What is Devotion?

This morning when I woke up, the Lord was speaking to me about devotion.  And I wondered about devotion for a while.  What exactly is it?  It's the willingness to give up oneself to please the Lord. It's a desire to cleave to Him, to love Him with all of your effort.

"You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might."                                    Deuteronomy 6:5

"Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship."           Romans 12:1

We must desire to please Him.  We must desire for Him to see our devotion.  Devotion is more than just reading devotionals--I didn't do that at all this morning--although there are a lot of good devotionals out there.  Devotion is more than reading the Word in the morning--I didn't do that today, either--although the Word is our main source of hearing from God.  In fact, devotion is more than just having morning quiet time.

Devotion is having your eye remain single (Matthew 6:22) and understanding that the little I've given to God is enough for Him.  Devotion is laying it all out as an offering--humbly submitting ourselves with joy.  And devotion is an all-day process. It's a process of laying out a continual thanks offering.

We should know He's delighted in us!  We should know that He has accepted our sacrifice.  Once we know, that's when we can walk in it.  That's when we can remain devoted--when we can show by our works where our heart lies.  If we walk in humility and devotion, we can approach any future sacrifice choosing God over the world.  We can leave all that behind.  Why should I be a slave to the things that once had a hold on me? We've been set free from those things, now let's walk with devotion! (Romans 6:1 and context)


"Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls."                                        James 1:21


"But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides."

Matthew 6:33

Snapshot: Putting on The Armor

A few months ago, I felt the Lord leading me to pray for my spiritual armor everyday.  To my regret, I haven't been completely faithful in this.  I've since came to a heart change, and now pray into this and put on my armor everyday.  To quote a commercialized catchphrase, the origin of which currently escapes me,  "Oh, what a relief it is!"

"Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 

In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one."  

Ephesians 6:13-16

The truth is that God has equipped us with our spiritual armor since the time we first believed--and perhaps before then, too.  Heaven's reality says that our armor has been, is, and always will be in place.  Why, then, do we need to constantly apply and reapply it?  Why do we need to continually pray for something that has already been given to us?

The answer lies in renewing our minds.  We need to come into agreement with God and the Light.  Spiritually, we need to identify with Him.  We need to clothe ourselves with His protective covering so that the enemy knows exactly who we belong to.

“Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land."  Job 1:10

God has done this.  He has put our spiritual armor on for us.  In today's terms, He has placed around us a forcefield of spiritual safety.  If we forget these things, though, then we are at risk.  There is power in our thoughts, and there is even more power in our words.  We need both of these to agree with God.  We need both of these to know what God has given us.

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." John 8:31-32

Jesus said that hearing the truth is not enough.  We need to know it!  We need to know it and agree with God.  Once we come into His knowledge with renewed minds, that's when the truth is activated in this world.  That's when we are able to be made free.  Once we confess with our words and know in our hearts (Romans 10:9), that's when our spiritual armor becomes more of a reality than this present life.

So, we agree with God that we have on His Armor.  We take up the shield of faith, and use it to deflect and deny every message that satan tries to send us.  And we surround our heads--our minds-- with the helmet of salvation, which is the Word of God.   We meditate on the Word and think about God and His faithfulness.

This is how we resist the enemy.  This is how we never lose the joy of our salvation.  This is how we  position ourselves for going from Glory to Glory!  He wants to keep us in perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3), and with this armor He's made a way.  God never gives any promise that we are unable to fulfill.

Confirmed:  Last Sunday a church friend was led to share with Vanessa and I the importance of putting on our spiritual armor every single day.  That was God's reminder to me!

Confirmed:  Another reminder came through Rick Warren's daily devotional.  I'm no longer subscribed via email, but these devotionals still manage slip through to my inbox occasionally.  God's timing is so perfect!  I received one called, "Fighting the Enemies of Good Intentions".  The pieces were put together for me.  The enemies here are the devil and his spiritual forces.  We fight them with God's armor!  It is our spiritual armor that allows us to retain good intentions.  It is God's protection that allows us to seek Him and stay covered.  It is His Armor that equips us to fight the enemy's evil with good.

Called Out

As Believers, we are all a part of His Body.  And we each have a certain calling that God has set in place for us.  But more than that, He has called us to be Holy and separate...to be sanctified.  He is the protective God who says, "Come out of her, my people!" (Revelation 18:4).  He wants us to be His and dedicated only to His purposes.  This has been a big recurring theme recently.  Below are some revealed messages and confirmations, though there are more in previous posts.  (Search the labels for 'Calling' to see those)

Confirmed 12/13:  I opened up Strong's Strongest Bible Concordance after seeing it on the bookshelf.  The words 'Numbers' and 'Interpretation' were quickened to me.  I knew it was from God....some things you just have to take by faith.  And then the wait began for God to build upon this passage.  With faith, it doesn't take long.  God is faithful to take us from strength to strength.

"Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them."  Matthew 13:12 (Hey, that's a reversal of the date.  I'll 'interpret' those 'numbers' that way...)

So God gives faith with His messages and then adds more and more layers of confirming signs to the original message.  He wants to make the righteous paths clear!  He has established our faith, and when we allow Him to activate it, He will always give us even more abundance.  He is the Holy One who says, "open your mouth and I will fill it"  (Psalms 81:10).  I didn't think much of this until later that day; see below for an explanation...

So,  Vanessa and I were talking later that day about a "Steps to Jesus" devo I had felt led to read that morning.  She had in fact read the same pages after me, as I left the pamphlet open.  The pages we read were under a subtitle called, "The Works and the Life'.  And it pertained to a specific calling.  It pertained to the Works of Jesus regarding His traveling ministry.  And it emphasized the fact that such a calling was 'set apart' from the ways of this world.  What a life!  Let me tell you, it's so exciting.  Hard, but exciting.

Vanessa then went directly into talking about the Levites.  She asked me, "Have I ever told you about the Levites in Numbers 18?"  Before I met Vanessa (and after that, as well!) the Lord often spoke to me regarding the Levites.  I've felt that He has given a similar calling to me.  Turns out, Vanessa has long felt that way, too.  God has both led us to "work for Him" so to speak, through different types of specific ministry.

Anyways, Vanessa mentioned numbers 18, and right away I remembered that 'Numbers' was the word I was guided to in Strong's Concordance earlier that day.  My thought patterns were quickened, and I understood what God was saying:

Our Work and Life (from the devo) has been dedicated to the Lord's specific "Interpretation" of a Levitical (from seeing the word "Numbers") calling.  God was reaffirming through all these synchronistic events that both Vanessa and I have been called out.  We have been called into a Life of dedicated ministry work, just as the Levites were.  Praise God!  He gives us the desires of our hearts, and His Way is the best way.

Confirmed 12/15:  Speaking of interpretations, The Lord gave an interpretation of tongues..."Come Holy Spirit".  Simple, but what a glorious thing to ask Him for.  When I first wrote it down, I accidentally wrote, "Come unto Spirit".    Come to Him; He's called us  His!  That's the message, anyways, that God made out of my guided mistake.

Confirmed 12/15:  Quickened eye-glance in the bible to, "you were entrusted" (Romans 6:17). We have been entrusted to a His calling.  We are to be slaves or righteousness!