the Third Week of Advent
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Daily Devotionals
Daily Open Windows
The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. (Acts 1:7 NLT)
We are apt to think that if and when the circumstances and conditions of our lives are changed and we are in another position than the one we now occupy, then something will happen, the purpose of God will begin to be fulfilled. The Lord would say,“No; it is not circumstances, not conditions, at all; it is you.” Some think that it is a matter of graduation and ordination and office, and that when they get into an official position, and have recognition there, then they will begin to fulfill the purpose of their lives. So they are waiting until they are either ordained or appointed to their work. The Lord says,“No, it is not office, it is not ordination, it is not placing; it is you; you are the key.” And alongside that, many are looking to the organization, the society, the mission, the church connection to which they are related, and expecting a new day for themselves to originate there, and that when the institution, whatever it may be, takes action, then the work of their life will begin. And the Lord says,“It is not the church, the mission, the organization, the society, the institution; it is you.” These men in Acts 1 were waiting for something to happen outside of themselves. They called it the restoring of the kingdom, the setting up of an order which would be a national – perhaps an international – movement: a new order outside of themselves in which they would find their place and probably be allocated, appointed or ordained to it. And the Lord simply swept the board of all those ideas and said,“No, it is not that, it is you.” That is how it proved, how it worked out. We individually may be the key to everything in the purpose of God.
From: “But Ye...”
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