Week Five: Field Work Day 34: Securing April 29, 2016

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"Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of

unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground;

for it is time to seek the LORD, until He comes

and showers righteousness upon you."

(Hosea 10:12)

Day Thirty-Four Devotions:

MORNING MEDITATION

AFTERNOON DEVOTION

EVENING PRAYER

MORNING MEDITATION

Glean the Word: Matthew 12:22-32

Glimpse of Glory: "Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand." (v. 25).

Jesus knows our thoughts. He knows what we are thinking at any time. "...I am He who searches hearts and minds..." (Revelation 2:23b). Jesus healed the demon-possessed man so that he could talk and see. Jesus broke the power of Satan over the man's life and immediately he was made whole. The spirit that was destroying the man was removed and the man was set free, but the religious leaders determined that Jesus was working for the devil when He performed the miracle. The Scripture says that "Jesus knew their thoughts" (v. 25a). He knows what is in a man, and what He found in the Pharisees was pure evil, for they thought that Jesus was doing the work of Satan. "Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come" (v. 32).

Jesus has destroyed the power of Satan. The devil does not decide for us what we think. No one governs our thinking but ourselves, and every day the thoughts that we choose to entertain or dismiss determine whose kingdom we are serving - whether it be the kingdom of God or the kingdom of Satan in this world. When we tear others down we work against the kingdom of God which builds men up and makes them whole. The Pharisees spoke out of the overflow of their hearts; their words revealed the evil that was stored up there. They showed that they were against the Lord from the beginning. "He who is not with Me is against Me..." (v. 30a). This morning as we pray, let us use God's Word, which alone holds the power to build people up and bring healing and restoration to their lives. Every day we make choices that serve either the kingdom of God or Satan. Therefore, let us carefully consider the thoughts that we think and the words that we say, and ask ourselves if they are helping to build God's kingdom or putting roadblocks in the way of people coming to Christ. "...every city or household divided against itself will not stand" (v. 25b).
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AFTERNOON DEVOTION

Glean the Word: 2 Corinthians 10:3-6

Gift of Grace: "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (v. 5)

Our thought-life is the where the real spiritual battleground is. It is in the mind that the enemy wages his strongest, dirtiest and bloodiest battles. If he can control our thinking, then he can take us captive and lead us away from Christ. When we give the enemy a piece of our mind, we give him a piece of our mind - and if he can get us to relinquish even a fragment of our thought-life to his purposes than he can easily lead us astray. If we entertain even a little doubt or a dirty thought, the walls of resistance come down and the enemy is able to lay claim to that sacred ground which belongs to God. This is why it is essential that we guard our minds. The Lord has placed in our spiritual arsenal the helmet of salvation which we take up to remind us that Jesus is our Savior and that He is always with us to save us from the enemy.

When our mind is left unguarded we become susceptible to all kinds of influences and persuasions. The helmet of salvation is necessary to guard our head, our brain, and our mind, so that we can keep as our foremost thought the saving grace of Jesus Christ - this is the foundation of our faith. He is the one who rescues us and delivers us from the evil of this world. "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of the world rather than on Christ" (Colossians 2:8). Our life is controlled by the Spirit and we have been given the mind of Christ; therefore our thought-life should be taken up with heavenly things and not be captivated by the pollution and carnality of the world. This afternoon let us take time to praise God for delivering us from the power of sin, and freeing our minds to rest on heavenly things, so that we are not weighed down by worry or held captive by the past. May we learn to yield to the holy influences of the Holy Spirit each day so that our every thought is taken captive and made holy to the Lord. "Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things" (Colossians 3:2).

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EVENING PRAYER

Glean the Word: Ephesians 6:17a

Fruit of Repentance: "Take the helmet of salvation..."

Evening prayer focus: Prayer to protect our thought-life with the helmet of salvation (click on the image below for our evening prayer).

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will." (Romans 12:2)

This evening, draw close to the fire and experience the warmth, love and light of Christ as we come boldly before the Throne of Grace and join our hearts together in prayer:

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