CONTENTS
1. Come to Jesus Daily devotional- Monday – Be lifted as you look up like Stephen
- Tuesday – Be lifted by listening to the heart
- Wednesday – Be lifted by listening
- Thursday – Be lifted by sleeping in God’s presence
- Friday – Be lifted by praying God’s word
You can listen to the message at: Link for audio content
1. COME TO JESUS DAILY DEVOTIONAL
One of our goals as a church is to spend at least 20 minutes every day in prayer and worship out of the bible. I hope you find this devotional helpful toward that end.
This series, LIFT…
…is different to our usual practice for working through a book of the bible. I felt thought that, for this season, it would be refreshing to seek God for what He wants to say and to simply share that.
I trust that such an approach will help remind all of us to be prophetic - to listen to what God wants to say as a lifestyle.
These daily studies, likewise, are from my, and other church member’s devotions. I will also include devotionals derived from the various contributions that you share, as a church, in various settings.
Matt Beaney June 2019
MONDAY – BE LIFTED AS YOU LOOK UP LIKE STEPHEN
In the difficulties of life we always have a choice: will we look up or look down? Will we look up to God in faith, or look down in fear or self-reliance? Stephen had good reason for doubting or being distracted from God. He had been doing God’s will, however, he was arrested and put on trial. When asked to defend himself, Stephen gives an account of God’s working in Jewish history which ends with him confronting his accusers of their rebellion to God (Acts 7:51-53).
We might expect God to step in and save this courageous man. However, as with Jesus, his opponents are given the freedom to kill him! As his death approaches, we read,
‘But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”’ (Acts 7:55-56)
Anyone who is truly filled with the Holy Spirit will be enabled to ‘look up’ and see the glory of Jesus. We may not have a vision like Stephen, but we will have the eyes of faith to see Jesus; to know that He rules, He’s with us, We are in His hands.
RESPONSE
We need to ‘look up like Stephen’. We need the Spirit’s grace to enable us to ‘see Jesus’ in all the circumstances of our lives. Meditate and pray out of the following text - pray that you would be such a man or woman.
Acts 6:3-5 Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word…They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.
TUESDAY – BE LIFTED BY LISTENING TO THE HEART
After I became a Christian on 9th October 1991, I had the experience of immense joy, but also inner conflict; I put my faith in Jesus as my Saviour, I had asked Him to be my Lord, but, I was still hanging on to things that belonged to my past. My heart was desiring to love Jesus, but my ‘flesh’ still wanted to go its own way. The art of living the Christian life is to listen to the heart - the heart, that, by the Spirit, has been renewed. David wrote,
Psalm 27:8 My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, Lord, I will seek.
The Christian’s heart speaks
The Christian’s heart has been renewed and it desires to love Jesus.
Read Romans 8:14-15
Christians have become children of God. This transformation is shown by a life that is ‘led by the Spirit’ – we have a new Spirit-given desire for holiness, and an attitude to God which cries out “Abba Father” – We now love God. Like David in this Psalm, all true Christians will say “My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”
RESPONSE
How does God want you to respond to this word? There are two main ways:
Firstly, a new commitment to holiness. Do you need to listen to your heart? Or, another way of putting it, keep in step with the Spirit. If this is you, you might want to meditate and pray out of Galatians 5:25
Secondly, some of us (and this is how I need to respond) need to give more time to seeking God in worship. If this is you, you might want to get your diary out, and put in an ‘appointment with God’ each day for this purpose.
WEDNESDAY – BE LIFTED BY LISTENING
BY JONNY EVANS
When I joined the church in Putney, I had a strong conviction that God was calling me to live in Roehampton. God even provided us with a property right in the middle of the estate. On the morning of our wedding, a friend prophesied over Shannon and I from Isaiah 35, during which he shared a prophetic picture of our block of flats exploding into life:
‘The desert and the parched land will be glad, the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom, it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.’
However, through a number of disappointments, this vision did not come about as I’d assumed it would. I spent two-years feeling disappointed with God for what He had not done.
God is speaking, if we will listen
One day, I was walking and praying on the estate, I asked God a question that, looking back, I am not sure I really asked properly before: “God what do you want me to do here in Roehampton?” The answer popped into my head immediately:
“I want you to learn to pray for, and love, this community, before you bring others in to do the same. My words for you before are true, but they are for you right now, and only you, not for others.”
I felt foolish. God had been speaking, but I’d been presumptuous.
RESPONSE
Do you feel like God is speaking to you, but you’re not seeing the result of what you think He is saying? Our impressions and feelings are never fool-proof, but I would encourage you to keep asking, and really listening, believing His promise,
“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21)
THURSDAY – BE LIFTED BY SLEEPING IN GOD’S PRESENCE
INSPIRED BY A READING FROM PHIL MASH
1 Samuel 3:3-4 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, “Here I am.”
Recently, in one of our Community Groups, someone shared about hearing God’s voice. He shared about how he had been struck by the fact that Samuel slept in the place where the ark was. He said, and I paraphrase, “Samuel slept in the presence of God and so it’s not surprising that he heard His voice and if we want to hear God’s voice we need to live in God’s presence.” One could say a lot on how to hear God’s voice but, foundationally, one must believe that God is with us and is interested in speaking. This episode with Samuel teaches us that God wants to speak to us. We may be the ‘prophet’ to and through whom God speaks, or we may hear God by listening to the prophet or teacher, but God speaks to all of us.
God speaks to those who sleep in His presence
I love this image of God speaking to Samuel whilst he’s ‘laying down’. He’s not having a worship marathon…He’s sleeping. Christians know that God has come to them whilst they were asleep. As Paul says, ‘You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.’ (Rom. 5:6)
RESPONSE
God spoke to us about salvation whilst we were sleeping and, those who know His grace know that he continues to come to us, to speak to us, because He is a God of grace.
Are you ‘sleeping’ in God’s presence? Do you know that He has loved and saved you without your efforts? If so, be confident that He wants an ongoing relationship with you.
FRIDAY – BE LIFTED BY PRAYING GOD’S WORD
BY JEM HOWE
Begin by reading Psalm 147
Prayer, and how to pray, is a constant challenge to me. There are times when my prayer–life is great! I’m inspired and have a lot to pray about. But there are times when I can become stuck. It just feels like I am saying the same words over and over again. Why should I bother?
Just recently, I have been reading this psalm and using it to help shape my prayers - stopping and thinking about the sentences and what they mean. Letting them shape my view of and response to God.
‘Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him!’ (Psalm 147:1)
‘Praise the Lord' - just take a moment to think of what this means. what does it mean to praise? What, or who am I praising? The Lord - the one true God, the one who created the heavens and the earth, the one who holds time in his hands.
‘It is good to sing to God’ - it is pleasant for me and it is right that I do so - because He deserves it. Maybe I can sing a song I know, maybe I can sing a new song?
All this from just one verse! Just one sentence.
RESPONSE
All of the Bible, and the Psalms in particular, can be such an inspiration to our prayer–life. Pick a psalm this week and spend time reading it, going over it, taking time to stop and think about what it expresses to God, what is it requesting from God. Jot down your thoughts. Use this to help you pray. Maybe even encourage someone else with your thoughts and reflections.
2. COMMUNITY GROUP/FAMILY STUDY
BE LIFTED AS YOU LOOK UP LIKE STEPHEN
Opener – What difficulties have helped to deepen your faith?
In the difficulties of life we always have a choice: will we look up or look down? Will we look up to God in faith, or look down in fear or self-reliance? Stephen had good reason for doubting or being distracted from God. He had been doing God’s will, however, he was arrested and put on trial. We might expect God to step in and save this courageous man. However, as with Jesus, his opponents are given the freedom to kill him!
Discuss together
- What did God speak to you about from Sunday’s message?
- Why and for what was Stephen chosen? What is the result? (Acts 6:3-7)
- What does God’s ‘grace and power’ enable Stephen to do? What might one expect to be the results, but what actually happens? (Acts 6:8-10)
- What, do you think, enabled Stephen to be so composed as we read in Acts 6:15?
- What does the Holy Spirit enable Stephen to do? (Acts 7:55-60)
- What, in your experience, and from scripture, will the Holy Spirit enable us to ‘look up and see’ about Jesus? How does the Spirit’s revelation help us in the troubles of life?
- Over to you: What has God been speaking to you about this week, and how is this helping you?
- Pray and plan: Our next hospitality week is coming up on the 1st of July. What are you planning to do as a whole group or smaller groups?
- Begin to discuss the following note on Prayer/fasting/Encounter.
We have our week of prayer and fasting leading up to our Encounter evening coming up. How will you pray and fast?
Why fast? Fasting is going without something in order to make time and help us to focus on spending time with God.
Some suggestions on how to fast:
- The traditional fast: You could go the whole or some of the week with only water.
- Fasting certain foods: One could not eat certain foods (such as meat) so as to make more time for God.
- Entertainment: refraining from watching or listening to things.
- Fasting social media: using the time you might usually use to engage in social media in order to engage in prayer.
- Be wise: if healthy, I encourage you to stretch yourself- you can do more than you think! If you have health concerns, you should avoid fasting that’s related to food, but do fast in other ways.
- Be accountable: It’s helpful to share what you are going to fast with others so that you can encourage one-another in what is a very difficult thing to do.
An extract from Richard Wagner, Christianity for Dummies.
Fasting
The focus of fasting should not be on the lack of food.
Fasting from food can be done for a variety of purposes, either physical or spiritual. So abstaining from food alone doesn’t constitute a Christian fast. Instead, a Christian fast is accompanied by a special focus on prayer during the fast, often substituting the time you’d spend eating with prayer.
Fasting provides a real-life illustration of dependency.
Although modern man thrives on the idea of being independent, beholden to no one, fasting helps you put the facts in the proper perspective. It’s easy to believe in your independence with a full stomach, but when you start to feel hunger pains in your belly after missing a meal or two, you awaken to your body’s dependency on food to survive. Fasting reveals a physical reliance on food that points to the ultimate dependency — the fact that you’re dependent on God for things far more important than food.
Fasting fosters concentration on God and his will.
Oswald Chambers once said that fasting means “concentration,” because when you’re fasting, you have a heightened sense of attentiveness. Food or any physical sensation can satisfy, fill you up, and dull your senses and spiritual ears. In contrast, a hungry stomach makes you more aware and alert to what God is trying to say to you.
Fasting offers a way to impose self-control in your life.
It gives you a “splash in the face” to awaken you to the need for the personal strength of will that you need to grow spiritually. When you restrain yourself physically, you’ll find it easier to apply this same self-discipline in your spiritual life.
One last thing — everyone can participate. Not everyone may be able to fast from food (pregnant women and diabetics for example), but everyone can give up something in order to focus on God (e.g. unplugging the television for 24 hours could also be an effective way of joining the fast)!
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