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DAY 40                                                                  OCTOBER 22, 2015 _____________________________________________________________      
 

crucified header nails      

 

"I HAVE BEEN CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST;

IT IS NO LONGER I WHO LIVE, BUT CHRIST LIVES IN ME;

AND THE LIFE WHICH I NOW LIVE IN THE FLESH 

I LIVE BY FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD,

WHO LOVED ME AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME."

(Galatians 2:20) 

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RAISE UP THE STANDARD!
 
"To Him Who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious Presence without fault and with great joy - to the Only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen." (Jude 24)

Morning Devotion: Feasting in His Presence - Read John 12:12-19

Good Morning!  As we begin the last day of our 40 day journey together, let us turn the pages of our Bible back a couple of chapters and look upon the triumphal entry of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ; and join with the triumphal procession in proclaiming His praise for the victory that is ours through His death and resurrection.   

It was the first day of the week and all the pilgrims had arrived in Jerusalem for the celebration of Passover.  (Pesach was one of three annual pilgrimages the Jewish men were required to make to the temple (see Exodus 23:14-17)).  Jesus was making His final entrance into Jerusalem to complete the work the Father had sent Him to do.  He looked upon the city with great sadness, while the people welcomed Him as a conquering king (reference Luke 19:37-41).  "Hosanna! 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!' The King of Israel!" (John 12:13b).  The people had seen and heard about this man who had performed miracles and helped so many people, and they readily proclaimed Him as Messiah; believing He would save them from the political powers of Rome, just as Israel had been rescued from the oppressive control of Pharaoh in Egypt centuries before.  They waved palm branches and laid down their garments in honor of the One who would bring them victory.  Jesus would indeed triumph over their enemies; but instead of conquering Rome, He would defeat a more sinister enemy that was destroying them from within. Indeed He would establish His kingdom - but His kingdom is not of this world. His reign would save them from a far greater power then the political one they believed was oppressing them.  This battle would not require an army; rather the victory would come through His own death (reference Isaiah 52:13-53:12). 
 
Jesus Christ came into the world to save all who would believe in Him.  He willingly and obediently laid down His life as our sacrificial Lamb so we would not have to suffer the penalty that our sin demands.  He gave up everything that we might have everything - salvation, forgiveness of sin, freedom from the shackles of sin and death, and eternal life with Him.  All that is required is to believe in Him.  And once we do, we, in turn, are to lay down our life for Him.  It's not really a fair exchange - our weakness for His strength; but we must become less, so He can become great (reference John 3:30)!  Andrew Murray has said, "...there is nothing more natural, beautiful, and blessed than to be nothing, so that God may be all."  Throughout our forty day journey we have witnessed Jesus presenting one piece of evidence after another that He is indeed the Christ, the Son of the Living God.  He has revealed Himself as our Bread of Life, the Light of the world, the Gate for the sheep, the Good Shepherd, the Resurrection and the Life, and the Way and the Truth and the Life.  Jesus is our daily bread, the light for our feet, our strong tower and shelter from the storm, He is our shield and our defense, He is watchful, faithful, and good, and He is alive!  Beloved, He is all of this and so much more; we are just scratching the surface.  Let us commit to going deeper to learn all we can about the One our heart loves.  Let us not just listen and learn, but let us be active in doing and sharing the love of God with the people around us, so that they will know the goodness, mercy, joy and love of the Lord as we do.  How dearly beloved of the Father we are!
 
May we commit this season in front of us to being more watchful and awake; to use our time to seek deeper communion with God; to sit at His banqueting table each day and feast upon His goodness as we fill up on His Word; to use what we have been nourished with to feed another hungry soul; to pray more fervently and frequently to access His grace to help and bless the church; and to live our lives in such holiness and humility as to bring glory to His name!  Let us not cease to proclaim Jesus Christ crucified, glorified, and coming!  He is our message and we must share Him with the world.  Just remember, "it's only good news if it gets there on time!"*  May those who criticize us as Christians say of our commitment and love for Christ: "Look, the world has gone after Him!" (v.19b). 
  
Heavenly Father,
Thank You for this intimate time we have spent
together these past 40 days -
there is no place I would rather be in this world than with You.
 
Thank You for the tender way You show Yourself to me each day.
May I have greater courage and obedience
to take all that I have learned and gleaned from You
and share it with those You desire to reach. 
May Jesus Christ, and Him Crucified,
be the message of my mouth and my life.
May the church rise up in one voice and in one accord
and declare the praise of our eternal King of kings,
until the whole world hears and knows
what a wondrous God You are!
May the spiritually blind be given eyes to see,
and run after You with a heart full of fervent love
to lay their wretched lives at
Your beautiful feet and find salvation for the souls. 
"I will praise You, O LORD, with all my heart;
I will tell of all Your wonders.
I will be glad and rejoice in You;
I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High."
(Psalm 9: 1,2)
"The LORD is my strength and my song;
He has become my salvation.
He is my God, and I will praise Him,
my father's God, and I will exalt Him."
(Exodus 15:2)
"The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock!
Exalted be God, the Rock, my Savior!
(2 Samuel 22:47)
"I will praise You as long as I live,
and in Your name I will lift up my hands."
(Psalm 63:4)
"Shout with joy to God, all the earth!
Sing the glory of His name; make His praise glorious!"
(Psalm 66: 1,2)
"Praise our God, O peoples, let the sound of His praise be heard."
(Psalm 66:8)
"I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart;
I will glorify Your name forever."
(Psalm 86:12)
"Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor
and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!"
(Revelation 7:12)
In Jesus' Highly Exalted and Glorious Name, I pray. Amen.
   

 
 
*quote from Carl F.H. Henry


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REVOLUTIONIZE THE WORLD!
 
"Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty." (Zechariah 4:6)
 
Afternoon Devotion: Filled with His Power - Read John 12:24

We experience true victory when we fully embrace Jesus Christ and His work on the cross. The message that has revolutionized and radically transformed the world is found in the power of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the greatest revolutionary the world has ever known; but He did so in a way that seemed foolish in the eyes of man (reference 1 Corinthians 1:18-31). Through His sacrifice, He revealed the most excellent way to accomplish His work - the way of love!  And there is no greater love than this, than to lay down your life for a friend (reference John 15:13).  This is the path we as believers are called to walk.  We have no greater Friend than Christ Jesus, who spared not His own life to give us His, and we should be honored to lay our life down to bring glory and honor to His name!
 
The Lord has been showing us these past forty days that we have all the power we need to revolutionize the world.  He has provided us His Holy Spirit of the Lord, of godly wisdom, of heavenly understanding, of perfect counsel, of divine might, and of complete knowledge, to lead us into all truth, so we can proclaim His power, presence, and peace to the world.  Jesus deposited His life within us so we can breathe His life in this world and raise up the spiritually dead.  The spiritual gifts He has given us are to be used to build up and edify His Body so we can be whole, healthy, and holy to impact the world for the glory of God. 
 
The Christian's life is the crucified life.  It is a journey through a series of crosses and deaths - death of self, of vision, of dreams and desires, of loved ones, of everything; everything in our lives must die so that Christ can be all.  When we follow Jesus Christ we will soon find ourselves standing at the edge of the Red Sea, hemmed in from all sides, with an enemy in hot pursuit; or face to face with the looming walls of Jericho and the impossibility of our circumstances; or any number of other countless impossibilities and difficulties.  When we came to Christ, we touched the invisible, the otherworldly, and we are simply passing through to the other side by faith; and every step of the way God is waking us up and teaching us to believe, to trust, to wait, and to love.  He wants us to lay down our present crosses and pick up the cross of Christ and lift Him high - so that we not only see Him, but so that everyone else around us can also see Him.  The Lord knows that around the corner there is another battle, a closed door, a painful trial, a chronic illness, or a death.  He knows what awaits us every step of our journey, and He is as faithful to provide for us today as He did with His disciples 2000 years ago.  These 40 day seasons of prayer and fasting are times of preparation and consecration for the battles that are in front of us.  The Lord is faithful to send times of awakening and revival to prepare His children in advance for the battles they will face in life. May we continue to feast on His Word and draw strength from God's presence in our prayer closets, so we will not be taken by surprise when we are tested over all that we have learned during this season.  During one of my most trying seasons the Lord gave me this verse (John 12:24) to comfort and to humble me.  We are the well-beloved sons and daughters of the Most High God, and He wants us to be separated from this world and set apart for Him, so that in our dying the entire landscape will become a harvest field, and many will come to salvation.  May He once again breathe upon us, and give us the privilege of winning many souls to Christ.  Let us pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest (see Matthew 9:38)!
 
 
"The hour has come that the Son of Man
should be glorified.  Most assuredly, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies,
it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.
He who loves his life will lose it,
and he who hates his life in this world
will keep it for eternal life."
(John 12:23-25)
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RESTORE PRAISE!
 
"Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever, Amen!" (Revelation 7:12)
 
Evening Devotion: Focused on His Praise - Read Psalm 47
  
 
The Old Testament Scriptures declare the God of Israel to be the God of all the nations.  "Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth" (Psalm 46:10).  This is not a hopeful refrain; it is the promise of God. We find the response to this well-known prayer in our last song of praise for our 40 day Crucified journey - Psalm 47 celebrates the universal reign of Israel's God.  In this Psalm all of Israel rejoices in the glorious victory they have received without their even having to fight a battle.  This Psalm joyfully celebrates the victory that their powerful God, Jehovah has achieved for them; it is filled with the praises of Israel's triumphant King!   
 
The greatest victory God achieved for the world came at the place some would consider His greatest defeat and tragedy - the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.  "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1:18). God's ways are not our ways; and though we may not understand it, the way He works through suffering and death achieves for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all (reference 2 Corinthians 4:17). "Sing to the LORD, you saints of His; praise His holy name" (Psalm 30:4).  May our lives be a pure and holy reflection of the victory we have in Christ, no matter what trials come our way, so that the whole world will see through us the glory of the risen Lord, and come to receive His salvation and exalt His name!  May the trumpet call of the Church be:  to resolve to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2)!  There is no higher, greater, or nobler pursuit then the privilege of knowing Christ intimately and sharing Him with the others.  May we make every effort from this day forward to use the time we have been given to make our relationship with the Lord our greatest priority - by spending each day in His Word and in prayer - and sharing Him with others, as we fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ and become bold witnesses to this lost and dying world.

Thank you for joining us for this journey.  I pray that during this season of prayer and fasting there were moments of deep revelation for your particular journey, words of comfort and encouragement for your situation, a growing desire to know God better, a deeper love for the Father and for the people around you, and a willingness to lay self and everything down that Jesus may be great and glorious in this earth.  May Christ be exalted, and you be blessed, as you continue on your journey with the Lord.  Oh, how He loves your humble and obedient heart; He always delights to show you more of Himself. May your pursuit of deepening intimacy with the Lord lead you to that "rarefied atmosphere of adoration" where His praise is continually on your lips, and your heart is filled with the Father's love, as you walk the way of holiness and lead others on to a higher standard of spiritual life. "Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!" (Revelation 7:12).
 
"Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples!
Shout to God with the voice of triumph!
For the LORD Most High is awesome;
He is a great King over all the earth.
He will subdue the peoples under us,
and the nations under our feet.
He will choose our inheritance for us,
the excellence of Jacob whom He loves.
God has gone up with a shout,
the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.
Sing praises to God, sing praises!
Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
For God is the King of all the earth;
sing praises with understanding.
God reigns over the nations;
God sits on His holy throne.
The princes of the people have gathered together,
the people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God;
He is greatly exalted." 
(Psalm 47:1-9) 
 
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"May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant
brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing His will, and may He work in us what is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." (Hebrews 13:20-21)
  
Thank you for traveling this journey together!  Stay tuned, there is more to come!

Blessings,
 
Traci A. Alexander
Trumpet and Torch Ministries
 

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