Today's Reading: Luke 9: 27-45
**For a simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please click this link: Subject Shifting Devotion.pdf.
Please click this link to read Luke 9: 27-45
Bible Study
Today's passage is really very important. So important that you need to listen and read it at least two times. Why? Because this passage is trying to tell us why Jesus told his disciples that some of his disciples would have a chance to see the kingdom of God and how could his three disciples saw the kingdom of God and then the power of being in the Kingdom of God. Wow! That's cool!
1. Being able to see the Kingdom of God
Right in the beginning when John the Baptist and Jesus were having their first sentence of their preaching of the Good News it is:
"Repent, for the Kingdom of God is near."
It is through our repentance that we can receive the blood of Jesus to cleanse our sins to save us and to receive Jesus as our Lord of life that we can be able to follow him into the Kingdom of God everyday. Just as how he led Peter, James and John into his daily lifestyle of being with God each day. That was Jesus daily quiet time, that was Jesus way of seeing his Heavenly Father face to face and listening and seeing the Old Testament Bible as represented by Moses and Elijah. It was like when you are reading the Old Testament and each one of the prophets you are reading come out to say to you in person!
That's how they see the Kingdom of God! This is a relationship!
2. The power of the Kingdom of God
It's easy to say that you have a good daily devotion, a good daily intimate personal relationship with Jesus for that ten minutes or more each day. But, it doesn't mean that you really have a true intimate personal relationship with Jesus daily. Your mountain high experience each day need to be tested by the down to the valley daily routine that you have Jesus with you all the day to exercise the power of the Kingdom of God.
Just as N.T. Wright says:
All the Gospel-writers follow the story of the transfiguration with the story of a boy who is desperately ill, so sick that the disciples hadn't been able to cure him. They seem to be telling us that the two go together: the mountain-top experience and the shrieking, stubborn demon.
So, if you are really having a daily intimate personal relationship with Jesus starting with your daily devotion, then you should be able to have Jesus with you that day to exercise the power of God to:
preach good news to the poor,
to proclaim freedom for the prisoners,
to open the sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor! Luke 4: 18-19
If you can see and be in the Kingdom of God each day, then you should be able to experience this happening to your life daily!
Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage of scripture we have just read. Offer this time up to Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe"
Spiritual Journal
What I heard from Jesus today is: If you can see and be in the Kingdom of God, then...
What I received today is a reality check that if we claim we are having a daily intimate personal relationship with Jesus then we should be able to exercise the power of the Kingdom of God and not like those disciples unable to do anything. The fact is, without Jesus with us we really are unable to do anything especially to the evil work of the Devil.
How well can you exercise the power of the Kingdom of God? How close are you with Jesus each day?
Dear Lord Jesus,
Lead us to come close to you day by day that we can enjoy the sweetness of the Kingdom of God and to exercise the power of the Kingdom of God. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
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Chinese praise song - 我的心你要稱頌耶和華 Praise the Lord, O My Soul
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