Daily Devotions

Posts tagged “Mark 16

Jesus Still has Need of You

Marty Gabler—Like Peter, scores of vanquished and beaten-down people have resigned themselves to obscurity and self-imposed penance. Their eyes once bright with hope and expectation are now dull with day-to-day sameness and lackluster existence. Rather than vibrantly walking out purpose as a daily-discovery they endure the rigors of accusing past-opportunity and the heavy yoke of indictment. While chafing under the sandy grind of unrealized fulfillment they eventually master a posture which lessens the painful contortion of their faces so that they appear to “be making it just fine.” Though the preoccupying buzz of obscurity is interfering with the message of restoration, this same Jesus wants them told that He still has need of them and that purpose still awaits. Mark 16:7 “But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He said to you.'” (NAS) The reason Jesus sent that invitation to Peter was because He was “going before” (Strong) in order to “lead forward” (Thayer). Jesus does not push backward, He brings forward.


Connected to the Heart of God

MARTY GABLER—May the Lord grant to you today the assurance that you are connected to His heart so that you may know what is in His heart for you and that you may do that which is in His heart for others. You are connected to the heart of God so that He may work with you and give indisputable evidence of His Kingdom through your life.  “Then I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in My heart and in My mind. I will build him a sure house, and he shall walk before My anointed forever.” (1Sam.2:35, NKJV)  “And the disciples went everywhere preaching, the Master working right with them, validating the Message with indisputable evidence.” (Mk.16:20, Msg)


And These Signs Will Follow

MELISSA—I was reading the Great Commission in Mark 16 recently and something jumped out at me that gave me more of an understanding of how the rules are changing.  “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Mark 16:15-18.  “And these signs will follow those that believe” – Wait, I’ve been desperately praying for these things to manifest. This tells me that when I believe these signs follow. I don’t have to go searching for them. And “believing” is not about believing in signs.  We are meant to believe in the One Who beat death just prior to laying out this commission! Believing is about relationship with Jesus. Think about it, when Jesus walked the earth these signs were simply part of His nature. They flowed out of Him.  He only followed the rules of engagement of the Kingdom.  The spirit of the age had no hook in Him and He did not play by its rules.