“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. —Isaiah 55:8

Being born into a Christian home has its advantages, but it is no guarantee that a person will become a Christian. One of the saddest things I know is to be born into a Christian home where you have heard it all, and you let those precious years pass by without responding in your heart. What can you be sure of once you’re a Christian? The first thing is this: God has a plan.

God has a plan for your life, and He knows what is good and what is right for you. It’s easy for us to get impatient. All of us have something we want, and when we don’t get it, we become impatient. Now what God may lead one person to do, He may not lead another to do. The worldly may call this “luck,” but for the Christian, it just means God sorts things out.

God has a purpose. He has a plan for you; He has a providence for you. That means things will happen in your life where, unknown to you, God will be at work. There is an explanation for everything that happens. If you are a Christian, nothing happens to you without a purpose. You may not know the reason by tomorrow afternoon. You may begin scratching your head and asking, “Why did God allow this to happen?” Don’t become bitter about anything, for one day you will see God had everything under total control.

Excerpted from All’s Well That Ends Well (Authentic Media, 2005).

Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire … —Daniel 3:17, NAS

Can you think of any moment lately when you were glad Jesus had not come? If He had come, would He have found you complaining, criticizing, or ready to give up? Perhaps you know what it is to be lonely; perhaps you were passed over; perhaps you feel that life has passed you by; perhaps you feel it is unfair that you had to have the lousy wife or husband you have or the illness. Endure the trial with dignity.

But what is enduring with dignity? It means that at the Second Coming of Jesus, beware that you are not questioning God. Beware of bitterness against Him.

It also means do not be found quenching. That is trying to abort a God-ordained trial. Every trial has a timescale, and it will end. There is no trial given to you that is not common to man from which God will not make a way of escape. Now that is God’s promise. It does not matter what the trial is. You may say, “This one is too big for me”—it is not. The devil will make you think it is too big for you, and you may think that you have found a loophole so you can complain. The trial will end, but if you try to end it before it is over, you will build a superstructure of straw.

As you read this you may be undergoing a trial greater than you imagined, and maybe no one has a clue what you are going through. You are almost ready to quit. Don’t! Your endurance in this trial of your faith will bring praise, honor, and glory to Jesus Christ on His appearing. Dignify the trial even though your faith is tried by fire. Do not quit! You are the one who has an opportunity to have what Paul calls “reward.”

Excerpted from When God Says “Well Done!” (Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 1993).

Find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. —Ephesians 5:10-11

We learn what pleases those closest to us primarily by spending time with them. By trial and error we also discover things they like and dislike. When it is a relationship we really desire to develop, it becomes fun to make the other person happy.

But this is not always easy—even when we have known someone for years. For example, although my wife, Louise, has repeatedly said she doesn’t like surprises, I never really believed it because I do like surprises. But after countless blunders I came to realize that she really means it! She wants to know the plans I have in mind for birthday or anniversary celebrations in advance, and I now adjust to her wishes. She has also had to adjust to many of my eccentricities—like having no heavy discussions late in the evening or in the morning before two cups of coffee!

The Lord has His own ways, too, and He wants us to know them and adjust to them.

We may think they are odd—at first—but the benefits of accepting Him as He is and adjusting to what pleases Him will result in great blessing and peace.

We have the wonderful advantage of having the whole Bible at our fingertips. This surely leaves us without excuse. And yet if we let the Bible replace the immediate witness, guidance, and voice of the Spirit, we quench Him in one stroke.

Unless we are careful, we will not only begin to take ourselves too seriously, but we will also fail to tune into the ways of the Spirit—simply because we already presume that we know them so well.

For we too must learn—by experience—what pleases the Lord. This means spending time with the Lord and developing a sensitivity to His ways. We must find out what pleases Him.

Excerpted from The Sensitivity of the Spirit (Charisma House, 2002).

Give thanks…to the One who remembered us in our low estate. —Psalm 136:3, 23

God made a choice to remember, and He wants us to choose to remember! He wants us to hold Him to His own Word. Nehemiah prayed this way (Neh. 1:8). The psalmist prayed the same way: “Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope” (Ps. 119:49). Hezekiah prayed much the same way (Isa. 38:2). With His own Word we can pray so as to give God “no rest” until He grants our request. (See Isaiah 62:7.) We likewise pray with Habakkuk: “In wrath remember mercy” (Hab. 3:2).

The most depressing book in the Bible (to me) is the Book of Judges. The unthinkable things that are described in this book show that there is a precedent for the worst kinds of sin and wickedness. The bottom line of the Book of Judges is, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit” (Judg. 21:25). But there is an ominous explanation that lay behind this folly—an even greater folly: (1) They “did not remember the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the hands of all their enemies,” and (2) they “failed to show kindness” (Judg. 8:34-35).

God’s promise to remember His Word is recounted again and again:

God remembered Rachel. —Genesis 30:22

God … remembered his covenant. —Exodus 2:24

For he remembered his holy promise given to his servant Abraham. —Psalm 105:42

In other words, God keeps His promise to remember. He puts us on our honor to remember to be grateful. God kindly cautions us not to forget to be grateful. He puts it succinctly: give thanks.

Excerpted from Just Say Thanks! (Charisma House, 2005).

After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. … When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. —Luke 2:43, 45

In this story, we are looking at young Jesus while He lived here on earth with His earthly parents. Nevertheless, this illustration from the life of Jesus illustrates the way in which the sovereign Holy Spirit may test our sensitivity to Him by not moving with us when we choose to carry on with our plans.

The occasion was not only the observance of the Feast of Passover, but it was also the Bar Mitzvah of Jesus. Although from birth Jesus was God as though He were not man, and man as though He were not God, Jesus was now being truly authenticated as the God-man—especially by Joseph and Mary, who knew the facts.

But Joseph and Mary missed it. Apparently, the dialogue with Jesus and the teachers in the temple continued for three days—all without the knowledge of Joseph and Mary. Jesus was  doing His Father’s business.

What a pity that Joseph and Mary missed it. When the Feast was over, Joseph and Mary returned home. Jesus stayed behind, but “they were unaware of it” (v. 43). In other words, they sincerely thought Jesus was right there with them. Why? They presumed He would adjust to their thinking and plans. After all, it was—as far as they were concerned—time to go home. They did not see a need to adjust to Him. But He chose to stay behind.

Joseph and Mary moved on as if nothing had happened. Unaware that Jesus had stayed behind, they sincerely thought He was with them. If we discover that we have moved ahead of God and have left Him behind, we must go looking for Him. That is what Joseph and Mary had to do.

Once we have lost God’s special presence, we can only find Him by initially returning to the place where we lost Him.

Excerpted from The Sensitivity of the Spirit (Charisma House, 2002).

That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. —Romans 10:9

When we speak of unconfessed sin, what do we mean? It will be useful to consider David, the Old Testament king, and his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba.

We should note that, had David died during the two years before the prophet Nathan exposed his sin of adultery and murder, David would have been saved so as by fire. You cannot tell me that David was only saved after the prophet Nathan came to him. No, David was a saved man before.

David, you see, thought he had gotten away with it. Two years is rather a long time, but then he was sleeping well at nights. All was going well. But one day, there came a knock on his door, and the prophet Nathan exposed the whole thing. Nothing was ever to be the same again for David.

But God gave David a second chance, that is to say, his life was not finished. Had David been taken away during those two years after he sinned as he did, he would have gone to heaven without a reward. But God says, “David, would you like to start over?” and David, though it was the downward side of his life, began to trust the Lord again and God used him. Mark it: David will not be saved by fire on that Day. He showed himself to be a man of God after his repentance.

Maybe you feel that there is a skeleton in your closet and there is no hope of a reward in your case. You must deal with that; confess it. Do not go around telling people, but get it right. Stop it! There is time left; thank God you were not taken, for had you been, you would have been saved so as by fire. God has given you time. Thank Him for it.

Excerpted from When God Says “Well Done!” (Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 1993).

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. —Ephesians 4:30

In over fifty years of studying the Bible, one truth has alarmed me more than any other. You might think it has to do with standing before God at the final judgment. But, surprising as it may seem, it isn’t that. The truth that alarms me most is the possibility of grieving or quenching the Holy Spirit without knowing it—the painless way in which the anointing can be lifted from me. When this occurs, because I know nothing whatever at first, I carry on as though nothing has happened.

It is possible for one who has experienced the precious anointing of the Holy Spirit to swiftly, painlessly, lose that anointing. I can displease the Lord and feel nothing. It is very possible that I could spend years doing what I presumed was God’s will—preaching, teaching, witnessing, and being involved in church work—when God was hardly present in my efforts at all. I may even have the applause and respect of people the whole time, and they not have a clue I have moved ahead of Jesus.

It is a great mystery of the anointing of which one may be unaware—even though it is working most powerfully. On the other hand, one also may not be conscious that it has been lifted! When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, “he was not aware that his face was radiant” (Exod. 34:29). Yet Samson, who could tear a lion apart with his bare hands, was as weak as a kitten when the anointing left him—but he was unconscious of this until he tried to do what had seemed so natural the day before. (See Judges 14:6; 16:20-22.) The supernatural often seems natural to the anointed man or woman.

When the Holy Spirit is grieved, the anointing lifts. We usually feel nothing at the time. It isn’t until some time later that we notice we have carried on out of habit or through the momentum of a natural gift.

Excerpted from The Sensitivity of the Spirit (Charisma House, 2002).

If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. —1 Corinthians 15:19

Is there any news more wonderful than this: we are going to heaven! There is a sense in which the bottom line of the Christian faith is this: those who trust in Christ’s death on the cross are going to heaven and not to hell. Martin Luther regarded John 3:16 as the “Bible in a nutshell.” Those who believe in the Son will not perish, that is, will not go to hell. Those who believe in the Son will have everlasting life, that is, will go to heaven.

Too often the heart of the Christian message becomes clouded with what in fact are but secondary benefits of the gospel. For example, “We are so much better off here below.” Or, “Our lives have changed. We are much happier than before. Even society is all the better when the gospel has made an impact.” True. I know what people mean by that.

But the main reason Jesus died on the cross was to make it possible for us to go to heaven when we die. Believe it or not, Christianity is essentially about our death. The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). Jesus came to reverse what Adam lost in the Garden of Eden. The gospel is essentially about this great reversal.

We will know a lot more about heaven five minutes after we’ve been there than all the speculation this side of heaven! We all have questions, such as: Will there be literal streets of gold? Will there be literal mansions in which we will live? How will we spend our time, that is, if time as we know it exists in some way? In a word: What will we be doing in heaven?

Whatever else is true, I am sure of this: among many other things, we will all spend a great deal of “time” in eternity thanking God for His goodness.

Excerpted from Just Say Thanks! (Charisma House, 2005).

Rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. —Colossians 2:7

We show God gratitude by not only telling Him, but we show gratitude also by living a holy life. Never forget that we are not saved by being holy; we are holy because we have been saved. But because we are still sinners, we easily forget and become careless.

Gratitude is demonstrated furthermore by our giving Him one-tenth of our income. Now tithing was made legal under the law. We, however, are not under the law but under grace. We are not required to tithe as a condition to salvation. But God promises to bless those who do.

We show our thanks to God for saving us by sharing our faith with others. What if our gratitude to God were summed up entirely by our witnessing to others? What gratitude to God would you have manifested until now?

We thank God by the amount of time we spend alone with God. We reveal how important another person is to us by the actual amount of time we give to them. How much time do you give solely to God by being utterly alone with Him and talking only to Him?

We thank the Lord by discovering what pleases the Lord. This comes by experiencing two things: (1) walking in the light (1 John 1:7) and (2) becoming acquainted with the ungrieved Spirit of God (Eph. 4:30). When we discern what pleases Him, we know better how to please Him!

We show gratitude also by our church attendance. It is no small insult to God’s name when His people are not found regularly meeting together. “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Heb. 10:25).

Excerpted from Just Say Thanks! (Charisma House, 2005).

Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until that he have mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt. Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud. —Psalm 123:2-4, KJV

Have you ever asked God for mercy? Have you ever come to that point where you have realized that God doesn’t owe you a favor? He doesn’t owe you an explanation; rather, what you need is mercy.

One definition of mercy is “refraining from inflicting punishment or pain on an offender or enemy who is in one’s power.” Here is a person who has the right to punish and also the power to do so. He has the right to punish, because the offender deserves justice and deserves to be punished. Mercy occurs when the person who could punish shows leniency instead. In short, God’s mercy is not getting what we, as sinners, deserve.

The writer of this psalm (we don’t know who he was) understood that God can give or withhold mercy. It was written by one who understood God and who also understood himself. He had come to terms with what he was like. He realized he had no right to snap his fingers and say, “God, You have to do this!” He knew that God doesn’t have to do anything. Therefore he said, “We will just look to God. We will wait for Him. As the eyes of slaves look to the hands of their master, as the eyes of a maid look to the hands of the mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord.”

Have you ever talked to God like that? If you haven’t, you are not a Christian. A Christian is a person who has come to realize that he has no bargaining power. He sees himself as having sinned against God, offended His holiness, broken His law, and shown contempt for His Word. When a person realizes that he is a sinner, all he can do is ask for mercy.

Excerpted from Higher Ground (Christian Focus Publications Ltd., 1995).