Pentecostal Devotions

Prayer

by Rachel Hemans

The idea of prayer is not in order to get answers from God; prayer is perfetc and complete oneness with God” - Oswald Chambers

Prayer so often becomes a duty instead of a pleasure, a discipline instead of a joy. Why is it that it seems so difficult sometimes to pray? Why do we struggle to find words, do not know what to pray about, or keep looking at the clock to see when we have prayed enough? Why does there seem to be more pressure and expectation at prayer meetings to pray well, to be deep and spiritual, to be fluent?

There appears to be so many expectations on prayer, on being effective in prayer and reaching the throne of God. Prayer has become a skill, a talent, something to be practiced and mastered. There are so many things to consider now when praying: the form, content, and delivery.

Somehow I don’t think that this is what God has in mind when he asks us to pray. It is simple communion with God, pouring out whatever is on our hearts and listening for what’s on His. Our hearts can express worship, thanksgiving, petition, confession or intercession - in the end all that matters is we’re talking to God. In doing this, there are inherent principles of trust in God, earnestness, purpose, faith…but the important issue is to be able to come to our heavenly Father without having to analyse how we’re praying, to come to the throne without fear but boldly. For me, Romans 8:26 highlights the simplicity of prayer to the point of it just being groans!

Let us come to the Father in the knowledge that He loves us and wants to spend time with us, for this is the joy of prayer.

The Main Role of Pastoring

by Craig Bennett

One of the areas that I like and believe is important in the subject of Christian Spirituality is the area of personal calling. Pentecostals believe that God does call individuals to certain types of ministry, and are open about saying - “God has called me to do this” through personal revelation, prophecy and circumstance etc.

My own calling is to be a praying man, to raise others up to pray and to teach others how to pray. I have heard God tell me this a few times over the years and wondered how this calling was to work out. And so I have been praying for the last 7 years, “Show me, tell me, and reveal to me what exactly this calling means and how it is to pan out.” And over the last 7 years an increasing burden has come on me to plant a church and be its pastor - and I keep praying - “Lord is this really from you? How does this burden fit in with the calling you have given me?”

God has shown me how this calling fits into the pastoral ministry, and I have had a few aha moments over the last few weeks as all the pieces fit together. Eugene Peterson, the author of the Message Bible, wrote a book called, “The Contemplative Pastor” In this book he writes, the Pastor’s primary job is to be a praying person, to teach Gods people how to pray and be praying people. That their role is to bring the presence of God into their day to day life and this is achieved through prayer, which is communicating our needs to God, and trusting God enough to receive his provision through our asking.

Then last night I was reading the following by, E. M Bounds who says of the pastor in his book, “The Necessity of Prayer”

His [or her] main business is to turn them from being forgetful of God, from being devoid of faith, from being prayer-less, so that they become people who habitually pray, who believe God, remember him and do his will.  The preacher is not sent to merely induce …[people]… to join the church, nor merely to get them to do better. It is to get them to pray, to trust God, and to keep God ever before their eyes that they may not sin against him.   

I wonder what would happen in our churches if our pastors had this revelation that their main job is to be praying people, teaching others to pray, raising others up to pray. I wonder what would happen if our congregations took seriously and had the revelation that they too are part of this ministry of prayer, and undertook the ministry of prayer seriously in raising others to be pray-ers, teaching them how to pray? And the final question to ask is, “What will happen in your life, if you undertake to truly be a praying person, to raise up others to pray through teaching them how to pray?”

Let’s pray.

Cleansed and Stain-Free

by Sam Stephen

The battle among detergent advertisers to convince viewers that their product is the one that can wash clothes the cleanest seems to be unending. Each succeeding product claims to remove stains better than the previous one. However, there is a stain that can never be removed by any detergent or human effort, and that is the stain of sin. David realized this when he was convicted of adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband. He felt dirty within and sought cleansing from God.

We have to be aware that only a right understanding of God can enable us to make right decisions when we are guilty of sin. Here, David acknowledges that God is unfailing in love and has great compassion (verse 1). He is not a fierce God waiting to lash out His wrath on anyone who has done wrong. Thus David appealed to God to have mercy upon Him. His act of sin had ‘dirtied him’ in the sight of God. Thus David pleaded for God to blot out his transgressions, wash away all his iniquities and cleanse him from his sins (verse 1 and 2). The wrong that David had done was constantly on his mind (verse 3), and this caused him to be restless. David struggled with God.

When David cried out, ‘my sin is always before me’ (verse 3), it shows that he had not silenced the voice of conviction within him. God was still at work and there was a positive response from David. He realized that his sin cannot be ignored. There are times when we too are convicted of sin but for various reasons we justify our wrong deeds, and refrain from repentance and confession. If we do this, our guilt will remain, though with the passing of time we may silence the voice of conviction.

The Bible teaches us that all have sinned (Romans 3:23) and thus all are dirty in the sight of God. However, the good news is that there is cleansing for the person who acknowledges his or her sin and in repentance seeks for God’s forgiveness (1 John 1:9). This cleansing is needed everyday, for there is not a day that passes without us failing in some way. We serve a holy and perfect God before whom we have to be ‘clean’, and daily confession of our shortcomings helps us in this. Besides this, the death of Jesus on the cross is able to make us clean before God. There is no sin that remains hidden from God. There is no sinner who is beyond God’s cleansing. Are there any unconfessed sins in our lives? David’s sin made him restless until he sought God’s cleansing. If the Spirit of God convicts us and brings to remembrance some of our sins, we ought to turn to God and be cleansed because just as He is holy, we have to walk in holiness as well. If we rely on Him to help us to be righteous before His sight, He will because scripture says that the One who calls us is faithful.       

Words

by Lynys Nelson

Words. We use them all the time. The right ones help us to pass assignments and exams while the wrong choice leads to failure. Its not only long words that create depth but little words e.g. "not" changes the whole meaning of a sentence.

One challenge in our lives is to use words wisely.

The Bible warns us to choose words carefully. In James, we are told to guard our tongues because our tongue can do lots of damage. It may be small but it can cause a lot of problems. It is described as a bit in a horse’s mouth, a rudder on a ship or a spark to start a bushfire. These items are small but they can move a horse, steer a ship and create great devastation. Proverbs warns about gossip. This use of words can bring about separation of good friends and a lack of trust.

There is a strong warning for teachers and prophets to examine their speech. Their words need to be truthful. When we hear words from God to give to others, we need to be obedient and say what God is saying.

Choose your words wisely. A kind word picks people up (Proverbs 12v25). A timely word is worth listening to (Proverbs 15v23). A word in the right circumstances is more valuable than gold and silver (Proverbs 25v11). The words we choose can bring encouragement to others.

Use your words to speak to others that don’t know God. These words bring life to the lost. Speak words for God and tell the world that He loves them.

Sowing for the Eternal

by Narelle Harker

As it is written, He [the benevolent person] scatters abroad; He gives to the poor; His deeds of justice and goodness and kindness and benevolence will go on and endure forever!

2 Corinthians 9:9 - The Amplified Bible

My ponderings on sowing into our little black missions bucket have had me looking at different translations of this verse. Our little black bucket is actually a pot that you place soil and seeds into. You water the seeds, give it sunlight and eventually the seeds will grow and you will have the plant to look at, maybe some flowers to look at or maybe it will bear some fruit.

When we sow our money into the black buckets for our missionaries, we pray for them, we pray for the ‘Son’ to shine upon their work and we hope that something will grow from the seeds that we have sown.

The difference though is that our potted plant will not live forever, it will not bear fruit forever or have lovely smelling flowers forever, but the sowing that our missionaries are doing "abroad" is of the eternal kind. The people that receive Christ as their Lord and Saviour and revere Him, will last forever, they will continue multiplying and telling others of the Good News, they will have ‘eternal fragrance’ and will continually bear fruit.

Sowing for eternity takes sacrifice. The sacrifice of giving up something for the sake of eternity - this may mean bringing lunch from home for one day a week instead of buying lunch, or swapping one social event a month that costs money for something that you can do with your friends for free.

Sowing for eternity takes commitment. Commit yourself to putting in your allocated amount for missions into the black bucket. Having made the sacrifice now be sure to do with the money what you chose to sacrifice it for. Don’t let your sacrifice have been in vain.

Sowing for eternity takes a vision of eternity. If we have no vision of eternity, then we will not be inclined to sow for eternity. We need to know what eternity holds and that there is a reason why we are making a sacrifice and a commitment to sow into the lives of our missionary couples. Sowing today has an eternal result and these results will "endure forever".

I plan to spend eternity meeting people that are there because I chose to make a sacrifice and a commitment to sow into a little black bucket, which our missionaries were then able to sow into peoples lives with eternal consequences.

Choose Eternity Today

"Jesus, My Strength, My Hope"

by Jessica Edward-Paul

As I was thinking about what to do my devotion on this week, I thought of a hymn that I had previously come across. "Jesus, My Strength, My Hope" was written by Charles Wesley in 1742. Wesley had written over 6000 hymns in his lifetime, all depicting the incredible love and saving nature of Jesus Christ. As I was reading through this particular hymn, however, the words really spoke to me. I read the hymn aloud to myself and saw that these words are a heart-felt prayer. But what really struck me about these words was that these words are not asking God for blessing, for comfort, to make life easy. The words in this prayer are completely selfless with their focus on Jesus and the work he has for us to do. As I reflected on the words of this hymn, I felt them become a reality in my heart- they became my prayer for my life.

JESUS, my strength, my hope,
On thee I cast my care,
With humble confidence look up,
And know thou hear'st my prayer.
Give me on thee to wait,
Till I can all things do,
On thee, almighty to create,
Almighty to renew.

I want a sober mind,
A self-renouncing will,
That tramples down and casts behind
The baits of pleasing ill;
A soul inured to pain,
To hardship, grief, and loss,
Bold to take up, firm to sustain
The consecrated cross.

I want a godly fear,
A quick-discerning eye,
That looks to thee when sin is near,
And sees the Tempter fly;
A spirit still prepared,
And armed with jealous care,
For ever standing on its guard,
And watching unto prayer.

I want a heart to pray,
To pray and never cease,
Never to murmur at thy stay,
Or wish my sufferings less.
This blessing, above all,
Always to pray, I want,
Out of the deep on thee to call,
And never, never faint.

I want a true regard,
A single, steady aim,
(Unmoved by threatening or reward)
To thee and thy great name;
A jealous, just concern
For thine immortal praise;
A pure desire that all may learn,
And glorify thy grace.

I rest upon thy word;
The promise is for me;
My succour and salvation, Lord,
Shall surely come from thee;
But let me still abide,
Nor from my hope remove,
Till thou my patient spirit guide
Into thy perfect love.

The first part of this hymn talks about having confidence that God hears our prayers.

Jesus, my strength, my hope,
On thee I cast my care,
With humble confidence look up,
And know thou hear'st my prayer.

Give me on thee to wait,
Till I can all things do,
On thee, almighty to create,
Almighty to renew.

When I read this, a verse came to mind:

1John 5:14- "This is the confidence that we have in approaching God: that if we ask for anything according to his will, he hears us." After reading the words of the hymn and this verse together, I have realised to a greater extent the incredible love of God for us. He loves us so much that as we pray in confidence, He will answer us in the way that He sees best.

The second verse of this hymn talks about hardships.

I want a sober mind,
A self-renouncing will,
That tramples down and casts behind
The baits of pleasing ill;
A soul inured to pain,
To hardship, grief, and loss,
Bold to take up, firm to sustain
The consecrated cross.

When I read this, another verse came to mind:

2 Corinthians 12:9-10: "‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

When praying to Jesus for my life, I can so often get caught up in the ‘feel sorry for me’ type of prayer- "Jesus, life is so hard! Things are so hard! Please take it all away Jesus!" There is nothing particularly wrong with this prayer but for me, when I was praying this, I prayed it with a wrong motive. I wanted Jesus to make my life better, to make it easy. But as I read through this hymn, I saw that the second verse talks about embracing hardships and learning from them so that we are more able to carry out the works of Christ.

The third verse talks about having a fear of God and resisting temptation.

I want a godly fear,
A quick-discerning eye,
That looks to thee when sin is near,
And sees the Tempter fly;
A spirit still prepared,
And armed with jealous care,
For ever standing on its guard,
And watching unto prayer.

When I read this, another verse came to mind:

Psalm 25:14: "The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them."

To me, this verse talks about fearing the Lord always but especially in times of temptation. So often, we try and resist temptation in our own strength. This hymn, however, talks about looking to God for the strength that we need in order to resist temptation. By doing this, as the Psalmist says, we allow God to confide in us.

By reading through and closely reflecting on particularly the first part of this hymn, I have developed a new outlook on prayer. Sometimes in my life I can get caught up in thinking that when I pray, Jesus almost has a responsibility to answer me and give me what I ask for. But that should not be the focus of our prayers! The focus of our prayers should be on serving Jesus - surrendering to him and thanking and blessing him for what he did for us and is doing for us. I was challenged by this hymn to change the way I pray and make the focus of my personal prayer time more on blessing God than on God blessing me.

Praying in the Spirit of the Cross

by Amanda Fitzgerald

"…it was on a cross that Jesus showed more than anywhere else the power of godly prayer…where torturing pain was arching every muscle and wild distractions were howling around Him like demons, He was still able to focus on the will and purpose of the Father and to pray a godly prayer. Walking in the Spirit is walking in the shadow of Calvary. So praying in the Spirit is praying in the Spirit of the cross." ~ Barry Chant - Praying in the Spirit

As I thought about these words I was challenged to consider the times when in testing and trials I have found it incredibly hard to stay focused on the will and purpose of God. In times like these, it is really hard to pray for others because our whole being is crying out for personal deliverance. To be honest, most of the time, I’ve struggled to desire God’s purpose at the time of my trial, and I’ve cried out to God to remove this cup of suffering from me, speedily avenge me and grant my requests. This kind of prayer came naturally because of my pain. I thank God I can pour out my heart to Him. However, if I truly want to yield to the Spirit and be conformed to the image of His Son, can I walk and pray as He walked and prayed? Can I pray, "not my will but yours" and "Father forgive them"? If I really want to be a disciple of Jesus can I follow His way?

When Jesus was enduring His most painful time He remained focused on the will and purpose of God. He did not focus on himself but unselfishly prayed for others. To pray in the Spirit of the cross is to pray with this kind of sacrificial love. We cannot be motivated by our selfish desires if we are truly praying in the Spirit of the cross because we pray for others with the love of God given to us by the Holy Spirit. What a challenge for us as we endeavour to walk as he walked.

As we pass through our personal trials the Spirit will enable us to be able to walk and pray in the fruit of the Spirit as we yield to Him. We can pray for others just as Jesus did when He hung on the cross in His darkest hours. Then, as we endure through our season of testing, we will look back over our dark valley with perspective. It will be evident that we have grown in our faith and our effectiveness will be increased. Only then will our hearts be flooded with light and we will understand what God has done in our lives, and in the lives of those whom we have prayed for. Then we will glorify Him because we will know deep in our hearts it could not have been achieved as perfectly by any other path than the one He chose for us.

Obedience (hate that word!!!)

by Jacqui Bouchier

“Those who obey my commandments are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them, and I will love them. And I will reveal myself to each of them.”

Don’t we just love the fullness and richness of God’s Word? At times it “quenches our deepest thirst” and “nourishes our entire body“. When we are situated in a lifestyle of amazing teaching at our church, bible college and even our daily devotions, we enjoy the complacency of being “spoon fed.” But in all honesty I believe that we have to start to grow up and actually apply what we are learning. When we start to hear the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit correcting us in our actions, maybe we need to respond to the call of obedience. A sign of maturity is discerning truth from lies and no longer following our old sinful nature. God has heard our call, “Lord use me, shape me, mould me, lead me along your path.” And he responds by saying “sweetie, I hear you, now but you need to start following my ways and not yours.” It’s a hard thing to do but the process towards reward, starts with being willing to obeying God.

A huge issue that prevents us from obeying God is pride. Oh yes I said it! And sometimes it’s our own pride that stops us seeing that we even carry pride. God really challenged me on this and I had to see the true motives of my heart. Why was I obeying God’s voice, was it to promote my own “spirituality?”  We have to humble ourselves and confess “Lord I am obeying you not to promote myself, but because I want to show you that I deeply love you.”

Let’s be a community that puts our love into action and obey God’s commandments, so that he is able to reveal himself to all of us.

Testify to Your Personal Revelation of a Personal God

by Paul Tan

We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:1-3)

The apostle John writes, not that which he has heard about from the other apostles or from other eye-witnesses. He writes about Jesus, whom he has seen with his own eyes and touched with his own hands, as he mentions in verse one. He writes to his audience, not recounting second or third-hand information passed on from other sources, but that which he has experienced himself from his own walk and life with his Lord. John knows what others have been writing in other letters which were circulating the infant churches, and he knows that what he writes on his own is the truth, since he himself is an eye-witness of all that which he transcribes.

In our own lives, we must do the same. Like the apostle John, we cannot afford to preach to other people, whether verbally or through our lifestyle, that which we have not had a revelation from God about ourselves. Whilst it may be tempting to preach someone else’s revelation about God or perhaps a particular verse of scripture, it will never carry the same weight in our mouths, unless we also have taken hold of that scripture and proven it to be true in our own lives. The challenge becomes clear: what attributes about God do you have a revelation of? When times get tough, what are the things you know not just in your head, but in your heart? In difficult circumstances, what verses of scripture are real to you and you have proven true in your own life time and time again? These things are what is revelation to us, and it is these things which we must share with others.

Search Me, Oh God

by Frigian Reyes

We read in John 8:1-11 the story of a woman caught in adultery. The scribes and Pharisees brought her to Jesus to tell and ask Him what her deserving punishment is for such sin.

The beginning of the story reminded me of the many times we Christians find it easier to see other people’s weaknesses, shortcomings, character flaws than our own. We can easily hear and watch preachings and messages about change of character and think that someone we know, it instead of us should be hearing. We could easily look at other people and expect something to happen to them so they can change or learn their lesson.

However, when we come face to face with Jesus and His words, a real encounter with Him, achieve through constant devotion and prayer. We like the scribe and Pharisee will realise that we ourselves have weaknesses, shortcomings and character flaws. Jesus’ love, grace and mercy look through on all of these things that we have in our lives that are not pleasant but He also help us overcome all of them so that we can live the life that He wants us to live for His glory.

The story is a wonderful reminder that we need to have the same quality of love, grace, mercy, compassion and forgiveness Jesus showed to the imperfect people like ourselves as we encounter everyday.

It is also a great encouragement for us to pray the same prayer David wrote in Psalm 139:23 -24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” This searching would help us to be aware of our own frailty and keep us from becoming judgmental towards others.

A lot of times it is hard to be faced with the truth of our character, but it’s only the way for us to be free to be all that God has created us to be.