Daily Devotional

Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you (John 6:53). My flesh is true food, My blood is true drink (v 55). He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him!! (v 56). He who eats Me will live because of Me! (v 57). He who eats this bread will live forever (v 58).

What? His disciples grumbled! What is Jesus saying? How could we ever do this?
Many: This is a difficult statement, who can listen to Him? (6:60).
Jesus: What if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? (v 62).
Where? What do you mean?
Does this cause you to stumble? (v 61).

It is the Spirit who gives life;
the flesh profits nothing;
the words that I have spoken to you
are spirit and are life.
John 6:63, NASB

The flesh profits nothing! We can have a lot of knowledge. We can even know God’s word well. But what we need does not finally come that way alone!
Why? Because it is the Spirit who gives life.

When Jesus did ascend, He did not tell them to go out and start preaching the gospel with what He had taught them, even with God’s word and three years of experience. No. He said, Wait. Don’t go yet! Don’t leave Jerusalem. Wait for what the Father has promised (Acts 1:4).

They waited. And then they were empowered. It was like the days of Daniel. He needed more than the fabulous, historic word of God. He needed revelation. He needed the Spirit. And got it.

Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven; Daniel said,

“Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him.
 It is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings;
He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding. It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him.
To You, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for You have given me wisdom and power; even now You have made known to me what we requested of You, for You have made known to us the king’s matter.” Daniel 2:19–23, NASB.

Daniel was in a predicament. He and his friends in Babylon, and many others were to be destroyed. All said that what the king demanded was impossible (Daniel 2:10–11). But Daniel prayed. He asked for time. He had faith. He went to his home. He asked that his friends might pray and seek compassion from the God of heaven.

And he got it! That which no man could know, or do. Not even Daniel. But he received revelation. In a night vision.

What do we need right now in our lives, to accomplish the impossible? The flesh profits nothing. We need to prevail by the working of the Spirit. It is the Spirit who gives life! God works through men and women His way. He changes the times and epochs. He removes kings and establishes kings. We are seeing it happen right how in our country! He gives needed wisdom. He gives knowledge to make our way plain.

We are dealing with human beings. Some we are calling to salvation. Some are believing, and we are calling for deliverance and transformation. Saved lives. Rescued marriages. Ministers suddenly empowered! God reveals the profound and hidden things through His Spirit. Things we need to know at that moment to accomplish effective ministry in human lives. It comes from God. It comes by revelation. It is made known to us, per our requests. What do we really need in this work? We need what Daniel got, and the disciples at Pentecost. And millions after them.

God made known to Daniel the king’s matter! Daniel was referring to the Babylonian king. But when we live life in Christ, and when we do ministry, we need to know our King’s matter! Jesus, the King of kings!! The profound. The powerful. Hidden in darkness. Revealed in light.

To be effective we need to be reminded that the flesh profits nothing. We are dealing with things no human can penetrate or break through to. It is the Spirit who gives life. All of us born again in Christ have the Spirit. But revelation is what Daniel prayed for. He asked his friends to pray for it. Daniel believed. Then Daniel received – revelation. We do effective ministry by revelation. The knowledge of the King’s matter in our lives, in the lives of those to whom we are ministering. It is a highly relational, faith filled thing.

Set us resolve to seek answers from God regarding the mysteries before us. To seek God for the profound things which need to be revealed. For times and epochs in peoples’ lives to change. He alone does these things. He can remove people, and bring others in. Wisdom and power belong to Him alone! We must have His light to really see. It is not a formulaic thing we need, or seven steps to success.

It is the Spirit who gives life!    The flesh profits nothing!!

Read: John 6, Daniel 2
Sing: Where the Spirit of the Lord Is, Stephen Adams