It was the middle of the night when the Holy Spirit gave me the subject for this devotional. I wrote this in my notebook ~ Negative dialogue ‘high thing’ 2 Corinthians 10:5 says to cast down every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. 

What are some of those ‘high things’ in our lives?  A negative dialogue is futile. Rolling something over and over in our mind gets us nowhere. Rehearsing things from the past changes nothing. Things that we have no control over don’t get figured out, no matter how much time we spend trying. 

Who needs the fruit of emotional fatigue? We are created to glorify the Lord. Our minds are a marvelous gift. God’s creation of our brain is brilliant. Why would we want to waste the resources He has given us? 

The next time you start to go into mental gymnastics ~ stop! Make your next thought one of gratitude according to the knowledge of God.

Trials Are Divinely Orchestrated

I memorized Psalm 66. For me it takes saying the phrases in a verse over and over until it finally grooves into my brain. As I came to verses 10-12, I realized afresh at how strategically the Lord orchestrates every part of our trials.

It says, “For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs. You have caused men to ride over our hears; we went through fire and through water; but You brought us out to rich fulfillment.” Do you see how detailed His orchestration is through these verses?

Our role in a trial is to endure through trust ~ resulting in fruit that will glorify Him. No matter what takes place, He is intimately acquainted with every moment. It has first come through His hands. As Psalm 85:13 says, “Righteousness will go before Him, and shall make His footsteps our pathway.”

Mitigate means to lessen the severity or intensity. The word brings me to the chorus of “I Know My Heavenly Father Knows.” He knows, He knows the storms that would my way oppose; He knows, He knows, and tempers every wind that blows.

We never have a trial in which God’s intention for it will not be fulfilled. Otherwise He would not be true to His character. Philippians 1:6. What He has begun in us He will complete.

James 5:11 says, “Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.”

Job had no clue what was happening behind the scenes of his trial. Neither do we know. Psalm 91:11 says, “For He shall give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways.”

The fertilized soil for answered prayer is through our intimate communion with the Lord. Moses spent time apart from the children of Israel in fellowship with the Lord. I believe it was Moses’ testimony of intimacy that drew Joshua to join him in the tent of meeting. 

Exodus 33:11 says that after Moses returned to camp, “…his servant Joshua…a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.” It was Joshua’s training ground to prepare him for receiving the role of the next leader.

There is a principle in Luke 12:48 that we are to follow. It says, “…For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required…”   Think about what we have been given ~ the gospel. 2 Corinthians 5:18 says that He has given us the ministry of reconciliation. Verse 20 says, “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us…”

John 14:21 says, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” Reveal means to make visible, as in presenting oneself to the sight of another.

I’m meditating through the book of Revelation. John had the responsibility of recording all that the Lord was revealing to him. Revelation 1:19 says, “Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this.”

The Lord reveals the hidden things of His heart to those who responsibly keep His word in their hearts. John 15:7 Amplified says, “If you live in Me (abide vitally united to Me) and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.” 

In Genesis 18, the Lord was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Verse 17 says, “…Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?” In John 15:14 Jesus gave His criteria of friendship. It says, “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.”

The privilege of that friendship for us is in verse 15. It says, “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to You.”

I love 1 Corinthians 2:10 in the Amplified. It says what He has unveiled and revealed to us. “…for the Holy Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God (the divine counsels and things hidden and beyond man’s scrutiny).”

His secret counsel, the revealing of His heart, and the mining out of the depth of Scriptures come through our intimate communion with Him. Psalm 25:14 Amplified says, “The secret (of the sweet, satisfying companionship) of the Lord have they who fear (revere and worship) Him, and He will show them His covenant and reveal to them its (deep, inner) meaning.”

Do you share your innermost secrets with just anyone? We only share them with proven friends that we know will not betray our confidence. I was thinking about the Lord’s relationship with Moses.

Numbers 12:8 says, “I speak with him face to face, even plainly, and not in dark sayings…”  Exodus 33:11 says, “So the Lord spoke with Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” The scene was inside the tent of meeting where the Lord communed Heart to heart with Moses.

Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” We are created to glorify the Lord. Isaiah 43:7. We glorify Him as we live in a lifestyle of worship.

We participate in His divine character through our knowledge of Him. A. W. Tozer wrote a great book. “Knowledge Of The Holy.” In it he shines an illuminating light on God’s attributes. “Pursuit Of God” changed my life back in the 70’s. He knew the Lord intimately, yet his prayers always expressed a desire to know Him more.

Jesus’ words to His Father in John 17:3 say, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

Let nothing on this earth ever rival your relationship with the Lord. It is pure gold that has been through the fire.

Our fiery trials also expose the planted lies that we have believed. They slipped in through undetected fiery darts. We unknowingly accepted them, and because of that the enemy of our soul gained ground. 

Ephesians 4:27 says to not give him any opportunity. Any thought against ourselves, others, or our circumstances are fiery darts. Once we dialogue with them, they are seeded in our heart. From them, the enemy builds internal strongholds.

If you have ever felt a barrage of negative thoughts, they are coming from an internal stronghold. Jeremiah 1:10 is God’s way of destroying them. However, after the destruction, new inner strongholds of truth are needed to take their place. 

It says, “…to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.” Without total destruction, the weed-seed-lies will continue to propagate in the fallow ground of our hearts.