Youth

Our devotion this week comes from the YouVersion Bible App. It was written and provided by Elevation Church. We’ll spend some time this week in a few songs written by Elevation, and looking at the Scripture background of these songs.

Do It Again – Part 1

Take a moment and look up Do It Again by Elevation Worship on iTunes, Spotify, or YouTube. Listen the whole way through, and then continue reading below.

“Walking around these walls
I thought by now they’d fall
But you have never failed me yet
Waiting for change to come
Knowing the battle’s won
For you have never failed me yet.”

Born in Egypt as a slave and then chosen as the assistant and successor to Moses, Joshua would’ve had a front row seat to all the miracles God performed during the Exodus. The Red Sea parting, manna falling from Heaven, water pouring from a rock — Joshua had seen his fair share of God doing the seemingly impossible. But just as time can prove God’s faithfulness, it can also put your faith to the test.

Joshua had witnessed Moses’ obedience over and over again, but as he faced the impenetrable walls of Jericho, this time the obedience was up to him. Joshua was instructed by God to lead his people around the city for seven days. This meant he had to lay his head down six nights in a row with the realization that the walls he had been walking around still stood tall and strong.

There aren’t many details recorded of what went through Joshua’s mind during those seven days, but what is recorded is his steadfast obedience. Surely he fought doubt, but with each day that passed Joshua continued to lead his people around a wall that showed no evidence of falling.

Read Joshua 6:2-5.

² Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. ³ March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. ⁴ Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. ⁵ When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”

Like Joshua, will you keep walking even though it doesn’t seem to be working? Will you keep believing that God is moving even when the wall isn’t?

Time may be putting your faith to the test, but don’t focus on what hasn’t happened — focus on what has happened. If you’ve seen God do it before, He can do it again. Obedience is your responsibility; the outcome is God’s.

Our devotion this week comes from the YouVersion Bible App. It was written and provided by Elevation Church. We’ll spend some time this week in a few songs written by Elevation, and looking at the Scripture background of these songs.

Fullness – Part 2

Take a moment and look up Fullness by Elevation Worship on iTunes, Spotify, or YouTube. Listen the whole way through, and then continue reading below.

“Now the world awaits your presence
And this power is within us
We will rise to be your witness
Spirit come, Spirit come.”

The events in Acts 2 signify a moment that would forever change the life of Jesus’ followers and their mission on this earth. The promised Holy Spirit had come and a supernatural filling had occurred. In a moment, the supernatural interrupted the natural and they began speaking in other languages to the amazement of all who witnessed.

This filling was the presence of God making its home in the believers. But it wasn’t just God’s presence that made its home in them, it was also His power. And it’s this power that Jesus referred to as He prepared to ascend to Heaven and tasked them with spreading the Gospel to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

This was no simple mission. In fact, it was impossible naturally speaking. Facing intense persecution, God’s Word and God’s love were the only two weapons they were given. But in spite of all the odds, the Gospel spread and followers of Christ were multiplied.

Thousands of years later, we’re still witnessing this multiplication. But we’re not invited to just witness it; we’re invited to participate in it. As a believer in Christ, you’ve been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, not as an accessory or add-on, but as the operating system for your life.

Read Acts 2:2-4.

² Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ⁴ All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

As you begin today, remind yourself of this fact: You’re not alone. God’s presence is with you and so is His power.

Our devotion this week comes from the YouVersion Bible App. It was written and provided by Elevation Church. We’ll spend some time this week in a few songs written by Elevation, and looking at the Scripture background of these songs.

Fullness – Part 1

Take a moment and look up Fullness by Elevation Worship on iTunes, Spotify, or YouTube. Listen the whole way through, and then continue reading below.

“Fullness of eternal promise
Stirring in your sons and daughters
Earth revealing heaven’s wonders
Spirit come, Spirit come.”

The world we live in is moving fast and more than likely it’s only going to get faster. Responsibilities, relationships, deadlines – there’s often more required from us than it seems we have to give.

Running on empty may be the new normal, but it isn’t what God intended for us.

After Jesus suffered and died for our sins, He appeared to His disciples to teach and offer instruction for spreading the Gospel. But before He released His disciples to spread the Gospel, He reminded them of His Spirit that was to come and fill them with heavenly power.

Jesus knew this was the only way that the Gospel could spread. Running on empty would be a death wish. Jesus had been publicly crucified and now His disciples were charged with spreading the same message in the same environment occupied with the same intense persecution. The only option was to operate from fullness – to allow God’s love and anointing to overflow, pour out, and pave the way forward.

You may not be facing intense persecution or fearing for your life right now, but you have been tasked with the same mission. As a believer in Christ, you’re responsible for spreading God’s love and grace to a sick and suffering world.

Fulfilling this calling is a mission too daunting to accomplish in your own power and too important to attempt on empty.

It requires fullness, not of yourself, but of the Spirit of God.

Read Acts 1:4-5.

⁴ On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. ⁵ For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Pray and ask the Spirit to fill you and guide you today.

“ACTION – Time to Get Up”

Action is where a lot of us get stuck. We know what needs to be done, we have stepped out onto the platform, but we just can’t move. It’s one thing to have the awakening and even to be honest about what we need to do. It’s another thing entirely to take the leap. In Luke 15:20 we read the simple phrase that changed the story of the Prodigal Son. Jesus simply said, “So he got up…”

He took immediate action. He recognized that it was time to get up. It was time to do something. And unless our story reads, “So he got up,” or “So she got up,” then nothing really changes.

This is where AHA stalls out for so many of us. We have an awakening moment, we even find the strength to be brutally honest, but we never get around to actually doing anything different. We spend much of our lives stuck between honesty and action.

You might be reading this and thinking, “I agree with you, but I just don’t feel like doing anything about it.”

It may sound a little cold, or perhaps a bit trite; however, the truth is we need to obey God even when we don’t feel like it. When we obey God even without the motivation to do so, our feelings will eventually catch up with our actions.

Look back at your game plan for the changes you need to make. You’ve probably made the list before, whether on paper or in your mind, and you know what they are. Identify the first step, just like the Prodigal Son did when he pointed out, “I will go home and say to my father…” He knew what he needed to do, and he carried it out. Find your first step and act on it now, whether or not you want to. And you may find that along the road, with God’s help, actions that at first seem artificial can become authentic.

Read Luke 15:20.

²⁰ So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

Have you been awakened, and honest with yourself, but then not gone through with the necessary action? What is the first step you can take to begin that action?

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“Grace for Both Sons”

The older son was indignant after seeing his father’s actions. This older brother may have worked hard and faithfully tended the fields, but he was lost in his father’s house.

There was no awakening. There was no honesty. There was no action.

The truth is, he, too, was a prodigal son. He, too, had a heart that was far from the father. He too was lost, but he didn’t see it. Tim Keller puts it this way, “The bad son was lost in his badness, but the good son was lost in his goodness.”

You may never have been to a Distant Country. You may have an impressive religious resume. You may have followed all the rules. You may have read this entire book thinking of all the people you know in the Distant Country who really need to hear it. But I wonder if you are the one Jesus has been talking to all along.

Luckily, when the older brother was in the field, the father left the celebration and went out to him. He engaged the son directly.

What does this tell us about God? God longs for a relationship with His children. Whether your life resembles the older son or the younger.

Even after the younger son’s insulting choices and reckless living, the father embraced him with kisses and hugs. And after the older brother’s harsh words and disrespect, the father lovingly explained himself. The patriarch would never have had to explain himself in ancient times. Households were not democracies; they were dictatorships. Yet the father answered the older brother’s anger with gentle patience and grace.

We expect God to be an angry father who demands justice, but through Jesus, He gives us love and grace when we don’t deserve it. Ultimately, the story in Luke 15 isn’t about two sons who disobey. It is about a Father who loves His children unconditionally.

Read Luke 15:25-32.

²⁵ “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ²⁷ ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
²⁸ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. ²⁹ But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰ But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
³¹ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. ³² But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

When you have sinned, how do you envision God and what He thinks of you? How does His never-ending grace and love fuel the entire AHA process?