Tim Hetzner – Daily Devotions

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Intimacy, Dependency, Obedience — Part Three

“By Myself, I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and My judgment is just, for I seek not to please Myself but Him who sent Me.” (John 5:30)

The third thing that defines Jesus’ relationship with His Father is this: obedience. Jesus said, “I judge only as I hear…for I seek not to please Myself but Him who sent Me.” Note the words “as I hear.” When you know you have heard from God, you have confidence to handle whatever life throws at you — and to take on any assignment He gives you.

Christ’s first miracle was turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana. In it, you will find a statement that’s crucial to experiencing God’s miraculous power in your life: “Whatever He says to you, do it” (John 2:5). That means you must be willing to obey God when what He tells you to do doesn’t seem rational, and when it’s not popular, and when it’s inconvenient, and when it’s costly, and when it requires you to walk an unfamiliar pathway. And you will only reach this level of obedience when you’re committed to a life of intimacy with God and dependency on God.

And here is something you need to know: Intimacy, dependency, and obedience are not cultivated by you trying to love God more, but on having a revelation of God’s amazing, undeserved, unfailing love for you: “God showed how much He loved us by sending His one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love – not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins” (1 John 4:9-10). So, pray for a revelation of God’s great love for you.

Prayer

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Intimacy, Dependency, Obedience — Part Two

“At once, the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath.” (John 5:9)

The second thing that defines Jesus’ relationship with His Father is this: dependency. Corrie ten Boom used to say, “I am just the glove, Jesus is the hand that fills it and works through it.” That’s a picture of Christ’s relationship with His Heavenly Father, and it’s a blueprint for the kind of relationship you can have with God.

In the Bible, you will notice two all-important things about Jesus:

1) He never seemed to suffer from the fear of failing, like we so often do. Why? Because He prayed regularly and got direction from His Father. Knowing He was acting on the Father’s word and operating in the Father’s will, He never doubted. Until you have heard from God, you are a question mark. But once you have heard from God, you are an exclamation point.

2) Jesus knew He couldn’t accomplish anything of significance without His Father’s direction and power, so He never attempted to. We, on the other hand, say we trust God but act like everything depends on us. And the result? We fall flat on our faces and keep wondering why. Every action of God in your life is intended to increase — not decrease — your dependence on Him. Someone wisely said, “You’ll never know that Christ is all you need until Christ is all you’ve got.” To bring you to the place of total dependence on Himself, God will allow your ego to be crushed and your self-sufficiency to be stripped away. At that point, you make a life-changing discovery: when you have nothing left but God – God is enough!

Prayer

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Intimacy, Dependency, Obedience — Part One

“For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does. Yes, to your amazement, He will show Him even greater things than these.” (John 5:20)

These three things define the relationship Jesus had with His Father, and they are a blueprint for the kind of relationship you need to build with God: intimacy, dependency, obedience.

First, let’s look at intimacy.

Jesus said, “For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does.” You only reveal yourself, including your innermost thoughts and secrets, to someone with whom you are intimate. And when you become intimate with God, He will share with you things that others are not privy to. David’s greatest passion was to know God intimately. In Psalm 25:4, he writes: “Show me Your ways, LORD, teach me Your paths.” Then he follows up by saying, “The LORD confides in those who fear [honor] Him” (v. 14).

Having an intimate relationship with God involves three things:

a) Desire. The truth is that you are as close to God right now as you desire to be; otherwise, you would rearrange your priorities to make it happen.

b) Discipline. This calls for spending time alone with God in prayer and Bible reading each day. When you pray, you’re talking to God. When you read the Bible, God is talking to you.

c) Delight. “Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). Something wonderful happens when you “delight yourself in the Lord.” His desires become “the desires of your heart,” so He can trust you with them.

Do you want a more intimate relationship with the Lord? If you are willing to pursue it, you can have it.

Prayer

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Everybody Has A Thorn — Part Two

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” (Ephesians 6:10)

Paul tells us two things about his thorn:

First, that it was a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him. The word buffet means “to render blow after blow.” It was not one battle, but a series of back-to-back attacks that didn’t let up. Satan knows your weakest areas, and he will repeatedly attack you in those areas. How can you defeat him? The Bible tells: “Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor, so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places” (vv. 10-12).

Second, that the thorn was in his “flesh.” You are a regenerate spirit, living in an unregenerate body. That’s why the Bible commands us to crucify the flesh, starve the flesh, and refuse to give in to the impulses of the flesh. And in God’s strength, you can do it: “By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the One who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence. And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires” (2 Peter 1:3-4).

Prayer

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Everybody Has A Thorn — Part One

“To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.” (2 Corinthians 12:7)

Paul writes: “A thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me…For when I am weak, then I am strong” (vv. 7-10).

Paul had such great faith that when he prayed, the sick were healed and the dead were raised. Yet, he prayed repeatedly that God would remove his “thorn in the flesh,” and God said no. Why? To keep him humble and make him totally dependent on God. We don’t know what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was, but we know why he had it: “Lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations” (v. 7).

When God blesses you greatly, with it comes the risk of pride. And with God, that’s a disqualifier. If you have ever had a splinter in your finger, you know it throbs with pain and constantly irritates you. Can you live with it? Yes. Would you rather not? Yes. Note what Paul says: “A thorn in the flesh was given to me.” Not only does he come to see his thorn as a grace developer, but as a gift. It does two things: 1) Humbles us and makes us more dependent on God; 2) Makes us more tolerant and gracious since everybody has a thorn.

Prayer

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Faith Equals Righteousness With God

“Consider Abraham: ‘He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (Galatians 3:6)

We think of Abraham with a halo. Hardly. Not once, but twice he throws his wife under the bus. As they travelled through Egypt, Abram says to Sarai, “You’re a beautiful woman; I’m afraid the Egyptians will want to kill me so someone can have you for a wife. So let’s tell them you’re my sister” (Genesis 12:11-13). Pharaoh does take Sarai into his harem – giving Abram, her “brother,” a bunch of sheep, cattle, donkeys, servants, and camels. Rather than feeling guilty and coming clean, Abram simply says, “Thank you very much.” And if you think that’s bad, when Abraham and Sarah are in the Negev Desert later on, recorded in Genesis 20, he does the whole “she’s my sister” routine a second time.

Why doesn’t God just give up on him? Because Abraham doesn’t give up on God! Abraham eventually reached the place in his walk with God where his qualifications and resume reads: “Who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about 100 years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform” (Romans 4:18-21).

Note the words “strengthened in faith.” God’s plan is not to discard you, but to develop your faith and use you to bring glory to His name.

Prayer

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A Peaceful State Of Mind

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body, you were called to peace. And be thankful.” (Colossians 3:15)

Many of us spend our lives trying to climb the ladder of success, but every time we go up one more rung, we lose more of our peace and joy, not to mention time spent with our family. Our lives are consumed with the pressure and stress of trying to hold on to what we gained. But we are never truly successful unless we have peace. Some of us work several jobs to acquire what the world dangles in front of us, saying, “You must have this to be truly happy.” We get those things, but we still don’t have any peace.

Romans 14:17 tells us, “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink” – it is not things that money can buy or status can secure, but it is – “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (KJV). God wants you to have your needs met abundantly and to be in a position to bless others. But don’t seek to have anything if you cannot have it peacefully.

Prayer

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Blessing Is Progressive

“Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.” (1 Kings 18:19)

First, God led him to the brook called Cherith. The word Cherith means “to make covenant with.” It was here that Elijah discovered that God is a covenant-making and covenant-keeping God who can sustain you through the hardest of times. It was here during a drought and famine that ravens brought food to him each day, and he drank from the refreshing waters of the brook. But the Bible says, “After a while…the brook dried up” (1 Kings 17:7). Now, when God allows your brook to dry up, it’s to drive you back to your true source, which is Himself, that you may get further instructions.

Second, God led him to a widow in Zarephath. The word Zarephath means “to refine as in a melting pot.” Gold is not pure in its original form. It must be refined, and this is accomplished by heating it to the boiling point. The heat separates the raw substance from its impurities, which surface and are skimmed off. And God will do the same for you by using the heat of trials to separate the gold from the dross in your life. He knows the experiences you need to reach Mount Carmel, the place of fruitfulness, so trust Him. He knows what He is doing.

Prayer

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The Difference Between Abraham And Peter

“But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’” (Matthew 14:30)

Abraham faced a different but equally difficult set of circumstances: fathering a son when he was almost 100 years old. But the Bible says, “Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this, he brought glory to God” (Romans 4:20). Abraham was aware of his situation, but unlike Peter, he was not preoccupied with it. It was his determined and focused faith that propelled him forward to success.

And you can learn from Peter’s mistake and Abraham’s example. You can be aware of your circumstances, but not preoccupied with them. You can purposely keep your mind on Jesus, trusting in faith that He will provide the miracle you need. So, the word for today is – keep your eyes on Jesus, stay focused on what He has promised you in His Word, keep walking by faith, and you will get to where you need to be.

Prayer

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Are YOU Feeling Unqualified?

“I answered them by saying, ‘The God of heaven will give us success. We His servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.’” (Nehemiah 2:20)

When it comes to doing God’s will, God-ordained passions are considerably more important than any human ability we can contribute. In fact, God often uses us at our point of greatest inability. That way, He receives all the credit. But understand this: when God gives you a “burden,” or a “passion,” or a “vision,” you have a choice to make.

Nehemiah already had a good job. Being the king’s cupbearer was like being his right-hand man. He didn’t simply enjoy job security, he enjoyed the perks and privileges of his position. He would have been comfortable staying right where he was. But if he had chosen to do that, he would have missed God’s will, missed having a book named after him in the Bible, and you wouldn’t be reading about him right now.

Are you feeling unqualified? When God calls you, He equips you, resources you, guides you, and guarantees your success.

Prayer

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