Devotionals

Proverbs 1:10, NIV
“My Son, if sinners entice you, do not give in to them”

I try and keep myself abreast of the national and international news. I find that almost every day there are things happening in the world which provide powerful illustrations, backing up the truth of the Word of God. One British Sunday Newspaper used to advertise itself by saying ‘All of human life is there’. And that is a very accurate description of what you see in the daily media reports via the press, the internet and TV.

Over the past months I have been impacted by the tragedies that can happen to so many young people, as they grow through their teenage years, finding out the hard way that not all of human life is as attractive or as worthwhile as they first thought. In the lives of so many we are seeing the generational consequence of family disintegration, lack of parental discipline and dispensing with all moral guidelines of godly living. The concept of right and wrong seems to have virtually disappeared from education and training.

When one generation ceases to trust the God they were brought up to believe in, the next generation ceases to teach any form of morality to their children. The end result is that the third generation is like a rudderless ship trying to find its own way on the high seas of life, without any respect for authority or desire to learn from the experience of others. Instead of the previous generation having a godly and disciplined influence on today’s children and youth, this third generation is only willing to learn from themselves – they think they know best and will not listen to the advice or influence of others . Rebellion has become their modus operandi.

I wept this morning for a lost generation, as the face of an eleven year old girl, Britain’s youngest Mum, stared at me out of the newspaper. She had sex while drunk at a party, doing what all the others were doing. And I grieved with the parents of a teenage girl whose body had just been found in a field. Then I read a sober report telling of the damage teenagers could be doing to their brains when they get together and ‘binge-drink’. The legacy of rebellion is not pretty.

What we are seeing is a whole generation of youth being led, through peer pressure, to do what everyone else is doing, without restraint or thought of consequence. Many are being enticed to join in the supposed fun and live the rebellious dream. For many it will be too late when they find out the broken and evil reality that lies behind the enticements of the enemy. If only the advice of today’s Scripture had become their rule for life from an early age.

The enemy constantly entices people to follow him. He uses the pressure of others to lead us into things that we should have said no to. Let’s not just look at the things I’ve written about here, however, and shake our heads in disgust, but let’s take a long hard look at ourselves and see where we have succumbed to the enticements of others. Now is the time to come back to God and put our own house in order.

Prayer: I am sorry, Lord, for the times in my own life when I have been enticed into doing wrong things. Please forgive me for listening to the voice of the enemy and not listening to You. Help me, Lord, not to fall into this trap again – show me when I’m being enticed and give me the courage to say ‘No’. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Life According to the Book – Teaching CD

Ellel 365 – Online Training School

Isaiah 29:16, NIV
“You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, “He did not make me”? Can the pot say of the potter, “He knows nothing”? “

Imagine this scene! A famous artist spends weeks, probably months, carefully constructing with his brushes a beautiful painting on a canvas. Little by little the image takes shape, the colours of the background and then the detail of the foreground emerge. Then, when it is finished, and the picture is finally unveiled for all to see, people are amazed at its beauty. Who gets the praise? The picture or the artist?

What a stupid question, you may well say! The artist created the painting, he gets the accolades from all the critics who marvel at his workmanship. No-one congratulates the painting on creating itself. All the praise, rightfully, goes to the artist for what he has done. Isaiah poses a similar situation in respect of a pot having been made by a potter. The vessel cannot say to the potter that you did not make me. Or tell the potter, “You know nothing”!

But the arrogance of man is such that instead of science being seen for what it is – an amazing journey of discovery of the incredible world that God has made – the underlying belief of many scientists, especially those who influence education and the media, is that the world made itself without the aid of a creator! I’ve not noticed any of these famous names walking into an art gallery and congratulating a painting on having painted itself or telling a pot how well it made itself.

I do find it hard to understand how such wise men, who wouldn’t be so stupid as to say such things to a painting or a pot, are so blinded to the fact that that is exactly what they are saying to the universe and everything in it. I believe that God shakes his head in disbelief at the supreme arrogance and ignorance of otherwise clever men and women, who are like a pot saying to the potter, “You know nothing!”

Prayer: Lord, I ask that you will open the eyes of men and women to recognise who you are, so that when they see the amazing pictures you have created for us to enjoy, they will once again worship the Artist and not just praise His paintings. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Ellel 365 – Online Training School

Healing through Deliverance – Book by Peter Horrobin

Proverbs 16:25, NIV
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”

Rabbits have been eating all the best plants in our garden. I love seeing the rabbits, but they are doing a lot of damage. So I went on-line the other day to look for a rabbit trap. I found exactly what I wanted – a trap that would lure the rabbit into a small cage, then a gate would spring into place trapping the rabbit inside. On the same website I saw a modern mouse trap. In this particular trap, some attractively smelling bait is used to lure the mouse into a dark hole. The bait is positioned on a spike between two electrified points and as the mouse gets hold of the bait with its mouth a powerful electric shock kills the creature instantly.

Both the mouse and the rabbit trap depend on the fact that neither animal has any idea what’s going to happen next. All they are doing is following their instinct to look for food – and unfortunately for them, they are looking in a dangerous place. If they knew what the end would be, they wouldn’t dare venture into such dangerous territory.

Proverbs 3:7 warns us not to be wise in our own eyes, thinking that we know what we’re doing and don’t need to take advice from others, and especially from God and His Word. The problem with human wisdom, that is separated from the wisdom of God, is that all too often we get it so very wrong. The enemy has had thousands of years of practice learning how to deceive human beings into his traps. If you’ve never read ‘The Screwtape Letters’ by C.S.Lewis, please get hold of a copy and read it carefully. It is an amazing masterpiece of very remarkable writing, which exposes the ways in which Satan lures mankind into his carefully engineered ‘people-trap’.

Being in the ministry of healing and discipleship has, sadly, given me many, many opportunities of hearing the stories, from men and women all over the world, of how they were lured into wrong relationships, or to put their money into crooked business deals, or into occult practices or dozens of other different possibilities. This is exactly how Satan works. He attracts us with something that seems good at the time, but which, in reality, is very bad. We don’t think carefully through what we’re doing, believing things are OK and suddenly we discover that our own ideas have let us down badly. Then Satan springs the trap.

May I urge you to always prayerfully consider the consequences of all the choices you make. I read recently the tragic story of a young woman who thought drugs were great ‘for kicks’. She knew what she was doing, she would say. But once she had tasted the soft drugs, she wanted the harder ones, then she started injecting, and today all her mother can do is put flowers on her grave. What seems right can, literally, end in death. But the death that is more to be feared than physical death, is that which comes when people are trapped by Satan for eternity. And that should be of the greatest concern to each one of us.

Prayer: Help me, Lord, not to think that my wisdom is greater than yours and as a result follow pathways that, as the writer of this proverb, indicates, will end in death. Today, I choose to follow You, Lord Jesus. I am so grateful that You are the way, the truth and the life. Amen.

Ellel 365 – Online Training School

Living the Life – Book by Peter Horrobin

Job 9:10, NIV
“He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.”

How big is God? How many are His promises to us? How enduring is His love and mercy? How great is His Kingdom? Today, the word ‘billion’ gets bandied about almost in a casual manner, but a billion, which is 1,000,000,000, is a difficult number for most of us to comprehend. For example: A billion seconds ago, it was 1978. A billion minutes ago, Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee (1.04 billion minutes to be more exact). A billion hours ago, our ancestors were living in the Stone Age. During the first months of this year, a billion pounds evidently only lasted the British government for 13 hours and 12 minutes!

If we think about God, God owns billions – He owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10). God loves billions of people – He is not willing that any should perish but that all should have everlasting life (2 Peter 3:9). God is almighty – He created billions of people, but He promised Abraham that His descendants would be (billions) greater than the grains of sand on the seashore (Genesis 22:17). He created billions of stars and calls each of them by name (Psalm 147:4). Job 38:7 says that the stars in the heavens are singing. Did you know that now, electronically, the sound of this can be captured – The Bible is really true! And God Himself rejoices over us with singing (Zephaniah 3:17).

Although God is truly the God of billions, He is also personal to me and to you. Jesus says in John 10:4, ‘I speak to my sheep (although there are billions of them!) by name. My sheep know and recognise my voice; they will never follow a stranger’. Isn’t it amazing that Almighty God wants to have an intimate relationship with you and me today, and He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7)?

Prayer: Father, help me today to understand afresh Your greatness, Your mightiness and Your sovereignty, and that while You are the God of the billions, You are also my Father and my God, and You love me personally and speak to me by name. Please help me to walk with You and talk with You today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Ellel 365 – Online Training School

NETS Training Programme

2 Samuel 5:17, NIV
‘When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed King over Israel, they went up in full force to search for him.’

David had been anointed to be the future King by Samuel when he was not much more than a boy. The years had passed and now the position of Kingly authority, which Samuel had set him apart for, was now his. Judah and Israel had been united under his leadership and he had been installed as king and anointed again into his God-prepared office. He was now in charge, with all the authority of God behind him to rule and reign in the land.

What a great moment that must have been for David, as he realised that everything he had been made for was actually happening. The problem, however, with getting into the place of God’s appointing and anointing is that you are now at your most dangerous to the enemy! The Philistines had not forgotten that King David was the one who had defeated Goliath and, as a result, all the Philistine armies were defeated also. So the moment news of David being established on the throne reached the Philistines, they didn’t send him a gift and a congratulatory note, but, instead, prepared their armies to go and search for him. They went in full force to try and deal David a fatal blow.

How the Philistines behaved in this instance, is a picture of how the spiritual enemies of God’s people have always behaved. Satan hates it when believers get themselves into the place of their calling and destiny. For then they are at their most dangerous to the enemy strongholds. Satan fears what damage they may do to his kingdom. So he works out a strategy to attack us and find those places of vulnerability in our spiritual defences.

As you read the rest of this story you see how David didn’t act on his own understanding, but enquired of the Lord what he should do and, as a result, he defeated the Philistines twice in quick succession. The key lesson for us from David’s experience is that we must always enquire of the Lord about what we should do – in all and every circumstance. His wisdom is such that even if the enemy thinks he has a means of destroying what God is doing through you, God always has a strategy that will give you victory. The key is simple, take time to listen to God and then act faithfully in obedience. The Philistines were defeated when David did this and David’s victory is a great encouragement to us to hold our ground when we are under threat of attack, knowing that God wants to give us the victory.

Prayer: Help me, Lord, when the enemy attacks, to always seek your face and ask for your help. I need to know your strategy for dealing with the enemy so that I will remain in my place as a loyal soldier of the King of Kings. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Ellel 365 – Online Training School

Forgiveness, God’s Master Key – Book by Peter Horrobin

Joshua 24:14-15, NIV
“Now fear the Lord and serve him with faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Joshua gave the people of God three choices – you can either vote for the gods of Egypt, the gods of the Amorites or the Lord! No, it wasn’t an election, but the people were being challenged by their leader to make a choice and there were three obvious choices they could make. ‘Who are you going to serve?’ Joshua asked. He also made it very clear that as their leader, there was no doubting the choice he was making – he, and all his household, were going to serve the Lord.

When a nation elects a political party to govern their country, they have to live with the consequences of their choice. And similarly, when we choose which ‘god or gods’ we are going to serve, we have to live with the consequences of that choice also. The election of a political party only gives them power for a relatively short period of time. But when we choose the gods that we are going to serve, the consequences can go beyond the realms of time and affect our eternal destiny as well.

So, as the British people, right now, are going through the process of deciding who they are going to vote for at a General Election, I’d like to encourage you to be thinking about something far more important – the choices you make which can affect eternity as well as time. The gods of Egypt and the gods of the Amorites had been proven to be false gods, but the problem with false gods is that they are attractive, because they can be made to fit in with whatever lifestyle or morality you would like them to have. It’s easy to follow a god which lets you do whatever you like, without reference to whether or not that is either good for you or right. False gods always distort the truth and sell you a lie.

The Lord is not a false god, He is the living God whose love and laws provide the boundaries of safety for the whole of mankind. If we choose to follow and serve Him, we may sometimes find that His Word says ‘No’ to things our flesh would want to say ‘Yes’ to. But serving false gods can be a bit like voting for a god who encourages us to say ‘Yes’ to the things that will destroy us from the inside out and eventually rob us of life itself.

It’s not only time to seek the Lord, it’s time that those who know and love Him should be voting with their feet and turning away from the gods of this world and keeping their focus on the Lord – and Him alone! His is the very best government for our lives, under which we will be secure for time and eternity.

Prayer: Thank you Lord God that You are totally trustworthy and that Your love and Your laws provide all those who choose to follow you with security for time and eternity. I choose, this day, to love and serve the Lord! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Ellel 365 – Online Training School

Forgiveness, God’s Master Key – Book by Peter Horrobin

Acts 2:18-21, NIV
Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

God has flicked his little finger and the world has been thrown into chaos! As I write these words the United Kingdom and much of Europe is entering its third day as a ‘no-fly zone’. A minor volcano has erupted in Iceland and thrown millions of tons of fine ash into the atmosphere. This silica ash turns to liquid glass in the heat of a jet engine, seizing the engine and making it incredibly dangerous for jet aeroplanes. No airline would knowingly take a plane through such a cloud. The effects would be catastrophic.

So the world – or, at least, Northern Europe which is covered by this almost invisible cloud of fine ash – has been brought to a humiliating stand-still, costing the airlines alone over 150 million pounds per day. As the Daily Mail said, ‘Even a modest rumbling in the underworld is enough to throw a gigantic spanner into the works of modern life!’ Mount Laki, a much larger volcano in Iceland erupted in 1783. According to a recent Cambridge University study, the after effects of this eruption killed over 10,000 people in England alone. If Laki were to erupt today, flying would be banned in the whole of the Northern Hemisphere, not just for a few days, but for months, bringing the whole world to its knees.

I wonder what the Apostle Peter thought about the words of our Scripture for today, which he quoted from the prophet Joel on the Day of Pentecost? The days he was talking about, the last days, are the days we are living in. How do you interpret the heavenly signs and wonders, including ‘fire and billows of smoke’? The pictures of the erupting volcano can only be described with these exact words – fire and billows of smoke are throwing the ash thousands of feet into the atmosphere. Insurance companies are excusing themselves from paying out on travel policies as this is declared by them to be ‘an Act of God’!

As I read how the world is sensibly not flying through the ash cloud because of the great danger. The Lord turned me to our Scripture and then spoke to my spirit a lesson that I will never forget. This is what I sensed the Lord saying:

Because of the danger to aircraft and the life of passengers and crew, no-one would even consider flying through such a dangerous cloud. But every day the people of the world are flying through clouds of spiritual darkness, immorality and sinful lifestyles, without any thought whatsoever as to the damage it might be causing them. The volcanic ash will only seize the engine of an aeroplane, the spiritual cloud of darkness will bring down to destruction the souls of men. The eyes of the world have been blinded, by the god of this world, to the consequences of living in rebellion to the living God, and not walking in His ways.

I sensed the weeping of the Heavenly Father as He looked at a world that listens to the warning messages from the scientists and weathermen, but ignores the messages that were given to the world by His only Son and the prophets of God. I found myself praying that in these days there will be those who see what is happening and start to ask the right questions. And that when they read of the ‘fire and billows of smoke’, that have brought nations to their knees, they will turn to the God who answers the cry of our heart when, in humility, we fall to our knees in repentance.

Prayer: Lord, during these awesome days, I pray there will be many who will see the signs in the sky, turn to You in their hearts and begin to cry out to You for answers to the issues and problems of their lives. Help me, Lord, to always remember how dangerous it is to ‘fly’ through clouds of sin, knowing that to do so seizes the engine of my soul, and prevents me from fulfilling my destiny. I come to you afresh today in repentance and ask you to forgive me for all my sins. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Ellel 365 – Online Training School

God’s Prophetic Agenda – For the End of Days – Book by Johannes Facius

Living the Life – Book by Peter Horrobin

Hebrews 13;14, NIV
For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

When D.L.Moody, perhaps the most effective evangelist of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was about to die, his final words to those who sat at his bedside were: “Earth is receding, heaven is approaching. This is my crowning day!”

No-one worked harder all his life for the glory of the King while he lived in his earthly tent in this temporary city. But no-one was more certain of the permanence of the place he was going to. He was looking forward to enjoying the glory of God, in the city that is to come for all those who are trusting in Jesus. Jesus is the only One who ever walked this earth who had been there, could give us a first-hand account of its reality and who promised to go back there and prepare a special place for each one of us, in the place where He would be (John 14:1-4).

Every other religious leader that there has ever been has had to speculate about what lay beyond the grave. Jesus is the only one who never had to speculate about Heaven – it was His home before He came to earth and dwelled among us for a season. It was more real to Him than anything else. So much so that in His final time of private prayer on earth, in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was excited at the prospect of returning to share in the glory He had with the father before the world began (John 17:5).

The enemy tempts us to look at the world’s realities and focus our attention on them and cling on to them as if they are secure and permanent. But the reality is that for everyone who has died, earth’s securities proved inadequate for the journey that lay ahead of them and the graveyards of the world are adequate testimony to the fact of what we read in Hebrews that ‘here we have no enduring city’! It has always seemed strange to me that most people focus all their attention on trying to secure their earthly future, even though they know that it cannot go on forever, and put off till it’s too late their preparations for the destination that will be permanent and eternal.

I am praying as I write these words that we will be personally so impacted by the significance of this verse from Hebrews, that we will determine to live out our days in this temporary home in fellowship with the One, who came from Heaven, and witnessed so powerfully to its permanence. He is the only way to Heaven and He will be our guide when we get there!

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for telling us so clearly about the realities of the place You had come from, and for so blessing us with the fact that You want us to join You there in a permanent city! Help me to live out my days in this temporary city, not only blessing You by being obedient to Your word, but realising that to live like that also equips me for the joys of eternity with you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Ellel 365 – Online Training School

Finishing Well – Teaching CD

Living as Children of the Father – Teaching CD

Titus 2:11-13 , NIV
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ

I am writing this devotional immediately after returning from a mission trip to South Africa. As we were driving towards Johannesburg airport, on our way home, the clouds were heavy and black. Suddenly there was a hole in the clouds and the brilliance of the sun’s rays shone through. It was a dramatic moment and inevitably we began to think of how the world’s darkness will one day be penetrated with the light of eternity when Jesus comes again.

God has a strategy for eternity and He is watching and waiting, as the years roll by, for that moment when He has gathered into His Kingdom all whom He has planned to be with Him in the heavenly realms. One day the one who is the Blessed Hope of believers from all the centuries will burst through the skies of time with the brilliance of eternity. It won’t then be like a local black cloud being penetrated by the rays of the sun, but all the world’s darkness will be shown up for what it is as the sun of righteousness returns from glory to gather His bride to Himself.

In the meantime Paul urges us to always be ready for when that moment comes, for there will be a generation that’s still alive on the earth when Jesus returns – and it could be ours. The best way to get ready for His coming to us or, if we die first, for our going to Him, is to heed Paul’s advice in our reading and continually say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and live godly lives – living as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, while here on earth.

Having found salvation in our Saviour, the enemy never ceases to try and throw us off course and limit our potential through disobedience to God. None of us know either the day or the hour when Jesus will come again or the day or the hour when our earthly lives will come to a close. But if we always live as if today is our last day on earth, we will always be able to give Satan a ‘No’ when he tempts us and we will remain focussed on living for our Lord and serving Him every day of the rest of our lives.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that we can look forward with great anticipation to Your coming again. Help me to always live as if your coming is imminent and to have the courage to always say No to the enemy, when he tempts me to sin. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Ellel 365 – Online Training School

Proverbs 21:30-31, NIV
There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord. The horse is made ready for battle, but victory rests with the Lord.

When the Lord goes out to battle, there is no scheme or strategy of mankind that could ever succeed against Him. Ever since the fall of man Satan has schemed and battled to gain the upper hand in the heavenly realms, through leading mankind into deeper and deeper sin. But the ultimate conclusion of history is already secured, because Jesus personally overcame Satan and all his works at the cross.

Mankind may do whatever he wants to promote his own abilities and make man himself the object of his own idolatry, but all that man does when he declares himself wise in his own eyes is demonstrate how foolish and deluded and insignificant he really is! As the Psalmist said in Psalm 19 ‘the heavens declare the glory of God’. The whole universe is in the palms of His hands.

People may think they can ignore God’s commandments, as has been happening on an ever increasing scale through the passing of increasingly ungodly laws by the governments of the world. People may think they can make vast amounts of money through very ungodly means without consequence, but ‘a fortune made with a lying tongue is a fleeting vapour and a deadly snare’ (Proverbs 21:6). But people and governments forget that one day there will be a reckoning and those who have despised the law of the Lord will hang their heads in shame when they realise what they have done and what judgment they have brought upon themselves.

So, as you think about the Scripture for today, I pray you will want to give thanks for the ultimate victory that Jesus won at Calvary and resolve never to stand against God in any way – victory always rests with Him!

Prayer: Help me, Lord, never to take a stand against You in anything. I recognise the futility of thinking that man can ever overcome You in any way. Please forgive me for the times when I have done things in rebellion against You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Ellel 365 – Online Training School

Living the Life – DVD Teaching Series