Meditation Chip Brogden

January 27
Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"There is no other God that can deliver after this sort" (Daniel 3:29b).
The Lord reveals Himself to us when we are at our end, when the fire burns the hottest. When we have reached the end of our ourselves then He intervenes. He is committed to us there in the fire, because we are committed to Him outside the fire. As we have stood for His Will and His Kingdom in a state of universal compromise, darkness, and deception, so He will stand with us in our state of temptation, testing, and trial.
Towards what end? That the preeminence we have been proclaiming may be demonstrated. He will rise to the occasion and prove Himself faithful.


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January 26
Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:6b,7).
So many times we try to resist, but we are defeated. Why? Simply because we attempt to resist the devil before we have first submitted ourselves to God. There is a proper order that must be observed without fail.
First, we must understand the principle of God resisting the proud but giving grace to the humble. This is the foundation of everything we do.
Second, the word "therefore" signifies that those who learn this principle will act upon it accordingly. If they understand the truth just stated, they will submit "therefore" to God.
Third, as a result of their submitting to God, they will find the devil flees whenever and wherever they offer him resistance.
The word "flee" means "to run away in terror". How wonderful! How delicious to see the devil running from us in terror, instead of the other way around! That should be the normal experience of all Christians. That is the normal Christian life, a life that overcomes.


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January 24
Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created" (Revelation 4:11).
All things were created by Him, and everything was created for Him. For Him! Why this earth, the moon, the stars, the galaxies? Why the animals, the birds, the fish, the insects? Why men and women, angels, cherubim, and seraphim? For Him! All for Him!
God's original thought is for Christ to fill every created thing with His Life, Love, and Glory. A design implies a Designer, a plan implies a Planner, and a creation implies a Creator. We are not drifting along aimlessly, and we did not come into being by accident. We were created by Him, and we were created for Him. We were created to love Him, and to be loved by Him


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January 25
Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"Then these men assembled, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God." (Daniel 6:11).
Something should be driving us to pray. There should be some unction, some inner compulsion, to seek God, to seek Him early, and to seek Him often. If that is not our daily experience then something is wrong.
Perhaps we have grown complacent, or comfortable, or cold. Whatever the reason, vision is the cure. If we have truly seen God's Purpose we cannot just go along as before. It will consume us. A person with a small vision will pray small prayers. Daniel is a man of huge vision, and so he prays large prayers.
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January 23
Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty" (I Corinthians. 1:27b).
To the natural way of thinking, power and weakness are opposites. That is, in order to have power, we must eliminate weakness. The Wisdom of God teaches us differently. This Wisdom tells us that the weak things are chosen to overcome the mighty things, and power works concurrently with weakness.
God desires to give you power, but that power only comes through weakness. Any power not obtained through weakness is illegitimate, no matter how spiritual it appears. The only legitimate power is granted to those who have been made weak. Power is birthed in weakness. Many exude a certain "power", but there is not the corresponding weakness. Hence, the power only gives them an occasion for boasting. To remedy this, God has ordained that all who would have His power must first be weakened and made empty - we refer to this as being "broken". The purpose of weakness and suffering is to open the way for His Power. The instrument God uses to weaken us is the Cross. Therefore, the Cross is power through weakness.


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January 22
Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house, opened his windows towards Jerusalem, and kneeled down three times a day to pray and give thanks to God, just as he always did" (Daniel 6:10).
Everyone wants power with God, but few want to deny themselves. They would rather just have someone pray for them or lay hands on them while they live any way they please. You know, there is no law that says a Christian must pray three times a day and serve God with fasting, like Daniel did. We are not led by rules and regulations, but by the Spirit. You can pray once a day, once a week, or not at all. You can eat three or four meals a day if you like. But I hope one day we will become more hungry for the Lord and more thirsty for His Purpose than we are for our earthly food and drink. I hope one day we will become so consumed with heavenly things that earthly things begin to lose their grip on us. I pray we will at least have enough wisdom to understand that if we really want to know God we will have to pay a price for knowing. It will cost us something to obtain experiential truth, and it will cost us something to hold on to it after we obtain it.



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January 21
Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"And He is the head of the body, the Ekklesia" (Colossians 1:18a).
If we look to one another for fellowship apart from what we have seen and heard of the Lord then we are limiting ourselves to relationships with people with whom we naturally get along with. If we see fellowship as the reason for our existence as Christians then, ironically, we will never be satisfied. We cannot know one another according to the flesh and find contentment. We cannot properly discern the Body until we establish communion with its Head. Life is given and received only as we stand with one another in relationship to Christ.


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January 18
Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"For promotion comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he puts down one, and lifts up another" (Psalms 75:6,7).

I once discovered another ministry had taken a portion of my writing and edited it before forwarding it to their subscribers. In eliminating the more offensive portions of the text they watered-down the message I was communicating. I contacted the ministry and asked them to either publish the entire message or retract it completely. Since they could not bear the whole counsel of God they informed me that they would retract it. Their closing comment was, "Most writers are happy to have even a portion of their works published, as some promotion is better than none at all."

Our desire for promotion will inevitably lead us to compromise, tone down, whitewash, filter, edit, distort, or make more palatable the message we bring. If we are promoting ourselves, then let us do all we can to push our names to the top and be pleased with any recognition we may receive. But if it is God's Word we speak, let God see to the promotion of His Word as well as His servant. Better to have a small circle of influence with freedom to speak as we are led to speak than to have a large circle of influence obtained through a message deemed "safe for public consumption."



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January 17
Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"We do not YET see all things submitted to Him; BUT we see Jesus" (Hebrews 2:8,9ff).

Today, Scripture acknowledges, we do not YET see all things submitted to Him. I must say I find that word "YET" terribly exciting! That word "YET" means that something is in store for everything that remains unsubmitted to the Lord Jesus Christ. The presence of the word "YET" means its manifestation is inevitable.

We do not live by what we see, but we live by faith. It would be a mistake to assume that just because one does not YET see all things submitted to Christ that He then must not really be Lord of all. This costly mistake will be the undoing of the multitudes. We are not pretending to see something that does not really exist - yes, we agree that we do not YET see all things submitted to Him, things are bad, and will probably get worse; BUT we do see JESUS, and for the Christian who seeks first the Kingdom of God, that revelation is sufficient. You may see every fact to the contrary and argue against Him, but we see Who He is by revelation, and by revelation we know that what we see happening in the unsubmitted earth today will be set in order when Christ and His Kingdom are manifest in all of creation.



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January 156
Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"This is our testimony, that God has given us Eternal Life, and this Life is in His Son: He that has the Son has Life, and He that has not the Son of God has not Life" (I John 5:11,12).

You ask is not a Christian one who believes thus and so, or behaves thus and so. We answer that they may very well believe or behave thus and so, but the belief or the behavior, while it may assist us in identifying them, is not what makes them a Christian. It is the Life. Certainly, Christians have a core system of beliefs and practices. But the characteristic of a Christian is Life. It is not even "the Lord of my life", implying something apart from Him that I still have control over; it is "the Lord AS my Life."

An intellectual Christianity is what Organized Religion brings. It cannot impart Life. What do I mean by an intellectual Christianity? It is the ABC Gospel. Perhaps you have heard it. Salvation is obtained in three easy steps: "A" stands for "admit you are a sinner"; "B" stands for "believe on the Lord Jesus to save you"; and "C" stands for "confess Jesus as your personal Savior." What is wrong with that? Simply this: there is no Life there. "ABC" will not save us. With "ABC" there is no encounter with Jesus, Who alone is Life. There is only an intellectual acceptance and affirmation of what is presented as "Three Easy Steps". I believe this, I say that, and that makes me a Christian, right? No, it just makes you religious. There are many people who "get religion", but they don't get Jesus.



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January 14
Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"Jesus looked around at His disciples, and said, 'How hard it is for those with riches to enter the Kingdom of God!' And the disciples were astonished at this saying. But Jesus repeated, 'Children, how difficult it is for those trusting in wealth to enter the Kingdom of God! I tell you the truth, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God'" (Mark 10:23-25).

As soon as the rich young ruler knows the cost, he turns away, grieving, and we never see or hear from him again. It is interesting that Jesus, even though He loved him, just watched him go. Does this sound like an easy Jesus? Does this sound like a soulwinner? What kind of fisher of men is this?

What a contrast to the way we solicit converts every Sunday, with repeated altar calls and singing that hymn "just one more time" to give everyone an opportunity to come forward. Eventually, under such pressure, someone always does. But have they really counted the cost, or did we just make it sound too cheap? A cheap Gospel results in cheap disciples with no depth of root.



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January 15
Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"Don't worry about tomorrow" (Matthew 6:34a).

Most of us, from time to time or nearly all of the time, worry about something - our health, our finances, our loved ones, and so on. Yet the Scriptures say take no thought for your lives and be anxious for nothing. Why is worry a sin? I know we consider it "only human", but worry really implies a lack of trust in God. It is believing a lie. Identify the lie and you can quickly discover the Truth. What is the lie? That God is somehow less than sufficient, that perhaps He will not come through for us. So you see, the enemy gets us to believe a lie, and then gets us to think that we are just being "human". So then we accept something less than the normal Christian life - overcoming - and think that is just the way it is. Remember: satan has no power apart from our belief in his lie.

Overcomers are learning to bridge the gap between what they SAY they believe and how they really LIVE. Now we are not criticizing or judging people for having anxious thoughts, for we have our share of them. We have not overcome in this area. We simply say this is one thing to be overcome, one of many lies which oppose the Truth. The one that overcomes is constantly challenging the lie of the enemy and demonstrating the preeminence of Christ over all things. When every lie is destroyed then the dragon is defeated, for it cannot control what it cannot deceive.

Most of what we see and hear is an illusion. It is not the Truth, but a lie, a distortion. Our eyes and our ears cannot be trusted. We must have heavenly vision and heavenly hearing.

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January 12
Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"News about Jesus spread fast, and crowds of people were coming to hear Him teach and to be healed of their sicknesses: but Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed" (Luke 5:15,16).

Many of us share a remarkable testimony. I have spoken with several who can confirm my own experience. It is this: while sitting or standing within the church service many of us have had the sense that Jesus is quite lonely, in spite of all the praise, worship, and things which are done in His Name. I recently found a book published nearly twenty years ago in which the author claims to have experienced the same feeling. It is as if Jesus is on the outside looking in. After much prayer we have come to understand that most of what is done in the name of "church" is not for the Lord at all, but it is for us.

Perhaps this explains why Jesus often withdrew Himself to a lonely place, and why perhaps He is withdrawing Himself from much of what is being done "in His Name". If someone asks why we do not participate more often in meetings or in gatherings, all we can say is that, most of the time, the Lord's Need is not being met in those places.

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January 13
Today's Message from Chip Brogden
""Do you want to know the truth? The truth is that when you were young, you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted to go. But when you are older, you will stretch out your arms and Someone Else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go'. By this, Jesus was indicating how Peter's death would glorify God. 'Now follow Me'" (John 21:18,19).

Spiritual maturity is not being able to do more or less, it is being able to do nothing of myself. God is more glorified in my "death" than in my "life". It is most difficult for people to see this. They have been told that God "hired" them to put them to work for His Kingdom. If they do not report or "work" every week then (they are told) God's Kingdom suffers loss. Instead of the Lord's easy yoke and light burden, Religion gives them a difficult yoke and a heavy burden.

Those who are young may have complete liberty to dress themselves and go wherever they please. But after some time the Lord begins to touch those things, and we find it increasingly difficult to live, move, or do anything of our own accord. Self begins to be replaced with Christ, and Someone Else begins to dress us and take us to places where we would not wish to go.

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January 11
Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:26).

I have seen a lot of altar calls, but never in my life have I ever seen an altar call based on Luke 14:26. Why not? Because no one would respond!

What is Jesus talking about? He is talking about a holy hatred. Becoming a disciple means Jesus will have the preeminence in my life from this moment forward. "Preeminence" means the first, the highest, the best, the supreme, the most favored place. It means putting Him before everyone and everything else, even those most dearest to me. It means giving up all my rights and demands, hating my own life and giving it over to Him. It is the death of Self. Jesus will not be thrust in a corner, or relegated to a couple of hours on Sunday morning, while we live any way we please under the delusion that we are "saved." Either He is Lord OF all, or He is not Lord AT all.

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January 9
Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw [Greek: drag] all "He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself" (Philippians 3:21b).

What a mighty God we serve! Exactly how the Lord goes about bringing all things into submission unto Himself is... how can we describe it? It is an art. It is a science. There is a process at work in this universe. Do you see it? It is a process through which the Lord is continually refining, purging, molding, chastening, disciplining, judging, and conforming all things. This process is working itself out on every level, from galaxies, to nations, to the innermost recesses of the souls of men, right down to the very last disciple and sinner.

Throw yourself onto the Rock and be broken; or wait for it to fall on you and be ground into powder (cf. Luke 20:18, Daniel 2:34,35). Either way, sooner or later, the Rock wins, for "He MUST increase, but I MUST decrease" (John 3:30).

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January 10
Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another..." (I John 1:7a).

True fellowship is grounded in Jesus first of all. Fellowship with others on THAT basis is neither forced, nor orchestrated; it is effortless, spontaneous, and full of life. Fellowship naturally occurs because we have all seen and heard the same thing from the Lord - we are walking in the same Path towards Christ as all in all. We are in one accord not because we all look, think, and act just the same, but because we all, in spite of our differences, have God's End in mind.


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January 8
Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw [Greek: drag] all men to Me" (John 12:32).

The goal of all Spirit-led ministry is to bring people TO CHRIST, tenaciously, even relentlessly, making the most of every opportunity to give them the Testimony of Jesus Christ. Paul said we preach not ourselves, but Christ. All attempts to gain a following unto ourselves must be ruthlessly stopped. There can be no place for glorying in our selves, or in the works of our hands.

If our ministry, work, or service does not continually give Christ the preeminence, if it does not constantly point away from us and unto Him, then we cannot call what we are doing the Lord's work. There is but one work, and that work is to bring people to Christ - from the most wicked pagan to the most holy saint - and away from man.



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January 7
Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"When I am weak, then I am strong" (II Corinthians 12:10ff).

Now it does not say that Paul made himself weak on purpose. We do not have to seek weaknesses, infirmities, tribulations, temptations, or trials. We already have them. The key is how do we respond to them? We can fight them, or we can embrace them. Paul clearly shows us that it is not always God's will for us to be saved FROM the fire. Often we are called to walk THROUGH the fire, with no assurance except that His Grace is sufficient. In the fire we learn that "Grace" is a Man, just like Victory is a Man. To be delivered from weakness is one thing, but to meet Grace in my weakness is something else entirely.



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January 6
Today's Message from Chip Brogden
Jesus took the five loaves, blessed them, and gave them to the disciples to pass out to the people who were sitting. He did the same with the two fish. And everyone ate until they were filled... and they gathered twelve baskets of loaves that were left over" (John 6:11,13ff).

When confronted with such a circumstance we should remember that if we have the Blessing of the Lord then He can multiply what little we have and will even give us "twelve baskets" remaining. But without the Blessing of the Lord, "two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them to even taste a little" (John 6:7). So the issue is never what we have or what we are doing, but rather, do we have the Lord's blessing?

With the Lord's Blessing we have Infinite Supply. Practically speaking, it means instead of trying to convince the Lord to bless what I want to do or what I think needs to be done, I should find out first what the Lord wants to BLESS and do THAT instead. Remember, "Jesus already knew what He was going to do" (John 6:6b). Thus, we pray, "Not my will, but Your Will be done; not my kingdom, but Your Kingdom come." And then we enjoy the Lord's Blessing on our work.



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January 5
Today's Message from Chip Brogden

"You are complete in Him" (Colossians 2:10a).

The truth is that you are no more complete in Him today than you were when you first received Him, however long ago that may have been. And you will never be any more complete in Him than you are right now. You are complete in Him - of course, in yourself, you are far from complete, but that is not the issue. "In me" I am growing, learning, struggling, maturing. But the issue is not "me". The issue is, "not I, but Christ".

With less of me, there is more of Him. That is why we say that true spiritual growth is not more knowledge or increase of years. It is simply more of Christ and less of me. In time we will learn not to be discouraged or depressed should we run low on oil, bread, fish, or wine - or even the spiritual graces these earthly things are meant to represent. This is only the decreasing of Self which makes way for the increasing of Christ (John 3:30). Eventually we will view every weakness of ours as an opportunity to see Christ revealed as Strength. Every momentary "lack" is an opportunity to see Christ as Infinite Supply. For this is the Will and Purpose of God: that Christ may be All in All.




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January 4

Today's Message from Chip Brogden

"For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory forever. Amen" (Matthew 6:13b).

The spirit of Antichrist is active today. It is at work in the world, and it is at work in the Church (or, what is called "the Church"), and it is at work within each one of us individually, trying to draw us out into something - anything - other than Christ. Hence the Lord's need for overcomers to rise up and demonstrate that in spite of all appearances to the contrary, THE LORD JESUS REIGNS, and He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. This demonstration begins with each individual disciple, then finds expression within the corporate synthesis of Believers, before finding its ultimate expression and release in all creation. If the Lord does not have the preeminence in us as individual disciples, if we remain unsurrendered to Him in our own lives, how can the Church as a whole ever hope to bear His Testimony to the world? This is a critical point.

What assurance are we given? It is this: that in spite of nation rising up against nation, kingdom rising up against kingdom, political tumults and global confusion, "THINE IS THE KINGDOM" - Your Throne is everlasting, Your Kingdom is established, and of the increase of Your Government there shall be no end (cf. Isaiah 9:6,7). In other words, as Daniel would say, the Heavens DO rule, and it is the Most High God Who governs the affairs of men. THAT is the heart of the matter. THAT is what we are moving towards, from our day-to-day affairs as followers of Jesus, to the course and direction of this entire age.


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January 3

Today's Message from Chip Brogden

"And His feet were like fine brass, as if they had burned in a furnace... and when I saw him, I fell at His feet like a dead man..." (Revelation 1:15-17ff).

When John was given a revelation of Christ in the Isle of Patmos he described the feet of Jesus as "fine brass which burned in a furnace." Brass is a symbol of judgment, and the furnace is a symbol of wrath, purification, and refinement. This dimension of the Lord Jesus was something quite new to John. Because Jesus did not come to judge the world right away, but to save it, we tend to think of Jesus only in terms of the "Lamb" - meek, silent, longsuffering, and turning the other cheek. He certainly is all that. Yet here we get a glimpse of Jesus as the "Lion". He said He was indeed a King, but that His Kingdom was not of this world. Up until now the kingly aspect of Christ and the majestic glory of His Kingdom had remained hidden.

When this other side of Christ was revealed to John, he "fell at His feet as though dead." At the Last Supper, John had leaned on the Lord's breast and eaten dinner with Him. In this context, however, he can do nothing but collapse at His feet. There at His feet we discover there is a difference between the Holy and the Human; the One Who comes from Above, and the ones who come from Below; the One Who is Spirit and Truth, and those of us who are merely flesh and blood. His feet are burning brass. This is His majesty, and His righteousness. It immediately identifies Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Righteous Judge, the Living Word Who discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart.




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January 1

Today's Message from Chip Brogden

"For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to Whom be glory for ever. Amen" (Romans 11:31).

In Romans 11:36 Paul sums up the preeminence of Christ into three expressions: "Of Him... through Him... to Him... are all tings." "Of Him" says that everything which exists - things in heaven, things in earth, everything that was created, everything that has come into being, everything that will come into being - is created by, and because of, Christ. "Through Him" says that everything which lives, moves, breathes, operates, exists, or functions in this universe, whether animate or inanimate, whether biological, chemical, spiritual, natural, or cosmotological - does so through Christ, Who sovereignly upholds all these things, determines their place, and keeps them in order. "To Him" says that everything, no matter how far from God's Thought it may be, no matter how chaotic things may appear, is being directed, summed up, and gathered together into Christ. As the Alpha, all things flow from Him; as the Omega, all things flow to Him.

That is quite a paragraph. A paragraph like that cannot be grasped in one reading. But that paragraph is, in essence, what Paul means, and what we mean, by Christ having the preeminence in all things. We are talking about Jesus as Lord over us individually, over the Church corporately, and over all creation collectively. We are talking about a preeminent Christ Who is exalted above every principality and power, rule and dominion; things visible, things invisible; things past, things present, things future; things in heaven, things in earth, things under the earth: all things are of Him, all things are through Him, and all things are to Him. That is preeminence.



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December 31

Today's Message from Chip Brogden

"I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye sees You" (Job 42:5).

The testing of Job was a valid test, a crucial one, and a crucible through which each Christian will be purged, sifted, and tried. To what end? It is summed up in the words of Job himself as he neared the end of his ordeal: "I have heard Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now my eye seeth Thee." BUT NOW! BUT NOW! BUT NOW! Before he heard about Him, but now he sees Him, and falls to the ground. Before he worshipped Him having heard, now he worships having seen, and known.

I submit that God set him up for such experiential knowledge by allowing him to be subjected to the assaults of the devil, the harshness of his environment, the misunderstanding of his friends, the loss of his family and material possessions, and his physical infirmity. I submit that if anyone desires to take up the cross and follow Christ such testing is the only realistic expectation His disciple can entertain.


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December 25

Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"Having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it" (Colossians 2:15).

The Overcomer demonstrates the preeminence of Christ over sin, self, and satan. How is preeminence demonstrated if we are still trying to fight our way to victory? We must stand in victory, not battle for it. If we do fight, we fight FROM victory, not FOR victory. It must be to us an accomplished fact, not a future hope, and just there lies the difference between those who are still waging warfare and those who are quietly resting in Christ and steadily praying His Will into the earth.

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December 26

Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"For we walk by faith, not by sight" (II Corinthians 5:7).

The question for us remains: what do we see? Many people look, but do not see. They look at the world and believe everything it says. Others have their eyes opened to see as the Lord sees. This revelation, or unveiling, is what enables us to live in the world while being apart from the world. This seeing enables us to overcome the world and demonstrate Christ as All in All. We do not have to live according to what we see or feel, but according to the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ.

May God show us who we are, and may God raise us up to walk worthy of the calling He has given us.


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December 27

Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world" (I John 4:4).

John declares that no matter what comes against us, the One within us is Greater. It does not matter what you feel like, what you see, what you hear, what people say, or what the devil does. It does not matter if Lazarus is dead for four days and is beginning to stink. It does not matter if the girl dies before Jesus can get there. It does not matter if the waves are about to capsize the boat. It does not matter if Paul is stoned and left for dead. Lazarus will be raised, the girl will be brought back to life, and the storm will be silenced, and Paul will preach again.

The Greater is always Greater, and the Lesser is always Lesser. We only have a problem when see everything else as "greater" and see Christ as "lesser".


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December 28

Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not My will, but Your Will be done" (Matthew 26:39).

His sweat mingled with His tears, and He wrestled with Himself three times before He could settle the issue, but once it was settled, He gave no resistance, and within a few hours everything was accomplished. Oh! That is where we are lacking today! How long will we kick and struggle against the pricks? How long will we argue and complain against God and resist His dealings with us? If we have to die in order to truly live, let us be about the business of dying! If we must be crucified in order to have Resurrection Life, then let us just submit to it and get it over with!

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December 29

Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil" (Ephesians 6:10,11).

If we see the devil as defeated then we will not fight, we will stand. If we see ourselves as earthly then we will behave in an earthly manner: our words, our thoughts, our prayers, our deeds, our warfare will be carried out in an earthly manner. If we see ourselves seated with Christ in the heavenlies then we will behave in a heavenly manner, as a heavenly people, bringing the Mind and Will and Kingdom of God to bear upon that which is contrary to Christ on the earth.

How do we obtain heavenly vision? We must ask to see as He sees. We must pray that God will illuminate our heart. Our vision affects our actions.

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December 30

Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus" (Colossians 1:28).

Paul tells us the secret of his success and the key to the whole New Testament - for that matter, the key to the whole Bible and the Key to Everything. After presenting us with this glorious unveiling of Christ, Paul does not say, "This is WHAT we preach," but "This is WHOM we preach."

Christianity as an institution has long been occupied with things: churches, clergy, teachings, doctrines, religious things. The "house church movement" is similarly engrossed in the dynamics of how to meet, where to meet, and what to do when meeting. The "charismatic movement" is obsessed with alleged manifestations and spiritual gifts. The "prophetic movement" is absorbed with what they think God is saying, doing, or about to do. Paul was preoccupied with a Person, and the difference between what we preach today and Whom he preached then explains how and why he was part of a small remnant of people who were able to turn the world upside down without the aid of the Internet, television programs, or international conferences and meetings.


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December 24

Today's Message from Chip Brogden
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law" (Galatians 5:22,23).

The fruit of our labor (or the lack thereof) tells the whole story. If spiritual fruit is defined by how many people are saved, how many churches are planted, how many sermons are preached, then we can bring forth that kind of fruit and never involve the Lord at all. But if spiritual fruit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control, then we must be with Jesus in order to bring forth this fruit, and no amount of WORKING for God can make up for a lack of simply BEING with Him.



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