Daily Devotional for Monday February 19, 2018

This Kind Can Come Out Only by Prayer and Fasting.

(Job 17:9; Galatians 6:9; Revelation 3:11)

***DAILY PERSONAL PRAYER FOR YOU: ***DAILY PERSONAL PRAYER FOR YOU: Dear Lord, I know I have only one life, one life to live for you. This is my moment in human history. Please Lord, let me make the most if it. Use my life to do great things for you as I surrender it afresh to you each morning. When I take my last breath, let there be no regrets, no sadness, that I didn't use my life fully for your Glory! In the name of Jesus I pray...AMEN!

"He replied, 'This kind can come out only by prayer and fasting.' " Mark 9:29

The deep things of God never come easy, are you willing to pay the price? I'm going to give you a heavy spiritual lesson today. I'm going to be very blunt with you. Most people are so bound up in their own weaknesses, get so distracted each day by the blowing winds of life, or just won't make the sacrifice to pay the price to ever get to a place where they can even understand this message. However, for those who do want more of God, do want all of God they can get, are willing to literally lay down their very life and give everything they have to the Lord, this word is for you today!

The word today is PERSEVERANCE. After serving the Lord for nearly 2 1/2 decades, I can tell you that it never gets any easier, the battles only intensify as time goes on, and the more you are doing for the Kingdom the more you will have to endure, and the more you will have to persevere. Why do you think so many opt out or take the easy road?

Very few people enjoy pain, conflict, being a target and attacked constantly day after day, and run when confronted with these things. That is why most of the Lord's work is done in the safety of the Christian subculture we have created, behind the 4 walls of the church. That is also why we are having very little influence, and very little impact on this world we live in!

Look at the life of Paul. It would have been easy for Paul to sit back in the comfort and safety of the churches he pioneered and take on that apostolic role and live a life of honor, ease, comfort, and luxury. While Paul did oversee the churches he founded, he never stopped or slowed down in fulfilling God's mission for his life to take the Gospel to the lost and hurting outside the four walls of the church.

He pressed forward, tirelessly, until the very end when he was martyred for his faith in Jesus Christ. Despite the great personal sacrifices, putting his life on the line each day, fighting all of the obstacles he had to face each step of the way, Paul PERSEVERED!

My word for you today is this. You are not going to ever fulfill God's plan for your life in serving the Lord without being able to persevere. That is because the things of God don't come easy, and won't come without a fight. There is a very real enemy who will do all he can to stop you. As I share with you often, this is ultimately a battle for the souls of men, and sadly, satan is willing to fight harder for souls than most of God's people.

You can't persevere by giving God 25%. You can't persevere by giving God 50%. You can't persevere by giving God 80%. You can't persevere by giving God even 95%. TO PERSEVERE, YOU HAVE TO BE SOLD OUT, 100% TO THE LORD!!!

The fact is, it doesn't take too many men totally sold out for Jesus to turn this world upside down. The work of one man, Paul, is still being felt today. The disciples of Jesus, who after his resurrection and being filled with the Holy Spirit, were totally sold out of the Lord and laid the foundation that the Christian faith has been built upon these past 2000 years.

During that time, it has been men and women of God who were sold out for the Lord, 100% committed to Him, men and women who PERSEVERED, that has brought the Gospel to the world and helped millions of people find everlasting life through faith in Jesus Christ.

I love you and care about you so much. We are in the last days and now God is calling on men and women like you and me to stand up, be counted, to sell out for him, and to persevere as we bring in that last great harvest of souls before our Lord returns and the last days of human history unfold.

This is a clarion call to those who have ears to hear, that the time for playing games is over, the time for playing church is over, the time for being satisfied to live in the comfort of the "Christian trough" is over, the time for using the Gospel simply to generate money is over, IT IS TIME TO SELL OUT FOR THE LORD AND LET GOD USE OUR LIVES TO BRING HIS TRUTH AND THE HOPE OF CHRIST TO THE LOST AND HURTING MASSES WHO WILL DIE AND GO TO HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY WITHOUT JESUS!

To accomplish that, you will have to persevere. You will have to face the trials, the tribulations the hardships, the attacks, the scorn, the daily battles, but it is the power of the Holy Spirit that will embolden you and strengthen you and allow you to PERSEVERE! When you get down and discouraged, the Lord will pick you up and give you all you need to keep pressing forward.

The Bible tells us that many are called but few are chosen. The chosen are the ones who are willing to pay the price, do whatever it takes to persevere! The deep things of God will never come easy. They require a total and complete sacrifice to the Lord. But when this life is over, the things of this temporal world will pass away and all that will be left are the things we did for Jesus!

In His love and service, Your friend and brother in Christ, Bill Keller