Devotionals

Nehemiah 8:8, NIV
They read from the book of the law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read.

People often use the phrase which forms the title to this devotional – it doesn’t mean, did you receive a letter, a phone call, an email or a text? It means, “did you understand what I was saying to you?” The problem with much teaching is that the people hear the words but they don’t get the message! They don’t understand what it means or how to apply the teaching to their own lives.

Many years after the people of Israel had been defeated, and taken as prisoners into exile, Nehemiah was called by God to go back to the city of Jerusalem and rebuild the walls. He knew that they had lost their protection and covering as a nation because of their sin. He really got God’s message about the situation. ‘I and my ancestors – we have sinned,’ he said (Nehemiah 1:6 GNB).

Then after the wall had been rebuilt and the people were reoccupying Jerusalem he knew it was important that the people should rediscover for themselves what the law of God actually said. They wouldn’t want to go into exile again! So Ezra the prophet was told to get out the book of the law of God and tell the people what it contained. So he built a pulpit (Nehemiah 8:4) so everyone could hear what he said and ‘get the message’. Then the Levites, also, explained it to the people, so there would be no doubt about what it meant.

As soon as the people understood it, they immediately began to repent of their sins and there were many tears. But it wasn’t just a day for tears, it was also a day of joy. For God rejoices when His people ‘get the message’ and start putting His Word into practice and, as Nehemiah said, ‘this day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.’ (Nehemiah 8:10).

Throughout the history of Ellel Ministries, and on every Healing Retreat and training course, we have sought to explain what the Word means to people at their point of need. Many times there have been tears as they have realised the mistakes they have made or the bitterness they have carried for so many years. But when people truly got the message of truth and applied it in their lives, there was always joy to follow, as they discovered that the joy of the Lord became their strength for life’s future journey. It’s worth ‘getting the message’ and really learning to understand what God is saying to us today through His Word.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, for Your Word. Help me to understand it so that I can ‘get the message’ that You are proclaiming to the world and live it out in my own life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Ellel 365 – Online Training School

Jeremiah 18:1-4, NIV
‘This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Go down to the potter’s house and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him’.

I love the parables in the Word of God – pictures that speak a pure message of truth right into the heart of man. Many times God has spoken to me personally through the ordinary things of life – never more powerfully than when I, as a young man, started to restore an old car. After doing many hours of work I discovered that the steel frame (the chassis) on which the car was built was bent. I was heart-broken, but at that very moment I suddenly became aware of the voice of God speaking into my spirit!

He was saying, “You could restore this broken car, but I can restore broken lives.” And then He asked me a question I’ve never forgotten, “Which is more important – restoring broken cars or restoring broken lives?” At that moment of time I wanted to say ‘the car’! But I knew that was the wrong answer. It was at that moment that God birthed in me the vision for what eventually became Ellel Ministries. I found myself looking at that broken car with the eyes of the spirit instead of the eyes of the flesh and in a flash the whole direction of my life was changed.

Jeremiah had a similar experience when he went down to the house of the potter. He saw the potter making a vessel on his wheel. Then, as so often happens, the shape of the vessel was spoiled in the potter’s hand. But did the potter throw the clay away? No, he simply reworked it on the wheel and started again with the same clay to reshape it into a good vessel. We may see the broken car or the spoiled vessel and think they are useless and good for nothing. God looks and sees the potential that they still have and He rejoices when they are restored or reshaped and put back into service in the Kingdom of God.

You may be feeling rather like a spoiled pot or a car with a broken chassis, but may I encourage you to lift up your head and rejoice, for the restorer of souls is at hand – and He wants your life to rejoice once again with a new sense of purpose. Face the issues in your life, with Him, which have caused the damage and then give Him permission to put you back on His ‘wheel’ and see what the Master Potter can do.

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, that You are the master restorer. Help me, Lord, to see the places where I have made mistakes so that together we can put things right. Then, put me back on Your wheel and reshape me in the way that best fits Your plans for the rest of my days. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Ellel 365 – Online Training School

Living the Life – DVD Teaching Series by Peter Horrobin

Philippians 2: 6-7, NIV
(Christ Jesus) who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant.

Have you ever struggled with the issue of giving Jesus total control over your life? I certainly have. It goes against all our natural inclinations and desires to hand over control to another person. Especially someone we can’t see!

Why would you want to lose control? Why would you become totally vulnerable to another person? Supposing they took advantage of you and used what you have given of yourself for their own benefit? Suppose you lived to deeply regret the fact that you entrusted yourself to someone else?

I’m sure these feelings are at least partly God-given and right. Jesus did not entrust Himself to certain people. Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men (John 2: 24). Trust has to be earned. Forgiveness may be given whether it’s earned or not – and usually it isn’t – but trust is something quite different. You have to deserve to be trusted. It can’t be demanded or required. A person must earn trust.

So what about trusting Jesus? Has He earned our trust or not? Today’s verse tells us all about Jesus. Even when He had something wonderful (equality with God) He didn’t mind losing it for the sake of helping us. He never grasped or tried to gain anything for Himself. Even things He was fully entitled to, like equality with God.

Far from insisting on His own rights or benefits, He actually let go of every good thing He had, quite freely and from His own choice. He became less and less. He became a servant, and then a condemned criminal suffering torture on a cross. He didn’t take advantage of His privileged position, but gave everything up, in order to rescue you and me.

He’s not suddenly going to start being selfish and demanding now, is He? Instead, won’t He love and bless you (and me) more and more, as we give him more and more of ourselves?

Prayer: Thank You, Lord Jesus, that You didn’t even take advantage of Your privileged position of being equal to God, but laid Your life down for me. Please help me to trust You completely. Please heal me of all the pain from people I trusted in the past who have hurt me. I choose to release and forgive them and move on. I give You my hurting, lonely, weak self and thank You for giving me so much of You, Your wonderful, kind, patient, generous and accepting love. Amen.

Healing the Past, Releasing Your Future – Book

Ellel 365 – Online Training School

1 Timothy 6:11, NIV
But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.

Holiness is separating ourselves from the world, the flesh and the devil, and putting off ‘the old self’ (our old sinful ways), and then putting on ‘the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness’ (Ephesians 4:22-23). It means separating ourselves to the Lord. We must throw out the old dirty carpet tiles before we can lay the new carpet tiles. We have to put something old off before we can put something new on.

The apostle Paul writes to Timothy and tells him to pursue ‘righteousness, godliness, faith, love endurance and gentleness’. To do this we need to deal with ‘unholiness’. When all known ‘unholiness’ has been washed away we can focus on pursuing holiness. We begin with repentance and cleansing and then we find we have a greater desire to spend time with God and develop a closer intimacy with Him.

In his book called ‘Set Apart – Discovering Personal Victory through Holiness’ Bruce Wilkinson quotes two shocking statistics. The first one is that the average born-again believer prays for less than two minutes a day, not counting prayers at meals or at Christian functions. Secondly, the average born-again believer reads the Bible for less than three minutes a day, discounting corporate Bible readings. Do these statistics surprise or shock you? Or instead do they make you feel uncomfortable because they describe you?

I believe we need to start breaking free from spiritual shallowness and move out in radical, biblical Christianity. We need to sow the seeds of holiness now if we are to reap a harvest of holiness later on. ‘For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight’ (Ephesians 1:4). Jesus Christ is going to return for ‘a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless’ (Ephesians 5:27). Are we preparing ourselves now, to be ready for when He returns?

In order to be holy we have to flee from everything ‘unholy’ and pursue righteousness as our verse today tells us. This is a person-to-person call placed by God on you and me. He is beckoning us to come out from all ungodliness and all conduct we know is inappropriate and to be separated unto Him, to depart from everything that isn’t Him and to devote ourselves fully to Him.

Pursuing righteousness is not optional for us. Our hearts need to discover the incredible power of God which is released when we’re obedient to this Scripture verse. We need to flee from all that is ungodly and pursue righteousness. Today is a good day to start.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to be obedient to You in this and to get rid of everything that displeases You in my life, and to have a passion for righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Please release the power of the Holy Spirit to enable me to embark on this today. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Ellel 365 – Online Training School

NETS Training School

Sex – God’s Truth – Book by Jill Southern

2 Samuel 5:24-25, NIV
As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam tress, move quickly, because that will mean the Lord has gone out in front of you to strike the Philistine army. So David did as the Lord commanded him, and he struck down the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Gezer’.

The moment David was anointed King over Israel he became a target for the enemies of Israel. In those days the Philistines were the chief enemies of God’s people, especially since the battle between Israel and the Philistines, in the days of King Saul, when David successfully killed Goliath with his sling and the first of his five smooth stones. There was no doubt that amongst the Philistines, David was probably the most hated of men. He had removed from them their champion, Goliath, and now he was King.

So the Philistines went up against King David ‘in full force to search for him’, (2 Samuel 5:17). But David was wise enough to ask the Lord what to do and as a result of hearing the Lord’s instruction, and then being obedient, the Philistines suffered a major defeat (2 Samuel 5:20-21). But before long the Philistines tried again. David might have thought ‘I’ll do just what the Lord told us to do last time’ – but if he had done that, he would have been defeated. David enquired of the Lord again what to do and God gave him a different strategy – to circle round the Philistine army and attack them from behind.

Then the Lord gave David the specific instruction which is our Scripture for today. Don’t move until you hear a rustling (the sound of marching) in the tops of the trees – and when you do, then move quickly. Once again David was obedient to the Lord and had another major victory.

There are four vital lessons out of this story. The first is this – whenever you face a difficulty, and don’t know what to do ‘Ask the Lord’. Secondly, when you know that God has spoken, obey. Thirdly, don’t presume that what happened last time will happen again – always go back to the Lord for his advice, even if circumstances look the same. Then fourthly, there will be times when you may need to wait for a sign from the Lord that now is the time to act.

If we carefully apply these vital lessons from the Word of God in our daily battling against our spiritual enemy, then we can be confident that He will go before us, as He did for David, and lead us into His victories.

Prayer: Lord, thank you that you are a God who answers the prayers of your children, when they look to you for guidance as David did. Help me, Lord, to be careful to listen to what You are saying to me, so that I will not fall into the traps of the enemy in the way I conduct my life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Ellel 365 – Online Training School

Forgiveness – The Master Key – Book by Peter Horrobin

Hebrews 12:1, NIV
Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Some people seem to succeed in everything: their families, personal lives, and their work lives as well as service in the Church or ministry. They are active and are really going for God. When you get close to them and try to determine just how they manage to fulfil so much of their potential you’ll find that discipline plays a significant role.

Discipline is one of the most important character qualities we can possess and plays a key role in every area of life. It means that, often, we have to make a decision to face the tough challenges first so that we can enjoy the rewards later. When we go to a university or college we are choosing to put off earning money now so that we will benefit later on.

Discipline will also involve planning ahead. For example, if we are living on a budget we will have to plan and work out what our expenses are in advance, and however much we may like to buy something which isn’t in our budget, we can’t allow ourselves to do it. We’ve already made the decision about it ahead of time.

We can’t live our life making last minute, knee-jerk decisions. We have to do things because we have already planned what we should be doing. We can’t leave making a decision whether to go to the early morning, prayer meeting until we’re feeling tempted not to go, in the pleasant warmth of our beds. We have to have already decided what to do before then.

Galatians 5:23 says that the Holy Spirit helps us to produce discipline in our lives. We can always depend on God for His strength for us to do His will in our lives.

There are pay-offs for discipline. If we are spiritually disciplined, the reward is a victorious and fulfilled Christian life. The pay-off for financial discipline is freedom from debt, always having sufficient for our outgoings and an ability to give to the needs of others.

The rewards for discipline are great but they’re not instant. The world and the flesh clamours for instant gratification. “I must have it now!” despite the consequences. The world wants quick fixes. Therefore, it can be hard to choose the disciplined lifestyle, but we will never be the people God has called us to be without discipline.

Do we get up late? Skip our prayer time and rush out to work without eating breakfast? Are there areas in our life that need discipline?

Jesus calls His disciples to be disciplined. Today is not too soon to take our first small step towards a disciplined lifestyle. ‘Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us’ (Hebrews 12:1).

Prayer: Lord Jesus I know that in my life there are undisciplined areas that I need to address. Will You help me to start recognising them today. I know You want me to be led by the Holy Spirit, not by my carnal nature. I thank You that You’re changing me into the image of the Son of God and I want to work with You so that these things can be accomplished in my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Ellel 365 – Online Training School

NETS Training School

Sex – God’s Truth – Book by Jill Southern

Isaiah 29:15, NIV
Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, ‘Who sees us? Who will know?’

It seems very obvious that there is nothing in all of creation that can be hidden from God. There is nowhere in the universe we can go to escape His presence. He is everywhere – and how I praise God that He is everywhere. The world would be a pretty scary place if there were places where it was impossible to be in touch with Him. It’s not difficult to find a place where your mobile phone is out of reach of a signal – but it’s impossible to find a place which is out of reach of God.

And yet people behave as if this obvious fact is not a fact at all. They harbour secret sins in their mind, hide their ungodly behaviour from others, somehow or other thinking that if nobody else knows about it, then God doesn’t know about it either! We reduce the vision of God to that of physical humanity and are deceived by the enemy into thinking that there will never be any accounting for hidden works of darkness.

But the truth is that one day there will be an accounting. Everything that was hidden will be exposed for ‘nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account’ (Hebrews 4:13). And when that happens there will be nowhere for us to hide. I have come to realise that hidden sins stack up like secret bricks around our heart. The more bricks there are the more our heart is hidden from the love of God and the more artificial our relationships become with God and everyone else. Eventually we would finish up with a hardened heart and an artificial personality.

There is only one solution – repentance at the foot of the cross. There is only one solvent that can melt the hardest of hearts and that’s the love of Jesus. But not even the love of Jesus can melt away the hardness, if we don’t own the reality of what we’ve been doing and come before him in repentance. Better to shed genuine tears of repentance here, and experience the love of Jesus melting away the consequences of forgiven sin, than to try and keep things hidden and suffer the wrath of God in eternity. An open heart before God is quickly healed!

Prayer: I am so sorry, Lord, for the times when I have been deceived into thinking that I can hide things from you. Please forgive me, and help me to face reality about the hidden things of my past and live my life as an open book before you in the future. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Ellel 365 – Online Training School

Forgiveness – The Master Key – Book by Peter Horrobin

1 Peter 1:16, NIV
Be holy, because I am holy.

I was once challenged by someone asking me these questions, ‘Do you believe in Jesus? Do you belong to Jesus? Do you behave like Jesus?’ The last question is a huge one for most of us. I would like to ask it this way, ‘How do we behave when no one’s looking?’

I consider a holy character is the world’s most pressing need. Think about it – if all 6 billion inhabitants of this earth had holy characters, there would be no wars, no hunger, no family break-ups, no crime and no poverty. Of course, that can’t happen until Jesus Christ returns and this whole earth is made new. If we’re hoping for a major move of God, either individually or corporately, then I believe we need to be working on having a holy character.

Our character is not just what we’ve done but who we are. Love is part of our character. Love is being tender-hearted but sometimes it’s being tough. Like Jesus we are to have a radical love for the broken, the hurting and the wounded. A most important chapter in the Bible for us to study is 1 Corinthians 13.

A holy character includes courage. My father, who was in Dunkirk in May 1940, told us of the huge acts of courage done by the allied soldiers who were being evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk. The first boat my father was on was bombed and caught fire, but he went into the water to save a friend before getting to safety on another boat. He ended up back in Margate, very thankful for his deliverance. As I listened to such stories I can remember thinking, “When I grow up, I want to be a woman of courage!”

We make choices that show whether we’re courageous or cowardly. We can choose to do the right thing or the convenient thing. Do we stick to biblical principles or cave in for the sake of our carnal nature, our comfort, our greed, or other people’s approval of us? These choices come at us every day in rapid succession. Do we go with the flow or stop, and choose to be courageous when other people are not?

Things like owning up to the truth takes courage and how much courage is required today to stay sexually pure in a sex-crazed culture? What about when your non-Christian family or friends say that you’re terribly old-fashioned or even a little bit strange? Even to become a Christian takes courage. We have to own up to our sins before a holy God.

Today, take time out to consider your willingness to be courageous on a daily basis because courage is part of a holy character.

Prayer: I thank You, Jesus, that You had the courage to go through with the cross and set Your face steadfastly towards Jerusalem. Help me to stand with great courage in a difficult or hostile place and to behave like You, especially when no one is looking. Amen.

Ellel 365 – Online Training School

NETS Training School

Sex – God’s Truth – Book by Jill Southern

Psalm 119:97-98, NIV
O how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me.

Wisdom and knowledge are very different. Two different people could look at exactly the same sets of information and come to entirely different conclusions. The problem is this – our understanding varies according to both our perspective and our experience.

We may think we know what a familiar mountain looks like, but when we see that same mountain from a different direction it looks entirely different. It’s all a matter of what our perspective is. We may set out to climb the mountain a certain way, but discover it’s impossible to approach the summit from that direction. Whereas the man with experience of having climbed the mountain before, may set off in a direction that looks longer, but he will always get there first, because he has learned from experience.

The problem with life is that we can look at all the circumstances prevailing around us and be at a loss as to what is the right thing to do. Our knowledge is limited, our perspective is not perfect and we have limited experience. What we lack is the wisdom to know what to do. We may have the facts but we don’t have the understanding as to what to do with the facts!

But there is One who has all knowledge, and His perspective on events and circumstances is always just right. The Lord is not limited by the horizons of our own experience. On our journey through life we desperately need to be taking our instructions from Him. No wonder the Psalmist was able to say ‘your commands make me wiser than my enemies.’ When we hear and obey His voice we will always be on solid ground.

His wisdom is essential if we are going to make our way through this fallen world, in which the enemy of souls is constantly wanting to trip us up and take us off course. With His wisdom we will always be wiser than our enemies – as we acknowledge Him, He will make our paths straight and show us the way to go – every step of the way.

Prayer: Father God, I confess that many times I have depended on my own knowledge and experience and have not listened to your voice or taken note of what you have said in your Word. Help me, Lord, to look up to you for the wisdom that passes all human understanding so that I will be wiser than my enemies and experience your blessing on my path. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Ellel 365 – Online Training School

Forgiveness – The Master Key – Book by Peter Horrobin

Isaiah 6:5, NIV
‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty’.

Like Isaiah have you been ruined, ruined for anything less than a major touch from God? In the Old Testament, a prophet was a person who had great intimacy with God in heaven which gave them the authority of God upon the earth. In Isaiah Chapter 6 we read about the vision Isaiah received of God and his calling as a prophet. At that time he felt unfit to be in God’s holy presence, but God graciously sent an angel to bring Isaiah assurance of forgiveness and cleansing.

Isaiah’s name means ‘Yahweh is salvation’ and Isaiah went on to prophesy very extensively about the coming Messiah, our Lord Jesus. The apostle John tells us this about Isaiah ‘he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him’ (John 12:41).

As I was preparing to speak on this sixth chapter of Isaiah, God touched me powerfully and asked me the question He asked Isaiah, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ I found myself replying in the same way as Isaiah did in verse 8, ‘Here I am! Send me’. And God said to me as He did to Isaiah, ‘Go’.

I’m conscious that those of us who teach about God need to know Him for ourselves in a personal way. God is pleased to commission us and to send us out. But those whom God sends are themselves sinners, and we could all ask the question, ‘who is sufficient for this’? I believe we shouldn’t just set ourselves up as preachers and teachers. We have to be commissioned like Isaiah. In Romans 10:15 the apostle Paul asks “how can they preach unless they are sent?” I would say we have to be ‘ruined’ for anything less than God Himself.

The writer of Hebrews mentions many characters from the Old Testament who suffered for their faith and says of some ‘they were sawn in two’, and Jewish tradition has it that Isaiah was martyred in this way by King Manasseh. When we respond to God and are commissioned to go, are we willing to pay the ultimate price if that’s required of us? This is an important question and we need to know the answer to it before the day when we’re required to make such a decision. Nowadays more Christians are being persecuted for their faith than at any previous time. I personally sensed God saying to me, “Are you willing to pay the ultimate price as many of the prophets did?” How could I answer this question? Only ‘Lord, the desire of my heart is to stand for you and to finish the race, and I look to You to strengthen me for whatever You have for me in the future.’

Prayer: Dear Lord God, would You come and touch our lips with the coals from Your altar so we know our guilt is taken away and our sin is atoned for. Would You help us to speak out Your life-changing words of truth and to say today, ‘Lord, here I am. Send me.’ Let this be so in our individual lives. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Ellel 365 – Online Training School

NETS Training School