My Utmost for His Highest for Tuesday, 3 October 2017 "The Sphere Of Ministration" by Oswald Chambers
This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting. (Mark 9:29)
“Why could not we cast him out?” The answer lies in a personal relationship to Jesus Christ. This kind can come forth by nothing but by concentration and redoubled concentration on Him. We can ever remain powerless, as were the disciples, by trying to do God’s work not in concentration on His power, but by ideas drawn from our own temperament. We slander God by our very eagerness to work for Him without knowing Him.
You are brought face to face with a difficult case and nothing happens externally, and yet you know that emancipation will be given because you are concentrated on Jesus Christ. This is your line of service — to see that there is nothing between Jesus and yourself. Is there? If there is, you must get through it, not by ignoring it in irritation, or by mounting up, but by facing it and getting through it into the presence of Jesus Christ, then that very thing, and all you have been through in connection with it, will glorify Jesus Christ in a way you will never know till you see Him face to face.
We must be able to mount up with wings as eagles; but we must also know how to come down. The power of the saint lies in the coming down and the living down. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me,” said Paul, and the things he referred to were mostly humiliating things. It is in our power to refuse to be humiliated and to say — “No, thank you, I much prefer to be on the mountain top with God.” Can I face things as they actually are in the light of the reality of Jesus Christ, or do things as they are efface altogether my faith in Him, and put me into a panic?
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
The Christian Church should not be a secret society of specialists, but a public manifestation of believers in Jesus. (Facing Reality, 34 R)
Bible in One Year: Isaiah 17-19; Ephesians 5:17-33
Isaiah 17:1 This is a prophecy about Dammesek:
“Dammesek will soon stop being a city;
it will become a heap of ruins.
2 The cities of ‘Aro‘er will be abandoned,
given over to flocks lying down undisturbed.
3 Efrayim will have no defenses,
Dammesek will cease to rule,
and Aram’s survivors will share the fate
of Isra’el’s finest sons,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
4 “When that day comes, Ya‘akov’s glory will wane,
and his full body grow thin,
5 as when the harvester collects the standing grain,
reaping the ears of grain with his arm;
yes, as when they glean the grain
in the Refa’im Valley.
6 Yet gleanings will be left,
as when beating an olive tree —
two or three olives at the very top,
four or five on its fruitful branches,”
says Adonai, the God of Isra’el.
7 On that day, a person will heed his Maker
and turn his eyes toward the Holy One of Isra’el.
8 He will pay no heed to the altars
made with his own hands,
he will not turn toward what his fingers made,
the sacred poles and standing-stones for sun-worship.
9 When that day comes, his strong cities,
which others abandoned when Isra’el advanced,
will be like abandoned woods and forests;
they will be laid waste.
10 For you have forgotten the God who saved you,
failed to remember the Rock of your strength;
so you plant pagan-style gardens
and set out vine-cuttings for a foreign god.
11 Though you make them grow on the day you plant them,
and in the morning your seedlings flower;
the crop will vanish the day disease comes,
a day of incurable pain.
12 Oh, the terror-stricken uproar of many peoples,
roaring like the roar of the seas,
and the rushing about of nations,
rushing and surging like wild, wild waters!
13 Yes, the nations will roar like the mighty ocean,
but he will rebuke them, and far will they flee,
driven like chaff by a mountain wind,
like whirling dust in advance of the storm.
14 As evening falls, you can see terror;
before sunrise, they have ceased to be.
This is the lot of those who plunder us,
the fate of those who prey on us.
18:1 Woe to the land of whirring wings
beyond the rivers of Ethiopia;
2 they send ambassadors by sea,
across the water in papyrus-reed boats!
Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and bronzed,
to a people feared far and near,
to a strong and conquering nation
whose land is divided by rivers!
3 All you inhabitants of the world,
you who live on the earth:
when a banner is hoisted on the mountains, look!
When the shofar is blown, listen!
4 For Adonai has said this to me:
“I will look on from my place and do nothing,
like heat shimmering in the sun,
like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
5 For before the harvest, when the flowering is over,
and the bud becomes a ripening grape,
he will cut off the branches with pruning-knives,
lop off the twigs and take them away.
6 They will all be left to the vultures in the mountains
and to the wild animals in the fields;
the vultures will feed on them in summer,
and the wild animals of the fields in winter.
7 At that time tribute will be brought
to Adonai-Tzva’ot
from a nation tall and bronzed,
from a people feared far and near,
from a strong and conquering nation
whose land is divided by rivers,
to the place where the name of Adonai-Tzva’ot
lives, Mount Tziyon.
19:1 This is a prophecy about Egypt:
Look! Adonai is riding a swift cloud,
on his way to Egypt.
Before him Egypt’s idols tremble,
Egypt’s courage melts within them.
2 “I will incite Egypt against Egypt,
brother will fight against brother,
friend against friend, city against city,
kingdom against kingdom.
3 The courage of Egypt will ebb away within it,
I will reduce its counsel to confusion.
They will consult idols and mediums,
ghosts and spirits.
4 I will hand over the Egyptians to a cruel master.
A harsh king will rule them,”
says the Lord, Adonai-Tzva’ot.
5 The water will ebb from the sea,
the river will be drained dry.
6 The rivers will become foul,
the canals of Egypt’s Nile will dwindle and dry up,
the reeds and rushes will wither.
7 The river-plants on the banks of the Nile
and everything sown near the Nile
will dry up, blow away and be no more.
8 Fishermen too will lament,
all who cast hooks in the Nile will mourn,
those who spread nets on the water lose heart.
9 The linen-workers will be in despair,
along with the weavers of white cotton;
10 the spinners will be crushed,
the hired workers dejected.
11 The princes of Tzo‘an are utter fools,
Pharaoh’s wisest counselors give stupid advice.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I’m a sage, descended from kings of old.”
12 Where are they, then, those sages of yours?
Let them tell you, so all can know
what Adonai-Tzva’ot has planned against Egypt!
13 The princes of Tzo‘an have been fooled,
the princes of Nof have been duped,
Egypt’s clan chiefs have led her astray.
14 Adonai has mixed up their minds
with a spirit that distorts judgment,
so they make Egypt stagger in whatever she does,
like a drunk staggering in his vomit.
15 Nobody in Egypt
will find work to do —
neither head nor tail,
neither [tall] palm frond nor [lowly] reed.
16 On that day Egypt will be like women trembling with fear, because Adonai-Tzva’ot is shaking his fist at them. 17 Just mentioning the land of Y’hudah to the Egyptians will throw them into panic; they will be afraid because of what Adonai-Tzva’ot has planned for them.
18 On that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Kena‘an and swear loyalty to Adonai-Tzva’ot; one of them will be called the City of Destruction.*
19 On that day there will be an altar to Adonai in the middle of the land of Egypt, as well as a standing-stone for Adonai at its border. 20 It will be a sign and witness to Adonai-Tzva’ot in the land of Egypt; so that when they cry out to Adonai for help because of the oppressors, he will send them a savior to defend and rescue them.
21 Adonai will make himself known to Egypt;
on that day, the Egyptians will know Adonai.
They will worship him with sacrifices and offerings,
they will make vows to Adonai and keep them.
22 Yet Adonai will strike Egypt, both striking and healing,
so they will return to Adonai.
He will listen to their prayers,
and he will heal them.
23 On that day there will be a highway
from Egypt to Ashur.
Ashur will come to Egypt and Egypt to Ashur,
and Egypt will worship with Ashur.
24 On that day Isra’el will be a third partner
with Egypt and Ashur, a blessing here on earth;
25 for Adonai-Tzva’ot has blessed him:
“Blessed be Egypt my people,
Ashur the work of my hands
and Isra’el my heritage.”
Ephesians 5:17 So don’t be foolish, but try to understand what the will of the Lord is.
18 Don’t get drunk with wine, because it makes you lose control. Instead, keep on being filled with the Spirit — 19 sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to each other; sing to the Lord and make music in your heart to him; 20 always give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.
21 Submit to one another in fear of the Messiah. 22 Wives should submit to their husbands as they do to the Lord; 23 because the husband is head of the wife, just as the Messiah, as head of the Messianic Community, is himself the one who keeps the body safe. 24 Just as the Messianic Community submits to the Messiah, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 As for husbands, love your wives, just as the Messiah loved the Messianic Community, indeed, gave himself up on its behalf, 26 in order to set it apart for God, making it clean through immersion in the mikveh, so to speak, 27 in order to present the Messianic Community to himself as a bride to be proud of, without a spot, wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without defect. 28 This is how husbands ought to love their wives — like their own bodies; for the man who loves his wife is loving himself. 29 Why, no one ever hated his own flesh! On the contrary, he feeds it well and takes care of it, just as the Messiah does the Messianic Community, 30 because we are parts of his Body. 31 “Therefore a man will leave his father and mother and remain with his wife, and the two will become one.”[Ephesians 5:31 Genesis 2:24] 32 There is profound truth hidden here, which I say concerns the Messiah and the Messianic Community. 33 However, the text also applies to each of you individually: let each man love his wife as he does himself, and see that the wife respects her husband.
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2017 Oswald Chambers Wall Calendar
Commemorating the 100th anniversary of Oswald Chambers's death, this calendar offers a window of insight into his servant-hearted life through photos, biographical information, and meaningful quotes.
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