Sonlight Devotional

[Printable version]

Scripture reading: Psalm 24

We are children of the Almighty God. Can you understand that? We are children of the Almighty God and, as children of the Almighty God, we really have no problem, except of course, ourselves. If we can get rid of this self and just trust God, we will become overcomers. An overcomer is not someone who just sits and puts his feet up and says, “I’ve got it all made.” But he is someone who overcomes the problems that other men couldn’t overcome. And the chief key to our overcoming is obedience to the Spirit of the Living God.

But now, how are you going to obey Someone Who you can’t hear? Amen. How are you going to hear Someone Who you can’t see? God Almighty planted within us His Spirit so that what you must obey is the Spirit within. That is the reason why you don’t have a pastor or a bishop, because you would have to obey the bishop. But then, if you obey the Spirit within you, you will do what God wants you to do and you will feel good about it. You see, when you obey the Spirit of the living God, you feel free inside. Sometimes it is hard, it is not something that you want to do, but you obey God because God is speaking inside of you.

Now, let’s talk about this Almighty God a little bit. He is able to control your spirit, to control your mind, to control your body. Let’s look at the chain of command: Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, my spirit, my soul (which means my mind, my emotions, my will, and my desires), and my body.

Many times I don’t desire what God desires. I don’t have the will that God has. My emotions are leading me a certain way and my mind is not always stayed on God (Isaiah 26:3). But then, I notice that when you come to service, you start by singing. The Scripture speaks about opening up the doors of our hearts. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me (Revelation 3:20). There is a knocking and sometimes the song service opens the door. You know, we start to sing Unto Thee O Lord, Do I Lift up My Soul and, as you sing that, your heart begins to open to Jesus. He is not waiting, He is pouring in. God is pouring in and by the time you sing it a few times, you feel lifted up in the Spirit. So God is saying to you that you have to practice opening your heart to God.

You see, what happened is that God never promised to open your heart. He is always saying, Lift up your heads, O ye gates (Psalm 24:7). I am talking to my gate now. Lift up your heads. It is like approaching the gate and the gate just opening for us. Somebody gave a command to the gate, “Gate open!” and the gate opened. This is what God is saying. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in (Psalm 24:7). This everlasting door is no more than your soul. He is talking about your mind opening up. He said of the bride, …the bride hath made herself ready (Revelation 19:7). So while we are feeling small before God, we should realize that we have the key to the door, the gates and the bars and the Almighty God will come in.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, July 2011, pg. 12-15)

Thought for today: God never promised to open your heart but He has given you the power to do so.