Sermons & Devotionals by Utmost For His Highest

“When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and pray to thy Father which is in secret.” Matthew 6:6 Jesus did not say - Dream about thy Father in secret, but pray to thy Father in secret. Prayer is an effort of will. After we have entered our secret place and have shut the door, the most difficult th... Lee mas

“Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me.” John 11:41 When the Son of God prays, He has only one consciousness, and that consciousness is of His Father. God always hears the prayers of His Son, and if the Son of God is formed in me the Father will always hear my prayers. I have to see that the ... Lee mas

“That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Luke 1:35 If the Son of God is born into my mortal flesh, is His holy innocence and simplicity and oneness with the Father getting a chance to manifest itself in me? What was true of the Virgin Mary in the historic introdu... Lee mas

Wist ye not that I must be in My Father's house?" ” Luke 2:49 Our Lord's childhood was not immature man-hood; our Lord's childhood is an eternal fact. Am I a holy innocent child of God by identification with my Lord and Saviour? Do I look upon life as being in my Father's house? Is the Son of God li... Lee mas

“Believest thou this?” John 11:26 Martha believed in the power at the disposal of Jesus Christ, she believed that if He had been present He could have healed her brother; she also believed that Jesus had a peculiar intimacy with God and that whatever He asked of God, God would do; but she needed a c... Lee mas

“Yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.” Romans 6:13-22 I cannot save and sanctify myself; I cannot atone for sin; I cannot redeem the world; I can not make right what is wrong, pure what is impure, holy what is unholy. That is all the sovereign work of God. Have I faith in what... Lee mas

“Quench not the Spirit.” 1 Thessalonians 5:19 The voice of the Spirit is as gentle as a zephyr, so gentle that unless you are living in perfect communion with God, you never hear it. The checks of the Spirit come in the most extraordinarily gentle ways, and if you are not sensitive enough to detect ... Lee mas

“God called unto him and he said, Here am I” Exodus 3:4 When God speaks, many of us are like men in a fog, we give no answer. Moses' reply revealed that he was somewhere. Readiness means a right relationship to God and a knowledge of where we are at present. We are so busy telling God where we would... Lee mas

“I remember … the kindness of thy youth.” Jeremiah 2:2 Am I as spontaneously kind to God as I used to be, or am I only expecting God to be kind to me? Am I full of the little things that cheer His heart over me, or am I whimpering because things are going hardly with me? There is no joy in the soul ... Lee mas

“What shall I say? Father, save me, from this hour? But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name.” John 12:27-29 My attitude as a saint to sorrow and difficulty is not to ask that they may be prevented, but to ask that I may preserve the self God created me to be through every ... Lee mas

“For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 Sin is a fundamental relationship; it is not wrong doing, it is wrong being, deliberate and emphatic independence of God. The Christian religion bases everything on the... Lee mas

This is your hour, and the power of darkness." ” Luke 22:53 It is not being reconciled to the fact of sin that produces all the disasters in life. You may talk about the nobility of human nature, but there is something in human nature which will laugh in the face of every ideal you have. If you refu... Lee mas

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him.” 1 Corinthians 2:14 The Gospel of God creates a sense of need of the Gospel. Paul says - "If our gospel be hid, it is hid" - to those who are blackguards? No, "to them that are lost: in whom the go... Lee mas

“For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation.” 2 Corinthians 7:10 Conviction of sin is best portrayed in the words - "My sins, my sins, my Saviour, How sad on Thee they fall." Conviction of sin is one of the rarest things that ever strikes a man. It is the threshold of an understanding of God. ... Lee mas

“Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ… .” Colossians 1:2 The Christian worker has to be a sacramental "go-between," to be so identified with his Lord and the reality of His Redemption that He can continually bring His creating life t... Lee mas

“This is the will of God, even your sanctification.” 1 Thessalonians 4:3 The Death Side. In sanctification God has to deal with us on the death side as well as on the life side. Many of us spend so much time in the place of death that we get sepulchral. There is always a battle royal before sanctifi... Lee mas

Come unto Me." ” Matthew 11:28 God means us to live a fully-orbed life in Christ Jesus, but there are times when that life is attacked from the outside, and we tumble into a way of introspection which we thought had gone. Self-consciousness is the first thing that will upset the completeness of the ... Lee mas

“Lovest thou Me? … Feed My sheep.” John 21:16 Jesus did not say - Make converts to your way of thinking, but look after My sheep, see that they get nourished in the knowledge of Me. We count as service what we do in the way of Christian work; Jesus Christ calls service what we are to Him, not what w... Lee mas

“Perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” 2 Corinthians 7:1 "Having therefore these promises." I claim the fulfilment of God's promises, and rightly, but that is only the human side; the Divine side is that through the promises I recognize God's claim on me. For instance, am I realizing that my body... Lee mas

“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31 Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow concerns of life are not ordained of God; they are as much of God as the profound. It is not your devotion to God that makes you refuse to ... Lee mas