On the Couch With God - Daily Devotional

We must release the power of God through prayer. There is no limit to what God can do in and through the saint. But the saint limits the working of God in and through him by the degree of his yieldedness to the Spirit. How much of God’s power are you measuring out to your family? Business? City? How much of God’s power are you distributing to the situation that you need God to work right now? Is it possible that God has done His part and now we distribute this power out? God’s unlimited power is limited to our prayers. God has all power but His unlimited power is limited by prayerlessness. Am I going to distribute His power? Am I going to measure it out to my situation? Elijah prayed 7 times for something God already said He was going to do. Why? It is because he was releasing what God wanted to do in His life. Elijah’s fiery praying and God’s promise the rain. E.M. Bounds says, “Prayer carries the promise to its gracious fulfillment. It takes persistent and persevering prayer to g...

Prayer is a powerful, and sometimes, dangerous exercise to engage in. Many of you have attended a Freedom Immersion and can attest to the transforming reality of your prayer time. Consider a few questions that I have had to tangle with over the years as it pertains to prayer. Why keep praying when we don’t see results? Does God have all power? Think about this, for Him to release that power, do we need to pray? Have you ever contemplated questions like this as it pertains to prayer? Here are three things we need to understand about prayer that breaks through. If we understand these three points, we will become a person of deep heart-felt prayer. The Word of God tells us that the Lord has deposited His power in us. This point cannot be overstated. If you are in Christ Jesus, He has invested His power in you. Consider what Luke tells us: Luke 24:49, "And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high...

We release the power of God through prayer. Imagine an owner in the front of their house lamenting the condition of their yard. The grass is brown and crackling under your feet. The plants are drooping just holding on for dear life. The yard just looks thirsty. If you were walking by this house and the man asked you what he should do. I would imagine you would tell him to turn on the faucet and water his lawn for an extended period of time and repeat the process every day. In a matter of a few days, that dry and thirsty land would become a revived emerald green. What is the condition of the yard of your life? Your friends, co-workers, family members. Do they need watering? Elijah prayed seven times for something God already said He was going to do because he was releasing what God wanted to do in His life. Daniel prayed and fasted for twenty-one days according to Daniel 10. Verse 12 says, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first daythat you set your heart to understand and humbled you...

God has deposited His power in us. This is extremely important to understand. When you understand this about prayer, you will become a person of prayer. Acts 1:8 says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”We receive invested power at salvation to be God’s witnesses to the ends of the earth. There are also more fillings of the Spirit that take place, not for an experiential moment of relief, but to be empowered to be a gospel carrier. In Ephesians, Paul expounds on the power that has been deposited in us. Ephesians 3:20–21 says, “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” It is amazing how the Holy Spirit structured this verse. He could have left out all three adverbs. The ...

Bible Reading: Matthew 21:22 When reading the news on your phone you will occasionally see the top 10 most beautiful places to live in the world. They are all places filled with exotic lagoons that you can swim with the turtles. You will also see the top 10 worst places to live. Currently, the top two worst places to live in the world are Damascus, Syria and Lagos, Nigeria. We all live in a physical location and a spiritual location. A thought bubbled up in my mind this week, “What is one of the worst places to live for a Christian?” A location that is one of the most dangerous, most vulnerable oppressed places to live. I believe one of the worst places for a Christian to live is the place called Prayerless. Prayerless is one of the most dangerous places to live. Prayerless is one of the most vulnerable places to live. Prayerless is one of the most disgruntled places to live. Prayerless is one of the most oppressed places to live. Prayerless Christians live knowing the truth but ...

One of the most powerful promises in the Scriptures is found in Psalm 1. “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers” (Psalm 1:1-3). Everything you do will prosper. To meditate means to ruminate or to murmur to oneself. Biblical meditation is simply reading scripture, putting it in your heart, and pulling it back up at times throughout the day. If we meditate on the Word of God, everything will prosper. That is because the Word of God is the software our minds were created to run on. This is what the devil stole from us in Genesis 3. This is what he is wanting to block us from by building strongholds in our minds. The Word of God reprograms our brains. When you ar...

Thomas Edison tried two thousand different materials in search of a filament for the light bulb. When none worked satisfactorily, his assistant complained, “All our work is in vain. We have learned nothing.” Edison replied very confidently, “Oh, we have come a long way and we have learned a lot. We know that there are two thousand elements which we cannot use to make a good light bulb.” After 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb, Edison could have agreed with the negative thoughts and given up. We are all thankful that he had the mental strength to endure. In Philippians 4:8, Paul tells us, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about (meditate on) these things.” Paul is exhorting us to, “deliberate, evaluate, and compute over and over” what is good and pure. He knew that we are only as fre...

Scripture Reading — Mark 16:1-8 We are looking towards Easter, Resurrection Sunday. It is the day when Christians everywhere exclaim with joy and authority, “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!” But if we were to put ourselves as characters into that first Easter story, what would our reaction be to finding an empty tomb and a stranger sitting there, telling us not to worry? Would we think it was a cruel practical joke or something very real, powerful, and life-changing? That’s what those first visitors to the tomb had to figure out. And everyone who has ever heard the story of Jesus must do the same. To believe in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus opens our lives to all the joy, power, freedom, and hope the resurrection has to offer. This is the gospel story. This is life-changing good news! Will you claim this good news? ON THE COUCH WITH GOD Dear Jesus, today we claim you, celebrate you, and proclaim you as the risen Lord. Today and every day, fill us with the h...

Scripture Reading — 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 Over a month ago, the new year, was a time when many of us resolve to start living differently. We seek to break old habits, build new relationships, change our outlook on life. The gospel reveals that a truly new thing we experience in Christ is new life. The earliest Christians proclaimed this message again and again: "Christ is risen from the dead!" And because he conquered death and rose to new life, we can have new life in him. All who believe in Christ receive the promise of eternal life, and our new life begins right away, by the power of Christ's Spirit living in us. When we have faith in Jesus, our life here takes on a new character. We realize that what we do here in this life matters—and that the Spirit of Christ guides us to live God's way. Christ takes our faltering efforts and uses them to accomplish good, now and for eternity. We hope in Christ not simply to have a better way to live now. Because Jesus...

Scripture Reading — John 20:1-10 Christians today join centuries of Christians when we stand in the faith that proclaims Jesus has risen. Easter is the day that changed everything. We celebrate the amazing truth that although Jesus was dead, he’s now alive forevermore. Christ Jesus rose victorious over death. He is risen. It’s interesting to notice how John, the gospel writer, anchors the event of the resurrection to a day, a time, and a witness. On a particular day in history, early in the morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene saw that the stone had been moved away from Jesus’ tomb. John wants to be clear. The resurrection of Jesus happened on earth’s soil, in our time, for the benefit of us humans whom God created and loves. Because Jesus is risen, life for us is forever anchored in good news. Christ’s resurrection gloriously demonstrates that God’s sovereign grace has the last word. As a powerful hymn puts it, “ No power of hell, no human plan, can ever pluck me f...

Scripture Reading — Mark 16:1-16 Soon after that first resurrection day, followers of Jesus began greeting one another by saying, “Christ is risen; he is risen indeed!” The whole message of the gospel can be summed up in these few words: “Jesus is risen!” The world is filled with religions built on various philosophies or personalities. But only the Christian faith claims its founder was raised from the dead and is alive today. “He is not here. See the place where they laid him.” This is the heartbeat of the good news. The cross and the grave are not the end! Following Jesus is not a dead-end street. The angel seated at the tomb not only invited the women to see the empty tomb. He also gave instructions for a new way into the future. “ Go, tell his disciples and Peter, He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you .’” Today, in all the world, Jesus the living God is on the move: in our churches and in our schools, in our workplaces and our...

Scripture Reading — Matthew 28:1-10 The angel said to the women, “ Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said ” (Matthew 28:5-6). On the first Resurrection Sunday morning, two women were in for the surprise of their lives. Instead of finding a closed tomb, they found an open grave and an angel greeting them with the words " Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said ." For them and for every follower of the Lord Jesus, life would never be the same. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead changed the course of history. The resurrection is God's way of announcing that our life does not have to be a one-way journey to the cemetery. God is saying we don't have to be stuck in our past. The risen Saviour has hit the delete button on our sins. We don't have to wonder who's in charge, because this S...