Scripture reading: Genesis 39:7-20
Brethren, you have to know who you are. You have to have a Godly ambition. Don’t let sin take you! When the man Joseph was faced with sin, he was tempted – that woman had been looking at him long ago. He knew she had a crush on him. Yes, and he was tempted. When she grabbed him, he knew that was the moment of truth. In his mind was, “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against my God?” (Genesis 39:9). That means that he thought of it. Yes, he thought of just submitting to her. He would have a great time in the palace. But to resist her would be death, because she was going to lie about him anyhow. And so he said, “I would rather die.”
Brethren, God is asking you to give up your lives. Make your life an offering to God. Make up your mind that you would rather die than submit to sin. And more than that, God is calling a people to be His precious treasure, and I want to be the precious treasure. There are a lot of other things that I can be but I am saying, “Lord God, if so and so, if this action, if that action is standing on my rights over here, it is going to take away me being that precious treasure – I’d rather die. I’d rather die.”
I told you the story of how I made up my mind to die. I decided to die. I stopped eating because the youthful lust that was within me would have destroyed what God was doing to me, and I was at a crossroads just like Joseph. I said, “Let me die, my God.” I stopped eating for forty days. God sat down there and watched me. He was watching me to see if I would break down, but I was determined. Blood was coming through my mouth. I was coughing so hard I couldn’t hold myself down on the bed. I was just coughing and the blood was spattering out. I refused to drink water. Some of the willing workers, a band of women from the church, came in. One powerful woman held me down. She took a spoon with water and put it in my mouth. They also took a cornmeal poultice and put it on my chest. I couldn’t help myself. I was weak. And when they had gone, God came to me. He had a chart and was showing me how I was going up the hill. He took up the chart, then He put it down and said, “Turn back.” And I had to go back. But I put God to the test. However, God did not want me to die. One day He came to me and said, “You are healed.” As simple as that! He came in, showed me the same chart again and said, “This is the top of the hill.”
The place where I was staying at that time was a house up on a mountain. The same day that God came to me there was a knock at the door. My brother Frank came in saying, “I have been hunting all over for you! I couldn’t find you anywhere. I did not know where you were.” He kept asking and asking for me until he found me up on that mountain. God sent him to give me a bottle of cod liver oil and malt. Those were the first things I ate and they started to heal my body. My health began to come back.
I want you to understand that if you are in a condition where a naked woman could come in and take you, you are in a bad shape. You have to get to the point where that wouldn’t phase you, where that wouldn’t affect you. The only way you can get to such a point is if you allow Christ to come into your mind and control your body so that your body will not obey any other master but your mind and your spirit; and your spirit, the Holy Spirit!
(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, February 2007, pg. 42)
Thought for today: God is asking you to give up your life. Make your life an offering to God. Make up your mind that you would rather die than submit to sin.
Sonlight Devotional 