or they could not have believed, and they could not have taken their stand for God and gone through what they did, and endured the scoffs and frowns of their friends, if they had not been converted by the power of the Holy Spirit. But now see what Christ said: “You shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses for me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.” Then the Holy Spirit in us is one thing, and the Holy Spirit on us is another; and if these Christians had gone out and went right to preaching then and there, without the power, do you think that scene would have taken place on the day of Pentecost? Don’t you think that Peter would have stood up there and beat against the air, while these Jews would have gnashed their teeth and mocked him? But they waited in Jerusalem; they waited ten days. What! you say. What, the world perishing and men dying! Shall I wait? Do what God tells you. There is no use in running before you are sent; there is no use in attempting to do God’s work without God’s power. A man working without this earnestness, a man working without this anointing, a man working without the Holy Spirit upon him, is losing his time after all. So we are not going to lose anything if we wait till we get this power. That is the object of true service, to wait on God, to wait till we receive this power for witness-bearing. Then we find that on the day of Pentecost, ten days after Jesus Christ was glorified, the Holy Spirit descended in power. Do you think that Peter, James and John and those apostles doubted it from that very hour? They never doubted it. Perhaps some question the possibility of having the power of God now, and that the Holy Spirit never came afterward in similar manifestation, and will never come again in such power.