Abiding in Jesus isn’t something that comes automatically to any believer. It’s a lifestyle that involves discipline and effort.

We have to choose to give ourselves to our union with Him, to give Him first place where our attention is concerned. If we want to grow spiritually, if we want to walk in power and in fellowship with the Lord, we’ll have to spend the time it takes to know Him.

That’s not something we can do for a while and then forget about either. We must continue in it every day. For the moment we stop moving closer to Jesus, we always start drifting away.

You see, here in this natural world you’re surrounded by ungodliness. You live in a body that is totally natural. Unless you purposely counter that with daily prayer and time in the Word, your body and your mind will simply give in to the pressures around you and go the way of the world.

Right now, make a decision to give yourself to the things of God. Focus your attention on the Lord. Surround yourself with His Word. Listen to preaching and teaching tapes while you’re getting dressed, driving to work, preparing dinner, working on your car, exercising, cleaning house and when you go to bed. Listen to the Word of God anytime, anywhere!

Abide in Him today.

Scripture Reading:
John 15:1-11

Remember when you first got into the Word and were so excited about the things of God? Remember when you could hardly wait to read the next chapter in the Bible or listen to the latest teaching tape? There was only one word to describe you—hot! Your reborn spirit was on fire for God.

When Ken and I first heard the message of faith, we were like that. We were so on fire that nothing else in the world interested us. We had learned that we could trust God’s Word just like we could trust the word of a close friend, and we were hungry to find out everything He had promised us in His Word.

Back then, it seemed all I did was read God’s Word. I read faith books. I listened to tapes. I was dedicated. My total interest was the Word of God.

But slowly that changed. At first I didn’t even realize it was happening. Then the Holy Spirit went to work on me and showed me that I had grown lukewarm. I had let the fire die down. I still read the Word, but I had lost my enthusiasm.

Maybe you’ve had this same experience. If so, I want to tell you how to get the fire back. It worked for me and it will work for you.

God’s Word says to draw near to Him and He will draw near to you. In order to do that you will have to first drop the things that are stealing your time from reading the Word. Delight yourself in His Word. Become diligent again. If you will give your attention to the things of God, soon your desire for God will increase. Your desire will follow your attention. The more you attend to something, the more your desire is drawn to give attention to that thing.

I can show you that this is a natural principle. If you play golf, you’ll go for months at a time without even thinking about it. Then one day you’ll make time in your schedule to go to the course and play a round or two. The next day you may want to play again. Your desire gets stronger and stronger the more you play.

This same thing will happen in the spirit realm. Your soul’s desire will follow whatever you spend your time doing. Start building yourself up by praying in the spirit. Believe and act on everything God says to you. Before long that flicker that’s been wavering in your spirit will grow again into an all-consuming fire!

Scripture Reading:
Revelation 3:13-22

Liberty. If you could put the will of God into one word, that would be the word. God wants people to be free. Free from sin and sickness, poverty, oppression and every other curse.

That freedom is what Jesus came to provide. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor...to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised…” (Luke 4:18). That’s what He trained His disciples to do. And if you’re a born-again believer, that’s what He wants you to do too!

Some people say, “Well, I don’t know about that. That may not be God’s will for today.”

But listen, the Bible says God never changes. He hasn’t changed His will for the earth. He doesn’t do one thing awhile and then go do another thing for a while. Jesus’ life was a perfect picture of God’s will 2,000 years ago—and it still is! That’s why He left instructions for us to go and do the works that He did. That’s why He sent the Holy Spirit to empower us to do them.

Jesus still wants to do the will of the Father here on earth—but He does it through us. He has to work with us until we’re willing to lay down our traditions and let Him do His thing. That’s what the early Church did. They started out with a bang because they did as Jesus taught them. Everywhere they went people became free.

Let’s pray for the Church of today to begin to deliver the liberty of God to the world. It’s time to quit questioning the will of God and start carrying it out instead. He said the works that He did we would do also and even greater works (John 14:12). It’s time for us to take up where Jesus left off and set the captives free!

Scripture Reading:
Isaiah 61:1-11

If you’re going to grow in the kingdom of God, you’re going to do it just like a seed that’s been planted in the ground. How does a seed grow? All at once? No, it grows constantly—24 hours a day—a little all the time until it accomplishes what it was created to do.

Most of us don’t operate that way spiritually. We study and pray very hard for a few days and then quit. Then, when some disaster comes, we make a mad attempt to pray and stand on the Word, all the while realizing that, for some reason, we’re just not as strong as we ought to be.

There’s no such thing as an overnight success in the kingdom of God! Real strength, real growth comes as you consistently and constantly keep the Word before your eyes, in your ears, and in the midst of your heart. Not just when you want to or when you feel like it, but constantly, like the seed, a little all the time.

A man came up to me once and said, “Man, your ministry just took off overnight, didn’t it?”

“If it did,” I answered, “it was certainly the longest night I ever spent in my life!”

From his perspective my success did seem to spring up quickly. That’s because he didn’t see me during all those hours and weeks and months and years I spent in the Word of God. He didn’t see the daily process that lay behind that success. He just saw the results.

Make up your mind to begin that daily process of constant growth today. Determine to start putting the Word in your heart consistently. Every day a line here, a line there—a tape here, a tape there.

Begin to act as though that Word is true every hour of the day regardless of what comes or how you feel. Keep adding to your faith—meditating on it, confessing it, seven days a week.

Eventually, your faith will be bigger than you ever dreamed it could be.

Scripture Reading:
Luke 13:18-21