Encountering God through Faith..Craig Denison Ministries

 

Encountering God through Faith

Craig Denison Ministries

Weekly Overview:

Having consistent and transformational encounters with God while on earth is meant to be foundational to the Christian life. Our God has not left us. Through the sacrifice of Jesus, we’ve been filled with the very Spirit of God who longs to reveal to us daily the nearness and love of our heavenly Father. We are never alone. There is nowhere we can flee from the presence of our God. May this week be filled with transformational encounters with the living God as we learn what it is to seek the face of the one who has formed us, knows us, and loves us unconditionally.

Scripture:“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Hebrews 11:6

Devotional:

By faith we come into the throne room of God and have an authentic, transformational encounter with our Creator. By faith we accept the free gift of eternal salvation. By faith we believe we will one day live in heaven with our Father. And it’s by faith that we seek the fullness of relationship available to us on earth.

Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” The Lord longs to reward your seeking him with an abundance of his presence. You can have consistent, transformational encounters with God. But in order to seek God, you must take him at his word. You must believe that he will reward you out of his good pleasure when you come to him with faith.

Romans 10:17 says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Faith is simply a response to God’s promises and faithfulness. We can have faith because our God has proven himself wholly faithful. When he says in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me,” he is making a foundational promise to you.

The Lord knocks on the door of your heart and longs to meet with you. He is asking you to have the faith to make space in your life, open your heart to him as an act of trust, and meet with him. His presence is fully available to you here. The veil separating us and the presence of God was torn by the power of Jesus’ sacrifice.

Hebrews 10:22 says, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” I pray that your heart would be filled with the assurance that comes from faith in response to God’s faithfulness. I pray that you would passionately pursue consistent encounters with your loving heavenly Father. I pray that today your faith will be rewarded with the powerful presence of the living God. And I pray that your life will forever be changed in light of how loving and near your Father is to you.

Guided Prayer:

1.Meditate on the importance of drawing near to God in faith.

“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Hebrews 11:6

“And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” Matthew 21:22

2. Come before the throne of your God in faith that he will shepherd you into an encounter with his love.

“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” Hebrews 10:22

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20

3. Rest in the presence of your heavenly Father. Allow his love to lay a foundation of grace, joy, peace, and purpose in your heart.

“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13

May Psalm 139:7-12 fill your heart with faith to experience the nearness of your Father:

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

Extended Reading: Psalm 139

Your Kingdom Come..Emma Danzey

 Your Kingdom Come

By Emma Danzey

Matthew 6:10 says, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Your Kingdom Come
This verse is part of the Lord’s Prayer when Jesus was modeling how to pray to the Father in front of the disciples. Shortly after acknowledging God as holy, Jesus makes this bold statement. Your kingdom come. It might sound strange for God the Son to be saying to God the Father that His kingdom should come. Isn’t Jesus’ kingdom God’s kingdom? The purpose of this statement was that Jesus was choosing to submit to the Father’s will. Ultimately Jesus came to earth to die on the cross to glorify God and bring salvation to humanity. Jesus was fully God and fully man. So in fulfilling His roles perfectly, He was perfectly powerful and never sinned, yet He lived a perfect life and submitted to the Lord in the ways in which we could not.

1 Timothy 2:5 says, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

Colossians 2:9 says, ”For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”

Your kingdom come is a prayer for the Lord to move and work and make a way for people to get to Him. Jesus is literally the answer to His prayer. He was going to die and be raised so that people can join the kingdom of heaven. God wishes that none perish, but all would come to repentance.

Your Will Be Done
Jesus set the example to pray for the will of God. We may not always understand His will or choose it, but we can lean into prayer and ask Him to reveal His plans to us and read His Bible, which tells us His plans for our lives.

Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Of course, Jesus already knew God’s will because He is God, but He showed us in His perfect humanity how to ask for the Lord’s plans to take place and to rely on Him in His sovereignty as Lord.

On Earth as it Is in Heaven
As believers, we know that Heaven is a place of perfection. We know that earth is broken and sinful. Jesus prayed the desire to see the glory and beauty of God the Father on this earth. Soon after His ascension, we read about the Holy Spirit entering the lives of believers in Christ. Still to this day, when someone places faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit immediately enters that person’s heart and seals him or her for eternity. (Ephesians 1:13) People everywhere now have the ability to live by the Spirit and not their flesh.

Where before, the Holy Spirit would only rest temporarily, now after Jesus, believers have permanent full-time access. This means that people around the world are living by the fruit of the Spirit. They are able to choose to live like Jesus by the Spirit’s help and to reveal to this dark world of the glorious light that is Christ. Jesus was in Heaven, came down to earth, and then ascend into Heaven. He was the frontrunner for Heaven coming down to a sinful world. He then sent His Spirit as a gift to continue spreading the good news of the gospel. We can celebrate this blessing today because of His sacrifice and perfect plan.

Intersecting Faith and Life:
How are you asking God to move in your life and in the lives of others around you? Spend some time praying and reading the Bible as you ponder what God’s will is in your specific circumstances. How can you thank the Holy Spirit for being present in your life today? Ask Him to help you to live by His power and be aware of how He wants to move in and through your life to share the gospel with others.

Further Reading:

• John 10:30
• John 14:6
• 2 Peter 3:9

Following Jesus Will Feel Like the “Wrong” Way..by John Dickson

 Following Jesus Will Feel Like the “Wrong” Way

by John Dickson

BIBLE VERSE OF THE DAY: “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” – Matthew 7:14

Following the Teacher will occasionally run counter to the world around us. It will at times be unpopular—a minority position. As Jesus warned in his Sermon on the Mount:

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)

Jesus probably intended this as a specific description of the response of first-century Israel to his teaching. But it has been disturbingly true of other periods as well. Sometimes—though not always—following Christ as teacher is a lonely, counter-cultural experience. The wider public might like the idea of Jesus as teacher but I am not sure it always has time for the actual content of his teaching. Some of what he said almost certainly puts aspects of Western culture (and church life) on the “broad road” rather than the “narrow” one. Christians have often said that applying Jesus’ teaching to everyday life at times feels like driving the wrong way up a one-way street (to extend Jesus’ road metaphor). But this is to be expected if Jesus’ claims are true and he really is the divinely appointed Teacher.

A truth that is relevant for all human cultures will, by definition, contradict any particular human culture at some point, since societies are constantly in flux, sometimes coinciding with the truth, other times deviating from it.

People who seek to adjust Jesus’ teaching—as the modern church sometimes does—in an attempt to make it more “relevant” often end up doing just the opposite. In the first century as much as the twenty-first the power and poignancy of Jesus’ teaching is that it sounds like a voice from outside human society. It is a voice that knows us only too well, and it calls on us to live beyond the historical blip of our particular culture.

A Prayer for What Counts..Meg Bucher

 A Prayer for What Counts

By Meg Bucher

“It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation.” - Galatians 6:15 NLT

Unworthiness is an epidemic. In a world bent on “self,” there are so many lost in search of themselves. Anxiety and depression are sky-high. We weren’t meant to live for ourselves but for something so much greater. Someone so much greater. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, he addresses one behavior out of a million ways in which people try to gain favor in life. If only we accomplish the next goal or reach the next level. But unworthiness is quick to remind us …it’s never enough. So, what is? 

Circumcision was a ceremonial process God’s Old Testament people participated in out of obedience. “In the Bible this word is used both literally and figuratively,” Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary explains, “Uncircumcision represented unbelief and disobedient to the covenant of God.” Paul used an extreme example that would be familiar to all parties involved in the conversation: Jews and Gentiles. Both people groups were having a hard time accepting the fact Jesus came to free and save all of them. The VOICE paraphrase reads: 

“Let me be clear: circumcision won’t save you- uncircumcision won’t either for that matter - both amount to nothing. God’s new creation is what counts, and it counts for everything.” 

God’s people struggled to understand their unworthiness. Circumcised or not, they were all unworthy without the sacrificial blood of Christ Jesus, as are we today. “Paul asserted that mere externals- circumcision or the lack thereof- mean nothing. Instead, for Paul, the cross- a shameful means of torture and execution- was a cause for boasting,” Moody Bible Commentary explains, “It brought two things: a decisive break from worldly perspectives (world …crucified to me) and real spiritual life (new creation).” The inner change is more important than the outer changes in our behavior. Ceremonial or not, we all wake up each morning the same sinners we were when we laid our heads down to sleep. The difference for those living in the love of Christ Jesus is the new mercy we receive every day from the Lord through Him. The change on the inside affects what others see from the outside. 

Through Christ, we find our sense of worth. The purpose God built into the fabric of who we are When we stay in touch with our Creator, we see and understand everything around us from a fresh, godly perspective. Everything changes from the inside out.

Let’s pray today not to get caught up in what we do or do not do but to focus on who we are in Christ Jesus. 

Father,
Today we pray for a fresh perspective. Help us to see life through Your eyes, Father. Your creation is good! Yet, in a world surrounded by so much wrong and tainted with sin and evil, it can be hard to see. Continue to change us from the inside out, God. Show us what really matters. Help us to let go of what does not. Bless our lives with the eternal purpose You created us to walk out. Let us not be distracted by the enemy or entertain any lies of unworthiness. Every human being on this earth is loved. No one is an accident. You love all of us and are faithful to meet us right where we are at. There is no need to do anything to gain Your love, Father. Please, for anyone who does not know how loved they are by You or does not know who Jesus is …let today be the day everything changes …from the inside out. 

In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.