Four Foundational Principles for a Daily Time with God

1.24.2024

Review

Many people today are empty inside. Jesus came to fill us up. Of HIS fullness have we all received, and grace for grace.

Proverbs 4:23 (NLT)
Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

Is your devotional time the most important part of your day? If not, why not?

James 4:8 (NKJV)

Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.

J. Oswald Sanders Quote from Enjoying Intimacy With God:

(Taken from – J. Oswald Sanders, Enjoying Intimacy With God (Chicago: Moody Press, 1980) p. 13-14)

Both scripture and experience teach that it is we, not God, who determine the degree of intimacy with Him that we enjoy. We are at this moment as close to God as we choose to be.

All you are in God, and all He does first in, then through you, starts with your personal intimate time with Him!

Intimacy – In- to -me- see.

Make a choice this year to come closer to the Lord in fellowship.

Where are you in your fellowship with Jesus?

Matthew 6:6 (NLT)

But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.

Smith Wigglesworth:

Pay attention to life’s inflow. Outward service will dwindle if inward energies are not renewed.

5 circles of closeness around Jesus.

1. Where will you find yourself in these circles in 2024?
2. Will you be one of the multitude, only scratching the surface of knowing Jesus?
3. Will you be a part of the seventy? You’re with Him, but not as close as you could be.
4. Will you be a part with the twelve disciples? They were close to Jesus. They were trained by Him.
5. Will you be part of the three? Peter, James, and John experienced more because they wanted more.
6. Or will you be in that closest place to Jesus with John, the disciple whom He loved?

Today:

4 principles to boost a desire for a strong devotional time with God:

1. Frequent contact develops closeness.

2. Spiritual strength must be renewed daily.

3. Time with God creates spiritual power.

4. Make time with Jesus the first priority in your day.

1. Frequent contact develops closeness.

Desire follows attention.

21 to 28 days forms a habit…

Think about the relationships you have with people.

The more you talk, the closer you get.

The more frequently you talk, the more you tend to reveal of yourself. The better you get to know each other.

It’s the same with the Lord. Spending time every day brings a closeness.

2. Spiritual strength must be renewed daily.

It takes spiritual energy to resist the world, the flesh, and the devil.

It takes spiritual energy to minister life to others.

2 Corinthians 4:16 (NKJV)

Therefore we do not lose heart, Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.

FF Bosworth:

Many Christians feed their bodies three hot meals a day, and their spirits one cold snack a week.

Matthew 4:3-4 (NKJV)

3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

4 But He answered and said, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”

Deuteronomy 8:3 (NKJV)

So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.

Manna – Exodus 16

The Israelites picked up “manna” each morning during their wilderness journey. They had to get only one day’s supply, and then get up and gather again before the sun dried the dew each morning.

We can’t spiritually survive on yesterday’s experience with God. We need a fresh daily supply of Him and His presence!

3. Time with God creates spiritual power.

Acts 1:8 (NKJV)

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

I was meditating on Acts 1:8 another day back over 30 years ago, and the Lord said to me, “You have a spiritual dynamo in you.” I didn’t know what a dynamo was.

I knew the word power was the word dunamis – inherent power, ability to reproduce itself, like a dynamo.

Your spiritual power sources are personal time with God – in the Word and in prayer…

I noticed a big change in the power I had inside to resist the flesh and the mental and emotional debris from the world.

4. Make time with Jesus the first priority in your day.

As I mentioned last week, I was working at a local church as a janitor, and I had a habit of meditating on scripture a LOT in my non-busy mental time.

At the time, I was dissatisfied with where I was in Jesus. I was walking with God, but was NOT satisfied with my daily time with Him. I would work all day, then read and pray at home at night before bed. I would often become drowsy and fall asleep.

One day, I was meditating on Matthew 6:33, and the Lord asked me a question. “What’s first in your life?” He was, of course, was my answer.

He then said, What’s first in your life make first in your day…

When He said this to me, I was NOT a “morning” person. I became a morning person.

Early rising to seek God has been called the morning watch.

Notice these scripture passages:

Psalm 5:2-3 (NKJV)

Give heed to the voice of my cry, My King and my God, For to You I will pray. 3 My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up.

 

Psalm 59:16 (NKJV)

But I will sing of Your power; Yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning; For You have been my defense And refuge in the day of my trouble.

 

Psalm 63:1 (NKJV)

O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water.

 

Psalm 88:13 (NKJV)

But to You I have cried out, O LORD, And in the morning my prayer comes before You.

 

Mark 1:35-36 (NKJV)

Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. 36 And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him.

4 principles to boost a desire for a strong devotional time with God

1. Frequent contact develops closeness.

2. Spiritual strength must be renewed daily.

3. Time with God creates spiritual power.

4. Make time with Jesus the first priority in your day.