We pray that God has truly enriched your walk with Him as you have participated in this journey with us. Finish your time by reading this prayer written by Matt McBrayer.
(Spend a moment in contemplation about the times you have fallen short of God's standards.)
Grant us boldness to not let this Breakthrough come and go, while we remain unchanged. Gift to us, O Father, opportunities in which we can serve You and share Your Gospel of reconciliation with the whole world.
(Spend a moment in contemplation about the times you have fallen short of God's standards.)
Grant us the hope that Jesus Christ is indeed returning soon. May we not misuse the time You have given us here on Earth for vain pursuits of riches, success, and popularity among peers. Let us risk losing all of that in order to share Your Gospel if that is necessary.
(Spend a moment in contemplation about the times you have fallen short of God's standards.)
Lord, we know that we are weak. We pray for strength. We know we are tired. We pray for rest in You. We know we are broken. We pray for restoration. Amen.
May the Lord bless you and keep you. May He make His face shine upon you and be precious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26)
Take a moment and read this prayer of adoration by Johnathan Edwards from Be Thou My Vision. Ask God to make you keenly aware of the way He sustains you moment to moment.
PRAYER
Finish your time by thanking God for His kindness toward you. Allow the space for the Holy Spirit to potentially convict you of the need to simply sit in His presence as He speaks to you.
So far, God has taken us on a journey through which He has given us a beautiful glimpse of His heart toward us. We have seen His love through the Gospel story, the bestowing of His Holy Spirit upon us as His chosen people, the way He chooses to use us to accomplish things in His name, and the fantastic grace He shows us by being the one that empowers us to abide. Sometimes it can be easy to read these things and have the head knowledge of its truth, but the thought of truly letting go and allowing God to shape us in the way He sees fit can feel daunting. I’m sure the same angst was felt by the Israelites as God called them to trust Him with their refinement through Jeremiah. God did this through imagery of Him being the potter and they the clay.
Read Jeremiah 18:1-6.
Just as He called them to trust, we must do the same. Take a moment and examine your posture. Ask the Lord to help you shed your defenses and lay yourself in humility for Him to create what He pleases in you.
Now reflect over the process of crafting pottery. No step can be skipped. It must be created with patience as it is slowly formed moment by moment to the potter’s desire. The clay is under the authority of the potter as he skillfully creates it into a masterpiece. The potter, intimately aware of its needs in order that it can be formed in the way He wishes.
Read Matthew 6:25-34.
This trust we are called to is a step by step, moment by moment kind of trust: tomorrow can worry about itself. The Lord is calling you in this moment to be present and place your faith in Him now. Not looking behind and not looking ahead. Right now. That’s it. Yet in the same breath, just as we have found before, it is the Lord that will sustain us to do this.
Andrew Murray in Abiding in Christ says, “Abiding in Jesus is not a work that needs our minds to be engaged each moment, or our attention to be directly and actively occupied with it. It is an entrusting of ourselves to the keeping of Eternal Love, in the faith that it will abide near us and with its holy presence watch over us and ward off evil, even when we have to be intently occupied with other things. In this way the heart has rest, peace, and joy in the consciousness of being kept when it cannot keep itself.” (p.82)
Isaiah 27:3 (KNJV) paints the imagery of God’s protection beautifully as it says,
PRAYER
Finish your time by thanking God for His provision and ask Him to increase your faith to trust Him moment to moment.
Take a moment and read the prayer below taken from Be Thou My Vision. As you do, ask the Holy Spirit to refine your heart that you would see these things come to fruition.
PRAYER
Finish your time by sitting in awareness of God’s holy presence that is with you now. What is He speaking over you?
Prayer moves the heart of God. He has said in His word that the prayer of a righteous person has great power (ESV, James 5:16). God has stated “…Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (ESV, Luke 11:9). He has declared that when we call upon Him, He will answer and will tell us great and hidden things that we have not known (Jeremiah 33:3). We are told that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed and we tell a mountain to move, the mountain will move (Matthew 17:20). The beautiful grace of God is shown in Romans 8:26 as it says,
What a gift. God Himself, pleading on our behalf, inspiring our souls, giving us wisdom as we get a glimpse of His heart.
We’ve spent a lot of time during the span of this journey praying and seeking for the Lord to speak in such a way that we would hear Him. We’ve talked about the importance of our heart posture and coming to the Lord with true humility. We have done this because true transformation and sanctification cannot come from a prayerless life. God uses the very act of prayer to grow us—how can a relationship grow without the depth of communion?
Jesus’ disciples asked the Lord to teach them to pray (Luke 11:1), so we ask too. Spend a moment and ask that God would teach you the power of prayer, knowing it is a wonderful nuance of a back-and-forth conversation between us and God the Father (both receiving and petitioning).
Romans 8:26 (read above) holds the same rich confession we have made before: apart from God, we can do nothing, nor do we have any good thing (John 15:5 & Psalm 16:2). As we learn to pray, we must realize first that prayer is more listening than it is speaking. 1 John 5:14 says that we have confidence in approaching God because we know if we ask in accordance to His will, He hears us and He will give us what we ask for. We must be willing to wait on the voice of the Lord to speak, and the Holy Spirit to convict for us to discern His will so that we might pray for those things. It is truly astounding that God would use the power of prayer to accomplish His will. Again, we see so much dignity placed upon us in light of this truth.
Richard J. Foster in Celebration of Discipline: The Path of Spiritual Growth encourages the use of child-like-faith through allowing God to speak through our imagination because it opens the door to faith. We’re not conjuring up something using our imagination or manipulating the heart of God, but as we ask God to inspire. Foster says, “Our prayer is to be like a reflex action to God’s prior initiative upon the heart. The ideas, the pictures, the words are of no avail unless they proceed from the Holy Spirit who, as you know, is interceding for us ‘with sighs too deep for words.’”
Knowing that God does not speak in contradiction to His written word, finish your time by asking the Lord to inspire your prayers and bring things to mind for which to pray. For Him to create a child-like-faith in your prayer life. Be patient as the Lord enables you to grow in this practice.
May you allow the space needed to discern the voice of the Lord. May you not only hear Him speaking words and phrases to you, but more so, hear the very rounding of His mouth as the words form. That you would hear the intake of breath He prepares with which He speaks life over your soul, giving you breath to your very lungs. May you in turn use this breath to declare boldly wonderous things of Him.
Spend your time reading over this prayer written by Saint Patrick, taken from a culmination of prayers in Be Thou My Vision. Allow it to be your prayer for today and perhaps one that you return to in the future. As you do so, pay attention to your heart posture and examine your sense of submission toward genuinely allowing God the space to do these things.
To the power of God to guide me.
To the might of God to uphold me.
To the wisdom of God to teach me.
The eye of God to watch over me.
The ear of God to hear me.
The word of God to speak to me.
The way of God to lie before me.
The host of God to defend me.
Amen.
PRAYER
Finish your time by waiting on the voice of the Lord. You’ve asked Him to speak, now is the time to listen. Is there scripture He has brought to mind? Is He speaking words of dignity and value over you? Spend at least 3-5 minutes here.
Read Romans 12:1-2
Last week we looked at the power of the Gospel and the way it informs all we do. This week is no different. This fantastic fellowship we have with God through Jesus leads to no other response than a beautiful life full of sanctification. In other words, the renewing of our mind, which comes from time with the One we love, inspires a holy change in the way we live.
As a follower of Christ, if we desire for true transformation to occur, full surrender must be our heart posture. We must pose ourselves before the God of all creation in humility, knowing that He is going to create a masterpiece through our submission.
The submission we mean is not one of bondage to follow religious regulations, but more so that of self-denial, not of self-shame or self-contempt. Jesus says in Mark 8:34, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” This self-denial is that of dignity and value. God, in this very moment, sees and knows the depths of your sin, yet still beckons you to come and follow Him. Yet, knowing our own inability to do this in our own strength, we look to Him.
Our gracious God has anointed us with the Holy Spirit, and through Him, He will teach us how to abide.
PRAYER
Take a moment and ask the Lord what area in your life you may be trying to white knuckle control. Ask Him to show you patterns you have created that may need to be surrendered and altered. As you do this, open your hands, and face them upward as a physical act to either show or encourage your heart posture to let go of control. Spend at least 3-5 minutes here.
Maybe you felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit to be diligent and create space to meet with Him daily. Perhaps you found you need a miracle to break the weight of the bondage you wear. Or maybe you felt the pull to make yourself more available to deepen fellowship with those God has placed around you. Well, fellow believer, one of the blessed ways God uses the Church is by providing accountability. Don’t step away from this moment of conviction without bringing someone you can trust into it with you. So, whatever it is, let this be an encouragement to step in obedience, trusting that God will supply the strength to follow through. Allow Him to be the one to bear this burden but be diligent enough to lay it at His feet.
Finish your time by asking God to bring to mind the person(s) you should bring into this journey of refinement.
True, never-ending declarations of pure grace found in Jesus and the shouting of praise will never be enough to even touch what our God is worthy of. With that we come, we enter today, and offer our everything to the Lord. We confess, Yours is the Kingdom, Yours is the power, Yours is the glory forever (Matthew 6:13). May God enable your eyes to see His glorious work of refinement on your life.
If you are craving more specific resources to deepen your walk with the Lord, take a look at theheights.org/breakthrough.
If you’ve been following along as we have released each day, today is Sunday. As a day of rest and communing with the Lord, we ask that you spend your time reflecting over what God is shaping within you. Use the following questions as prompts as you discern:
God, what is it that You made stand out as I have participated in this devotional so far?
Father, is there anything I am holding back from You? Would you reveal it to me?
What would you have for me as I move forward in my walk with You in light of these things, Lord?
Finish your time reading through this prayer written by our own Matt McBrayer:
We have seen this week that we are not perfect nor are we deserving of Your goodness and mercy. But thank You that because of the bloodshed of Jesus, we have been made right in Your eyes and rely not on our own works to get us to Heaven, but the completed work of Jesus Christ on the Cross and through His resurrection from the grave.
(Spend a few minutes quietly remembering your own conversion experience. How did you first encounter God? What did the Holy Spirit say to you in the first moments of your faith?)
Jesus, we thank You that we are not worthy, yet You have freely given Your righteousness to those willing to come to You. Our hearts are filled with gratitude for the gift of salvation which You have given each of us. We pray for those who have not heard or accepted the gift of salvation. For those who have not yet accepted, we pray for an urgency in their souls to arise. For those who have not heard, may You conform us into people who share the Gospel at all times with all people.
(Spend the next few moments thinking about the people you encounter every week. How would you interact with them differently if you knew that they had never heard the Gospel? How might you bring up the Gospel in a non-intrusive way?)
Holy Spirit, we ask You to guide and guard us as we go forth and proclaim the Gospel. May no person be able to say of us, “I didn’t know if he/she had faith.” Rather, may our faith be so evident and clear that we are clearly burdened for the nations to know who Jesus is and why He is God. Amen.
Beginning tomorrow, we will continue our 14-day journey and discover more on the topic of what is looks like to create space to discern the voice of the Lord. May God bestow wisdom upon us as we seek and ask for His guidance to live in fellowship with Him.
Take the day to read over this declaration from Zacharius Ursinus, a theologian from the 16th century, gathered from Be Thou My Vision. Allow His heart for blessing the Lord be contagious and stir an affection so great that you beam from within with gratitude toward God.
The Lord is merciful, patient, and of great goodness. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor does he repay us according to our offense. For as high as the heaven is above the earth, he shows his grace toward those who fear him. As far as the rising of the sun is from its setting, so far he removes our transgression from us. As a father takes pity on his children, so the Lord takes pity on those who fear him. Who also did not spare his own Son, but has delivered him up for us all and has given us with him all things.
In this way, God shows his love toward us, that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. So we will all the more be saved by him from wrath, after we have been justified by his blood. For if we are reconciled to God by the death of his Son while we were still enemies, how much more will we be saved by his life, after we have been reconciled to him. Therefore, my mouth and heart shall proclaim the Lord’s praise, from now on and forevermore. Amen.
PRAYER
Finish your time by thanking the Lord for his continued goodness toward you.
Read Romans 3:23-26.
The more we spend in the presence of God, the more we see and recognize the stains on our own clothing and the need for new dress. We begin to witness the holiness of God, His perfectly distinct nature that sets Him apart from all creation. We recognize His provision, His grace and mercy, His glory. The perfect standard of good that only ever leads to us becoming overwhelmingly aware of our lack.
Today we are going to take the time to confess and end with a time of assurance in the truth of the Gospel. This rhythm of confessing and reminding ourselves of the grace offered through Jesus is overwhelmingly important if we are to move forward and gain greater intimacy with God. He is calling and pursuing you with such passion and is asking you to bring your all. So, we come and bring it—hiding no detail in our confession.
CONFESSION
Chances are, even if you are reading this at the very start of your day, you have already sinned and have need to confess before the Lord. Either you’ve had a moment of ill thought against another, you’ve acted poorly to a spouse or family member, or perhaps you read the paragraphs above and had the thought you’re not doing that bad and you have no need to confess (which in and of itself calls for confession and prayer for God to shed light in your shadowed corners). Maybe it’s something that God has been convicting you to do for some time now and you have left it undone in disobedience; potentially to the point that you have become numb to the Holy Spirit’s conviction on the subject. Whatever it is, now is the time. The presence of God has not left you, though you may have become unaware. He already knows the depths of your sin. The longer you hold tight to this, the longer you allow the enemy to have a strong hold on you.
Spend the majority of your time today confessing fully to the Lord ways you have sinned against Him. A journal and pen might be helpful for you to fully process and create an uninterrupted train of thought as you allow the Holy Spirit to bring things to your mind. Allow this to be a safe space where you recognize the weight you have been carrying. Ask God to help you feel it lifted off your shoulders as you sense Him taking the weight upon Himself.
ASSURANCE
THANKS BE TO GOD. Did you catch a glimpse of His loving gaze? Did you feel the warmth of God wash over you as you poured out your heart before Him? For those in Christ, you are a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come, and there is nothing and no one that can take that victory from you. Listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit as He declares LIFE over your weary soul. Allow Him to be the one to give you the breath needed to move and act in such a way that brings God the utmost glory.
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (ESV, Matthew 11:28-29 [emphasis added]).
This is the Gospel. Jesus wearing the burden of our sin upon Himself and showing us abounding grace that we might experience TRUE rest which only comes from time in His presence. A wonderful promise to us. We need only come in faith and full surrender, and He will supply the strength to live a life that honors Him.
Andrew Murray says it best in his book, Abiding in Christ:
May we learn the blessed truth of our sinfulness and His surpassing grace. May we live in such a way as to remember that His mercies are new every morning. May God speak, and we be still enough to hear and humble enough to obey.
