DEVOTIONAL BY BILLY GRAHAM – HOPE FOR EACH DAY

Walk in the Spirit

Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. GALATIANS 5:16

To walk means to place one foot in front of the other and to go forward one step at a time. If you stop doing this, you are no longer walking. You are standing still—or worse, going backwards. Walking always implies movement, progress, and direction.

This is what it means to walk with God. It means moving forward in step with Him, confident that the way He is leading is best.

The problem is that we are weak. We stumble or get diverted, or get weary and stop moving forward. But that is one reason why the Holy Spirit has been given to us. Galatians 5:16 could be paraphrased this way: “Walk by means of the Spirit.”

One of the highest commendations in the Bible is found in these words about Noah: “Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God” (Gen. 6:9). Could this be said of us?

DEVOTIONAL BY CHARLES STANLEY – ON HOLY GROUND

The Power Within

God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. – 1 Corinthians 1:27

God has equipped you for every good work. The presence of the Holy Spirit is His guarantee that no matter what you face, He is committed to providing the power and strength you need to accomplish the task, get through the hurt, and end up victorious in Him.

D. L. Moody had only a fifth-grade education, but he became one of the greatest evangelists of our time. He was never ordained to the ministry, yet God used him to lead thousands to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. The book More ThanConquerors tells us that “during the nineteenth century when mass media consisted of only printing presses and public oratory, more than 100 million people heard or read the gospel message of D. L. Moody. The evangelist spoke to at least 1.5 million in London during four months in 1875, long before radio and television.” God chooses the weak things to shame those who think they are strong (1 Cor. 1:27–29).

There is only one way God can be glorified in your life, and that is through your willingness to lay aside your ability, talent, and personal desires in order to follow Him in obedience. Sacrifice and submission lead to a life of tremendous hope, freedom, and eternal joy. D. L. Moody could do nothing apart from the Savior, and what he did through the power of the Holy Spirit can never be duplicated.

DEVOTIONAL FROM JESUS CALLING – SARAH YOUNG

Seek My Face

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” – MATTHEW 28:18

I want you to be all mine, filled with the Light of My Presence. I gave everything for you by living as a man, then dying for your sins and living again. Hold back nothing from Me. Bring your most secret thoughts into the Light of My Love. Anything you bring to Me I transform and cleanse from darkness. I know everything about you, far more than you know of yourself. But I restrain My yearning to “fix” you, waiting instead for you to come to Me for help. Imagine the divine restraint this requires, for I have all Power in heaven and on earth.

Seek My Face with a teachable spirit. Come into My Presence with thanksgiving, desiring to be transformed.

John 14:15-21

Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit

¹⁵ “If you love me, keep my commands. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be^[c] in you. ¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁹ Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. ²⁰ On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. ²¹ Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

Psalm 51:10-12

Create in me a pure heart, O God,     and renew a steadfast spirit within me. ¹¹ Do not cast me from your presence     or take your Holy Spirit from me. ¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation     and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

DEVOTIONAL FROM MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST – OSWALD CHAMBERS

The Life To Know Him

. . . tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high —Luke 24:49

The disciples had to tarry, staying in Jerusalem until the day of Pentecost, not only for their own preparation but because they had to wait until the Lord was actually glorified. And as soon as He was glorified, what happened? “Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear” (Acts 2:33). The statement in John 7:39 — “. . . for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified”— does not pertain to us. The Holy Spirit has been given; the Lord is glorified— our waiting is not dependent on the providence of God, but on our own spiritual fitness.

The Holy Spirit’s influence and power were at work before Pentecost, but He was not here. Once our Lord was glorified in His ascension, the Holy Spirit came into the world, and He has been here ever since. We have to receive the revealed truth that He is here. The attitude of receiving and welcoming the Holy Spirit into our lives is to be the continual attitude of a believer. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive reviving life from our ascended Lord.

It is not the baptism of the Holy Spirit that changes people, but the power of the ascended Christ coming into their lives through the Holy Spirit. We all too often separate things that the New Testament never separates. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not an experience apart from Jesus Christ— it is the evidence of the ascended Christ.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit does not make you think of time or eternity— it is one amazing glorious now. “This is eternal life, that they may know You . . .” (John 17:3). Begin to know Him now, and never finish.