Week Five: Field Work Day 35: Sharpening April 30, 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-Five Devotions:

MORNING MEDITATION

AFTERNOON DEVOTION

EVENING PRAYER

MORNING MEDITATION

Glean the Word: Matthew 10:1-39

Glimpse of Glory: "As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' "(v.7)

We have been given a kingdom to steward and the spiritual tools necessary to equip and empower us for the work. The Lord has commissioned us to go into the world and make disciples, but before we can teach others we must first be taught. Our best preparation for the work of the kingdom is intimate communion with our King. We cannot represent Him in the best possible way if we do not know Him and understand His will. Jesus spent three years teaching His disciples, and chose from among them twelve apostles whom He would use to lay the foundation of the church. He then spent forty days after His resurrection opening their minds to the Scriptures, encouraging and equipping them for carrying on His work when He would no longer be with them in bodily form, and preparing them to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, who would empower and enable them for the ministry. The success of their work would depend on the time they spent with Him.

When we trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives we surrendered ourselves to be life-long learners of the kingdom of God. We have entrusted ourselves to the Master Teacher for His instruction and guidance for the rest of our lives. There is not a day that goes by that we should not learn something from our Lord. We have His Word to instruct us, His Holy Spirit indwelling us and guiding us into all truth, the fellowship of other believers to inspire, exhort and encourage us, and seasons of trial and tribulation to test and refine us. Into our hands has been placed the sword that will defeat the enemy and the salve that will heal the world, but it is important that we know how to properly apply the cure. May we, like the first disciples, give our priority attention to the ministry of the Word and prayer. May we be good pupil's in Christ's schoolhouse, willing to be still and listen and learn before we go out and speak. Let us pray and ask the Lord to open our hearts, our minds, and ears to receive His good instruction for our lives; and may we take good notes and learn from them so that on the day of examination we will pass the test. "On My account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them, and to the Gentiles. But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you" (vv. 19-20).
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AFTERNOON DEVOTION

Glean the Word: Hebrews 4:12-13

Gift of Grace: "For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." (v. 12)

It's been well said that we can't lead others where we haven't first been ourselves. God has given us His Word and His Holy Spirit to accomplish His work within us first before we can become a useful vessel for His kingdom's purposes. "Sanctify them by the truth; Your Word is truth" (John 17:17). The Lord uses His Word, much like a physician uses a scalpel, to penetrate and expose our hearts, and to cut out the tumors of sin and unbelief that are making us sick and weak and destroying our lives. The time we spend with the Lord in His Word is of utmost importance, for He uses it to do His transforming work in our lives. "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account" (Hebrews 4:13).

The spiritual tools we have been given for the field work of the kingdom must first be applied to us before they can be useful for any other. All that is flesh, self, sin and the world must come under the precision knife of our Great Physician. His sword alone has the power to penetrate into the deepest places of our heart and find hidden and concealed secrets; and it is vital that we submit to God's sacred surgery and allow Him to turn us completely inside out and expose all that is not of Him. Just as Jesus turned over the tables in the temple declaring that His Father's house is to be a house of prayer, so also, our Lord wants to turn over the tables of worldliness and carnality in our hearts, so that we, as His temple, can become a house of prayer. He wants to fit us for the work that we have been called to, and there is no higher calling than that of intercessory prayer. The Holy Spirit of God has set up residence inside believers to make us holy and to equip us to lay hold of the blessings of heaven for the world through prayer; but He must first make us humble, holy and obedient so we can become a proper channel for His grace to flow through us to the earth. He cannot fill a vessel that is already full; we must first be emptied before the filling can begin. When we submit to the spiritual discipline of fasting we are opting for elective surgery and placing ourselves willingly under the knife for God to do His necessary cutting and exposing work in our life. May we be willing to honestly address those areas in our life that He has been bringing to the surface during our time with Him in His Word and in prayer. Let us not use His Word to point the finger at the weaknesses and failings of other people in our life, but rather allow Him to prick our hearts and bring us to repentance and transform us more into the image of Christ. "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The LORD will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail" (Isaiah 58:9b-11).

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EVENING PRAYER

Glean the Word: Ephesians 6:17b-18

Fruit of Repentance: "Take...the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."

Evening prayer focus: Prayer for an awareness of the Spirit's presence and power in our lives and for God's Word to be in our hearts and upon our lips (click on the image below for our evening prayer).

"Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given so that I may fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should." (Ephesians 6:19-20)

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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